Leslie Diamond

OMG! Trish Basanyi is an amazing teacher. I can recognize one when I see one – I taught for 27+ years. Thanks to John Florian and VoiceOverXtra for hosting Voice Over Super Socials, Trish taught us all we needed to know about using Twitter effectively – and then some. Today, I listened to her webinar again, took notes, and I’ve been twittering like crazy ever since. If she decides to offer this course again, don’t miss it.

Catch Dave Courvoisier presenting LinkedIn, Voice Over Universe, Google+, and YouTube on August 24th. Go to VoiceOverXtra to sign up.

I’ve missed you, dear reader. I’ve been away almost one year. Busy moving into a new home in a new city and selling our previous home. In the interim, I’ve dealt with open houses, construction, landscaping, heating and cooling, telephone, internet, satellite, sprinkler systems, generators, tool sheds, bike paths, getting familiar with my new studio set-up (thank you, Dan Lenard), awnings and patios, gas lines, finding my way around my new city, Buffalo, enjoying my new neighbors, making new friends, finding new doctors, decorating, family events, new clients, old clients – it’s been quite a year. Finally feeling settled in and loving it.

And ready to share with all of you.

Right now, I’m looking forward to spending some time with Mom and Dad and my brother Mike, celebrating my 24th wedding anniversary; then learning all I can at Double Divas in Toronto, and Faffcon 3 in Hershey before the High Holidays begin. Life is good and very busy.

Joey came home one day last June and said, “I’ve had enough, Honey. Start looking.” He’d had enough of driving back and forth from Rochester to Buffalo and back again every day for work. He wanted me to start house hunting. While house hunting on-line and with a Buffalo realtor, I began the process of downsizing our existing home: closets, drawers, cabinets, the basement, the toolshed. It’s amazing how much stuff two people can collect in just 10 years. Most of the stuff I donated, or packed, the rest trashed. Now I began driving to and from Buffalo in an effort to find our new home. Three months later, we found it in Clarence Center. Back and forth offers, an agreement, and the paperwork began. Mounds of paperwork. What a difference in regulations and wasted paper from this transaction compared to my first two homes. Real Estate is now a nightmare.

I got a call Tuesday from a “NYC Casting Agent.” His “name” was Tom Walsh. He said he found my website, listened to my voice, and thought I was perfect for the new allergy product commercial his client wanted made. The only thing –  he had to make sure I could sneeze on cue! He asked me what my sneeze sounded like and then told me to sniff a pinch of black pepper and then a sniff of cayenne!! But his phone number came up “Blocked” on my iPhone, and he wouldn’t answer me when I asked him the name of his agency.

I played along (hoping some bit of information would help me identify him) for as long as I could;  but the sleazy scammer eventually tired of his game. He said he would call back in a couple of days. Of course, he did no such thing.

I shared with Debbie Munro (who was coaching me at the time) what had happened. She told me scams will occasionally hit our business like any other. Voice actors are eager to please and there’s the unusual request from a client now and then, but we need to be vigilant.  She said to check with Bobbin Beam, who had written an article about this kind of thing.

I googled “sneeze audition scam,” and Bobbin Beam’s excellent article for VoiceOverXtra popped up. Please click 
http://www.voiceoverxtra.com/article.htm?id=3gkovc8l
to read it. It’s an eye-opener.

What a shame that this guy has nothing better to do with his life than call busy professionals with phony scams. Poor thing. I guess he hasn’t thought about taking the time he wastes on his scams and using that time to help others.