Joe Cipriano, VO Artist, Author, Coach

00:00
This is my voice man!

00:10
Welcome to the 100th episode of Chewing the Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for being here, for tuning in, downloading the podcast. I certainly do appreciate it. I would not be here if it was not for you, the listeners. So thank you so much for being a part of this journey. It is a big milestone for me. Where it's the first episode of season five of the podcast and it is our 100th episode. So I wanted to make sure that I had something very special for you as we...

00:38
Launch into season five. My guest this week, he is a voice that you have heard everywhere. I am absolutely sure you've heard his voice everywhere. He's the, he was the voice of Fox. He's the voice of trailers. He is the voice of something special we'll get into a little bit later. I've got a question about, but please welcome right now.

00:59
Joe Cipriano. Ah Robb, thank you very much. What a pleasure to be here and an honor on show number 100. Yes, yes. Thank you so much for being here, man. This is, oh gosh, I'm just beaming at this. I had a chance to meet Joe in person at VO Atlanta last year. We shared a table for lunch. Then I've had a chance to go through his.

01:27
intro to promo, master class. And I got a chance to go through his luggage. Go through his luggage and his, that fanny pack you carry is stuffed full. Hey, that's a man bag. Oh, sorry, sorry. But Joe is a voice that I had heard while working at a Fox affiliate here in Augusta because he was the voice of Fox promo for the animation domination and all of those great promos that I was hearing.

01:57
And to find that he was just, he's just one of the most down to earth, honest, just great people. It renewed my confidence in humanity to find someone at the level that he is, that he's just Joe, he's just a guy. So- You know, I always say if you can fake genuine, you're a golden. You know? So Joe, you're talking to us from your studio there. Are you in California now?

02:25
We're in Los Angeles, yeah. And we bounce back and forth from here to West Palm Beach for family. My daughter and her family, my great son-in-law, Ryan, and my two grandkids, Theo and James are there. And my wife, Anne, and I have a place that we rent there, which is about five minutes away from their house. And my best friend happens to live there. So...

02:53
I have a lot going on there, which I love. And then our life really is here. This is where we built our lives together, my wife and I, and raised our kids, and my son and his wife, and they are expecting. They're first- Well, it's a little girl in June. And so we bounce back and forth, but yeah. Here I am in my studio bricks here, and by the way, George Wittham is coming in this Sunday to upgrade everything. Oh wow.

03:23
all-new everything equipment wise. Yeah, and George is a great guy too. I got to meet him at VO Atlanta. Really, it was such a cool experience for me, first time at a voiceover conference to go to VO Atlanta and to really find my tribe, to find the group of people that are so like-minded and so open and so friendly.

03:50
You know, there's a lot of stigma about like actors. And I mean, we are voice actors, but they say that acting's such a cutthroat business and this, that, and the other. I have not experienced that yet in VO, in voice acting. Everybody is like, oh no, let me show you this. This is the microphone I use. Oh, this, that, and the other. Or have you talked to this person or that person? It's so warm and welcoming, and we're all kinda in it together. And everybody has that kind of attitude that.

04:19
You know, there's room at the table for everybody and everybody can eat. You don't, you can't, you don't have to just sit at the table, not eat and watch other people. You, everybody can eat at the table. And I think it's amazing. Right. And I take joy in watching people who are coming into the industry and learning about it and, you know, all of a sudden there's that aha light that goes and, and how, you know, you, you, you kind of, oh, I get it. I get what, what needs to be done here. And there's a lot.

04:46
There's a lot that needs to be done. You know, you're a solopreneur and you're running the show and this is your business and hopefully you have good agents that you have a great relationship with that you can speak to at any time. I mean, I think that's the goal is having a support team, both personally and professionally, that allows you to go through the...

05:14
creative process and take risks. I'm a big, big creative risk taker. I am a, I am no way a risk taker in, really in my personal life. And for you, you started in radio, right? In Connecticut? Yeah, in Connecticut, yeah, Waterbury, Connecticut, my hometown. I grew up in Oakville, Oakville, Connecticut, which was just 15 minutes.

05:44
away from Waterbury, which was the bigger city, if you can call it city, it was called the Brass City back in the old days. And they did everything brass, clocks and doorknobs. And you know, yeah. If you need anything brass, you go to Waterbury Eclectic and that's where you go. That's amazing. And I read your book, Living On Air. Thank you. And actually, I listened to the audio book of it. And the audio book was amazing. Oh, I'm glad. I love the audio book, because as an old radio guy myself,

06:13
It was so cool to hear your old air checks from your first radio gig and from the radio stations along the way. Because I've got tapes and carts in a closet with all that stuff and reel to reel. So it was cool to hear those moments in time. Yeah. And I got to give a shout out to AJ McKay who did all of the audio magic for...

06:40
for the audio book, hours and hours and hours of work. And Greg Chun, who did the original music that we used, and also Maurice Tobias, who directed. So it was such a, just, again, it was just like sitting down and having these conversations with old radio buddies, because we all have similar stories. Radio is one of those interesting careers where...

07:05
Everybody's had the same thing happen at some point in some form or fashion it's amazing how relatable it is and how many emails and texts and you know Messages on Facebook that people say oh my gosh. I did that exact same thing or you know Yeah, and the reviews like on Amazon I always like to go to every once in a while and and you get a lot of that, you know How we relatable it is to one's own career?

