BOSSes, get ready for an inspiring conversation with a true powerhouse of performance. In this episode of the VO Boss Podcast, we welcome the incredibly talented Stacia Newcomb, a veteran voice actor and performer who has been lighting up the mic and screen for over 20 years!

 

00:01 - Speaker 1 (Announcement)
Hey bosses, if you're ready to start that demo journey, let's craft your professional demo together. As an award-winning professional demo producer, I'll collaborate with you to showcase your talent in the best possible light. From refining your delivery to selecting the perfect scripts to showcase your brand, I'll ensure your demo reflects your skills and personality. Let's create a demo that opens doors and paves the way for your success. Schedule your session at anneganguzza.com today. 

00:33 - Speaker 2 (Announcement)
It's time to take your business to the next level, the Boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a Boss a VO Boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza. 

00:52 - Anne (Host)
Hey, hey everyone. Welcome to the VO Boss Podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and today I'm here with a very special guest who's been lighting up the mic and the screen for over 20 years. Who's been lighting up the mic and the screen for over 20 years? 

01:09
Stacia Newcomb is a powerhouse voice actor, performer and creator whose work spans just about every medium, let's say television, radio, video games, audiobooks and even puppetry. You might recognize her as the star voice See what I did there and fuzzy face of star from the Good Night Show on Sprout, where she's brought warmth and comfort to bedtime for kids for over a decade. Not only that, but she's voiced characters for Disney, nickelodeon, pbs, kids and Cartoon Network. And, of course, you've heard her in campaigns for brands like Geico, verizon, subway and Dunkin'. She's made her mark on stage and screen from a memorable appearance on 30 Rock, which I found to be quite interesting We'll talk about that in a minute to sold-out off-Broadway comedy shows like Can I Say this? I Can Shit Show and Potty in the USA. I can't say that because it's my podcast. Yes, these days she's running her own studio in the Berkshires Sound and the Furry where she produces family-friendly content and helps other performers find their voice. Welcome to the show Stacia. 

02:12 - Stacia (Guest)
Wow, thank you. That was quite the intro. 

02:15 - Anne (Host)
I'm like wow, I was like wow, I don't think 30 minutes is enough time for us, Stacia, to go through everything that you've done. Let's not, then We'll talk about whatever we want to. It's just, it's so amazing. I mean, so you've been in the industry for over 20 years, which actually to me, I've been in it just the voiceover aspect for like 18. And so 20 years feels like it was yesterday to me. But talk to us a little bit, talk to the bosses and tell us a little bit how you first got into performance. I assume performance was before voiceover. 

02:50 - Stacia (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, hey, bosses. Yeah, I started as an actor. I wanted to be an actor for as long as I can remember, I mean when I was little. My mom still tells a story about how I performed for all of my five-year-old friends at my fifth birthday party, which sounds like still a good party to me, right? So, yeah, so I started as an actor and through that I tried to just branch off into any direction that I could, to be living a creative life and be able to continue performing in whatever medium I could. You know. 

03:34 - Anne (Host)
So what was one of the first things that you did? Performance wise, professionally, yes, professionally. 

03:38 - Stacia (Guest)
So I this is so random, but there is. I'm from Massachusetts, that's where I grew up. In Newport, rhode Island, which I don't know if there are any Gilded Age fans out there there was a mansion, the Astors Beachwood, and the Astors Beachwood was owned by the Astors at the time when I graduated high school. At the time, for about 10 or 15 years, I think they had. They hired actors from all over the country to live there and perform as both aristocrats and servants of the 1890s the year was 1891. And we yeah, it was all improv, like some days I'd be an aristocrat and some days I'd be a little housemaid. 

04:22 - Anne (Host)
Wow, that sounds so interesting. Now you said Massachusetts. Now see, I'm originally a New York State girl, right, and I've been up and down the East Coast, so Massachusetts would suggest that you have an accent in there somewhere. Yeah, I sure do. 

