Caryn Clark: The Hip Chick Voice
By Kirsten Candelore
By 7 a.m. in her Fort Myers studio, Caryn Clark is already awake and clicking through the various emails flying into her inbox. Included in those emails are auditions, work opportunities, and various other messages pertaining to her job as a voice-over artist.
Clark, 47, has been in the voice-over industry since 2007, but started her career back in 2005.
“I was working a very good day job, a corporate job from home,” Clark says. “I got tired of working for a corporation and decided I wanted to have my own business.”
Clark bounced around with the idea of becoming a copy-editor, due to her English major in college, but decided against it. She also thought about becoming a singer but decided against that too.
“I’m pretty good at singing, but not enough to make a living off of it,” Clark says. “Still, I decided to look into a way that I could use my voice.”
The idea of going into voice work first came up in 1994, when her brother suggested it. While she did end up taking a class, Clark shrugged off the idea and continued to work her corporate job.
When 2005 came along, Clark believed she needed to investigate a new career and ended up pursuing her voice-over career once again. Since then, she’s been providing voices for commercials both regionally and nationally.
The voice-over industry may seem easy from an outsider looking in, but it is much more than that. The voice-over career path is a very competitive one. People must have thick skin in order to make it in the industry.
“I do a lot of auditions and don’t book as many as I do,” Clark says. “I probably book on average one out of every twenty auditions.”
Pursuers also must have a decent acting background and take classes to prepare themselves for the bumpy road ahead because of how important they are. They also must be able to be flexible.
“I have to take direction all day long, actually,” Clark says. “I have to do it the way they ask, and people can’t let their egos get in the way of that.”
Marck Molina, 20, is an amateur voice-over artist frpm Fort Myers who agrees with Clark’s message.
“Voice-over work is almost like public speaking,” Molina says, “It conveys a message to a wider audience.”
Clark took acting classes at Fort Myers’ Alliance of the Arts in 2005 and met with a woman by the name of Randy Thomas.
Thomas is known as the voice of Hooked on Phonics and the first female voice of the Oscars. She allowed Clark to shadow her when she lived in Fort Myers.
“When I started my search for how to learn voice-over, I found her and she had a weekend workshop at her house,” Clark says.
From that point, Clark ended up working under Thomas while she was starting to write a book. Clark would assist her in copy-editing and working with her editors.
“I actually got to watch her work and learn about voice-over,” Clark says. “She does a completely different genre of voice-over, but it was a great experience.”
However, she hasn’t had all great experience in learning about the craft. Another workshop Clark took focused more on cartoon voice work. The class was taught in New York by Bob Bergen, the current voice of Porky Pig in the new Looney Tunes features. At first, Clark didn’t look into it much until her agents suggested the idea to her.
“It really was one of the hardest and most horrible things I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Clark says. “It’s not for me.”
Clark believes that voice-over work for cartoons is much different from commercial work.
“There were people in there who really didn’t have much of a voice-over background,” Clark says. “They were killing it because they just had this imagination and they were pursuing something they’ve been dreaming of for so long. They were so good.”
Clark had her fair share of great experiences, but she’s had some bad as well.
“I got fired from my first voice-over job,” Clark said.
Clark managed to book her first gig with her audition.
“I managed to record it and two hours later, they called me,” Clark said. “They said ‘Yeah, we’re going to replace you.’”
While Clark was a bit disheartened by the loss at first, she didn’t let it stop her from looking forward and continuing her way down this career path.
Clark believes that you never stop learning in the industry. The voice-over industry is always changing in trends and to keep on top of it all can seem like a hastle, but Clark manages to keep her head held high through it.
“I don’t mind it changing,” Clark says, “There’s always something to aspire to and I know that I can always do better, and I can always learn something new. It’s what I love about the voice-over industry.”
When being asked if she had any dream roles, Clark laughed.
Clark wouldn’t mind being the voice of Target or McDonalds, but she ultimately decided on a grocery or retail store chain.
“I’ve had those gigs before and they pay for the most frequent work,” Clark says. “It’s basically once a week they change up their commercials.”
Currently, Clark has used her voice for numerous commercials, some even airing now.
“There’s this commercial that I recorded for a bit ago for Seaworld Orlando’s Sesame Street land that’s opening on the 28th of March,” Clark says. “I haven’t seen them yet, but I hope to get a copy of them soon.”
Other credits of hers includes two MDA Shamrock campaign ads, Rita’s Italian Ice, South by Southwest, Sony, and even Dunkin Donuts. Clark’s voice has also been included in e-learning programs and business-to-business videos for conferences.
Clark’s day-to-day life includes recording from her in-home studio for many of these projects. Emails will fly in through the day and even overnight for her to either sign off on projects or prepare to audition for them.
“I do auditions in the morning,” Clark says. “They take a while because performing auditions really is the hard part of the craft.”
Clark also markets herself during her work time, trying to form contacts on social media outlets such as LinkedIn, Instagram, or even on Google.
“I try to find places around the country that can use my voice talent,” Clark says. “I look at production houses and ad agencies, creative directors, and others.”
Her goal is to send out at least five emails a day.
As for advice to amateur voice talents, Clark had this to say:
“I know it can be really intimidating and it might seem like it’s something impossible to accomplish,” Clark says. “But if you really put your heart into it and it’s something you really want to do, then you can totally push yourself into it.”
Clark suggests taking voice-over work very seriously. Not everyone can jump into the voice-over game in an instant, as it’s all about acting, being concise, and pushing yourself to sell your voice.
“It’s not just voice-over, it’s running a business,” Clark adds.
You can find Caryn Clark on her website at www.carynclark.net, where you can also find her demo, commercial, and multimedia reel.
