National Director of Voiceover Program at the SAG AFTRA Foundation with Aric Shuford

The bomb.com. I love that. Hello? Hello. How are you? Okay,
So much for joining me.
Thank you so much. It's good to run into you the other day. So I'm happy that that, that happened. And thank you so much for the invite.
Definitely. Life is amazing. I literally was manifesting seeing Eric I'm like, I want to reach out to Eric, what is he doing? And I'm on this whole VO journey. And he was definitely a huge impact in the second round of getting going and voiceovers. And I'm like, you know, I went to the root I'm like, what is he doing? What's he up to? And, and then all of a sudden we saw each other and it was just like, boom, I have a podcast. What are you doing? Let's meet up. And here we are
Just like that. It was really a pretty fast and interesting. And yeah, this is how the, the universe does things sometimes. So, yeah.
So, yeah. So tell me, how long have you been at the Don law Fontane Voiceover lab. Here are the SAG foundation.
Yeah. So I've been here for a little over seven and a half years. I started, yeah, I know back in 2012, I think. And we're moving into December right now. So it's a little beyond that. But when I first came in, I was hired as the administrator of the Voiceover lab and that sort of morphed into me now becoming the National Director of Voiceover lab programming for the SAG-AFTRA foundation. We have a facility here in Los Angeles, known as the Don LaFontaine, Voiceover lab, and one in New York known as the EIF, Voiceover, the lab of the SAG after Foundation. So we have two places where we hold great VO classes.
We have great exceptional state-of-the-art Voiceover recording studios. We get top instructors, great staff of engineers and booth directors that work here to help the actors out. And it's a really solid in far reaching program.
And you have to be a SAG member to participate in all these programs.
So the most part, but here's the thing at the Don LaFontaine Voiceover lab, there a slight distinction, you can be a non-union performer and gain via lab eligibility and access that part of it is free. But when it comes to booking sessions, the non-union actors have to pay a small fee for usage. And if you get into a class, there's a fee for getting into a class, if you're a non a union member, but that's
Great. They have that assessability cause before that was impossible. So they take those fees and they put it back into
Exactly, exactly. 100%. Right. And it also just going to show non-union folks, this is some of the, just some of the additional benefits that you get from union membership. Union members of course get a chance to access all of our programming for free. Our studio access is free for a union members, but for the nonunion folks, because in VO in particular, there's like a push and pull thing happening now within the non-union folks and folks with the types of work that's available. So we want to try and unionizing and people, you know, activated and excited about what it means to be a union member. And this is one of the fringe benefits of that membership
And the quality of community getting together and being connected. And then that can all the information. So do people call and talk to you on the phone? Or should they just go to the website? Yeah,
I think the website, you can always call for sure. The website is a tremendous resource of information though. You scored a sag AFTRA dot Foundation, cause we are distinct from the union, but we support union membership, but the foundation is a nonprofit organization and we operate solely based upon grants and donations, and we're here to help actors perfect, their craft. So SAG after dot Foundation, you can look me up, I'm under the performance programs for VO labs and my contact information is there.
Thank you so much for being so open. That's so awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So why is the voice over lab called Don LA Fontaine? And he's so legendary and the VO world and there's like, there's that let's just start there. Yeah.
So Don LaFontaine for those who are not in the know, he's a, one of the most successful VL performer, actually overall actors in say after history, his billings were amazing. He was constantly busy, constantly in demand. He coined a phrase that still exists to this day for movie trailers in particular, in a world that was a Don LaFontaine line. He's the one that came up with that and In a world where a podcast is recorded and sang after Don was the guy that did that, brought it to life.
So, but Don was super successful as a VO actor. And when he unfortunately passed back in 2008, some of his good friends, Paul Pape, Joseph Riano, George Widom and other folks that he had helped along the way and worked with in the community, decided that since Don was such a giving person, he was legendary for giving back to those actors that wanted to do what he did. He felt there was enough room and space for everyone. So he mentored a lot of people and through his generosity and giving back to the community, his friends thought, wouldn't it be great to honor his legacy and continue that sense of giving back to the community and paying it forward by creating a facility in a space would help actors that were aspiring and up and coming and even established in the world of VO.
