Episode Notes
Get ready for an inspiring journey into the world of voice acting with the multi-talented Joan Baker! In this episode, we dive into Joan’s early life and the challenges she faced, leading her to discover her passion for dance and acting. From dancing at the prestigious Alvin Ailey school to captivating audiences with her Josephine Baker performance, Joan’s determination and love for her craft shine through.
Tune in as Joan shares the pivotal moment when she transitioned into the world of voiceover, landing a dream agent and booking her first national commercial almost instantly. Discover the secrets behind her success, her relentless pursuit of opportunities, and the unwavering belief in her unique voice.
Join us for Part 1 of this captivating interview, and get ready to be inspired by Joan Baker’s incredible journey!
**Highlights:**
* Joan’s early dreams of being a dancer, actress, and humanitarian
* The challenges she faced growing up and her journey to self-discovery
* Her experiences at the Alvin Ailey dance school and the lessons she learned
* The transition from dance to voiceover and her breakthrough moment
* Landing a top agent and booking her first national commercial
* Joan’s relentless pursuit of opportunities and her passion for her craft
**Don’t miss Part 2 next week, where we delve deeper into Joan’s career, her work as a professor and coach, and her philanthropic endeavors.**
Dive into inspiring stories from leading experts in voice over and learn the key elements to building a successful career in this fascinating industry with Joan’s Baker’s book:
“Secrets of Voice-Over Success: Top Voice-Over Actors Reveal How They Did It”. Find it here: https://a.co/d/cglnsSy
You can email Joan Baker for private coaching at joan@sovas.org using “La Pizarra” or Nicky Mondellini as a reference on the subject.
Also find her on instagram as @joanthevoice
Transcript
Joan Baker: I still don’t remember what I said. Anyway, she said, “Wait right here.” She goes and gets the director. She said, Joanie, “Can you tell the director what you told me exactly?” I went about saying exactly the same thing. I look up, he’s pounding the table with tears coming out of his eyes. He’s laughing so hard.
[music]
Announcer: La Pizarra, The Slate,. Exploring creative minds in the entertainment industry. Here’s your host, Nicky Mondellini.
Nicky Mondellini: Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of La Pizarra. My name is Nicky Mondellini. I’m very happy that you’re joining us today because I’m going to be talking to the very talented, multi-hyphenate Joan Baker. You can find her on Instagram as @joanthevoice. She has won multiple Promax and Telly Awards for TV commercials, promos, and documentaries as a voice actor, on-camera host, and producer. Many of you know her also as the co-founder of SOVAS, the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences, which she co-founded with her husband and business partner, Rudy Gaskins, as well as the That’s Voiceover! Career Expo and the Distinguished Voice Arts Awards.
Today, we will hear not only about her amazing career, but also about her work as a professor and coach and a philanthropist. Joan’s voice can be heard on ESPN, ABC’s The View, HBO, and Grand Theft Auto, among many other things. On A&E, she’s the on-camera host for Tribeca Film Festival Red Carpet interviews. Joan’s book, Secrets of Voiceover Success, has opened up boundless opportunities for aspiring voice actors. You’ll find the link in the show notes. She is an instructor at Columbia University’s Graduate Drama Class, and she shares her expertise with students at New York University, Kentucky University, Actors Institute, and New York’s Professional Performing Arts School.
She also started a new role as an adjunct professor at the Hartt Theatre Division at the University of Hartford with the Voice Acting curriculum. Now, join me in exploring the creative mind of Joan Baker.
Nicky Mondellini: Yes, basically, this is a bilingual podcast, and half of the interviews are in English, and half of them are in Spanish. I interview people on both sides of the camera.
Joan Baker: Oh, that’s great.
Nicky Mondellini: Yes, I started this in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.
Joan Baker: Yes. We started the State of VO during the pandemic as well, which was a free– it was on Zoom, and it was free. The unique thing about it was is that we would basically get buyers, and they would offer our audience job opportunities. We would, of course, talk about the State of VO and the state of the business of VO, and also around the pandemic and all. I think a lot of great things came out of the pandemic. We really got creative and soulful.
Nicky Mondellini: I think so, and I did love those State of VO sessions.
Joan Baker: Oh.
Nicky Mondellini: Yes, I really, yes, I found out through LinkedIn, I was waiting for Mark Gus to send the invitation and say, “Well, just send me a message, and I’ll add you to the list and whatever.” I was just hoping to get there on time, because I guess you guys also have a limit of people that you could allow in, right?
Joan Baker: Actually, I’m not sure if at first we did, but no, as time went on, no, not that I know of. It was unlimited. As a matter of fact, we would get crazy. We would get like 500 people confirming, but then maybe 200 would show up. Whatever we got confirmed, we got half, about half that would show up.
Nicky Mondellini: Got it.
Joan Baker: No, as far as I know, we were set for unlimited. The pièce de résistance to me, although this person wasn’t offering a job, but Nancy Cartwright.
Nicky Mondellini: Ah, yes.
Joan Baker: Do you know it took me two years to pursue her to be on that show.
Nicky Mondellini: Oh my God. Wow.
Joan Baker: Two years. When I resonate with something, I will pursue it until it comes to fruition.
Nicky Mondellini: I’m really happy that you do that because you brought great content and great opportunities for everyone in those sessions, and in everything you do. We’re going to backtrack a little bit and start talking about the start of your career. How did it all begin for you? Was it someone in your family and it was just part of what you’d seen growing up or–?
Joan Baker: Actually, no. My mom though was very showbizzy dramatic. I had that, and I had an uncle who I always heard about and he was a dancer in the Lido and on the Lido stages, all over the world. I had that, but it was literally my dreams since I can remember. As a kid, one of the things I wanted to do was I wanted to be a dancer, I wanted to be an actress and I wanted to be a humanitarian. I even remember in kindergarten, the teacher would ask, “What does everyone want to be? Start around the room.” You would literally hear kids go, “I want to be a piece of green bread.” [laughter]
I’m not sure how I coined ‘humanitarian’ because I’m sure I didn’t know that word in kindergarten, but I definitely wanted to help and assist people in their lives. I even had a dream about it that I used to fantasize about. I did bring this to a therapist before, but the dream was, I was standing in front of people in the army and the navy, right? I guess I was dancing and giving. Whatever I was saying in front of the microphone, I was giving. The men were wounded around me, but happy, but wounded. It was a dream that I carried around or a fantasy that I carried around, but I didn’t know what it meant. I just knew that I wanted to perform and help people.
Nicky Mondellini: Yes.
Joan Baker: When I brought it to a couple of therapists, they’re like, the masculine side of you is wounded. That’s what I got.
Nicky Mondellini: Oh, okay. [crosstalk] you’re remembering a past live when you were performing for the troops [laughs].
Joan Baker: Exactly. No, exactly. I brought it to a couple of therapists, not asking for their analysis, but just talking about it. I got that more than once. The masculine side of me was somehow wounded and in my lifetime, I would need to heal it. Now, what I interpret that is some masculine qualities, right? Maybe, even though I don’t have a problem pursuing, but usually that would be coined as something masculine. Not necessarily now, today, since things are a little bit more balanced and equal and we can love our athletes that are women and love our athletes that are male. It doesn’t have to be like weak women and strong men, right?
When I was growing up, of course, and all through adulthood, basically, certain things are coined as masculine and pursuing something or pursuing a career would be considered one of them. I’ve never had a problem with that because in my mind, that’s all I had. I grew up in the civil rights era in the ’60s and someone like me, meaning someone biracial, my dad, white, my mom, black, did not have an easy time out there in the world. Did not have an easy time with even our next door neighbors. Did not have an easy time with school teachers.
If anything, in my schooling situation, I became very shy and inhibited because when there was attention on me, it was negative. I began to not know how to deal with this, but I began to make my own way in terms of, I did things that would draw attention in a positive way. One of those things was being involved in acting. One of those things was being involved with dance because I would get positive attention, but beyond my wildest dreams. Not only did my dream start without knowing that, without knowing those responses, my dream was to be an actress, dancer, humanitarian.
Then as I ventured out in school and into the world, that got me positive attention, because if I showed up on my own, not demonstrating any talents or anything, it was not pretty. I would go home at night, this is when I was in elementary school, junior high, high school, and cry myself to sleep because it just seemed to be unfair. I didn’t want to tell my parents because I felt embarrassed, and I felt like they would be embarrassed too, not knowing that isn’t the truth, but I never said anything to anyone. I also found it interesting that very few people would come to my rescue and stand up for me.
I barely could stand up for myself, but it just surprised me that people that I invested my time in, my friendship, all kinds of things when I was a kid, they couldn’t deal with it either. Even though we were friends and we were good friends, people couldn’t deal with it either. There were some ugly things said to me, all through childhood from adults and kids. It was not easy. I left Moraine County, which is where I’m from, Moraine County’s in Northern California, beautiful area, beautiful homes and beautiful all kinds of things, but just not necessarily for me. I left and went to New York when I was 19 years old. I’ve been here ever since.
Nicky Mondellini: What brought you there was an audition for the Alvin Ailey or had you auditioned from them before?
Joan Baker: Actually, I auditioned once I got to New York. I hadn’t auditioned in California. I had a boyfriend. This took me forever to get a boyfriend, but I had a boyfriend when I came to New York and he was also a dancer. He actually did audition for School of American Ballet, which is also called SAB and it’s New York City Ballet Schools. it’s an incredible scholarship. He got paid to be at the school every month, but he auditioned before we went to California. before we went to New York and then I auditioned once we got to New York for Alvin Ailey.
I did get a scholarship and it lasted about two years. The scholarship was worth, and this again was in the ’80s, the scholarship was worth $1,300 a month. That was a pretty big scholarship to have, especially back then. It was the most– in my life, it is probably one of the top three most intense things I’ve ever done. I’m sure it prepared me for other things that I’ve been doing in my life, but it took me 10 years to get over the intensity. Also, there was also negativity in dance in general. I don’t know about today’s world in dance, but certainly when I was coming up in dance, there was a lot of negativity in dance.
I went from one negative experience into another, but there was results that I got from Alvin Ailey that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else because it’s so intensified. Dance in itself is a very intense art form. You cannot screw around with dance if you want to be a dancer. I also developed a lot of discipline. That’s also helped me. It’s probably why I gravitated to it anyway, because it has that quality to it. That’s helped me in my later years in life. Totally.
Nicky Mondellini: I can definitely see that because being there at the level of expertise that is required to be in such a prestigious dance company, it is really tough. Of course, being there, it’s something that you can definitely translate and see into your other art disciplines.
Joan Baker: Yes, exactly. Dance has really made such a difference and I could see how it would make a difference in other areas in show business, because again, you’re bringing that discipline and that focus. You can’t beat that combination if you really want to succeed. There are no excuses. Also, there is not, “Oh, I don’t feel like it today.” Then you don’t. You might not feel like it and that’s fine, but you still do it. Dance does create a different human being, right? Also, dance is really about self-discovery. I find that same thing in voiceover, that same quality of self-discovery for excellence to bloom, to blossom. Then also, the excellence is something you want to pass on and share.
Nicky Mondellini: How was it that you went from dancing into your other disciplines that you do? You’ve been hosting and presenting, producing, and of course, voiceover. How was that transition for you?
Joan Baker: Actually, I didn’t even think about it. It’s like, “If this thing needed to be done, I’ll do it.” It’s just like what I do in SOVAS. There’s so many hats that I wear. It’s like, oh, this thing needs to be done. Oh, I need to learn how to do PR. Let me dig in my heart. For example, I love people and I’ve always loved people, no matter what has happened to me. I’ve always loved people. I really use that quality to do many things. My love of people and also my love of learning and also my love of focus and seeing things through in a way that has the results of joy, not just for me, but for others.
When I was young, I was also a kid actor. I was on a kid show called Whatchamacallit. It’s nowhere on the internet, of course, because there was some fire. A lot of things, and this was in San Francisco, and it was at a main channel, KPIX Channel 5. There was some fire and it destroyed all the footage. I was on that show-
Nicky Mondellini: What a shame.
Joan Baker: -for a good three years. Yes. I replaced an original. There was four kids on the show. One girl, three boys. I replaced the original. They looked all over Northern California for that replacement. I had an agent. I had an agent in San Francisco. I got called to go to the audition. I went to the audition and I noticed there were all these kids in the lobby. It was in a Victorian house, which is very San Franciscan. There was all these kids in the lobby and I had an appointment. I went right in and the producer was talking to me. To this day, I cannot remember what I said, but the producer said to me, “So, Joanie,” she said, “Tell me about your day.”
I’m telling her about my day and I look up and she is pounding the table with tears coming out of her eyes. I still don’t remember what I said, but anyway, she said, wait right here. She goes and gets the director. She said, “Joanie, can you tell the director what you told me exactly?” I went about saying exactly the same thing. I look up, he’s pounding the table with tears coming out of his eyes, he’s laughing so hard. Next thing I’m on the show. It’s never happened again, Nicky, but never happened again.
Nicky Mondellini: It’s one of those beautiful moments that hasn’t happened and it just blossomed.
Joan Baker: Yes. It just happened. I know. Also, because I dreamt about being an actress every single day of my life and I had just done the Shakespeare Festival and this is in Northern California. I was in one of the shows. I was determined to get an agent. Once I got the agent and then I got this audition and then– I was just determined, and I didn’t know, like I didn’t know any fears. I didn’t know any of that stuff. It was all bravery. “This is my dream. I’ve always wanted this since I can remember.” It was incredible.
Nicky Mondellini: Talk about manifesting from an early age, right?
Joan Baker: Yes, definitely. Definitely. On that show, not only was I a regular actress on it, we also used to write the show. I had some instincts around writing because I always tried to do funny things, and they always picked my stuff. I wrote, I did host different segments. One time I interviewed– went to Barnum and Bailey Circus. The makeup artist did my makeup as a clown. I interviewed the oldest clown in the world, the youngest clown in the world, the first man clown. I was in the circus as well as they were taping me and my neighbor, I heard a neighbor.
Now, this circus was far away from where we lived. I heard someone go, “Joanie Baker, is that you?” This is out there in the circus. I have makeup on and a clown outfit. It was funny. It’s like I said, there was a lot of negativity just by being, just by showing up. Somehow, I was bound and determined to create positive things or to create things that I could love and enjoy, and I can honestly say that I did. That traveled with me to New York. Again, it was the same diving into these experiences in New York, especially when I first got here in terms of training and developing myself, that they were harsh.
It’s funny because the first 10 years I was in New York, I said, Moraine County did not prepare me for the level of competition and how to behave in a competitive setting, as opposed to shrinking, which is how I felt. I saw people and they were all from New York, right? They had the competitive spirit that was quite amazing and beautiful to see. Not scary, not negative, but really powerful. I had wished that there was something like that where I grew up because it really took me a long time to cultivate that spirit without feeling like I was hurting people or somehow I was getting ahead with somehow an unfair advantage. There were a lot of lessons on my path, no question about it.
Nicky Mondellini: Why would you say it was an unfair advantage? You were clearly there at the right place at the right time. You had worked very hard for it.
Joan Baker: What I mean by unfair advantage is that I used to think that if you were competitive, that somehow that was an unfair advantage. That’s how little I knew about competing or being in a world like dance that’s very competitive, but I just didn’t quite understand it. No one talked about it where I grew up, necessarily. Things were given to people that you didn’t necessarily have to fight for or knew what that meant. Other than that, it was a scary thing to compete. I brought those myths with me. I have busted those myths over and over and over and over again for myself. That’s what I brought to New York. It made me feel small and shrink than rise to the occasion.
When I got a scholarship at Alvin Ailey, I was shocked because I know that my little tag said ‘435’. I was a ‘435’ person auditioning for a scholarship, and there were people well after me. There were 30 people that got this scholarship. I was actually stunned. Stunned. I wasn’t exactly like, “Whee,” soaring at the audition. I was really nerve-wracked and nervous. One of my goals and one of my dreams was to be in Alvin Ailey, although that didn’t happen. Getting on scholarship at the school was like I was a performer in Alvin Ailey. Five classes a day, five days a week. That did not include nighttime. It was no joke, Nicky.
I studied ballet, two types of modern, jazz, and ethnic, and Dunham, which is a very intensive ethnic dance, brought to the United States by Katherine Dunham, which is why it’s called Dunham technique. It’s Caribbean and African. It’s actually one of my favorite techniques there is in dance, as well as Katherine Dunham, who has well passed away. When I saw her, because Alvin Ailey brought a lot of teachings to us, teaching us about Black history, but Black history in dance and all that. When I saw a whole wall– I walked into a classroom at Alvin Ailey, which is truly huge and gigantic.
The whole wall was covered, wall-to-wall pictures of Katherine Dunham. I saw who she was and what she was doing and how she was doing. I go, “That’s me.” Very theatrical. Very soloist. I always have seen myself as a soloist type, although very much embracing an ensemble. My style has always been one that’s a little bit more unique, where when you’re in an ensemble, everyone has to look alike, dance alike, all that. That’s how I saw myself. That’s how I trained myself, like a soloist.
Nicky Mondellini: From there, what happened for you to start going the path of voiceover, performing in different ways, not as a dancer, but going in and then now using other parts of your elements, your voice, your whole presence? How was that for you?
Joan Baker: When I was dancing, I also did a lot of performance theater in New York. If you’re not in New York, it’s a huge avenue. It’s a huge freeing creativity and discipline. Actually, you can do a lot of your own stuff when you’re doing– I don’t know if you would call it performance art, but that’s what I’m going to call it. It was all in downtown New York when it was really, really big. I used to dance. I used to do Josephine Baker, right? Jean-Claude Baker discovered me coming into the restaurant when it just opened. I was there because Interview magazine was doing a piece on me. This is when I was 26.
Through that journey of Josephine Baker, I also created a nightclub act. That gave me a lot of experience doing that. I did that for four years. After the Josephine Baker, and I also did so many other things performance-wise, especially in downtown, which was huge, right? After I decided I wanted to let go of Josephine Baker, because I didn’t necessarily want to do that scene the rest of my life. I really did want to get into showbiz and get paid, right? What I did was– my dance teacher at the same time had left. My dance teacher was extraordinary, a legend in the field. She retired or moved. I was at a downswing in terms of dance.
I decided at that time that I was going to do acting, since I had always done that as a kid and all. I still wanted to do that as an adult. What I did was I somehow stumbled upon a manager. The manager said to me, “I got you an act.” It was cable, but before cable was cable, on this show called Tucci Live. She was a real ballbuster character, right? He said, she wants you to create a character and talk about the nightlife in New York. He knew that I had come from nightclub in New York, so it would be an interesting perspective. I did that.
I came up with this whole character voice and this whole costume, talking about Madonna and all the people that were popular at the time in the nightclubs. After that show, I was sitting in his apartment, and I was looking at Backstage Magazine. I saw an ad that said ‘voiceovers’. It said straight voice, character voice, and something else. I decided I was going to take lessons from her just to see what it was about, because I only knew voiceover to be cartoon at the time. I didn’t even know you could make a living at it. I knew nothing. I took four lessons with her, and I did a demo reel. This was in 1990. 1991, I started at the top of the talent agents, and I worked my way down in New York.
The first three wanted to sign me off my demo reel. My demo reel would not work today. At the time, every single voice on there was a character voice, completely different. It actually sounded like– every spot sounded like a different person, right? Then I had some of my regular speaking voice in there. There was a cat fight to sign me. I eventually signed with Don Buchwald and Associates. I signed on Valentine’s Day, 1991. As soon as I signed, one of the agents said to me, “You know you’re going to have to change your demo reel.” I was like, “Really?” He said, “Yes, don’t worry. They’ll be all with real jobs, but it will be your regular speaking voice. It won’t be all the cartoons you did.”
I was like, “Oh.” I literally did not know the industry at all. Right away, I started working. Literally right away. I even booked a national commercial right away. Then I started doing promos right away. I didn’t even know it was promo. I had no idea. I just loved the fact that nobody was trying to figure out from my looks where I would fit in. Everywhere I went, people, talent agents, shows, whatever it may be. Not in performance art, but in other legitimate places. They were always trying to figure out how I would fit in. Almost always, I never fit in.
In voiceover, that was not happening. I was going out for on-camera commercials, too. That was not happening. I can’t tell you how happy and free I was. It was literally like a horse that the gate just opened and the horses took off. I pursued everybody. With my demo reel, and my agent at Don Buchwald gave me her Rolodex. I took her Rolodex, and I’m not kidding you. It was in alphabetical order. There was a lot of people in each alphabet. I dropped off my tape to every single person on that Rolodex. See, this is where the discipline comes in [laughs].
This is where feeling stopped in your life. Now, for whatever reason, the gates opened. I really showed up 100% full throttle for myself. It paid off right away. I didn’t know the rules. I certainly didn’t think I was bothering anyone since people do hire talent, right? I had no, there was no barriers. Right away, I started building a career. I can’t tell you how happy I was.
Nicky Mondellini: This is where we end part one of the interview with the amazingly talented Joan Baker. Stay tuned next week when we will hear the rest of this conversation. Thank you for listening.
[music]
Announcer: Thanks for joining us. Don’t forget to subscribe on your podcast player or YouTube if you haven’t done so. Share what you liked about this episode on social media and tag us @nickymondellini.