07:33
So in growing up there in in in Waterbury, what was it about radio that attracted you to want to do that first? Yeah, I knew I wanted to do something to do with television. I was a bit of a ham and you know, I see it in my granddaughter. Oh my gosh, it's so funny, you know, we've got the same genes, I guess, you know, and she's only seven.

08:02
but she's already dancing in competition and she wants to sing and she's taking singing lessons and She's modeling and and she's beautiful and she she knows what she's doing at seven For modeling she she knows the angles camera angles and that's like it blows me away So, you know, I knew I wanted to do something I just didn't know how to get there and I was anxious to get there I was maybe 10 or 11 or 12 and

08:30
it did hit me that, oh, okay, you know, like those, those old time guys like Bob Hope and all those guys, they all started in radio. So maybe radio is a path, you know, to future career growth in television, you know? And that's really what I wanted to do. I wanted to be on camera as well. So I thought, okay, well, that's something I can do locally. We have a great radio station right here in Waterbury.

08:59
You know, AM was king, nobody listened to FM. This was in the early seventies. And, or actually it was 1969 when I was 14. And I called him, called my favorite DJ, who was the afternoon guy, Jerry Wolf, and just happened upon a nice guy. And he invited me down to the station. And then from there, I would go in on Saturdays and do.

09:26
probably things that you would do early on in your career. You just hang out at the station, you file records. We had records at the time. They used to have a phone number that you would call for WWCO Instant News. And the jocks, the on-air people, would record that AP or UPI headline into a little answering machine. And they said, well, you can do that, kid.

09:51
So I thought I would go home and dial it up constantly and listen to myself, you know. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, I remember. And then eventually from 14, hanging there, and when I turned 16 and I got my third class license, which you needed, from the FCC, I got hired. Yeah. And I put on the air. Yeah, it's funny, I was talking to somebody the other day about that they worked at a radio station and they didn't have to have a license. I was like, gosh. I said, I remember that. I remember having to...

10:17
take the test and get a license to be able to open a microphone to be on the air. And now it's like, now like, oh, whatever, anybody can do that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's so, it's a while to see how- Well, that's cool. You were on the tail end of that then, that you experienced that. Yeah. Yep, and my radio telephone operator's license. Yes, that's right. Yeah. And it's so funny though, that like the way technology has now changed, as far as it went from that type of thing where we were-

10:45
you know, had to be licensed federally to open a microphone and speak over, you know, these 100,000 watt airwaves or whatever. And now, you know, somebody from a phone can start their own, you know, virtual internet radio station or whatever. And... Listen, I've got a small little, it's not a Mac mini, but it kind of looks like that. And I have my own little radio station on my desk right here that plays...

11:14
you know, hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s. And I listen to it in the car all the time. I drive my wife nuts. Yeah, yeah. But what I did, it's all old air checks. Oh wow. It's all classic stations like Super CFL in Chicago and KHJ in Los Angeles, WRKO in Boston, WABC in New York, 98X in New York. And it's all air checks from the jocks that were on the air. And if they're caught up air checks, you know how we would have an air check where they take out.

11:43
middle of the song and it just goes from the introduction to the end I put the song back in so it's like it's like live if the station had come back to life oh that's awesome and it's interspersed with also music that wasn't played from the era of the radio station you know this jock is suddenly introing without saying the name but talking over the intro of Miley Cyrus yeah

12:13
Taylor Swift and it's a 1972 Air Check. Oh, that's awesome. They weren't even born. Right, right. Weren't even thought of. That is so cool. And I mean, but I think that's, you know, I think that's great, especially as I'm diving into the world of voice acting and things like that, because it brings those coasts together. It used to be, you had to go to...

12:37
Los Angeles where you are, you know, you had to go to New York or maybe you went to a Chicago or something like that, you know, because radio itself, you know, to do well in radio, you had to move to where the next station wanted, you had to move up in your markets, you had to keep going. Whereas now you can be on said station.

12:58
in California without necessarily having to be in California. You know, you can do that from your home studio and it's made the pool so much smaller, but so much deeper, I think. It is a wealth of knowledge and you know, when you get to know these people and you get to see the depth of their work and the stuff like that, and know that you can be here within it. I think it's one of the coolest things that technology has allowed us to do.

13:28
Yeah, both in radio and in voiceover. We can do it from anywhere. For sure, for sure. And so I know you left Connecticut, you went to a couple other stations around and then you ended up- Washington DC. Yeah, and then you ended up in California. You made the big move to the coast. I did not wanna be that nomadic sort of air personality that did 10 different markets.

13:55
When I finally decided I was in Washington, D.C., it's where I met Anne, we both worked at NBC there. And so we're both broadcasters, which was great for our relationship. And even to this day, we understand each other's schedules. And she understands when we're gonna go to dinner at seven o'clock, but we get a call from the agent who says, CBS needs you at 7.15, and then she just sits back down, opens a book, and then no big deal, you know, you go out at 7.

