Melba: Toast of the Town
"It all started in a 10,000 watt station in Nashville..."
Well, not exactly. But I did wander to one for a little while. But I'm getting ahead of myself....
Before public schools had gone all PC...
...I began my first real experimentation with character voice artistry in 5th grade, when I toured the classroom Christmas party circuit with my Foster Brooks imitation. (In case you have no idea who that is, refer to Dean Martin's Celebrity Roast -- a TV show that came on in the early 70's. Foster Brooks was a regular -- a guy who gave speeches as a drunk. Now you see why I was able to do this only in a pre-PC world.)
Oh, yeah...then came the stuff for awarding-winning producers, blah, blah, blah...
After earning a BS (appropos) in Mass Comm, I worked afternoon drive at an AM station. It was here, as the main commercial producer,that I developed a full roster of vocal characterizations. Subsequent work at a video production company specializing in puppetry gave me further opportunities to stretch my vocal chords. I've been priviliged to do character voice work for three Grammy-winning children's producers, as well as character and VO for several regional and national Emmy and Addy award winning producers.
