Actors vying to be heard
David McKeel pauses. The romance genre is unfamiliar territory for him. He’s reading a selection from Cheris Hodges’ steamy novel Recipe for Desire. Where McKeel picks up, the protagonist, Marie, has sprained her ankle, and a millionaire hunk named Devon is driving her to Presbyterian Hospital in his red Ford Mustang. A perfect time for some flirting.
‘‘I will say one thing,’’ McKeel says, as Marie, ‘‘I never took you for a Ford man.’’ He keeps his voice near its normal pitch; in the world of audiobook narration, modulating too much
from one character to another is bad practice.
His coach, Johnny Heller, cuts him off. He wants McKeel to put the emphasis on ‘‘you’’ instead of ‘‘Ford’’.
‘‘You can’t dance around what’s going on,’’ Heller urges him. ‘‘There’s an electricity we’re missing right now!’’
McKeel repeats the line, this time with the inflection in the proper place. ‘‘Yes!’’ Johnny whispers as he follows McKeel down the script.
The two men are in the middle of a lesson in Studio A in the Edge Studio offices, perched on eighth-floor of 115 Eighth Ave in New York City. The greenand-grey studio is part lounge, part control centre. Creamcoloured armchairs and a glasstopped coffee table are arranged behind a metal desk with two speakers, two keyboards and two computer monitors. Heller is stationed at the desk, pen and notebook at the ready. McKeel sits in the recording booth, a tight, green cube. Microphone apparatus cranes over his head.
McKeel, a Brooklyn-based 42-year-old working for an international humanitarian aid organisation by day, is trying to get his break in an industry that’s been on an upswing.
Revenue for downloaded audiobooks has nearly tripled over the past five years. Audible, Apple, Google Player, and major publishing houses, are battling it out for access to customers’ eardrums.
Ear buds are a routine accessory. People shop, they commute, they travel and, while they do, they listen to strangers’ voices.
Strangers who are getting paid – to read.
People like McKeel train at Edge in hopes of becoming an audiobook all-star – like Dion Graham, who has narrated the work of James Baldwin, Dave Eggers and James Patterson. Being chosen to consistently narrate popular titles puts voice actors into a privileged position between the beloved author and their fans. Yet the reality of the industry is not glamorous. Many working narrators can barely eke out a living unless they’re holding down other jobs.
In New York City and Los Angeles, the United States’ two capitals for audiobook work, narrators annually earn around US$40,000 on average, according to Voices.com. A large publisher might pay as much as US$350 an hour, but smaller publishers might pay US$50 or less an hour. To make a decent return, you have to be good.
And if reading for audiobooks sounds easy, a few hours in the booth can be humbling.
‘‘The analogy would be singing,’’ says David Goldberg, chief officer at Edge Studio. ‘‘Just because they have a good voice doesn’t mean they could sell you a tune.’’
McKeel, who goes by the trade name David Sadzin when he narrates, has been in the game since late 2017. He narrated primarily non-fiction works, including Craig Seymour’s Luther, Dave Tell’s Remembering Emmett Till and Daniel Brook’s
The Accident of Color. A former
theatre actor and comic, he draws on those skills when he’s alone in the booth.
But not every stage skill translates to narration. And so McKeel comes here to learn.
Heller, his coach, is an industry legend. He’s narrated more than 800 books. He’s one of
AudioFile Magazine’s Golden Voices, has three Audie awards and 10 nominations (basically the Oscars of the voice-over world). His copy of the Recipe for
Desire passage is covered with carets, cross-outs and character notes in the margins. As McKeel reads, Heller occasionally mutters phrases like ‘‘Look at her!’’ under his breath.
Marie and Devon – the wouldbe lovers – arrive at the hospital to treat Marie’s bung ankle. There they meet a nameless nurse. McKeel delivers the nurse’s line too flatly. Heller stops him, again.
‘‘Let’s cast the nurse,’’ Heller says. ‘‘Is she old? Is she fat?
Middle-aged? A mom?’’
McKeel is quiet, calibrating. Back to the story. ‘‘Aren’t you Devon Harris?’’ he says as the nurse, now more nasally and star-struck. Heller cracks up and nods.
Stop and start, then repeat. Down the hall a bunch of voice-over first-timers crowd into Studio B. A teenager, young adults, guys pushing 50,they’re all tense, arms crossed, fidgeting thumbs and bouncing legs. These are the beginners for Investigate Voice-Over Class, Edge Studio’s introductory course that determines whether your voice can go places.
McKeel started out in that beginner’s class. He has work now – and he’s made progress on the road towards that career breakthrough.
‘‘I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to tell you anything today,’’ Heller jokes to McKeel as their lesson ends. ‘‘Because you were good. You were so good.’’