Joe Cipriano’s Blog

Welcome to the Joe Cipriano Blog! It’s really a shame, but the blog we’ve maintained since April 2006 had an unrecoverable crash. We will try to recreate the old posts since a lot of them receviced many comments.  Here was the very first one.

cip — April 11, 2006, 10:24 am

Welcome to Joe Cip’s Blog “click here”

Hi and welcome to my Blog. I think you’ll find out right away why I talk for a living rather than write for a living. Despite that handicap, when I was told I could have a blog on my website I thought it would be an interesting opportunity to chat with anyone interested in this wild world of v/o. I’ll put up posts here from time to time to let you know what’s new with me and what’s happening in the world of v/o. I’d like to invite you to post your questions, comments and ideas as well. I’m looking forward to chatting with you and opening up a new line of communication that will benefit all of us in TV, Radio and Film.

Looking forward to bloggin’ with you.

Joe

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This is a longer version of the Today Show piece without the reporter and with scenes that weren’t used on-air. Check it out

This is a new wordpress flash video plug in

[flashvideo filename="video/today43.flv" /]

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Well, it finally ran. Third time was the charm For the time being you can see it at the Today Show website.

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I think I’ll stop sending out e-mails to friends and family about the Famous Voices segment The producers called this morning to let us know they ran out of time for the segment. I think it was the fact that Meridith Vierra wore white pants before Memorial Day on yesterday’s show and the nation was in an uproar. They had to do a rushed segment to right this wrong. Rightly so.

Just to clear this up. If you wear white after Labor Day and before Memorial Day you are nouveau riche and unaware of what truely fashionable people wear. It’s just wrong. Oh, I found out a few other things as well, don’t drink out of the milk carton in the fridge and stop tracking mud on my clean floors.

Here now are examples of “good white”

This is me last summer. We were on the island of Capri. I tried to find a white cigar, but couldn’t

This is me with my kids. I’m actually wearing an ascot with this ensemble (that’s French for together, in case you are not tres chic). Don’t even try to understand the whole ascot/ensemble thing if you are the afore mentioned, nouveau riche and unaware of what truely fashionable people wear. This doesn’t make you a bad person, just an outcast.

I find that I must know what I’m doing when it comes to fashion because wherever I go people point at me. That kinda makes me special.

OK, so enough of the fashion lesson. And STOP looking at my daughter. And YOU, stop looking at my son.

Joe

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A few weeks ago I was contacted by the Today Show about a segment they were planning called, Famous Voices. They asked if I would be willing to be a part of it and I said, “nah.” Wait, no…that’s not right. I said, “YEAH.”

The piece focuses on Don LaFontaine, George DelHoyo, Mark Elliott and me. They set up two interview appointments, one here at my house where they interviewed Mark and me together. The other at Don’s house, where George joined him for the footage. These interviews will be cut together along with some promos the four of us have voiced and scenes from a third shoot that took place on Hollywood Blvd. in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. They shot us on the walk of fame and we interacted with tourists who were visiting Hollywood.

We had a fun time doing the piece. As I’ve mentioned before, since the total proliferation of ISDN for sessions, we hardly see each other anymore. Everyone is based at their home studios now and I really am the last of the breed who still enjoys GOING OUT to sessions. My reasons are because no else does it and that makes me different for one, but more to the point…I would go crazy staying home all day and I just love the chance to see the peeps I’m working with.

I used to see Don several times a day either at Fox or CBS or at any number of studios in town. This was back in the day when Don’s limo was legendary and we all had to build “travel time” into our schedules. George and I used to have lunch and/or dinner at least two times a week back in the days the two of us were tracking our sessions on the Fox lot. We were usually done with our sessons at around 5:30 but we would have to go back for a 7pm, so once or twice a week we’d nip off to a restaurant close by. Jack Spratt’s was always a fav on Pico near the Fox lot for a little dinner and then back to the lot.

Three Amigos

Of course now we all have to make a “plan” to see each other, which thankfully we do but it means we only see each other once every 6 weeks or so instead of a few times a day. This picture is from a dinner we had with Joan Baker around the time her book, Secrets of Voice Over Success was released. Because we don’t see each other daily anymore, the time we had together in front of the camera for the Today Show was just plain FUN. Kind of like recess at grammar school.

