VOICE OVER CAREER 'New Tricks For Old Dogs' Podcast Episode Has
Advice For Boomers Thinking About Voice Over August 27, 2020
 By John FlorianVoiceOverXtra
Can 'Old Dogs' (aka Seniors/Boomers) really learn new tricks?
Or maybe find their way back to the career home they'd dreamed about - or abandoned - long ago?
Longtime friends - and Old Dogs - Jim Conlan (pictured, on the right) and Paul Menzel (left) not only answer 'Yes!' but prove it with their entertaining and informative podcast, New Tricks for Old Dogs - "The podcast for Boomers who still like to howl at the moon."
Now in its second big season, the podcast is a 25-minute blend of friendly chat about life in the senior zone, plus sometimes bizarre news and an interview with a senior "who is still doing their thing - or maybe they've found a new thing to do after retiring," as Jim puts it. They're "Boomers who are still actively engaged with life."
 Jim adds: "The podcast is a politics-free zone, but other than that, anything goes, as long as it's interesting to seniors."
Jim - or James, as his audiobook narration fans know him - is a veteran voice actor, coach and advertising creative who is especially known for humorous radio commercials. VoiceOverXtra readers might also recognize him as the author of insightful articles.
And Paul is a former actor, director and creator of Houston's Comedy Workshop - which he describes as "a home for untried actors, writers and comedians - and a lot of bad behavior." Yet notable alums include Brett Butler, Sam Kinison, Thea Vidale, Janeane Garofalo and Bill Hicks. PS: There's lots more interesting stuff to know about these guys, so you might enjoy their bios below.
They call the interview segment of each podcast "Howling at the Moon," and recently, I was honored with an invitation to howl about the fun and viability of starting or restarting a voice over career. You can hear this in Episode 39 below. The interview starts slightly after 13 minutes, but you'll enjoy the rapport of these friends right from the start ...
MORE ABOUT JIM AND PAUL
The witty bios of this duo reveal fascinating lives that are still full of new tricks.  JIM CONLAN
Jim
Conlan ("James" to his close friends) is a multi-talented guy with multi-multi
talents (he says). Known as a child for his extremely loud voice, he was often
thrust on-stage to make announcements at class assemblies. From this he
developed a powerful yen to be entertaining. Some day.
Between
then and now, Jim has howled at many moons. He has a degree in painting. He was
in the Peace Corps. He was a national director of the Beyond War Foundation. He
was and is a director of the Carl Jung Educational Center of Houston, including
four years as President. And for years you could hear Jim's jazz trio around
town until even the small audience for jazz dried up. Jim refuses to speculate
on the likelihood that his playing in part contributed to the situation.
Over
a long and varied career in advertising Jim has collected hundreds of local,
regional and national awards, mostly for extremely funny radio commercials.
Coincidentally, many of them featured Paul's voice. If you still bother to
listen to the radio, you may be familiar with Jim's long-running campaign for
Jimmy John's. Jim's talent for directing may become evident whenever he decides
to ask Paul to rephrase something.
Jim
is also a voice actor with over four decades of experience. Hundreds of
clients have hired Jim for thousands of commercial and non-commercial projects,
from humorous to hard-sell, Voice of God to Guy Next Door, narration,
industrial, inspirational, and matter-of-fact. This may well be why 3 out of 4
of our listeners (Benny, Shirley and Max) prefer Jim's voice to Paul's.
You
may also be aware of Jim's work as an audiobook narrator. If you're not, you
can find him on Audible.com under the name "James Conlan." He has narrated
over 80 titles so far, from Moby-Dick to books you probably
never heard of.
A
native Michiganian, Jim now lives in Houston with his wife of 50 years (who,
with good reason, prefers to remain nameless), two grown children, and two
un-grown grandchildren.
 PAUL MENZEL
Paul
has always known that he was destined for a life of comedy. And people have
been laughing at him ever since.
Shortly after graduating from college in 1968,
he joined an improvisational comedy troupe called Dudley Riggs' Brave New
Workshop in Minneapolis. For the next eight years, he directed and performed in
their comedy revues. During that time, the group was featured weekly in
satirical pieces for "All Things Considered" on the National Public Radio
Network.
In
1977, Paul moved to Houston to open a comedy club. One room featured
improvisational comedy revues and a separate room featured young comedians.
Over the next 12 years, the Comedy Workshop provided a home for untried actors,
writers and comedians - and a lot of bad behavior. Notable alums include Brett
Butler, Sam Kinison, Thea Vidale, Janeane Garofalo and Bill Hicks.
In
addition to running the Comedy Workshop, he was busy as an actor in
commercials, industrial films, and a couple dozen forgettable movies. He still
gets residual payments from some of that work – only now the checks are in
cents rather than dollars. He framed one check for 2 cents – a reminder of the
lasting value of his on-camera work.
At
the beginning of 1990, Paul closed down the Comedy Workshop when he realized
that he didn't like being the only adult on the playground. Since that time, he
has combined work as an actor, writer, video producer and instructional
designer.
Along the way he added a Master's Degree in Training and Development
and certification as a Ropes facilitator, family mediator and life coach. Don't
ask – somehow it all fits together.
After he hit 65, he scaled back his
contract work to focus on writing and acting. Creating the Old Dogs Podcast
with Jim Conlan has been a great way to draw on the life experiences of the
last seven decades.
Paul
has been married to Susan Huff, a video producer, for 25 years. They have a
teenage daughter, Savanna. Paul also has a son, Andrew, who lives in
Houston with his wife Cheryl and their three children. It's always
interesting being a parent and grandparent at the same time.
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 ABOUT JOHN John Florian is the founder/publisher of VoiceOverXtra,
the voice over industry's award-winning online news, education and
resource center, offering thousands of resource links, how-to articles,
calendar of industry events, industry directory, webinar training and
more. A former magazine editorial director/publisher, John is also a
voice talent who merged those two career passions to create VoiceOverXtra in 2007.
Web: www.VoiceOverXtra.com
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