So they teamed up with the SAG after foundation to create the VO lab program. And that has blossomed over the past, closing it on 10 years. So it's been a pretty successful program. We celebrate our 10th anniversary next June. So June, 2020. So there will be festivities to honor that
The poker
Tournament, ah, that's different. That's a fundraising effort. We have some other fundraising opportunities coming up, but specifically for the anniversary, the 10 year anniversary of the Don LaFontaine Voiceover lab, we plan on having some nice celebratory things happening to honor that.
So, so not only paying it forward, but playing it forward.
Yeah.
Yeah. Cool. Cool. I can't wait to hear about those juicy treats coming up a lot of good
Ones.
Yeah. It's so amazing when you know, minds come together, the possibilities of what could happen. That's so cool. I had the honor of meeting his wife and she wrote a book and I read the book years ago. So I was able to get some insight of what, who is this guy and w what's going on here. Yeah. So that, that was really cool. Yeah. And I love poker, so I definitely partaked in the poker tournament. I did. Pretty good. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't really get, I got, I, I got to down to like the two final tables I was in there. It was okay. It was like maybe three, three final failures.
We had a lot of people that were there playing poker that tournament though.
Wow. If you can play the game though,
I'm not a poker guy. I don't really know the game very well, but you know, I'm trying to push them in a different direction. No, the poker classic for sure. But I want them to have another type of fundraiser where maybe more people can participate that aren't poker players, but you know, we'll see miniature golf or something. We'll see.
Yeah. We'll
See. Yes. Time will tell. That's awesome. You're a good poker player.
I just love poker. Wow. I love it. I love it.
Play in Vegas and places like that. You do.
I did like two home games and then I went to, I went to, well, what happened was I was in Shreveport, Louisiana doing a movie with Jessica Simpson and all the movies were the tax incentives. It was, you know, the tax breaks, all the movies were being shot there. And like 2007. And like there, there was poker and, you know, the producers and people I was with, they, they are big poker player. So I literally had two home games. And then they threw me in there with like, there was a real Cowboys, the real Cowboys and listening to all that talk. It was so funny in Shreveport Louisiana, but it was so cool because I guess like guys can read guys, but God, they can't read girls. And like I have a poker face and like th th they can't read me and I have a lot of patients and I guess guys have less patience.
So like, I would be in, I would be doing like all these different moves, but I want every time, because I, I want every single time, the cool thing is like, I always a winner. I never lost. And it was, it was fun. Cause you are a winner. Yeah. I'm a winner. That's awesome. And I never put up my, my own money. So I won. It was just playing and I never put on my own money. Yeah. It was sponsored and hosted a part of, you know, what was going on in life at the time. So
Is it one of those things where you play and you kind of maintain your chops in the gateway?
Yeah. Like I went on this one website and I was, I was doing some one time. I was obsessing all night. I did like seven poker tournaments all night and I won a couple like Lily. I just think it's so fun. Like scientists, mathematician, playing poker, you know? Yeah. There's some, there's some fun stories there. Stories
I do not play. It's like one of those things where, you know, before we had the tournament, they gave us like a crash course in how to play the game. So we'd have some familiarity because the tournament happened for about three years in a row. And they've kind of backed off a little bit, but they're going to again, re animate that if you will. So another version of the poker tournament will return and that'll become like an annual thing for the VO lab began, but I haven't played. I mean, it's just, it's one of those things where I don't, I don't practice it. So it's not something I'm super familiar with, but you know, a lot of people do. So maybe I'll be reinspired maybe I'll join back in the fray a
Bit. So what are you entail? Like what do
You do? Yeah. So, you know, when I'm off Mike, if you will.
Yeah.
I'm making music a little bit. So I've had a little success with the music industry and he's a song writer and as an artist, but for recreational things, I'm a hiker, I'm a cyclist. I like to camp. I'm an outdoors guy for sure. Native Los Angeleno. So I've been here my entire life. And, you know, as a LA native, it's always about being outdoors and kind of enjoying the, the beauty of our, our city landscape in the surrounding areas. So for me, that's always been my thing. I was a BMX racer for a long time. I was a track and field athlete, a football player for a bit. I've done a lot of different things.
