Back to School...

As a kid I hated school. Surprising right? The thing is, I LOVE learning. On vacation I like to visit historical sites, and I love museums. I read a lot about a lot of subjects. As a kid, I used to read the encyclopedia for fun! But somehow school wasn't fun for me.

But, it's part of life. And kids across the country are now going back to school. When they do, they bring notebooks and pens.

I did two ads for Bic pens that are currently running on websites and on YouTube highlighting how Bic pens can help kids express themselves. One's a longer version of the other.

The ads turned out well I thought. The question, of course, is do kids actually use pens in school anymore?!

Summer, Baseball, Tastykake

Summer is baseball season. I know, it starts in April (earlier if you follow the pre-season) and it goes into October for some fans, but it's a summer sport.

When I go to a baseball game, I like to bring a bag of roasted, salted peanuts in the shell. I also love getting a hot dog, maybe a beer.

One client I've done work for several times wants their fans to associate them with Phillies baseball. That client is, of course, Tastykake. I've done several ads for them over the years. This year, I got to be the boyfriend who is eating Tastykakes to get Phillies season tickets! This ad is currently airing on Philly area radio stations. If you're down that way, listen for it!

Mike Rowe proving he's awesome!

Mike Rowe is pretty awesome to be able to do this. I can do it for a limited period of time, but I haven't really had a chance to try it professionally. My father, George Sarris, can actually do it live for over an hour on stage (he uses a device called an ear prompter that feeds his pre-recorded voice into an earpiece. Very helpful if you are given a script for a live presentation only a few hours beforehand!).

Enjoy!

Naugatuk Savings Bank Summer Ad campaign

Summer is here, and boy are we feeling it in southern New England. Hot and humid.

In voice over land, things have been hot as ever. One project I got to work on was as an announcer for the Naugatuk Savings Bank summer ad campaign. I've been their spokesman for the last couple years. They keep having me back! They also used the fabulous Joan Franzino for another spot in the series. The engineer (and music composer) is Steve Hansen of Hi-Top Productions.

An interesting note is that NSB is changing it's name to "ion Bank" as of September... hope they have me in to record the new ads!

Here's the ad...

Small World...

Well, this is rather a coincidence. I was called a month or two ago to record a VO in New York. No big deal, headed down, session went well.

We were a little rushed as the studio had the room booked right after my session, but the client was happy. The video was a nice corporate piece. I can't remember if it was for recruitment or investors, but it wasn't for general consumption.

I had never heard of the client, and honestly couldn't tell you what they did even after the session. None of that is strange.

The strange thing is what happened this past weekend that put the client in the public spotlight. See, the client ended up getting a lot of press this past weekend because of the actions of one employee.

Yep, the client was Booz Allen Hamilton, the contracting firm that the NSA leaker worked for! No wonder they knew where to find a good VO!

On Camera

I am an actor. I generally do voice over work, however I also do on camera work from time to time.

Not long ago I did a local commercial for Opticare, a vision care provider in Connecticut. Since it's one of the few things I've done lately that is for public consumption, I figured I'd post it!

I've been fairly busy recently, and have done VO work for Unilever, Booze Allen Hamilton, Infosys and other companies, but alas, I can't post copies.