14:24
45 where in other relationships it could be a real big deal. So yeah, we do have that but when I in DC Became aware of these voices on networks TV networks. I thought oh That's what I want to do. So I had to get to LA Because like you said you you had to be there. That's where it's done There was no other way to do it and they were in interested in you at all unless you

14:52
are there physically so you can come into the studios. Yeah, exactly. I mean, because that's where the big microphones were. That's where you could go in and you could be in the well-padded booth. Because let's face it, radio stations are terrible audio booths for the most part. Yeah, they are. You know? I mean, for what you're doing. Yeah, there's all kinds of equipment fans going. Yeah. You hear them. Yeah. In the background, yeah. Yeah, but to be in a place built for purpose.

15:18
and the purpose being voiceover and like I said, getting into promos and things like that. And then, you know, because that's where, you know, for me, that's where the big voices were. That's where, you know, the Don LaFontaines were. And that's where you went. You were in that Mount Rushmore of voices, you know what I mean? You're in that.

15:44
That row I was down on ground level looking up at the mountain, but you were there and I was there I was in the proximity now you're in the national park. You're in the national park at least now you're right You know, you're up there. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Yeah What was the big? What was the big thing that took you from because you because you went to to go there to to pursue? Promo, but you were still working in radio

16:11
What was that big opportunity that was like, all right, cool, I can do this? I mean, was it just a random call? It happened gradually, and I think that happens a lot. A lot of overnight successes are many years of gradual, you know, successes. Yeah. So I used radio, and I tell this to anybody who's moving into a new city.

16:40
pursuing acting, voiceover, whatever, it sure is a lot better lifestyle if you have a day job, that pays the rent or the mortgage or the whatever, the car, food, food is good. Food's important. So I'm big on the day job and I wouldn't move to LA. It slowed me down, but not much more than a year in waiting to find a job.

17:10
on the air in Los Angeles and I did. So that's what brought us there. For Anne, she quit the TV station where she was a news writer, came here. I took a pay cut, Rob, because I found out later that they pay you in sunshine in Los Angeles. I thought, oh, I didn't know that, okay. So I took a pay cut, but she was an East Coast schooled journalism major.

17:37
and she had a huge uptick in her income. So it all leveled out. And she started writing news for first the KCBS station and then settled in at KABC TV here as a news writer and producer. But yeah, and then, okay, so I'm here. And then, you're on the air, I was doing 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. And while I was on the air, I was typing up.

18:05
tape box labels, you know, for my demo, which I had crafted together, cobbled together in the production room at the radio station, doing the spots that I thought, well, okay, I think I think I can book get booked on these. This is, you know, kind of like up my alley. And I did something that actually ended up being a very good thing being at a radio station, part of your job, you're on the air, but you're also

18:33
what they call carting up spots, right? So the commercials come in, you put them on the cartridges that can be used, now it's digital, of course, and could be played on the air. And each one of those boxes of tape that would come in with commercials on them had addresses and names of recording studios, local studios, local agencies, and that became, I was building a database that I didn't even know what a database was,

19:03
that's who I'm hitting. While I'm on the air and the songs are playing and I'm typing over here and the songs over and I go in and yeah, 97K, you know, whatever. So from doing that and also pursuing, trying to find an agent, you know, found an agent, you know, not somebody who's really invested in you, but I got somebody. And I started to get little, little things. I think the first thing that I got, I started doing some,

19:32
Saturday morning TV promos for ABC back when Ernie Anderson was the voice I got to sit in his chair with this microphone only back then it was the silver 415 or whatever it was called and I did you know a couple of Saturday morning cartoon promos. I got some prime time CBS stuff in show for you know at the beginning of the show last week on

20:02
things like that, little, little things like that. And then I started to, for some reason, I was getting booked to do movie trailers. And that was a big step. And my first biggest movie trailer was Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Just kind of a watershed film for a number of reasons. And for me, it was the one that really got me, work begets work. And it's like, how's that?

20:32
on that, you know, and oh, well, I want them on, you know, I did the Tom Cruise movie, all the right moves and you know, it just kind of goes on. Trailers were very different there, then they were, you know, almost like a disc jockey, you know, to copy. So you know, it just so happened that timing was right, you know. And that went on for a few years, that started in 82 and then being on the air at Kiss FM in Los Angeles.

21:03
head of marketing for a brand new network called Fox that had just gone on the air was driving home to Simi Valley, which is quite a drive, especially in rush hour. I was on in the afternoon filling in for somebody and heard me and he's thinking, you know, what am I going to do to make this new fourth network stand out from the big three and, you know, all the other voices were the big, big deep voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he heard me on the air.

21:33
That's different, that's different. So he picked up his brick of a cell phone in his car and called the radio station and that was 1988 and that's what started me at Fox and I was there for 20 something years as the Omidy voice of the network. That's awesome. Ah Bib is his name by the way. I say that out loud as often as I can. Yeah, that's awesome. That is so cool. And like you said, it's you.

22:02
You went there with intention. You were doing what you could do. You put yourself in a place and you did the work so that you were prepared. So, you know, people talk about luck and this, that, and the other, and I'm one of these people who's like, luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity. Absolutely. You know, you were prepared, the opportunity arrived. That was, that's what then took you into 20 something years of doing that. Yeah, absolutely. And...

