So it is another sleepless Tuesday overnight after the holidays in the U.S.A., and I am tossing and turning in bed, wondering how I am going to pay the bills this month, get to see my girlfriend overseas, and what is in store for me. This year is already beginning like last year – waiting for paltry checks in the mail. I finally fall asleep around seven-thirty AM only to drag myself up at the crack of Noon, knowing I have things to do that I am behind schedule on. I call in “sick” on my home business to answer some emails only to find that four people I know have sent me this story about this homeless dude getting a voice-over job.
“Why are you tormenting me like this?” I ask one sender. “Because he talks about ‘Theater of the Mind’ radio like you always do, and did on your show”, he answers. Even my eighty-six year old Mum calls asking, “Do you know Ted Williams?” “You mean the baseball player?” I feign. My forehead is now in my hands…”OMG” I am thinking. I was just tired before an a little grumpy; now I am in full D.J. Grumpy mode. No coffee in the decanter to help either. If this be the future, then why does it play like Alice In Wonderland where down is up and up is down? Why are people being rewarded for behavior they used to be ashamed of? I reach for my albuterol sulfate inhaler – getting upset used to bring on Asthma attacks when I was a child, now I just get “shortness of breath” and it is too cold to go for a bicycle ride, although I briefly consider doing so, or at least taking a brisk walk.
Here is the point I made to my friends who said, “He even sounds like you do!” Their hearts are in the right place (I am sounding like my Mum now); I even heard one young lady say how “cool” a story it is that this dude got a job with the Cleveland Cavaliers, on her college radio station. HOWEVER: there are lines of us qualified announcers out here with “pipes” who have been marginalized by terrestrial radio, et al for the past decade. G_D bless the BUM, but I have been doin “theatre of the mind” radio since the ’80s (“The Pajama Bar”) having grown up listening to it done on NYC radio by great D.J.s like Murray the “K”, “Cousin” Brucie (Morrow) and Frankie Crocker.
I recently began to send out my demo mp3s again to studios and agencies and have done so in the interim – without a nibble, hoping against hope that things turn around for me, and some homeless cat with a cardboard sign standing at the offramp of a highway gets a gig bcs a driver pulled-up and taped him to put it up on You Tube?? I’m sorry, but that is the wrong message! So what, I should become HOMELESS, lose all I have, get a piece of cardboard and a Sharpie, stand outside by [the nearest interstate exit] in my army fatigues and hope for the best as my TEETH rot?? Something is very WRONG with the hiring system/pecking order in this land and the UNIVERSE at-large if this be the future of my”specialty”. That shit pisses me off everytime I think of it – and I didn’t get much sleep last night either, trying to figure-out what is next for me and those I hold dear. What do you think? What if that happened in your industry? How long do you think he will last?
Look, I’m not hatin’, I’m just sayin’., seems the wrong prople are getting the “bum’s rush”. Let me see…maybe I can think up something stupid to do to get “headlines” and hired for big reality TV money! I hear my late father saying, “You’ll probably get yourself arrested.”
**PickHiTT: Recently I was almost homeless. And, as I predicted when I first penned this blog, what happened to him was predictable: his habits, which got him to that street sign in the first place, were too much for him to overcome. Not being mean, but he needed more help than glam could get him. Often in life, it is good for writers (and really ALL of us humans) to revisit past opinions, especially when educational footnotes can be added.
As my MARVEL Comics Editorial staff (Stan Lee, et al) always concluded, “Nuff said”.
Remind me to ignore you next time I meet you.
So the guy got a break. Isn’t that what you are after? And yes, he does have a great voice (so did Richard Burton and many others) but he also has a joie de vivre which you appear to be lacking.
May the god of ‘bums’ have mercy on you and not shrivel your vocal cords. And be careful not to inflate your sense of entitlement even further: Your ego might burst.
Good luck.
U
In the words of Dionne Warwick “Walk On Byyyyyy” Thanks for commenting!
I was watching the Wendy Williams show and I agree with what she said. That job doesn’t change who a person is. It’s the person who is willingly and wanting to make that change. This guy skipped out on his wife who is partially blind, has about 7-9 kids, and went straight to drugs and the streets. I am wanting and waiting to see what he does with that first paycheck of his. I give him about 1 year.
I did see online earlier though he started rehab . . .
Exactly, and there are many of us (like me) who have tried to go about it “the right way” (sending resumes and demo mp3 or CDs) who constantly are ignored. THAT is what I speak to. I met Wendy back in 1991 btw – long b 4 her current fame! lol Thanks for your comment.
I can understand the human reaction of frustration on your part, Achilliad, it’s understandable. However, take a more spiritual approach and thank God that he has blessed this man, who is no more wretched than any of us. You will find that by being thankful for someone else’s success instead of coveting it, you will gain your own success. I told my wife that he is probably going to relapse because it was too much, too soon, and he did. We shouldn’t revile towards him, but find it disturbing that he has fallen again.
I know, this is probably too deep, but is there anything wrong with what I said. Think about it!
I’m thinking; I am thanking. I’m wondering why life is increasingly like Alice In Wonderland: “down is up and up is down”. Thank U for your insightful comment!