MistaL wrote:And it doesn't make much sense that a relatively small California-based voice actor would have much -- if any -- knowledge of an unaired Canadian dub.
Eh, that in and of itself is not enough to disqualify somebody as uninformed. I know it might seem that way, but here's the thing: the voice-over community, even on an international level, is actually a relatively small and tight-knit bunch (especially in comparison to the on-camera acting community, which is immeasurably enormous). That same principle applies to the other business facets of the acting industry--there are far fewer VO talent agencies compared to on-camera talent agencies, far fewer VO casting directors compared to on-camera casting directors, and so on and so forth. That's not to say there's only like one or two of them, but again, compared to the on-camera community, there's far, far less of them. So, in the VO community, word and gossip gets around.
The reason I know this is because I'm a California-based voice actor myself. I originally wrote "small California-based voice actor," but decided against that because to say that I am "small" would actually be an understatement. I am, by my own admission, a
nobody in terms of public recognition, as my work consists mostly of commercials, promos, and non-broadcast narration. It's true that I have done a teeny bit of dubbing, but nothing significant by any means. Don't get me wrong, it was an absolute blast, but nobody would know my name or remember the small, one-episode characters that I played.
In spite of being a nobody, though, that hasn't stopped me from learning about a lot of things in the voice acting world before the secrets were let out. How did I learn? Sometimes it was through auditioning for certain things, sometimes it was through taking casting director workshops with people who cast, and sometimes it simply through what friends (and I'm friends with a lot of voice actors) told me. Even though I'm a nobody, here's just a small sample of what I was able to learn before it became public knowledge:
-The fact that a new
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series was coming.
-The fact that a
Bakugan revival was coming (and I even know which Canadian talent agencies are getting the auditions).
-The character description sheets that Bang-Zoom provided for auditioning actors for their dub of
Dragon Ball Super.
-That McDonald's was starting an "all-day" breakfast policy (because I auditioned for the commercials, along with many other voice actors).
-That Team Four Star was going to be dubbing the characters in Mr. Satan's "re-enactment video" of the Cell fight in FUNimation's dub of the Buu arc in
Dragon Ball Kai. That one was especially tough, as I had to keep that a secret for years!
I must be clear, I don't write this as a way to make myself seem like some know-it-all, but rather, I write this to show that even a nobody like me, just by virtue of being in Los Angeles and knowing the right by people, is capable of learning about all this behind-the-scenes stuff. So, being a small, California-based voice actor wouldn't necessarily disqualify someone as being not being knowledgeable. This is a small business, so word just gets around.