So if you can watch the segment it will be on Thursday, March 22nd sometime between 8:45am and 9:30am. Watch it live, TIVO it or you can see it here later on my website. There is also a tribute to the late Ernie Anderson, the legend and one of the most recognizable voices on the planet. The LOVE Boat!.

Joe

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I received a posting today from a voice over person who wrote, “I just want to thank you for the advice you gave me years ago on not moving to LA. I didn’t and have been blessed with massive success working from the mountains in lil ole Asheville, NC and down in Orlando, Fl (when it gets too cold and rainy here)”

Thanks for the note Tom. Here are my thoughts on the whole “moving to where the work is” in this new world of voice over.

I always tell people who ask me if they should move to Los Angeles or New York for voice overs to only do so if they have a job waiting for them in the new location. Moving to two of the most expensive places to live in the country is not something you should consider when pursuing voice overs unless you have some sort of an income as a base to live on.

Too many people come to Los Angeles with no job and a dream of acting or getting into voice overs and find themselves struggling to pay the grocery bill. All this does is make your chances for success in the business even slimmer. No one…NO ONE…wants to be around, let alone hire, someone who is DESPERATE for the J O B. Do not have the stench of desperation follow you into auditions and interviews.

So, if you must move to LA or NY, my advice is always to have a “day job” set up before making a move to pursue your dreams. In Tom’s case above, staying put and building a voice over career has never made MORE sense. Look at how many successful working voice over talent are NOT in the major cities these days. Randy Thomas, Chris Corley and so many others who are living in Florida. There is a little hotbed of vo talent down there…there must be something in the water. They do daily, many times, hourly sessions to Los Angeles or NY from their home studios. There has never been more opportunities to build a hugely successful National voice over career withOUT moving to LA or NY because of ISDN and Source Connect and home studios.

If you stay where you are and build a career from there, you will save thousands and thousands of dollars and perhaps years on your life. Your overhead will be so much lower and more importantly your quality of life so much higher.

I was lucky and the voice over business was so different when I weighed the choices. I moved to Los Angeles in 1980 with a radio job waiting for me. Did I want to move to LA sooner…YES…but I waited years until I had a gig that would support me. Plus, my wife was in broadcasting as well. We both ended up with two excellent broadcast “day jobs.” We’ve been here in LA for 27 years now and it is home for us. All of our closest friends are here. Would I like to live in a place where the cost of living is less…you bet!! But this is where my children grew up and except for maybe someday having a second home in another area…this is home.

Weigh your choices wisely. These days, staying put and building your career from where you live now makes so much sense. Surrounded by the support of your family and friends. Your cost of living will be more reasonable and manageable…and that translates into NOT having to work 5 sessions a day just to pay the rent. Thank you I S D N. It’s opened up so many opportunities for success no matter where you live.

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The Los Angeles Times runs a piece every Thursday in the paper called, “Favorite Weekend.” They get a different person each week to talk about their favorite Saturday and Sunday activities. With that in mind, here’s my “Perfect Weekend.” Please post yours for all of us to read.

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Joe Cipriano - The Perfect Weekend.

Two Days…no Alarm Clocks

Both of our kids are away at college now and that means weekends are all ours. One of my favorite things is going to bed on Friday night and NOT setting the alarm for Saturday morning. I usually get up around 8am, my wife Ann likes to sleep in a little bit on the weekend, so I take our dog Sammy out back for a run on the tennis court. He is a miniature Australian Shepherd and a crazy Frisbee dog. I’ve never had a dog who loves chasing and catching things so much, he’s obsessed. He’ll catch empty water bottles, flying bugs, jumping cats…whatever. He and I play Frisbee for about 20 minutes and then I’ll use my racket to bounce some tennis balls off the wall way up into the air so he can make these amazing leaping catches. He is by far the best athlete in the family.

By the time we get back in, he’s ready for breakfast. I feed him and our two cats. By then my wife is downstairs and we spend time at the kitchen table reading the paper and checking e-mail on our laptops. I like to make breakfast on Saturday mornings. Sometimes I’ll make an Egg Fritata with asparagus, tomatoes and Fontina cheese along with a breakfast Bruschetta. The Bruschetta is sliced and toasted chiabatta bread with a little olive oil. Then I put ricotta cheese and orange marmalade on top. Other times I’ll make omelets with asparagus, mushrooms, avocado and cheese.

