GKN Weekly Update 1/29/13 – Don’t Mess With New Jersey!
Good morning on this non-sub-freezing day! Man, am I glad that’s over…
Folks, this is going to be a full-blown rant. Prepare yourselves!
So I went to a recording studio last week for a regular client. This particular project called for a round-robin recording session of both grown-ups and kids. We were called into the studio in various combinations which is a nice change and it’s very social so yay fun all is well. Until I got in the booth with one of the grown-ups.
For storytelling’s sake, let’s call him John. John is the type of voice actor we all have worked with before: he can’t shut up. Not won’t, can’t. John has this clinical condition that he is so desperate to impress & entertain everybody that he will blurt out a joke or comment in response to anything that anyone says no matter how banal, cliche, or just plain dumb it is. And when some people laugh (I hope they’re just trying to be polite) John thinks, ‘They love me! I’m gonna give ’em more!’ and the cycle continues.
What did he say exactly? Once he started his standup routine I quickly drowned him out so I honestly don’t remember much, except for one thing: he called New Jersey “the armpit of the universe”. Oh, did I mention that this studio was in New Jersey?
Let me tell you something, folks. I was born and raised in New Jersey. If you’ve never been here, it is a beautiful place. They call it “The Garden State” for a reason. We have farmlands, orchards, wineries, the Jersey Shore, skiing, hiking, great restaurants, great theater, we’ve got it all here. Sure, we have parts of some places that are, well, scary. Every state has crime and every state has squalor. If you got mugged in New Jersey (BTW I don’t know anyone that has), got screwed by some new tax law, or something else ratty happened to you here and you wanna hate the place, fine. Just don’t go around horking out insults because you saw half an episode of “Jersey Shore” or “The Sopranos” or whatever and think the whole place & its people are like that, because it’s not and we’re not. I love it here and there is no other place I’d rather live.
What was that, how do I know he wasn’t from New Jersey? His Australian accent gave him away.
BTW even if I wasn’t from New Jersey, I still would have been peeved. You just don’t go around putting down people or places, especially when you have the potential to offend the client, the talent, and the owners of the studio, and ESPECIALLY a state that was just devastated by a natural disaster.
So what did I do? I kept my trap shut. As much as I would have like to have torn this clown a new one, we were in front of new producers, children, and my #1 client. And you know what? He probably would have thought that I was being a jerk. Sigh.
End of rant.
TIP OF THE WEEK: Now, I’ve hung out with many of you, and you know that I like to talk. A lot. And I like to goof around. A lot! How-eh-vuh, there are three things I don’t do at a recording session and you should NEVER, EVER do either:
- Don’t make fun of the script
- Don’t make fun of the session
- Don’t make fun of someone or something that could potentially offend somebody, especially when you don’t know everyone in the room
John was a master. He did all three in one session.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your ignorance. Thomas Sowell
STUFF!: I saw “Pirate Radio” again and I LOVE this film! Absolutely nothing happens and it tanked in both the UK & US but it is just plain fun. Go rent it!
From Tom Dheere’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere: GKN News…
Yay Tom! I can feel your pain with that sort of “talent” on a job – insecure, stupid and mouth in motion before brain is ever truly engaged. And so incredibly tacky to bash the home state of the studio!! Wow… interestingly, I’m actually not from NJ, but have lived in my lovely adopted state for almost twenty-five years now. As a result, I go to bat for NJ whenever I hear those stereotypes. When I recently moved my mom to a nursing home in Connecticut to one in NJ, the social worker’s parting words to her were: “You’re going to a stinking place!” So many are ignorant of the riches New Jersey offers – but there’s no excuse to stay ignorant! Imagine if roles were reversed. and you were recording in an Australia-based studio, and bashed the country, etc. But wait: YOU NEVER WOULD!! ’cause your mama raised you BETTER! Thumbs up from Beautiful, Bucolic, Blissful Warren County NEW JERSEY, baby!
Your “three things” and the Thomas Sowell quote are both spot-on. I’ll add a corollary: when one has nothing to say, say nothing. Ancillary benefit: it makes people wonder what’s on your mind – and if they’re curious enough, they’ll ask you.
PS – Yay, New Jersey. we’re like the old Timex watch ad – we take a licking and keep on ticking! And yes, there are many exquisitely beautiful areas of our state – and some pretty neat ones as well (often coinciding). If anyone has any doubt, come to Branch Brook Park in Newark and Belleville in the spring. Case closed!!!
sorry, please change my comment: “When I recently moved my mom from a nursing home in Connecticut…” Ta
Good for you for showing maturity and professionalism in such a sticky situation.