By Sarah Stover
Staff writer
JUNO BEACH - "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain," said the Wizard of Oz in the classic 1939 movie. Michael Turnbull's booming voice could be likened to that of the "great and powerful," wizard. It is hard to ignore. Mr. Turnbull, a Juno Beach resident, recently won the Great Voice Company's Voiceover Actor of the Year.
The Great Voice Company is located in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Communications specialist Susan Berkley founded the company in 1987. It coaches professionals who want to improve their voices for presentations and also trains voiceover actors. Mr. Turnbull received training from Ms. Berkley when he began his work in the field in 2003.
His voice has been heard on advertisements for John Kerry's presidential campaign of 2004, India Pale Ale, Valu-Mart and public service announcements for Meals on Wheels, among others.
Mr. Turnbull ran a distribution company until 2000, when he sold it at age 52. After retiring, he discovered various sources of humor on the Internet and composed a book called "The Best of Dot Com Humor."
"It was during my travels to promote the book that I ran into the voiceover business. I'd see a lot of people doing voiceovers when I went to television and radio stations," said Mr. Turnbull.
He was intrigued by the industry and started thinking of taking on a second career.
"(Fifty-two's) pretty young to retire. I wanted to do something else besides play golf all day, so I started to write down what I wanted to do and parameters," said Mr. Turnbull.
After reviewing his parameters, which included not supervising employees, working his own hours and working on national and local levels, he decided the voiceover field fit what he wanted.
It took a year to train before he was ready.
"It isn't as easy as just having a great voice. It's acting in the purest form because you don't have your face to convey what you want to say. You've got to learn how to act, emote, use the microphone and use the equipment," said Mr. Turnbull.
He began his voiceover career in 2003 and by 2004 had discovered a target audience for some of his work.
"I started to penetrate the 55 and older generation by the end of 2004," said Mr. Turnbull.
He has been the voice for Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medicare, hospitals and nursing homes.
"Michael has all the right voice characteristics and emotional connection to resonate with this important segment of our population. His voice is warm, friendly, believable, sincere and soothing. His delivery is natural, caring and convincing," said Ms. Berkley.
His work for this age group is what earned him the award, but it comes with a downside, said Mr. Turnbull.
"You never like to be painted into a corner. I have a lot more capability than the nice guy, heartfelt voice most of those jobs need," he said.
However, the award was still a victory.
"I was certainly happy and delighted (to receive it)," said Mr. Turnbull.
It included a monetary reward, gift certificates to audio stores to purchase equipment and five training sessions.
Mr. Turnbull might use the sessions to work on his narration skills, since he wants to do more audio books, he said.
"I have mixed long-term goals. I'd love to do more audio books, but I'm not talented enough yet. You need to have control of 25 different character voices and keep them throughout the whole process," he said.
He voiced Stephen Benet's short story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster."
"It was a very big success," said Mr. Turnbull.
He recently completed a documentary on the history of the cactus range surrounding Nellis Air Force Base in the northeast corner of the Las Vegas valley in Nevada. It will air on the Discovery Channel later this year. He would like to do more documentaries, he said.
Although he has done a large amount of work covering the senior demographic, he does a range of voices.
"I love to do fun stuff. I've done some pirate stuff for Disney," said Mr. Turnbull.
One change in the industry over the past few years has been the ability for actors to specialize.
"In the old days, you'd have to be the jack-of-all- trades. Now, you can have a signature voice and find what you do best," said Mr. Turnbull.
For more information, visit www
.mlturnbull.com.