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FeedThe Voice
Chris Schuett
Jodi Miller
It’s unlikely you’ve seen his face or know his name. But it’s nearly certain you’ve heard his voice in commercials, instructional videos, radio segues or, most recently, a trailer for Disney’s John Carter. Chris Schuett, who’s known in the voiceover world as Chris Thomas, seems to be everywhere.
The 33-year-old Gahanna resident shared his thoughts about being a secret spokesman heard around the world.
John Carter was big, but I do stuff for the NFL. I’ve done a lot of sales, training and marketing videos for IBM. I’ve done stuff for radio stations in the U.S., Canada and the Philippines. At one point, I was doing dairy-cow-farm training videos—the proper care and feeding of dairy cows. When you buy a GreenWorks pressure washer for your home, I’m on the DVD explaining how to use it.
No one ever said at one point, “You need to talk.” I’ve always had an interest in media or entertainment of some sort. When I was a really small kid, the neighbors and I, our favorite things to play with were boxes in the basement. We would basically put them together, cut out holes in them and put in toilet-paper tubes for video cameras. We’d put a nightlight on top, and then we’d be like, “And we’re rolling. . . .”
You have to work on your voice. There are people who are born with naturally awesome voices, but there are a lot of things that you can work on. It’s hard to grasp, but there are literally hundreds of ways to do one voiceover. It’s just little, tiny adjustments here and there.
I do and can sing. I just don’t get a lot of enjoyment out of singing. I do get a ton of enjoyment out of playing musical instruments.
A lot of what I do in music and voiceover is listen. But when I listen, I listen really intensely.
Everything that I do has a completely different purpose. Literally, what I want or would do with a script doesn’t matter. And I’m OK with that. They are paying you to give them exactly what they want. There’s still personality involved, because there’s a personality in the voice and just in who you are. You can’t be offended if they don’t like it one way and you do like it that way.
There’s a different voice that’s appropriate for everything. Just because you’re a great voiceover artist doesn’t mean you’re right for a project. It’s just like an actor in a role.
It’s kind of cool being undercover almost. I could be standing in a room, and a commercial comes on. It’s me, and nobody in that room would even know it’s me. I think that’s funny. I think that’s great.