22:31
You know, it wasn't all sunshine and flowers, you know, because I lost one of my jobs in radio and then all of a sudden I didn't have income and we were reliant upon Anne's income, but then our first child was being born and she was gonna take time off. So, you know, there were times there where it was looking grim and, you know, we owned a house by then.

23:00
And I started thinking, gosh, I got an offer to go to WLSFM in Chicago, and I was this close to saying, really, am I gonna have to do this? But I have to go there and get back on our feet and come back, but I trusted myself, my work ethic. I just...

23:30
had a leap of faith and I said, we're not gonna do it. And I ended up getting another radio job. It wasn't great, but it was working late nights. But it still allowed me to do voiceover work during the day. This is before Fox. This is in that 82 to 88, those six years of getting to the big gig. But it allowed you to stay there, to stay in the neighborhood, in the, you know,

23:59
the culture of where the opportunity that you wanted lived. Right, because I felt it definitely would be a step, a big step backwards, and I'm just taking myself out of it. Then I'm just in a pool of Chicago talent, for example. And it's not a lot of promo work and maybe some national commercial stuff, but that was never my stronghold. I never really did a lot of commercial work. I know, I can't remember.

24:29
I remember where it was in your book, or if it was in a conversation that we had previously, you talk about the big red light on your head. And it sounds to me like you were trying to keep that light shining. And that's why you stayed where you were. Can you give us a little bit more background on the big red light? Yeah, Wayne Dvorak is an acting teacher and my friend Stoney Richards, who was also a radio DJ.

24:58
pretty successful actor on camera. He came out to LA, he and his wife came out to LA after Anna and I did because they just couldn't take it. We were, four of us were in DC and and we made it and within two months, three months they you know got a U-Haul and drove to LA. He did it the other way, no job. It was a super struggle. He worked for the Department of Water and Power for a while.

25:26
And thankfully there was an opening at the station I was at and I was able to talk to the program director and bring in his tape and he was hired for the late night shift. But yeah, it was this acting class with Wayne Dvorak that Stoney and I were in and it was once or twice a week and he told this story of persistence really and always staying you know.

25:52
in the moment, always working towards a goal, never letting your ambition lapse. And he said, there are the gods of making dreams come true up in the heavens and they're looking down. And all of us have these little red lights on top of our heads. And whenever you're working on your goal and you're passionate about it and you don't give up and you're just doing something every day, that red light is so bright.

26:22
and they can see it and they can track you and they can help to guide you and push you in the right direction. But as often happens, you know, it gets busy and maybe something that you were doing every day, now you're doing it twice a week to work towards the goal. And then it starts to be even less and less and the light dims and all they can see are those bright lights of the people that are working towards the goal 100%.

26:51
So you always have to keep that red light glowing brightly, and work on your passion and work on your goals every single day. I always worked at least an hour a day on moving it forward. And you'd be surprised, that doesn't sound like much, and it really isn't, but if you can devote one hour a day to something that you are passionate about and you wanna achieve, you're gonna move it along. You'd be surprised.

27:20
that. Part of what you do now is helping to get others to become persistent, to push that needle forward through some of your master classes that you offer. In promo, I was honored to take your intro to promo master class. You were great. And you really got it.

27:45
which is great. You know, it's a go at your own pace. So, and you probably saw from the booklet that you were in, we had several people, voiceover talent in there. You were always ahead of everyone because you were working at it every day and moving it forward. I think that book is still open. I think there are at least two people that- They hadn't finished? They haven't gotten very far in it, yeah. I'm gonna go back and do some more just to do them again.

28:14
I'm gonna redo it twice before they finish once. There you go. What happened to make you want to say, you know what, I'm at a point that I am now, I need to share this information out. Yeah, you know, I've been asked over the years and I'm very thankful that I'm continually asked to teach, to share my experiences. And to be honest, Rob, I guess I was...

28:43
Back then I was a little embarrassed because I'm a very competent person in just about everything. I had no confidence in teaching. I just didn't, I look at a script and I learned this from Don LaFontaine. We both worked at Fox. We were the two voices at Fox for years and years. And we were there at the network every day, crisscrossing going into their four different studios, all day long. He doing drama and I was doing comedy.

29:13
you look at a script and I just know what I need to do. And then when you see the spot and you hear the music, well then it's absolutely cemented. So it's something that I do internally. It's not something that I felt I could vocalize, that I could tell people, here's what you need to do to find the voice, the perspective, what you're going to do with this script. And then...

29:41
having a talent, read it, and then having to redirect them. I just felt, oh God, I, you know, I lacked the confidence in being able to guide someone in a read. And I would try and I would do these and people tell me, gosh, I got so much out of your class. And I was always so surprised because I didn't feel I was giving enough.

30:08
But I did, it was New Year's morning of 2023. Anne and I were in Orlando at friend's house. We had celebrated New Year's Eve and we were still in bed and I'm flipping through Instagram and I follow Dwayne the Rock Johnson. And he has, he's very present in social media. He's got a lot up there and he's very inspirational in a lot of the stuff that he does.

30:36
And he did this thing, he was walking on a path at his house, it might've been in Hawaii, I don't know where he was, but he said, I wanna share something with you, it's New Year's Day, people are working on thinking about goals, what they wanna do in the year, the upcoming year. And I have this saying on my desk, and I keep it with me wherever I go, I have it in my briefcase, and it's about goals. And is this, you look at your goals, and you say, is that a one day?

