Airlift Productions & Micheal Ziants Add the Voice & Sizzle to Tujague’s Radio spot
I was reminded of this gig just last night when I caught the spot on WRNO-99.5-Rush Radio in New Orleans. Man, how times … and dimes have changed.
When it came time for legendary French Quarter restaurant Tujagues on Decatur to roll-out it’s new Brunch menu and shout it from the rooftops via WRNO, the bat signal went out into the night sky for Airlift Mike.
What followed is kind of like the ‘alley-oop’ play in basketball – Bo Walker (then-production chief at Clear Channel) emailed me the copy … I voiced it and sent it back to him, along with some sound effect cues … he added his music track and mixed it down, then ping-ponged this mp3 back to me … and voila!
Part history lesson, part menu … and all sizzle! And when it all comes out of your car speaker on WRNO or worldwide via their I-Heart radio app, ‘Tujagues Brunch Menu’ radio :60 sounds like this….
Yeah, pretty amazing times we’re living in, huh?
Please though, do not attempt this kind of radio production at home. These men are trained professionals.
Note: No animals were harmed in the making of this commercial.
Tujagues Brunch Menu Radio :60 Voiced by Micheal Ziants & Airlift Productions
Twitter ScreenShot with details of today’s Airlift Audio Book session with Michael Pitre
Airlift Productions & I are honored to aid the Audible.com audio book crowd today – 7-18-14 – recording some additional tracks for Michael Pitre’s stunning and unflinching portrait of the Iraq war.
A novel informed by first-hand experience through two tours of duty in Iraq, “Fives and Twenty-Fives” is Pitre’s no-holds-barred story of not only life in Baghdad – but readjusting to life, love and work back in the U.S.
Yes, from IEDs to PTSD.
Marine, Iraq Vet & Author Michael Pitre
Louisiana native & New Orleanian, LSU grad with a double major in History & Creative Writing, a U.S. Marine Captain … and now, Author – this is the book Michael was destined to write.
And together today, we’ll attempt to tie a few loose ends together and help tell ‘the rest of the story’.
“Fives and Twenty-Fives”, coming soon to an Amazon.com audio book and Audible.com download near you.
From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli, indeed the toughest battles of all may be the ones fought here, post-war, in the hearts and minds and lives of those who came home.
Sid Noel aka Dr. Morgus the Magnificent Records Internet Story Club Vocal Tracks at Airlift Productions
In the mythology of the American Tribe, Superman will always have his Clark Kent, the Batman his Bruce Wayne…and iconic New Orleans TV late-night horror movie host Dr. Morgus (the Magnificent) will always have Sidney Noel Rideau.
Here in the 21st century, ‘Uncle Sid’ has moved on from his haunts at the Old City Ice House and yet embarked on his boldest experiment ever – using technology, the internet and TV to help mold and shape the thought and character of today’s youth!
It may all sound a bit zany and bold, but when did that ever stop Dr. Morgus before?
Airlift Productions and I are proud to have been tagged personally by Sid (just call me Chopsley) to produce and voice the public service announcement campaign for New Orleans television to promote his Sidney Noel’s ‘Internet Story Club’ website .
Witness a sample of the PSA promotion as it appears On Air – through the talents of Blaine Strawn & his uber-capable crew down on Jefferson Davis Parkway – now showing on a WVUE-TV/Fox-8 flat screen near you …
After all, it’s not enough for our legal system to just keep locking-up bad guy after bad guy after bad guy … Our society simply has to stop making them!
Go get ’em, Sid! Now we understand what you meant by “the Higher Order”.
Airlift Productions’ Micheal Ziants appearing with Dr. Morgus in an episode of “Morgus Presents” – circa 1989
Airlift Proprietor Micheal Ziants as John Saint John, WKBO Radio, Harrisburg, PA ~ circa 1976 ~
Long before I dreamed of New Orleans – to say nothing of owning and operating my own recording studio – and in those dark, prehistoric days before the dawn of the internet, I was radio-active in the state capital of Harrisburg, PA.
This has nothing to do with the infamous Three Mile Island incident, although it did make for a rather clever blog headline, no?
Actually, America’s most volatile and scary nuclear accident occurred in early 1979 shortly after I exited Harrisburg for my first major market radio job at the Pulitzer family-owned 55/KSD Radio in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Yes, long before New Orleans and long before Airlift Productions, I was thrilled to be the #1 Arbitron-rated afternoon air personality/disc jockey in Harrisburg, PA! Along with the largest cumulative audience between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. I always kind of looked at my ARB ratings as ‘bowling trophies’.
WKBO Radio was just smokin’! The air was filled with the sounds of the Steve Miller Band, David Bowie, BeeGees and Donna Summer … weekends were spent in the sun, sand & surf at the Jersey shore. And the internet, mp3s, i-pods & downloads were but dreams in a tech-head’s head. Radio – and AM at that – was it!
A name like Micheal Ziants just wouldn’t cut it for 1970’s radio … so John Saint John was born! It was my stage name, my alter ego, the Batman to my Bruce Wayne for a total of twelve years, through Harrisburg, Saint Louis, Nashville & Philadelphia.
Truth be known? I would have paid THEM for the opportunity. To be hanging out, stoned backstage with George Carlin and on-stage with Cheech & Chong … to ride the largest elephant in the Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey circus – bareback! And fly upside down at 500 mph with the Blue Angels.
Radio active? You betcha’! Catch just some of the fever ( Saturday night and otherwise ) with Harrisburg’s ‘politically apathetic, though ultra-liberal, and semi-hippie rock ‘n roll disc jockey’ – John Saint John here…
~ Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll, everything was on the table, er… ah Turntable … and ‘On The Air’in this edited WKBO AirCheck of Micheal Ziants as John Saint John from June 1978, Harrisburg, PA ~
~ Micheal Ziants aka John Saint John, standing behind John Travolta’s brother Joey at a WKBO Radio promotion, Harrisburg, 1977 ~
Veteran New Orleans VoiceOver Talent Micheal Ziants, 2012 Promotional Pic
You know, when you think of a VoiceOver in the 21st century it is so much different than a VoiceOver in the 20th century.
In radio & television’s infancy last century the V/O was all about “Announcing” – Loud, shout-it-from-the-rooftops, in-your-face … arresting and intrusive, with letter-perfect pronunciation and tones. Also read ‘abrasive’.
Just as in all things, the VoiceOver has changed too. Today, think of the candid, reflective, pensive tones in Morgan Freeman’s work in ‘Shawshank Redemption’, or even DiCaprio’s V/O tones in ‘Wolf of Wall Street’.
While these were movies, indeed all VoiceOver work today – radio, tv, industrials, software, etc – is the domain of the actor. The ‘announcer’ is just so passe.
The challenge for the VoiceOver talent today is to ‘inhabit’ the copy, get ‘inside’ the words, convey and emote so as to make the words jump off the paper – and live and breathe … and motivate!
(tone shift…) As America prepares for yet another 4th of July, with hot dogs, apple pie, beer, fireworks and … family, allow me to share a project of mine that takes the VoiceOver and applies it to matters of the heart.
In one of America’s fave romantic comedies, one of America’s fave Brits, Hugh Grant opens up ‘Love Actually’ with a rather poignant and pointed soliloquy about love and families … and heartbreak.
With poetic license, I changed the name of the airport from ‘Heathrow’ to ‘Louis Armstrong’, borrowed the movie music and a few sound effects and came up with this …
You know, in the last century – somewhere between the ‘Mad Men’ and the beginning of the 21st, there used to be an ad that contained the line, ‘If you want to get someone’s attention… just … whisper.’
