I grew up listening to my Dad Sandy Hoyt voicing ads on radio and TV. He was also the sponsor announcer on Tiny Talent Time and the game shows Split Second, The Joke’s on Us! and The $128,000 Question.
As a teen, I became obsessed with the brilliant commercial parodies on SCTV (Eugene Levy voicing Graft Cheese, Catherine O’Hara embodying Brooke Shields and Katharine Hepburn in CK Jeans and for Twinings Tea) and Saturday Night Live (Dan Ackroyd’s Bass-O-Matic 76 Spokesman), which informed my comic and character chops like nothing else.
This apple didn’t fall far from the tree. For most of my career, commercial voiceover has been my bread and butter, on TV, the web and in countless radio ads.
As a voiceover coach and director for nearly 20 years, I teach my clients that ads are often framed within a “problem/solution” argument. Early in February, on a gorgeous snowy night, I spent 4 hours in an enormous hot tub living out a lifelong dream - to spoof an awkward problem in a commercial parody on screen.
Imagine my delight when my gifted friend Julia Juhas introduced me to creative powerhouse couple Lisa Kannakko and Eric Bergeron, of Killer Kitten Productions, who hired me to play future mother-in-law Linda for a little project they had in the works. As an added bonus, I was invited to be the Gas-pirin 500 VO announcer of their labour of love A Wind of Change. Double joy!
Here's what we made. Julia plays my daughter with the expressive toes. TJ Chelsea plays my future son-in-law and Bruno Verdoni plays by hubby. You’ll see the names of the gifted crew in the credits. The film recently premiered at Festival 699 and Eric Bergeron won the Best Screenplay award.
I haven’t laughed that hard in years, which you’ll notice in the musical section of the film. Hope that A Wind of Change makes you smile, too. We need all the silliness we can get right now.
Dream. Come. True.