31:06
sort of thing, you know, one day. Or if you look at one and you say, this is day one, okay? And that really hit me. And I said, you know, I am tired of this wishy washy way of teaching and sharing, you know, my experience. This is day one. I'm gonna come up with a curriculum. I'm gonna come up with a plan.

31:35
I am going to work at this just like I worked at, you know, trying to get into voiceover in the first place. It's the same sort of thing. And along with my daughter-in-law, Sarah Cipriano, who's a great designer, graphic artist, and she's a social media marketer. She works for an ad agency. She found a platform. I got to know the people who run the platform.

32:04
and changed it to the way I needed. I asked for changes in it. She designed all of the pages, all of the artwork in it, how we're gonna present the scripts, how we're gonna present the promos. And it took seven months. And then in the summer, we launched it light with Heather Foster, who's a voiceover artist, was the first one to do it. I asked her if she would do it. And...

32:31
So from her experience, we made some changes and then we officially launched in November and of 2023. And so it's been going since then and we've improved it along the way and it's getting better and better. But for me, now I know what I'm doing. I know how I'm teaching, I know what I need to do, I have the material. It's something called being prepared. Right. And I finally in that,

33:01
part of my life I was prepared. I pretty much prepared in everything else and I'm happy to have that there and now it's a part of my day in between sessions and and you know what I do in the day both professionally and personally you know I'm able to do that and I can do it I could do it on my cell phone I could be you know sitting outside or at lunch and going through reads and listening to them and then

33:28
commenting and I can leave a video and it's asynchronous as you know you did it. So you can post something I get a notification and then when I can get back I get in I can listen to your read or watch your video respond to it leave a video with my thoughts and direction and changes or you know encouragement and then they get a notification and so it might be it's a conversation exactly like

33:56
this except it's asynchronous. It's not happening live, but you get the same benefit of what we're doing right now. The course of maybe a day or two days, we are having that conversation. It was such a cool process and it is, it's direct access to you. It's not.

34:16
You know, it's not a bot, it's not an AI, it's not any, it's you, it's wherever you are, and you're giving your years of experience to the people that are taking this class. It was really, it was such an amazing experience. Thank you. I think with anything, you know, I work with coaches all the time, and you know, people like Dave Walsh, and you know, if I'm working on a read, I'll go to Dave, and then we'll do a session together. And you're getting...

34:45
I'm getting his perspective on it. You're getting my perspective on it. I think it's important to have a few different people that are giving you their perspectives. And when you have a few different ideas coming in and you get to process that and roll it around, then it becomes you. And you might take a little bit from what Dave says, a little bit from what Joe says, you know, and then it becomes Robb, you know.

35:13
what you're doing in your performances. Yeah, yeah, I love it. And like I said, it was a great experience for me. I really got a lot out of that. That's right. I did wanna ask you one specific thing that you've done in your career that I can't believe I hadn't asked you about this before in the times that we've talked. How, how did it happen and what was it like to be the...

35:42
American voice of Morimoto on Iron Chef. Ah, good for you, Robb. You know, and that will, the cool thing about that is that show runs constantly. Yes. You channel, you channel surf a little bit, you know, and you'll see Iron Chef America, oh my God, and I'll go to it and I go, oh my gosh, I remember this episode.

36:11
That was a company called Triage that would shoot that show. I got to be very friendly with the director of the show after I had started working on it and the production people. It's a very good question on how I think it came out of an audition, I think it might've, or I had done some other work for them. It's funny, I'll have to go back and think about that. But...

36:41
They were looking, it was funny, Chef Morimoto speaks English. For some reason they thought, we're gonna get a voiceover talent to interpret what he says. And the first several years of it, we were very campy and I loved doing that. It got a little bit more to script as it went on.

37:07
But like, for example, if he's describing the food that he's just made and he would laugh and I'm describing it while he's saying it in English and hence he's speaking in English too. But if we're over the top of them and he would laugh and I would laugh, ho ho ho ho, you know. We would just do silly, stupid stuff. We would, in those sessions, we were laughing so much. I would just come up with anything, you know, and just throw it out there.

37:37
Some they would keep, some they wouldn't. And I think that after I'm long gone, Iron Chef America and the Morimoto gig will live on. I think my grandchildren and their children might go, oh, there's Papa. Yeah, but it was fun.

38:03
It was, and it was not done in a traditional, I was not in a booth. I sat in the back of the room in the audio room. They didn't have a booth and I just sat at a, um, um, a copy stand, you know, like a music stand, that metal music stand. Yeah. And, and they were playing it on the speakers and, uh, they would play it down and they go, okay, Joey, here's, here it is. And I'm looking at script and then you get the feel of the timing and how you do it and then.

38:32
You know, you go in and you do it. And it was, and again, because we were in the same room, it was so easy to laugh and slap each other on the back and just, oh my gosh, I can't believe, you know, whatever. But what a fun gig that was. Did you ever get to meet Morimoto? Have you ever met him? Do you have, you tried any of his food? A number of times. And I think the first time.

