Thursday night, Dan, the Twelfth Night guitarist, invited me to join him for a swanky shindig over at Splice Here to meet friends of his, the in-house sound designers. I had e-mailed them my voice-over demo a week or two prior, and it was a pleasure to finally meet them in person (especially since they had seen Twelfth Night and didn’t recognize me at first - damn that grease-paint mustache!) – anyway, they’re great guys and I’m hoping to work with them on some voice-over projects in the near future. That evening made me realize that I can’t just sit around and wait for work to come to me. I need to actively get my voice-over demo (*cough* new link on the right side of this page, above the calendar *cough*) out to folks at the local media production companies, introduce myself, make sure they know that I’ll work quickly and professionally to make their project sparkle…yes, SPARKLE! Know any contacts at any of those places? It’d be nice to go in with an introduction from a mutual friend/colleague. Not necessary, but very, very nice.

Now for the mini-quiz. Before Thursday's soiree, I had my first post-college singing lesson. Dude seriously kicked my vocal chords. I walked out of there tired and happy, and with a voice weak from the workout. All I wanted to do was grab my iPod and sing along to some tunes with my newfound breath and focus – but, alas, my voice was too tired to work any further, so I resisted the urge.

At the lesson I was given my first assignment, the goal of which is to assist in establishing appropriate audition repertoire – and this is where I need your help. I am to ask at least five people (of varying degrees of relation to me) the following questions:

What is an adjective (more than one is fine) that best describes my appearance and personality?
What jobs could you see me doing (any job – could be astrophysicist, window-washer, neuropsychopharmacologist, princess, you name it)?
Name a famous person (more than one is fine, alive or dead) that I remind you of, both in appearance and personality.

The point of this exercise is to find out how people view me – that way I can walk into an audition with material that fits that impression (rather than my vision of myself). This will keep a director from having to make a huge leap to see me as believable in the character I’m about to portray in song or monologue. So please be honest - being "nice" just for the sake of not hurting my feelings is not going to be helpful. If I remind you of Liza Minelli, fess up. If you could see me being a garbage collector, I want to know.

So there we have it – I’m looking for quiz answers and media production contacts. Feel free to respond in the comments, or if you’d rather keep it private, you can e-mail me or use the Contact form that is also on the right side of this page beneath the calendar. In return, you will get my undying gratitude. And good karma. Mmmmmm, good karma… Thanks, friends.