Thanks Alex, cash is king!  

Right Steve HOWEVER,  no matter how much networking and ‘likes’ you get etc, it all means nothing if you can’t deliver.  So you still need to prove you can do it and KILL it, but you’ll have many more chances to prove yourself with solid networking.

Thanks Andrew and YES!  Experience is experience no matter where.   Hope to see you in the states soon!

Great career and history, Tibor Tibi Andris Halmai (Andy Halmay) . Thank you for sharing. (I hope someone has written the book / screenplay!) All the best. Wayne

Good stuff, Brian, you inspired a memory trip to the days when there was nothing but voice work unless you lived in L.A. where they made movies.  To set up a home studio for an old timer like me and then work alone on voice tracks would be like Pat Buttram once told me.  "That's work."  It was the late 1990s, I was living at Horace Heidt's Magnolia Estates in Sherman Oaks where many retired showbiz names lived and Pat Buttram moved in. Horace had a big band and ballroom and put on concerts and many of my neighbors would give us a taste of their talent. Roberta Sherwood lived on my left. Helen Forrest was on the other side of the pool. Sid Kuller, the comedy writer, who had worked for Bob Hope and many huge names, was on my right. Buttram wrote his own material and would treat us during concerts  with a few minutes of standup with that incredibly funny voice of his. He inspired me to write a piece I labeled as "Country Rap," and wanted to record him reading it to a soft country rhythm. Pat said, "I'm retired. I won't go into a studio cause that's work."  And I couldn't entice him with any amount of money. I'm a couple of months into my 94th year now. I started in theater in the 1940s. That was in Toronto, Canada. The government sponsored network, CBC, was the only market  for performers but there was also a fair amount of commercial radio. I did my first network radio drama with another youngster,  Leslie Nielsen and recorded my first radio commercial with a young man who had come from Winnipeg, Manitoba. That was Monty Hall. Monty was a cut up.  That was about 73 years ago but I recall the name of the product - it was a new men's hair cream named "Hit." I had the last line in the commercial, "I'm going right downtown now to get Hit." Monty added an ad lib, "Ouch" and they had to edit it out. The best story I've ever heard about how to get into voice work was on The Tonight Show.  Johnny Carson had Mel Blank as guest. Johnny asked Mel how he got his start. Mel said he liked to fool around with voices but there was only one  market for voice work in Hollywood at the time. It might have been Disney. I can't recall. Mel said he went to see the man who did the voice hiring and asked if he'd like to hear some voices. "No, no, no," said the man. "We've got all the voices we need." So Mel waited a year and went to see him again and again the man shook his head. He wasn't interested. And Mel waited another year and the man turned him down again. Johnny lost his patience and raised his voice, "So what finally happened?"   "Well," said Mel, "What finally happened was, the man died, and I went to see his replacement, and the replacement said, "Sure, let's hear your voices," And the next day, Mel was working. I left performing in 1954 and built a big career as a writer- producer of commercials on Madison Avenue, peaking as VP Creative on America's biggest TV Spot account. At one point, a friend who owned Empire Broadcasting, the oldest recording studio in Manhattan, remembered that I'd been a performer and asked if I could record an introduction to Pope John for a TV appearance they had organized. That, I felt, gave me a unique distinction because that doubtlessly made me the only non-believer in the world who introduced a Pope on CBS-TV Network.  Of course, I did it for free.  Heck, I should have paid them for the honor. I returned to Toronto at the end of the sixties, became an entrepreneur of sorts and in the late 1970s, by accident, I found myself working as a performer again in Toronto. I did well with commercials but a number of times lost out because I had another commercial on air for a related industry. In voice work that doesn't concern them. Those were great days. Ad agencies and advertisers were generous. I was getting double and triple union scale. I learned that the fat voice work accounts get bought. I had a friend who made no bones about paying kickbacks on really big accounts. When the prize is big, too often it comes with outstretched hands who seek to be rewarded for their generosity. But the best way to make big money in voice work - and I'm talking millions, not thousands - is to have been blessed with an unusual voice at birth.  I once produced some Lestoil  TV commercials in Hollywood and hired Bud Hiestand for the voice.  Bud's first take was a bit stentorian. The opening line was "Here is the greatest discovery in bleaching since the sun. Like the sun, Lestare bleaches with oxygen." I stopped him and said, "You are God introducing us to a miracle bleach. You speak calmly but with the authority of God."  On his second take, he BECAME God. His natural voice quality was God-like. The brokers wired us complaining that we hadn't apprised them of the tough ad campaign we were launching. They were out-of-stock. The commercials had produced a run on the product. Now for some additional advice - never be afraid to shoot for the stars. In the late 70s, the late Cec Linder, a fellow performer in Toronto said, "You'll starve here in January, come with me to L.A for the month. You might get lucky and get into a series. Through friends and some hustling on my own I picked up a lit agent at Wm Morris, a independent agent for films, and a major agency for commercials and for all their efforts, I got nothing.  I noticed a lot of poorly produced local commercials so I found a list of advertisers who bought time independently which told me they might be open for creative work. I rented a typewriter and wrote to half a dozen of them. The Broadway, then a healthy chain of department stores (no longer in existence today) called me and hired me to write and produce a series of commercials for them.  It worked out beautifully.  And remember, there is nothing in the bible that says you have to stick to just acting, or announcing or writing or directing or producing. Try'em all. This is a crazy industry - the virus has made most industries a bit crazy and it helps to get a little crazy yourself as long as you can keep it fun..    

Your welcome Brian.

Thanks Tasha and yes they do!