39:00
was actually I was with my family and we were in Hawaii. And I think he has a, I can't remember if it was Maui or Honolulu, but I had gotten to the point where I knew his assistant. And if we were gonna go to the Morimoto restaurant, I could email the assistant and they could get me a reservation. And I said, we're going to Hawaii. And I really wanna...

39:27
want to be able to dine with my kids and my wife and I. And he said, oh my gosh, chef will be there. And I was like, oh my God. He came over, he ordered all this food for us and he said, Joe, this is my voice man. This is my voice man. So, and then he told us a story that I found so hilarious.

39:57
What is wrong with me? He said, I'm here in America, I'm doing Iron Chef America, I'm speaking in English, and they hire somebody to interpret what I say. And I go, I know, I, you know. He said, but you are, so your voice, it's so wonderful. He goes, I have the same show in Japan. I speak Japanese. I do the show in Japan in Japanese, and they hire a voice talent to interpret my Japanese.

40:27
What is wrong with me? Am I not speaking clearly? But who knows how many other languages he speaks? It was so funny. So we have a great picture of my family and him. I'll send it to you with Morimoto. He's a very sweet man.

40:55
What is bringing you joy right now? Well, here it comes. My grandkids. There we go. Yeah. I mean, let me, I can break it up professionally and personally. I have a great amount of joy in the fact that I can still be working in this industry and doing things that challenge me.

41:25
and allow me to creatively express myself. And I'm working on a number of different things that I love to do. And so that professionally brings me so much joy, but then at the same time, being with my grandkids and my wife and I, we hold that up very high in how we lead our lives is being so involved in a part of

41:54
our grandkids lives. And we get it back from them over and over again. And of course, my daughter and my son-in-law, they're very happy that we're a part of it and doing that. And you can imagine the joy in that. I can be doing sessions down there in West Palm Beach in my little booth, but know that at three o'clock, I have to go pick up my granddaughter. Anne and I are gonna go pick her up and we're gonna take her to dance. And then we come over to our place to play a little bit. I can go back into the booth.

42:23
finish up my work, come back out, play a little bit more, then go bring her home, same with my grandson. We do the same thing with both of them. And now my son here in Los Angeles will be having a child. So we will even up the days. We spent a little bit more in West Palm. So now it's gonna even up a little bit because we need to be on both coasts for the personal side of it. But how great, Rob, that

42:52
this time and place for me to have that happening, any of us happening in our personal lives, that we're at a point where technically we can do our work from anywhere. And it's not a burden, it's plug and play.

43:12
All right, Joe, this is the second segment of the show. This is where we dive a little bit deeper into your mental health journey. As someone who believes the more we talk about it, the lighter the burden is, especially of depression, because depression wants to tell us that we're alone. So the more that we talk about it, the easier that gets. So for you, how do you keep the darkness at bay? I think that we're in an industry where it feels so personal.

43:42
because everything that we do in auditioning for jobs, in once you get a job and using your creativity to give to it what you think you need, we're in a job unfortunately where there are a lot more nos than yeses. And the fact that you don't get hired for gigs that you really, really wanted

44:12
you thought actually that you would be able to do something really special with it. You know, you have to, and it's a cliche, but you really do have to not take it personally because I think it depends on the type of person. I don't know if it's the hard shell or if it's able to, if you need to kind of

44:37
build up some sort of a barrier around your heart and your soul that you don't take it internally in. And you could feel that your shoulders start to hunch and you bend forward. You have to be almost more like you gotta stand in that Superman pose so that all of this bounces off. So part of it is that, is that I know that I,

45:08
have the ability to ward off, you know, that what could be a pretty serious depression when things aren't going so great, you know. But it also helps me be the most persistent person in the room and also keep my positivity, you know, about it. And then personal life, it means a lot.

45:36
You know, to be blessed with professional, I don't even need to use the word success, just being able to work, you know, at a certain level and having a partner, you know, who believes in you and is 100% behind you no matter what, you know. And beyond that, having your kids that you love and they return that love and now grandchildren.

46:04
having a well-rounded personal life, and not everybody has that. And I've been so blessed and so fortunate to have that, almost to the point where it's not fair, because I know the struggles that people go through because they don't have that. And keeping yourself positive is such a daily sort of

46:33
You have to wake up with it and say, I'm gonna get through this day, I'm gonna look for the positive points, I'm not gonna dwell on the negativity because gosh, there's a lot of that out there. And it's just aligning yourself, I think, in the way that you think and the way that you carry out your day. Yeah, yeah. That's one of the things that I've said about finding my tribe in VO,

47:02
We're all doing the same thing, so we all know the same struggle. But it's important to connect with people. You could still be out here on your own in this very warm, welcoming community, but if you don't open yourself up to find people that can be your inner circle, find people that you can talk to plainly with, like, hey, I'm having a bad day, or I just got a...

47:29
Turned down from you know an audition and they just raked me over the coals about you You know what I mean? Because it does happen every so often. Oh, yeah, where you know people can be Unkind as opposed to just know they want to tell you exactly why no and why you're not fit for any job But yeah, you know Unfortunately also says a lot about those people who are unkind and what's going on in their own lives. Yeah happening with them

47:57
I had done something, I think it was, it wasn't an audition, it was a job, and it was for a radio station in Chicago, how about that? And I was dealing with whoever was directing, I think he was either the program director or something, and I just wasn't getting what he needed me to do. And he was angry at me, you know?