Saturday morning Voice Over and Tennis

I usually have a voice over session on Saturday mornings at about 10am which I do from my home studio. Then at 11am my roving bunch of tennis friends arrive. I love tennis about as much as my dog loves Frisbees. I play at least 3 times a week. I play singles during the week and doubles on the weekends. I have a group of about 8 friends I work with from the different Networks who also love tennis. Not everyone is available every single Saturday, but I can always put together 4 of us for doubles. We usually play 4 sets of tennis and rotate teams so you’re always playing with someone different each set.

While I’m playing tennis, Ann is usually at the gym working out. After tennis, I might check out some College Football or Ann and I will catch an afternoon movie, either just the two of us or with our friends, the Lloyds. John is the coach of Great Britain Davis Cup and the 4 of us are best of friends. After a great movie, we’ll usually go out to dinner. If we were in Santa Monica for a movie, we’ll eat at the Broadway Deli on the 3rd Street Promenade or Sor Tino in Brentwood. Sor Tino is one of my favorite restaurants. Some of our other favs are, The Grill on the Alley, Enoteca Drago and Yu ‘n Me for sushi all in Beverly Hills.

Two Tennis Courts…no waiting

Sunday morning. Ahhh, no alarm again. Sammy and I meet up for our Frisbee fun at about 8 or 8:30am. I’ll bring the Sunday paper up the bedroom. We start off reading the paper and watching Meet The Press. Just trying to exercise the brain. For entertainment business news I like Sunday Morning Shoot Out on AMC with Peter Bart and Peter Guber.

We moved from Pacific Palisades to Beverly Hills 7 years ago after living there since 1980. But most of our friends are either there or in Santa Monica. By 11am Sunday morning, I’m at the Palisades Park playing tennis with our friends who we’ve known for years. We’ve all raised our children together the past 16 years or so. There is a group of about 30 of us including kids and we spend every holiday together. Most weekends we try to do something as a group. We reserve two tennis courts side by side for two hours on Sunday mornings. Sometimes there may be as many as 10 of us for tennis and we play doubles on both courts, changing up teams and rotating in players. John Lloyd runs us around like it’s a Davis Cup practice. Ann is a gym rat, she goes several times a week, but tennis is not her favorite thing. Although I force her to hit with me sometimes. She might join us afterwards for lunch at Cafe Vida in the Palisades or I’ll head home and stop at open houses on the way back to Beverly Hills. I love checking out open houses.

Sunday Dinner

It might be another movie in the afternoon Sunday with friends and then a big group of us will have dinner at Dantes Restaurant in the Palisades. We’ve gone to Dantes for years on Sunday nights and know the owners Angelo and his wife Cynthia. Angelo always comes to our table to talk to us and usually says he “cannot serve the Cipriano family because they are from out of town and do not have their pass-a-ports with them.”

So my weekends are all about tennis, great dinners and good friends. The perfect weekend revolves around all three.

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So, what is the deal with me and Apple Computers? We’re not dating…we’re just good friends. They build real nice toys and I keep buying ‘em. I’m so lucky to have aligned with the folks there on 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California. They’ve invited me to do some really cool things with the amazingly brilliant people who develop new apps, invent new hardware and keep the Apple Brand on top.

The video seminar, “The Podcast Recipe” that I appear in has been a big download for them on their seminars.apple.com site. That’s exciting. And now they have put up a very nice interview with me on their homepages.

When I was shooting the Video Seminar up at Apple this past September, I did a few voice over sessions back to NBC using my MacBookPro, Apple Remote Desktop, my mBox2 and Source Connect over their internet connection. They were intrigued with how I was able to do live voice over sessions from what was essentially a break room at the studio. I explained the technology and they asked if I would be willing to be interviewed for the Apple Pro Site and discuss how I use Apple products in my work.

You can read the article at the Apple.com homepage or just go directly to the interview on the pro site:

http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/cipriano/

It’s a long interview. Bring snacks. I like Apples

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It’s a sunny and warm November Sunday here in Southern California. A good time to sit outside and write a must needed new entry into the blog.

I’ve been lucky to have an association with Apple Computer for the past year or so. I’ve worked on several projects with Apple, highlighted by the release of the Podcast Studio within the latest GarageBand application. If you go into any Apple Store in the U.S. and open up GarageBand on any of the computers in the store, you’ll be brought directly to the Podcast Studio where a demo Podcast pops up featuring my voice. The folks at Apple asked me to record several intros to demo Podcasts which you can play with at the Apple Store. They also included a little bio on me within the studio.

