You’re Sounding a Little “Hoarse”
I had the opportunity to do some voice-overs for the world-famous Woodbine Race Track, in Toronto, as they celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. It seemed only appropriate that the home of the Queen’s Plate requested that I recite my script using a British accent. In fact, they wanted two different Brit accents.The TV commercial voice-over was to have a very subtle hint of merry ol’ England mixed in with my natural Canadian tone. I said: “You mean like Christopher Plummer?” Exactly! I gave it about four takes and then, by Jove, I think I got it.
The radio spot for the race track required the full-on, over-the-top, Victorian thespian read. Somebody in the control booth yelled for reference “Like Peter O’Toole sober”. Never happened, I replied. Regardless, I mustered up the “pomp & circumstance” delivery and charged full steam ahead. All the production chaps seemed bloody ducky with the results.
The only tricky thing about doing the two reads was that the Woodbine studio headphones weren’t working with the microphone. I could hear the television feed when reading-to-picture just fine. It’s just that my voice wasn’t making it to the cans even though it was being recorded. Not only was there some guess work involved with timing the vocals for the right spots but it’s a bit dodgy trying to nail two distinct accents when you’re shouting and still can’t hear yourself properly. I’m sure I started sounding like Robin Leach.
Here, in front of Woodbine Race Track, I’m standing by the sculpture of Northern Dancer, a phenomenal Canadian horse that won the Kentucky Derby in a record 2 minutes in 1964. It would be nine years before a horse by the name of Secretariat would better the time.
Northern Dancer became the greatest stud horse in history, charging fees of up to one million dollars per breeding session. That’s one high priced hoofer!