LEAP OF FAITH RADIO PRODUCTION with Bobby Ocean
Lately the discussion of “Stealing From Other Performers” has been popping up among VO and radio folks I know. They’re talking about sounding like another well known star when they complain, “The specs call for a Chris Rock sound-alike.”
There is sometimes guilt and more than slight embarrassment when a
performer’s style, or “brand” is found to be derivative. Sometimes there
is mocking. (I, for example, thought little of Madonna’s Marilyn photo
shoot long ago)
But, really, we all do it. That’s how we learned to walk. We try to repeat that which interests us. The way to avoid being ridiculed is to not get caught being a bad actor.
This is what everybody has been doing all along. look at our entertainment menu: Johnny Carson imitated Jack Benny. Mick Jagger pranced like Tina Turner. Imus and Morgan borrowed heavily from Don McKinnon. The Real Don Steele was a Boss Jock imitating a stage announcer in a black and white movie. It’s endless.
Isn’t that in the bio of EVERY JOCK YOU AND I KNOW, and, really, every star we’ve ever seen perform? These people inspire us and we want to emulate.
DJs and VO folk are not thieves, they’re actors, recalling a performer’s trademark inflection, tick, quirk or style, then, through practice, MAKING IT THEIR OWN. That’s one of the primal means Storytellers have of learning our craft. We mimic, copy, impersonate, do an impression, even mock and ape, depending on the energy asked for by the story.
If we’re really smart, we’ll never stop learning.
Along my way to this square on the checkerboard of time, I have borrowed
from the absolute best, the people who knocked my socks down around my
ankles. Here, I’ve begun a list, but please know it’s just a rough sketch. My brain cells were more plentiful once and I’m leaving out entire phone books of deserving people. This, however, gets it started.
Among those from whom I have admired to the point of pinching some of their seasonings, are:
Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger)
Jerry Lewis
Rod McEwan
Paul Frees
TV’s Betty White (c’mon, the double takes alone)
Stan Freberg
Groucho Marx
Daws Butler
Don Sherwood
Robert W. Morgan & The Real Don Steele, of course.
Ron Jacobs
Gene Nelson (best “Good morning” to which I’ve ever awakened)
Owen Spann
Russ The Moose Syracuse
Don McKinnon; used to listen to him out of Oakland, as well as Casey Kasem, and Don Bowman.
Larry Sherman (yeah I know, you never heard of him. I did. I was impressed)
Jack Hammer (Jay Mack)
Scotty Brink (peak-believability, one on one anything)
same deal with Laurie Sanders (open mic, open heart)
Linda Cassidy (smoother than a baby’s smoothest part)
The Slim One (sex that works)
Tom Donahue
Rod Serling
and anyone in a TV drama, urgently whispering.
Obviously, this list could go on quite a bit longer, but time and space restraints require that I inadvertently omit an entire population. I’ll just look at this as a work in progress that perhaps you’ll finish one day.
Bet you’ve got a list already started between your ears..
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Right on, Bobby! I remember something you wrote many years ago that I used in production. It was how to get an old Ampex 350 to run backwards. No longer needed but it was handy at the time.
Thanks!
5 year old asked me if he could have his own radio show..I asked him what he was gonna talk about ..he said I don’t know, what?
That five year old is a radio star… most of the reknown good presenters are not very good at making prep, they delve in and just wait for the outcome.
I too have a long list but it begins and ends with Dale Dorman.
greeeeaaaat piece, reminiscent of my dj days and you can tell who someone’s influences have been by listening to them