48:26
He said, you know what? The best thing you did in this entire session was slate your name. Wow.

48:36
Oh my God. Wow. It was all downhill from there. Yeah. But I mean, and that's the thing is having that group that you can turn to, I mean, you've got a great attitude about it. You're laughing about it. People that are new starting out don't have that Superman skin yet. And that could be the kind of thing that turns them off and like, well, I'm just not made for this. I'm going to...

49:05
you know, no matter how much they've been coaching and passionate about, that could be something that could literally derail them from their passion, from their career. And you know, what you said is so true and in finding people who are like-minded and who are going through the same experience that you are, and that's why the voiceover community is so supportive of one another. I think it's because of all the difficulties and the negativity that you have to deal with. And...

49:33
you know, the disappointments, there's a lot of disappointments. I mean, I really feel that this whole job, and I'm sure it's true for other careers as well, there are these deep, just hurt you in your soul, you know, disappointments, and then these most unbelievable highs of a success, of one success. But having somebody that,

50:02
understands that and goes through it. That's why I said with my wife, we're both broadcasters. We kind of understand what's going on in each other's lives. But that's why even to this day, I have my tribe too. I have my guys that I came up with, like Don LaFontaine who left us years ago, but people like Townsend Coleman, who whenever I'm in LA, we're having dinner together. Reno Romano, he's very close.

50:32
friend and confidant and also we just understand one another. You know, so many of Dave Fennoy and so many others that we all came up together, you know. Many of us are on the Don LaFontaine voiceover lab advisory board and we get together to move that forward, you know, early and do great things with that. But yeah, you have to have that and I think that's one way of warding off

51:02
you know, the weight that can be put upon you. And I understand how people can fall into depression, which is so devastating. And I think, and again, just speaking from, as a voice actor in the industry that we are in, just as much as we are okay putting ourselves out there in an audition, we have to be okay in putting ourselves out there into trying to build that tribe.

51:30
to be open to say, hey, I don't know you, but do you wanna come sit at the table? Let's have a coffee, let's have a conversation. You know, just getting to know each other. And that's why situations like, you know, a conference like Vio Atlanta, you know, Wovo, Mavo, the different conferences. You know, one voice where you can get together and you can find those people. Yes, you can learn and you can go to the panels and you can take the X sessions and things like that that help build your career.

52:01
But I think if you neglect the building of your tribe, your support system, you're missing some of the point. That is the great success of voiceover conferences getting together. It's so important. And you're right, you can separate the two. Sure, you can learn there. But I really think the important part of it is the community, the camaraderie and all of that. Listen.

52:29
Coming up, there was no such thing for me as a voiceover conference. In fact, you couldn't find anybody else. I mean, here I am in great, big, wonderful Los Angeles. And sure, I would see Townsend, I've known Townsend since he came to town. I came here in 1980. He didn't get here until later, maybe later 80s. But we would see, we used to go out to auditions. You would do live auditions.

52:59
way of building a community. Uh, the problem was you're all in that room and you're all up for one job. So some people handle that differently than others, you know, some want to make the mark of I'm the one that's going to get this job, you know, and, uh, and the others are just, we're thrilled to be together and, and working on something. And I hope you.

53:25
you know, good luck going in there, man, go do it, you know, and we would do that for one another. So that was ours. That's all we had. And that's how we got to know the other voiceover talent that were in our area and working in kind of the genres that we work in. Yeah. Yeah. That's like you said, it's the technology, the ability to kind of shrink the size of the pond, but increase the depth of it. You know, it's it's it's it's a it's a blessing.

53:55
And inherently, nowadays, the way we do our work is so isolating. So it's very important to get out there. And isolation doesn't work, you know, for mental health. That's for sure.

54:14
All right, Joe, this is the third segment of this program. It is time now for the Fast Five. The Fast Five is time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five. I'm still working on a theme song. It's good. Yeah, I didn't know you had a jingle. That's awesome, Robb. Five Seasons, and I still don't have anything recorded for that, but I'll work on it. I'll keep working on it. Okay. Fast Five is powered by Pod Decks. It's an app created by my friend Travis Brown.

54:41
If you go to chewingthefatbr.com slash pod decks, it'll take you to the link where you can download it on your favorite mobile device. It's created for podcasters, but they're great icebreaker questions in all kinds of different categories. But first thing that comes to the top of your head, no wrong answers. You ready, Joe? I am ready. Here we go, question number one.

55:03
If you could go on an adventure tomorrow, what adventure would you choose? Well, I would say I'm not so much of an adventurous person, but I do love to travel. So I would say I would go to Italy and pick a town, another town that we haven't been to before. I just recently...

55:28
got my dual citizenship. I sono italiano. I am an Italian citizen. So I have two passports now and I'm looking forward to using that. So that would be my adventure. Now using that new passport going to Italy and traveling as an EU citizen. Oh, wow. I love that. That's awesome. That's awesome. Question number two.

55:54
Burger or hot dog? Burger. Really? I struggled with hot dogs my whole childhood life. I didn't understand why people liked hot dogs. Why? It looks so good, it's in a bun. You put ketchup on it, sorry Chicago. You put mustard on it, you put relish on it, whatever. And you just, and I would do that. And I bite into it and I go, blech. I.