And you're a vegan, you're you, you practice, you know, your healthy lifestyle. Yeah,
For sure. I think it's really imperative. I mean, it's always been a way of life for me. So I just try and maintain that I've been vegan for my seven and a half years now, prior to that, I was a vegetarian, sometimes a pescatarian, but then I made the jump into veganism and having a plant based lifestyle. And that's worked really well for me.
Yeah. Being conscious on of our planet, you know, that says a lot about your character,
So
Humble about it.
Yeah. Environmental issues are very important. I believe in animal welfare. And I believe in the welfare of human beings as well. And I think a lot of that starts with the kind of food you put on your plate and how you carry yourself in the real world. So I'm an advocate for the lifestyle. I'm an advocate for environmental issues and I'm an advocate just for equality, for all beings and creatures that, you know, occupied this planet.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And then, so Eric is going to get the door right now. I've been here and about 10 people just surprise and knock and show up at his office door. It's so funny. He's very busy. You just never know what you're going to get every single day here at the office. And he's back. That'll make
A nice edit. Yeah,
No, no. We're going to keep that in because it's real. I like it to be authentic.
So what happens here? We haven't solo booth that we have a main booth here in the VO lab. So actors can come in and record auditions. They can come and practice VO. They can record audio for the demos. So that was person coming for a main booth session with our engineer. And we have someone else that's going to be knocking shortly. I'm sure because the, they have a solo booth session coming up. So,
And then can people set up like one-on-one appointments too? Cause I remember I came in here and like, when I was like, you know, I do music too. Oh, wait with it with your music. Can we find you on Spotify or anything like that? All streaming.
So it shows up here. You can fall on YouTube for sure. I know that I, you know, apple music I'm there as well. So back in the day I went by the name Devin a so it's D E V O N E. I had a pretty good run of dance records. So house music, that was my geography.
Oh, I'm from Detroit. So I grew up playing bad boy, bill, you know, Babbo,
I'm friends with
That way though. He's a homie. He is my homie
Chicago.
We're gonna, we're gonna text him right now. We're literally, we're going to like take a photo and send it to him when right when we get off the mic, maybe we'll put like one of his songs in the episode or something like that. I'll I'll, I'll ask, I'll call him and ask him.
Yeah, see the world is small. Right. You have Bill and
I'm from Detroit. Yeah. Like he used to come there all the time and it's been underground parties before EDM and electronic music was like Western eyes, like before it was popular here,
Kinda coming up during that time, I think it was just starting to kind of break in at hunter radio and now, you know, dance music is everywhere. So that's cool. I love that.
So I'll get the links from you if that's cool and I'll put them at the bottom so people can click and listen. I can't wait to vibe out.
Yeah, definitely straight up for the floor. 128 BPM, deep house music for yourself.
And I'm deejaying now. Yeah. So you can give me your music and I'll put in my DJ playlist, I'll do a remix or something. Okay. Maybe in like six months. I've I've, you know, I have to, I have to put my playlist out, but no, I'll put it into my playlist. I'll put it. I'm releasing a January playlist if it's not or February, you know? Yeah. I'm excited to release a playlist in
January. No, no, no.
Yeah. So where did you grow up?
I'm a native Los Angeleno. So it was, yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, no, it's good.
The, the, the EDM or the, the dance music took me
Kind of makes you float. I get it. Yeah. It's a good thing. No, LA LA is home. It's always been home. It will probably always be home. I love other parts of the country in the world, but I think LA is a, it's where my heart is. It'll always be my thing, my place. Can you
Imagine if we did a song together?
That could be cool. Yeah. All right. Well, we just said it here first, so
Yeah, totally, totally. So, oh, like what a fee, who's a favorite artist. Someone that's inspired you along your journey so far.
It's interesting. There's so many. So I know that when you go back to the day when I, or the moments when I was first really interested in music in particular, the Jackson five or were huge, you know, my world and I was a big fan of, of MJ. And I know that, you know, there's all kinds of things surrounding MJ, but as an inspiration early on in my life, that guy was definitely like a trendsetter for me along the way. I've been a fan of boy George and culture club. They were a great, you know, Stevie wonder big fan of Fleetwood Mac. I mean, you know, from the modern era, I love David Guetta, black IPS, you know, Bruno, Mars has big in my world, Adele as well.