I just recently taped a Video Seminar with the folks at Apple up at their Cupertino headquarters. The seminar is called,

The Podcast Recipe: Producing a Successful Show. I was asked to appear on camera to speak about my career, podcasting, microphones and performance techniques. It’s a fun video, I encourage you to check it out. John Danty from Apple is the host and he does a fantastic job. I am in two segments, the Perform and Produce Segments. Go here to view the seminar. You’ll need Quicktime and you’ll be asked to sign up. This is for demographic studies, the seminar is FREE. Thanks.

http://seminars.apple.com/seminarsonline/podcast/apple/

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I was very fortunate to be chosen to announce the Emmy Awards again this year. It’s my second year as the voice of the Emmys. Announcing LIVE shows is a real joy for me. I absolutely LOVE it. I guess it comes from my radio days and being live on the air. I’ve done quite a few of these “television events” since the early 90’s including The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, The GQ Man of the Year Awards, Sports Illustrated, VH1 Honors, a bunch of live music shows (Elton John, Celine Dion, Ray Charles Tribute, Fashion Rocks and a many more), 3 Grammy Awards and now 2 Emmy Awards.

It’s always fun showing up the day before for rehearsals and finding out where the heck the voice over booth is going to be. I love the one at the Shrine Auditorium. It’s in the back of the audience, so I look out over the audience to the stage. I always leave the door to the booth open so there are audience members right next to me, looking into the booth as I’m announcing. The Pantages Theater puts the announce booth downstairs in a dressing room. So, I’m surrounded by all the other dressing rooms of the presenters on the show which is a kick. Once again, I leave that door open so celebs can stick their head in and say Hi while I’m announcing. When I did the VH1 Honors at the Universal Amphitheater they set up the announce “booth” in the basement beneath the stage. It was the weirdest setup. I had all of these bands directly above me making one hell of a noise. It was the ultimate noisy neighbor type situation. The Staples Center, where we do the Grammy Awards, puts the announce booth just off stage in a photographer’s dark room. Very strange. They put a table top over the sinks and away we go. I have to say, it’s my least favorite location.

The 58th Primetime Emmy Awards was one great show. Conan O’Brien was excellent and a truly nice guy. The thing that impressed me most was his work ethic. He rehearsed more than any other host I’ve worked with. When rehearsal was over he would ask if he could just run the monologue one more time or walk through the song once again. It showed up on the air. He was perfect.

Louis J. Horvitz was the director and he too was perfect. I’ve worked with a lot of directors and they are all the best of the best, but Louis J. has a certain something extra. I guess that’s why he’s won about 5 Emmys for Directing the Academy Awards. He can be tough if you don’t do the best in your job, whether your a camera person, lighting person, audio…if you mess up he calls you on it but he also hands out praise generously. I got nothin’ but praise from him this year which was great. He also was very focused on getting in my vocal credit at the end of the show. That’s where I say, “For the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards, this is Joe Cipriano speaking.” He made sure Christine our AD and the audio people knew there was going to be one last LIVE announce before the show wrapped. He’s a class guy.

Ken Ehrlich is the Exec. Producer and I’ve done countless shows for him. He is amazing at wrangling celebrities. And let me tell you that can be huge job, especially when you’re dealing with music acts at the Grammys and some stars who have rather big egos. Renato Basile is his producer and I always have such a great time with him. He’s finally been getting the Producer role for the past few years and he deserves it. Another class guy.

Thanks to Tina Cannizzaro who sat next to me during the rehearsals and the show. She’s done many of these awards shows and she knows exactly what she’s doing. She is a PRO. She’s the one, by the way, who researches all those facts that I read while the winner walks up to accept their award.

I’ve put up another Video Podcast for ya to check out. Don’t expect too much I took my MacBookPro with me to the dress rehearsal on Saturday night and let it roll for a bit. It gives you a little flavor of what happens in the booth during a live show. Hope you enjoy it.

Copy and Paste this link for the podcast or click on the player below:

http://web.mac.com/joecip/iWeb/Site/Podcast/9F7BFA00-B293-4ED6-A4A1-B7BFBB733D4E.html

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