I went with close friend to see James Arnold Taylor's one man show called "Talking to Myself". If you aren't familiar with this fantastic man's work, please google him. I had discovered a snippet of the show on his youtube channel a year ago and was amazed at how quickly and accurately he was able to mimic or voice match so many voices.
I found out about this free show through his Facebook fanpage and knew that I just had to go see it. I was almost put off by the distance I'd have to travel, but when would I get another chance like this? Luckily, I had invited a friend that offered to drive me half the distance, yay! So I drove an hour-ish to meet him and he drove us an hour-ish to Moorpark.
It was at Moorpark Presbyterian Church, which is large, airy and beautiful. There were two projection screens off to the upper left and right where JAT constantly had images or scenes to help elaborate points as he explained them, but mostly used them to dub to picture live. He performed spotlit on a slightly raised platform in between the screens, . I was constantly torn between wanting to watch the animations he had playing on the screen and him physicalizing as he performed his lines. Due to the fast-pace and high energy, the show was engaging from beginning to end. I'm being intentionally vague because I hope you'll be able to see it one day (and plus it would take pages and pages to detail what I experienced haha).
Here's a link to the trailer of the show:
And here's a clip of the show (that I first discovered)
I was most touched by his ending segment where he opened up about a very personal incident. He first started off saying how he was glad he didn't have to hold back or veil his appreciation to God for blessing him with his talents.
He talked about how he had unluckily gotten laryngitis and lost his voice. And through much grief and rehab, he realized how much he loved doing what he did and appreciated that he gets such opportunities and pushed to continue on. He went on to encourage everyone to work toward fulfilling their own individual goals and dreams, whether it was to also be a performer, or be a good student, parent, daughter, lawyer, ect. I fail at trying to eloquently regurgitate how he phrased it. My friend had nudged me during this bit because JAT's words were so very pertinent to me at this time. I almost teared up because it felt so directed at me.
He had a meet and greet after the show, where his wife helped to delegate time so everyone got a chance to quickly speak or take a pic with JAT. During the wait, I ran into another fellow voice actor friend of mine. She and I were getting the super jitters waiting for our chance to meet JAT. It was kind of funny and cute I think haha. When I met JAT, I just thanked him for posting on youtube and responding to fans on fb (makes me sound almost stalker-ish, but really... I just see what pops up in my newsfeed ;p). I also told him I'm a VA and how I'm trying to really break in and he was very encouraging.
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| Me with JAT! |
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