I dig her vibe and her stuff. So there's a lot of different acts that I think I just kind of run the gamut empire of the sun. You know, there's so many really great artists that I think capture my love and appreciation of dance music with some R and B vibe and definitely some, some uptempo kind of the theorial rhythmic stuff that happens. That's all part of my whole musical in emo, I think, you know?
Well, so, so it's so funny because I was screaming before we just, before we started recording and I'm looking at the, the advisory board and I see Randy Thomas,
Randy, the legend,
Oh my God, Randy Thomas. She is awesome.
She's on her advisory board is a great supporter and advocate and friend of the VO lab, a friend of Dawn's as well. So Randy has done some great things with us.
She's brilliant. So Randy Thomas, She pioneered, you know, for the women in VO and she's the first NA news anchor on ABC, nighttime news. She's the first woman she's done the Oscar on the Oscars 10 times in a row or 10 times total. And she's done the Tony's 21 years in a row. And this year, or, you know, this past Tony's Haiti, San Juan. She invited me to the Tony's and I was there and I listened to her do her whole thing. And it was 21 years celebrating at the Tony's how cool is
She's admitted? And she just did, like every year, the sag after foundation puts on a, a gala event. It's a huge fundraising opportunity, but we also honor, you know, great artists within the community. There are several artists that we audited this past year, but Randy was the, the live announced for that presentation as well. So she definitely gives back and she's, she's an incredible person
Rockstar. Yeah.
In a big way. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Really cool. Shout out to Randy Thomas. We love you. Yeah. Yeah. So with all the things you mentioned here, you know, the, you know, Voiceover lab and what you do, how is the experience when people come here?
Well, I think, you know, I always have a belief that I have a total responsibility to honor. The, the spirit of what's been established. The lab had been open for two years before I took over the administrative role and then kind of tried to grow the, the lab from there. So I've always approached things with a pretty open mind and open spirit perspective. I want people that come here to feel that we are really about helping the artist's journey and basically being a part of that creative process. Right? So In a really healthy way, we really, I firmly believe in giving back.
I worked in corporate broadcasting for a long time, and I was looking for a nonprofit opportunity and this just sort of materialized again, the universe and how things sort of operate. You put it out there. And I never knew that something like this existed, but luckily it did for me. And it was a super competitive, you know, process to get the job. And I was lucky enough to land it. And as a result of that, I feel the complete obligation to live up to the expectations of the mission and to ensure that we take care of the actors that are involved with our program, we try and bring in the best instructors that are out there in the world of VO and acting in general, we do a good job of that.
Do a lot of outreach, a lot of coordination. And we want the actors to feel that this is a safe space where they can come and experiment and
Musicians to,
Well, we have musicians that are in our program, of course, cause you know, Voiceover is super musical. So we have those people that are good musicians that definitely participate in the veal space, but we don't really allow like, you know, recording of songs or anything here in the VO lab, but there's a lot of musicians. None the less that are involved.
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Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, I'm so grateful for you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. And all you and being here. Oh, I had a question. So, so the, the time of now and the time of, you know, before, when you were doing broadcasting and stuff, how has the technical equipment changed? What's your perspective on that? What, what what's what's is there any, is it better or like, do you miss out on anything or how, how how's that going?
When I first started, you know, software was just sort of beginning to take root. So software was challenging hardware. There are soft sense off software for audio recording was just sort of taking root. And those are the early days of the whole process. I learned though in the world of radio to work in digital environments as well as analog environments. So we were like that first generation that was crossing over and meshing the two. So I think that I've benefited a lot from learning the recording process, using a lot of the analog gear. And as a result of that crossing over to digital just made me so appreciate, you know, the world of digital so much more because analog just took a lot of time.
My workflows were increased, you know, immensely by going digital. And it just made the possibility of doing more with the equipment we had available to us feasible, you know, costs. Those just were significantly less, so more people had access. And I love the fact that we are at this place to where you have home studio environments, but if you want to go to a place that's a non-home studio that exists and that can, can kind of inform and help you out in other ways. But I do like the idea that you can have your own home set up and you can record and produce from your bedroom and make things that you know, can excite and ignite the word.