56:21
do not like a hot dog. So I was always a hamburger cheeseburger, especially American cheese. And I can do the lettuce, tomato, no onions, mayo, ketchup, delicious. And my new love is smash burgers. I love smash burgers. But I will say in my advanced years, I've gotten to the point where I can eat a hot dog, especially,

56:51
ball game, whether it's ace or foot, you know, I can do it. Emburger it is. Awesome. Question number three.

57:04
what was the best compliment you ever received.

57:12
Ernie Anderson, when I was doing those ABC things and I was just doing, it was really, it was the intro of the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show. And I sat at his microphone and he came in and he goes, hey, oh, so you're that guy. He goes, you're good. That was it. That's, that was like.

57:42
the best compliment at the time when I really needed something. Talking about that, you know, coming together of, um, being in the right place and all of that. You're good. You're good. Yeah. But you know, and I think that's someone you looked up to, like you said, that Mount Rushmore, that's someone you looked up to, to tell you, Hey, you're good. I mean, as, as we sit here, you've won, you know, lifetime achievement awards from

58:08
you know, the vocal academies and so of us and things like that and so many other awards that I'm sure fill up an entire room, a trophy case. But yes, for someone that you, you know, I say it doesn't take much for a compliment when it's someone that you respect and you look up to, to say that thing that pushes you forward. Like you said, that's a time that you needed it and that was a perfect thing to say. And it didn't have to be a gushing sort of, it was something that went on for paragraphs. It was just, you're good.

58:38
And yeah at a time when God, I think I'm good. I wish I was good Does anybody think I'm good, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah Anderson to tell me I'm good. And by the way, and by the way, I'm the best so Yeah, I love that I love that question number four

59:01
Another food question for you. Is there any local dish or food product from where you grew up that you miss? Oh, from where I grew up. Yeah. Ah, well, you know, my mom, I'm Italian. You know, my mom would make her own sauce, which, you know, the the East Coast American Italians called tomato sauce gravy. I don't know why, you know.

59:31
I mean, if you ever watch his Sopranos, they had a word for everything, that had nothing to do with Italian and pretty much nothing to do with English. It was just a made up kind of thing. So I would have to say it's, my mom's cooking and her homemade sauce, which Ann makes and

01:00:00
My, she hadn't made it in quite a while. I might have to speak to her about that. My sister-in-law, my brother's wife does it very well. But you also have to understand, we also, everybody in our family, we have the Cipriano stomach. And mostly it was caused by my mom's sauce. It was so, there was something acidic about her, whatever, but we would all have tummy aches afterwards. But it was the best tummy ache you could ever have.

01:00:28
It was just worth it. It was worth it. It's like you knew going in, like, this is not gonna be good for my body, but I'm gonna enjoy every mouthful. And whenever I'm back home, you know, we have that. We make antipasta the way my mom used to make it. We all get together and make it together. Ann just did it for New Year's, Christmas actually. We were down in West Palm. Our son and daughter-in-law were there as well. And we had a Christmas Eve party at our daughter's house.

01:00:58
and made that. So that's, yeah. So I'm lucky that I still have, I don't have to miss it. You know, I still get it. I love it. All right, question number five.

01:01:13
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? Don't take it seriously.

01:01:25
Commit yourself to what you want to do, what your passion is, believe in it, and just do it. And do it 100% to the utmost. And just know that it's all gonna work out. All gonna be good.

01:01:53
you will achieve, you know, maybe you won't achieve that, that lofty goal, maybe you will. But guess what? You're gonna find all these goals along the way are very satisfying and just believing in that, in the journey and doing it.

01:02:14
I love that. Thank you so much, Joe. That's question number five. That is our Fast Five and that is the show. Thank you so much for being here. Ta-da! Episode 100, Joe Cipriano. I cannot thank you enough for your, I call it friendship now. I don't know if you're going to put it in that category, but I call it friendship, but your guidance. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I thank you for being here. Folks want to keep up with you, whether it be on socials or find out more about your masterclass. What's the best way that they can keep up with you?

01:02:43
Well, joecipriano.com. Everything is pretty much there. You know, I realized you brought up something about that wonderful honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award this past December of 2024 that I received and my whole family was there. That was a big moment, Robb, to have my grandkids there.

01:03:03
That was so fun and so good. I don't have anything up on my website that references the Lifetime Achievement Award. But yeah, pretty much everything is there. About the master classes, you could just go to promomasterclass.com That pretty much has all the information on that.

01:03:24
You know, I love Instagram, Joeciprianovo there. On Facebook, you should be able to find me, no problem there. And Twitter, I don't do too much, but it's Joecip. Well, I will make sure that I put the links to all of those in the show notes so that folks can click that and to become, you know, the fan of the voice that they know that they didn't know that I know that I am. And again, Joe, thank you so much for being here. I so appreciate your time and your talent and just your willingness to be here with me.

01:03:54
It means the world. I wish you all the best in your personal life and your professional life. Thank you. And if you would like to support this podcast, I'd appreciate it if you bought me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com. But until next time, I look forward to the chance we have to sit a spell and chew the fat.