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VOICE ACTING
Freaky Weather, Power Outages, Delayed Flight
... Timing Was Everything For This ISDN Session
May 28, 2014

By Bobbin Beam
Voice Actress

Our family traveled to Denver earlier this month to spend time with extended family for Mother’s Day.

Before we left I’d been booked for a nice national commercial voice over gig via my ISDN studio on the day of our return, Monday.

A lot of back-and-forth messaging followed between my agent and the client to settle on and confirm a start time, plus allow for me to have a short window of time to get back from the airport.

We finally settled on 3 pm Central on Monday for the ISDN session at my home.

WEATHERING THE WEATHER

Lo and behold, a sizable freak mid-May snowstorm hit Denver with a vengeance on Sunday, and was to last through Monday.

So after a fitful night of sleep, it was decided on early Sunday to leave our hotel in the western burbs, and book into another that was very close to the airport. The thought of driving through the predicted 5-10 inches of snow from west Denver out to the very east edge of town during morning rush hour to the airport was not a risk I wanted to take. I would potentially be late for the plane trip home.

In the new hotel on Monday we woke up early, looked out the window, and sure enough, there was a lot of snow!

Good decision to have changed hotels? Well ...

LUCKY ELEVATOR RIDE

We rode the elevator to the lobby restaurant for breakfast, and the hotel power went out just after we exited the elevator.

In fact, the heavy wet snow had toppled tree limbs and power lines so that the entire block of hotels in the area was out of power.

Luckily, we only had to walk up to the third floor to gather our bags.

When we arrived at the airport we learned that our flight was delayed an hour.

NOTIFIED MY AGENT

I sent a text to my agent to apprise him of the situation. I knew we were cutting it close. But the client really wanted the voice over recording session completed on Monday.

Our plane took off and it was an "uneventful" flight - after the wings were de-iced.

The plane landed in Milwaukee and we got in our car for the last leg of the long journey home. Enroute I received a cell call from the studio’s engineer. He was so cool, and immediately put me at ease by his understanding of the situation.

Thankfully, I was only a few minutes from home by that time and was able to hydrate, turn on the computer and fire up the ISDN.

The voice over session went very smoothly.

BUT THAT AIN'T ALL ...

Yet shortly after the call ended, rain showers turned into a full-blown electrical thunderstorm. And then - the power went out at home!

If this had happened just moments earlier, there would have been no power to even turn on my ISDN Zephyr. Such timing!

Then, sitting in candlelight, I counted my blessings for having booked such a nice voice over gig - and thought about how timing can be everything.
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ABOUT BOBBIN
Bobbin Beam has worked professionally behind the microphone since she was 18. She has been a full time voice actress for 20+ years, following a number of years in FM rock radio from Milwaukee to San Diego. Her career dreams hatched upon the living room stage at the age of four, performing "Snow White” for her family. Before age 12, Bobbin formed an acting troupe with neighborhood kids, and wrote, directed and produced plays in the family barn. Bobbin has now returned to Wisconsin, where her career began, yet her voice is heard all over the world. When not recording, she’s a blogger, learner, cook and volunteer. She also loves singing, swimming, kayaking, reading, writing, cycling, hiking, yoga and life.

Email: bobbin@BobbinBeam.com
Web: www.BobbinBeam.com