Yeah. Yeah. And then travel with the, your setup to
That's pretty dope, right? I mean, you have a microphone and a computer or a microphone and a cell phone and you can make some really top-notch recordings that way.
Yeah. So I'm, I'm just wondering like off the top of your head, with some words of wisdom, you can give newbies and WEO, or even people who've been in the game for a while. Like, you know, some, some tips
It's a challenging space to come into it. Knowing if you're new to the game, know that it is competitive. You have to ensure that you understand that things may not happen overnight
Or sometimes they do. Sometimes it is.
And if they do happen quickly, that's fantastic. But I've heard that story a million times. I got a, this national campaign right off the top, and then I haven't booked anything for two months, you know, or for two years. Yeah.
That happens. Right.
Knock on wood though. So the idea is that you just know it's competitive and you have to just kind of, you have to stay the course. If it's really something you're passionate about, don't give up on that ambition and just continue to train. You always have to kind of work on your instrument, perfecting your skill, build as large a network and community around you, as you can. I think it's really important to have people that are supportive of what you're trying to achieve. And in Voiceover, this is the community where you can build that. I think people are super accessible and very helpful. So please try and infiltrate and place yourself in the midst of all of that so that you can absorb those good vibes and be part of that community it's important.
And then apart, thank you. I love that. And then a part of my experience from what I felt and just seeing, you know, just being a human being, you know, we're all insecure, we're so insecure and, and, you know, being an artist like there's so much insecurity because you know, no one's praising us and it's not like good job. It's like, dude, it's your job. It's like, you're not going to get like the praise. It like a lot of times we're isolated, like, you know, in offices, by ourselves or home studios by ourselves. So it's like, you know, when you said go out there and network and meeting people and then, you know, like actors, they're like victims a lot of times, you know, or, you know, human beings, they just want to be liked or like you're meeting someone, do they like me? You know, it's like, so what do you, what do you have to say about that with like going out, meeting people and like, like actors just wanting to be like, you know, sucking, you know, sucking like up to people.
And there's like needing all that, like attention and validation. So focus on what,
From a VO standpoint, that's not as prevalent. I think on camera, that top is a little bit greater desire, but when it comes to Voiceover, I've never been a fan of trying to suck up to people if you will. I think it's just important to be authentic and genuine, right? That's always been my model be who you are and let that personality shine through. I think you have to be as real as you can be and just respect the craft, respect those around you. And I think good things can happen. There's a lot of egos in any entertainment field for sure. And I've seen a lot of it. Even when I was touring, there was no ego. I just made a point of just being humble and being appreciative of the opportunities.
And I just want to give honor to those people that had any kind of faith in me. And I didn't think I could do that by being a jerk. So it's always nice to just be a better person and, and just try and be as good as, you know, an individual as you can be. I think that's going to help people sort of understand who you are, where you're coming from and also generate more likeability and just be receptive and be open.
Yeah. In the veal world. You're right. In the view of world, everyone's like really grounded and it's like, it's just like, blah. You know, it's like, how big and wacky can you be? Like, how accurate are you? Like, I know I'm wacky like that. Person's a wacky, you know what I mean? And it's cool to be wacky. I'm like all over the place, all over the place. There it is all over the place.
It's a good community. So I think it's just, you know, be real and, and have fun. Damn. It's like we get, I always say this, like, we have such a limited amount of time on this, on this planet. And in this life, a lot of, some of the best life you possibly can live. Right. Be good. Be good to yourself. Be good to those you care about, but you get to the people around you that you don't know that you just meet. Why can't we just do that and enjoy the experience that we're given and the time that we're given, just maximize the allotment that you have and, and try and engage and enjoy yourself.
Yeah. ShawMan I'm Harry Paul, do you know? ShawMan Harry Paul. He says, I said this years ago and he's like, we're here for one long moment. One moment. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for tuning into she's all over the place. And we have Eric Shuford here, the national director of the VO programming of the sag. After a foundation,
I asked her that foundation SAG after.foundation.
Yay. Awesome. Cool. Well, many blessings and stay healthy. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. Kyriaki, over and out.