I recently called into The Mitch Albom Show live on WJR in Detroit using my Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Bernie Sanders impressions. Primary Election Season is my absolute favorite time to be voice impressionist. It's always a lot more challenging, and more fun, when I'm able to perform more voice impressions simultaneously. And when the call is live on the air, fuhgettaboutit!
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The war of words got a little heated between Pope Francis and Donald Trump yesterday. So, this morning I had my Donald Trump impression AND Pope Francis impression duke it out in a little on-air Rap battle live on "Mark in the Morning" on 100.3 The Sound in Los Angeles. The operative word is "live", because I could barely hear the rap beat they played for me over the phone line. No dress rehearsal, oops. I guess it's one for the Blooper reel! Recently, I lent my voice(well they did pay me) to a parody project that was kept under wraps...until now. Heads of Space is here! Heads of Space is an animated web series about the ultimate intergalactic comedic adventure, starring: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, and featuring Robot of the United States as ROTUS, the pilot. The show will follow the timeline of the 2016 presidential elections and will comment on real events as they happen during the campaign. I voiced everyone mentioned above, with the exceptions of Hillary and the Robot. Here is Episode 1 of the series(and I may be a little biased, but things get really good at about the 4:07 mark). It was a good week to be a celebrity voice impressionist! Coming off the heels of the Iowa Caucuses, the New Hampshire Primary Elections were held this week, and Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders came away big winners. You could say that both candidates have yuuuuge momentum going into South Carolina. I was very busy doing my Donald Trump impression for radio stations, as well as my Bernie Sanders impression, and even Bill Clinton made an appearance. Here are just a few of those calls...
Well it's not every day that you, as a voice actor, get called upon to voice something that's A) so much fun to record; B) such a funny ad by itself; and C) happens to air during the SB50 Pregame on CBS! Yes, it really happened. I was hired by the amazing people at Swell NY to provide the inner dialogue voice-over of Jack Daniel, the shoe-loving Boxer pup that you see below, for Vince Camuto. It was their first time ever doing an ad for the Big Game. And from what I've heard, the reaction has been great.
I mean, who knew that a dog's point-of-view would take on the voice of some guy from The Sopranos? Vince Camuto SB Commercial from Camuto Group on Vimeo. Donald Trump has been no stranger to controversy this election cycle, and this week has been no different. Trump says he will be skipping the GOP Presidential Debate tomorrow night, hosted by Fox News. The rumor has been that he refuses to debate with Fox anchor Megyn Kelly moderating. I gave my take on things using my Donald Trump voice impression live on the air with Mojo in the Morning, on Channel 955 in Detroit. Hear the Trump impression for yourself below: So here's the deal. One of my clients, Mark in the Morning on 100.3 The Sound in Los Angeles, is holding a little "election" with their listeners to find "The Best of MITM". The show is nearing its 1-year anniversary on the air, and they are looking for folks to vote for their favorite segments.
Of the 22 segments listed on their website, I have been featured in 5: "Harthen Doing 15 Voices in One Bit", "David Letterman Sketch...", "Sarah Palin/Donald Trump Phoner", "Caitlyn Jenner Post ESPY Award Phoner", and "Tom Brady Calls to Discuss His Suspension". If you would, please head over to their website and vote for me! Thank you so much. I could really use a new MITM coffee mug. :D As we near the first Presidential Primary Elections, Donald Trump has been steadily ramping up his attacks on Hillary Clinton, and not just by going after her. When Hillary commented that he had a penchant for sexist rhetoric, The Donald began slamming Former President Bill Clinton, and his scandalous history with women. I used both my Donald Trump and Bill Clinton impressions when I called up Mojo in the Morning on the radio, to discuss this, along with Donald's hair and other issues that somehow manage to make the news with Trump. You can hear my exchange as Trump and Clinton with Mojo below: Click the video sample below to hear "Santa" take some calls from children on the radio. I hope they didn't have to wait on ho-ho-hold too long(I'm sorry, that bad pun was for my dad, the king of bad pun jokes). Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays everyone! As far as celebrity impressions go, a lot of them are usually stored away until they're needed. Usually it takes a news story to break about that celebrity or politician, and then I'm busy doing voice impressions of that particular newsmaker. But then you have the "seasonal" impressions. The voice impressions that come out annually...especially Santa Claus. My Santa voice makes the rounds every year on radio stations across the country, and is a lot of fun for me personally. It's very fulfilling when you hear kids get excited on the other end of the phone.
Ben Carson has been in the news quite a bit lately, and not just for his presidential campaign. The Republican Presidential candidate has been dealing with some controversy as of late.
The above YouTube link contains a phone call I did live on the air, using my Dr. Ben Carson voice impression with the "Mark in the Morning" program in Los Angeles, on 100.3 The Sound. Bernie Sanders has become a popular personality on the Presidential campaign trail. Last weekend, that was reinforced even more, when SNL had Larry David perform a very funny impression of the U.S. Senator from Vermont in the opening sketch. I have been working on a Bernie Sanders voice impression for the past few weeks. Here is what I came up with:
Donald Trump just continues to dominate the news cycle, hanging onto his lead in the GOP polls.
My Trump voice impression was called upon again, and used in both live radio interviews over the phone, and as a recorded voice-over for radio station contest promos across the country. Here are two of the interviews I did. The first was with acclaimed, best-selling author, Mitch Albom on his radio show on 760 WJR in Detroit:
The second interview was with "Connie and Curtis" on Channel 95.7 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They happened to have video recorded the reaction of the hosts while I was on the line doing Trump. Fun to see their reactions as that is usually not the case with radio personalities.
And finally, here is a montage video of three different radio stations that chose to use my Donald Trump impression in their Station Contest Promos(2 of which are strictly cash contests, which is perfect for Trump, who knows a thing or two about cash and winning):
Here's a parody promo that makes Pope Francis sound like the rock star he is...written and announced by the voice of the iHeart Radio Countdown, Andy Harris.
2 weeks ago, I auditioned for a commercial voice-over that was being put together by AT&T's "It Can Wait" campaign, to be aired nationally on ESPN. It was a special circumstance, since I wasn't auditioning to be the announcer, or even the tag announcer. The audition asked if I could be a "voice match" for a person in the spot. The spot deals with the tragic story of college football recruit Fletcher Cleaves, who had been paralyzed by a texting driver. The script directed that the coach who had recruited Fletcher, Hugh Freeze, leave him a congratulatory voicemail. That's where my voice-over audition came in to play. I didn't realize I had it in me, but I won the chance to record the part with my voice impersonation/voice-match of Coach Hugh Freeze. Thank you AT&T, ESPN, and thank you ACM Talent, for this great opportunity. I'm humbled to be a part of such a compelling piece of advertising.
It's a very powerful, sobering ad. It will definitely make you re-think your relationship with your cell phone. Here's the spot, as it aired last Saturday during ESPN's College Gameday:
And here's the :30 version of the commercial...
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