Hey! It's the Motel 6 voice over dude. He'll leave the light on for ya (and how he got sober)

 What an amazing voice over career Tom Bodett has had. CBS Sunday morning did a really cool profile of him.  There's no way you haven't heard his folksy vocal delivery. For a while, his voice was everywhere. Besides the bucket loads of money he made for his "We'll Leave the Light on for Ya" radio and TV commercials for Motel 6, turns out he's an accomplished author and wood worker. He says his love of woodworking helped him to get sober. He can't woodwork and be drinking at the same time.He never sells any of his woodwork; doesn't want to get caught up with selling. His home recording studio looks killer. (OK. As a fellow voice actor, I'm a bit jealous). All these years I've heard him on the Motel 6 spots but never knew what he looked like. At 69 years of age, he seems happy doing his woodworking and writing. Loving sobriety. Good for him.

Here's a link to the very entertaining interview on CBS. It's short and well worth your time. He's an inspiration to me. Now that the interview has aired, I hope he's an inspiration to many. We need more Tom Bodettes in the world. Nice guy. Modest. Down to earth and helpful! Hey, he'll leave the light on for you. Thank you Tom.

"Grand Theft Auto: True Story" (violence)

 It's funny how work comes to you in the voice over world. It was a hell hot Sunday afternoon here in the San Francisco Bay Area as I was scrolling through classifieds on Craigslist at home when a post came up under "Creative" for a narrator job, and some voice imitations of big, bad, mob voices. Many of us grew up on "Grand Theft Auto," a wildly popular game with all its violence and heavy gun shooting action. Believe it or not, over the years I've landed a few decent paying voice over jobs off of Craigslist; a few... not many. I decided to submit an audition to the San Francisco producer. In a very short period of time, he emailed me back and said he'd like to hire me as the narrator of this episode (not NY mob voice) he had created. I said  "yes" and he emailed me at least 5 pages of script. I stepped in my booth and voiced copy he had highlighted. As usual, I did not see the video beforehand. I just recorded with my instincts and sent the audio files to him. I was quite surprised to see the finished production with my narration when he sent me a link to watch it. It's on You Tube, and from what I can see, fans of that series were thrilled with it. Over 64,000 views so far. 

Here's a link to the episode I did voice over for. It runs about 13 minutes. WARNING: Parts of the content are extremely violent. If that offends you, please don't watch it. Some might be critical of me for being involved with something so violent. Truth be known,  I took this voice job on because it was very different than anything I would normally do in voice over. And I like a good challenge.