April 3, 2017

Meet Rick Wasserman of BOOKABLE Voice Over Coaching & Demos in Calabasas

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rick Wasserman.

Rick, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Rick Wasserman and I am an actor. I’ve been performing on stage and television for the better part of my life. In 1998, just before graduating from UMKC with an MFA in Acting Performance, my class took a voice over workshop with a great guy, Jeffrey Dreisbach, from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting. I always had a deep voice (I think my voice changed overnight in the sixth grade!) so I innocently assumed I’d be a natural when it came to voice over. After a couple of days of Mr. Dreisbach’s workshop, I thought I knew all there was to know about the craft of VO. After I graduated, I began auditioning for voice over work…and I didn’t book a voice over job…for years. Nothing. Not a sausage. I continued performing in theatre, on television shows, and on TV commercials before finally landing on Broadway as a principle actor in THE LION KING.

One day, I received a message that I had an audition for another voice over. Preparing to lose yet another VO gig, I went to my agency, took a deep breath, and jumped into the recording booth. The recording engineer on this particular day happened to know I was in THE LION KING and told me to do my audition as though I was the villain from the show, Scar. I thought he was nuts, but I did it. And consequently, I booked my first voice over. It was the promo voice for a new series on HBO called The WIRE.

All of the excitement of finally getting my foot in the door quickly went away during my first recording session: it was clear I didn’t really know what the heck I was doing. I had no process, no means of bringing the script to life, no technique with the microphone, and certainly no confidence. I embarrassed myself frequently and nearly lost the job. I went back to my conservatory training and found ways to apply what I already knew about storytelling as an actor and began applying that knowledge to voice over. That’s when I started to hit my stride: I began booking voice over work regularly. What started as a means to make a little money between acting gigs, became my primary focus.

Years later, a friend of mine asked me a question about doing voice over. He was pleased with my answer and asked if I would consider coaching him. I said I didn’t really have any lesson plans…yet. I began structuring a curriculum from all of the notes I’d made for myself. I put together lessons that would ensure that the voice artist would tell the richest, most specific, authentic story possible every time they picked up a script and NOT make the same avoidable mistakes I’d made.

I began coaching more and more until finally, I opened my company, BOOKABLE. Since then, BOOKABLE has helped scores of artists gain confidence in the booth and lead them to begin their chase for voice over mastery. BOOKABLE recently added the voice over powerhouse and singular talent of Rachel Butera as a partner.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
For years, I was a one-man show, running BOOKABLE alone. Now I have a wonderful partner in Rachel Butera which not only makes the workload easier, but it’s become much more fun too!

Since Rachel and I are professional voice over artists making our living voicing commercials, promos, cartoons, trailers, and video games, we’ve never felt pressured to make a big splash with BOOKABLE. We are not looking to become any bigger than we are now. We are small. Boutique. We have the luxury of taking clients we want to work with and scheduling them when it’s convenient for everyone. It’s a creative, focused, and light-hearted atmosphere and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

BOOKABLE Voice Over Coaching & Demos – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
BOOKABLE teaches the craft of voice over, the art of telling a story using only one’s voice and can be commonly heard in commercials, promos, movie trailers, animation, video games, documentary narration, audio books, live announce (i.e. The Oscars, The Grammys, etc.), and much more. Like any performance art, it requires study and practice. Commercials, for instance, are typically 30 seconds long and many voice over performers or enthusiasts imagine that since they are so short, they don’t really need to put much consideration into it, but we feel that is a mistake. Usually when we point out that booking a commercial could net them thousands and thousands of dollars, voice over artists then understand that putting five or ten minutes’ worth of thought into the audition is well worth it.

We focus on process: the scaffolded steps necessary to break down a script and tell the richest, most vivid, most specific story one can tell. Without process, one is really putting their faith into luck and instinct; both of which are not reliable.

It’s also our mission to ensure each artist’s unique voice is being embraced. With so many voice over performers out there, it is vital to understand one’s own particular sound and delivery.

An actor has a headshot, a model has a portfolio, and a voice actor must have a demo. A demo is a 90 second long sample of an artist’s voice/delivery. Our demos are half the cost of other demo production companies and we take great pains to ensure they please not only the client, but those who will listen to them and judge the merit of the performer.

We feel proud when a client gets an agent or when they book a big voice over campaign. We recently had a newer client book a commercial, his first, and it aired during the Super Bowl!

Rachel and I are both professional voice over performers. We teach what we do and we do it every day. When we are not coaching, we are making our living performing voice over. Our clients don’t need to blindly trust what we teach them; we can SHOW them how we do it in real time during our own booked voice over sessions which we invite them to.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success for BOOKABLE is not a dollar amount nor is it the quantity of Facebook likes. Success comes from the pride we feel when helping our clients who bring with them a wide range of experience: we can take a very green newbie to a place of confidence and solid ability, we can take semi-professionals voice actors and “up” their game, we can improve the booking rates of professional VO artists, and we help other artists make parallel moves in the industry: i.e. a promo voice wants to do animation, a narrator wants to start doing movie trailers, etc.

Success for us is measured in the confidence our clients show, the representation they attain, the bookings they get, and the many cathartic “A-ha!” moments we are lucky enough to witness.

Pricing:

PRIVATE 1-on-1 Voice Over Coaching: $75/30 min, $125/1 hour, $175/1.5 hours, $225/2 hours
PRIVATE 1-on-1 Voice Over Coaching PACKAGES: 5 one-hour sessions/$500, 10 one-hour sessions/$1000
DEMO PACKAGE: $1250
GROUP Voice Over WORKOUTS: 1 two-hour session/$50, 5 Two-hour sessions/$200

Contact Info: