- Opening Screen from Go Bananas
Okay, here’s the long version. A few days ago I get contacted by another poor, lost soul who had recently lost their job, spent several months looking for work and has now decided to try their hands at the wonderful world of voice over.
Since my usual response is to tell people they would have better luck paying the rent if they took up welding, I often wonder why so many people do contact me to ask my opinion. I begin to chat with this fellow. He seemed like a nice guy, with a somewhat decent head on his shoulders and it actually turned out that he had done some character work at his prior job, working for Nickelodeon or more significantly the Nick online part of the Nickelodeon 12 headed beast.
He seemed to know a little bit about me, after all My life is somewhat of an open book on this here internet thingy, (a fact I hope I won’t regret in years to come). The conversation turned around to agents and auditions and so forth and he commented that it was odd that I hadn’t done v.o. for “Nick”
I mentioned how being in San Francisco I hadn’t had much opportunity to audition for anything. And then I brought up “Go Bananas”. Go Bananas is an interactive online Nick.com toon. You can find them at Go Bananas
About 12 years ago I got contracted by a local Bay Area audio producer/ musician to do voices for a project called Go Bananas. There’s 13 episodes, with each one being about 5 minutes long or so. And each episode has an interactive component that is a game; such as a variation on “Whack a Mole” or the classic “Concentration”. There’s around 20 male characters spread across the 13 episodes, with several of them being the regulars. I perform the voices for all of the male characters in all 13 episodes. Tony Simiano, the main character, is a talk show host. I created his voice as a cross between David Spade and a young Dennis Miller and tried to infuse him with the spirit of both of those guys, along with a little bit of Johnny Carson, to keep him grounded. Milo, the Orchestra leader, is a bit of a take on Ringo Star. The other characters were based on various people I know, stereotypes from television and film, etc.
- I perform all the voices. Tony is a chimp and the host and the “Great Baldini” is a guest
When I mentioned all of this to the fellow I was talking to, who had worked for Nick, he drew somewhat quiet. He was quite familiar with Go Bananas, but was pretty sure that nobody at Nick had any idea I was behind the voices. If anyone there had ever cared, it would seem perhaps at best short lived. I suppose us voice actors are a dime a dozen.
But Go Bananas has been a consistently popular part of Nick.com for the past 10 years and nobody at Nick knows who the heck I am, nor do they know who anybody else is who worked on this project? Does anyone care?
For whatever reasons, the producers didn’t list any real credits at the end of each episode, simply concluding with a long list of fake funny names like “Ben Dover”. While at first I realize it was cute, I now realize that this one little action may have cost me a considerable amount of work. How many people had viewed these toons over the past ten years, besides the folks at Nick? Had my name been anywhere, it is quite conceivable I may have been considered for other work. An while they have already had a nice 10+ year run of using my hard work, the payment for said services was rather weak in comparison. On top of that, no credits?
- Note the completely “fake” credits.
This project was done long before there were any internet work agreements with the unions, so they’ve had a top property for ten years for a song. Apparently my characters get fan mail and fan e-mail and while they haven’t been turned into friends of Barbie, are beloved by at least some children (and perhaps adults) worldwide.
So folks at Nick. Hi, I’m here. I’m J.S. Gilbert and I am the one who came up with these voices and breathed life into your characters. So please, for the love of Pete, send me some auditions for some other stuff. A guy’s gotta eat. And maybe you can remember I’m the guy doing those voices on Go Bananas.
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Great post. I really like to read how others made it in the voice over industry.
Another great story, JS! What I most appreciate about your reaction is that you are not stomping and whining and demanding lost pay. You ask for more Nick auditions; a professional, reasonable request. Also a highly logical next step – given those excellent character voices you delivered.
If there is a follow-up to this tale, I hope to hear it!
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