04:37 - Stacia (Guest)
It's right there. 

04:38 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, and of course I feel like, because I had a very New York State accent which was kind of similar, believe it or not, not quite as I don't know, not quite as accented as, not as ugly. Is that what you're trying to say? Oh no, because I would say things like car and water and it would be like really flat with my A is water. 

05:01
And when I moved to New Jersey, oh my gosh did they make fun of me, and so I should not make fun of you? 

05:04
in New Jersey, in New. 

05:04 - Stacia (Guest)
Jersey, they say, they say water. 

05:05 - Anne (Host)
They say water, what's water, and so I literally like and I think you're, I think possibly at the time this was before voiceover I said, oh gosh, all right, so let me try to tame that, and so I did my own taming of my own accent and then ultimately, I got into voiceover. 

05:36
And back when I got into voiceover it was a thing to neutral, to quote, unquote, neutralize, whatever that means, neutralize your accent. And I said it was in a pink envelope and I brought it to the backstage door and so I heard myself say that and I was like and so from then on I just I started pronouncing my R's and have never looked back. 

06:02
I imagine once you do, you have family that's still in the area. 

06:05 - Stacia (Guest)
Yes, in fact, we just moved my mom out of the area. 

06:08 - Anne (Host)
Yeah, when you go to family reunions and I think that when I get around my you know, my family in New Jersey, like we all start talking quicker and then we start, you know, well, let's talk about you know, we just like get into that accent and it just happens inadvertently but outside of the accent. So that's a really cool first gig. And so then did you go to school for theater? 

06:33 - Stacia (Guest)
We did OK. So I had done a little dinner theater and then I but I had been auditioning in New York. I had a big callback when I was like 18. I was called back for Les Mis and it didn't happen, unfortunately. But it's cool because it led me on other adventures. 

06:52 - Anne (Host)
Sure, that was one of my first shows by the way that I saw that. I saw that. I was in a show. No, yeah. No, I can't claim that, but but a callback for Les Mis is really awesome. 

07:01 - Stacia (Guest)
Yeah, it was a big deal, I and I, so I always. The plan was always to move to New York City, but it just takes a while to get on your feet and New York City is very expensive and a little scary when you're you know, sure is Absolutely Very scary. 

07:15
Yeah, and so I ended up getting there eventually. But I did go to college and then I quit college because I realized at some point, like I'm getting a degree in musical theater and what am I going to do with that degree? And I'm spending so much money, but when you're 19 years old you don't realize what you're signing on the dot. You're signing your name on the dotted line for thousands upon thousands of dollars and it's the program itself ended up falling apart. And there were all these promises that were made to me, like you know I, because they gave me a bunch of credits because I'd already been working as an actor, and then I was going to go to London and then they were going to give me my master's so I should have had my master's within five years master's in theater performance. They also had a program where, like I would get my equity card and they do theater during the summers. But it was a small liberal arts Catholic college in Minnesota and the program sort of fell apart and I escaped. I was like this is not. 

08:21 - Anne (Host)
I had to get out of there. I escaped. That was a lot of that was a lot of words, and I'm not going to make this political at all, but that was a lot of words when you said Minnesota Catholic theater. Coming from a Catholic girl. 

08:35 - Stacia (Guest)
So I get that. Yes, so it was run by these two incredible gay men who were. They were amazing, but as you can imagine the politics at the time and just yeah, they were amazing, but as you can imagine the politics at the time and just yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, and so all right. 

08:48 - Anne (Host)
So you quit college. And then what? I quit college. 

08:53 - Stacia (Guest)
But I got a job before I left, so I needed the impetus and the excuse to get out, which so I ended up working for Goodspeed Musicals, which is in Connecticut and they're a really pretty famous like regional theater. They'd won a lot of awards at the musical Annie started there, so I went there to be an intern in costuming and then I left that because I was like this is not what I want to be doing, I want to be performing. But it got me back east, which was great, and then from there I ended up taking like odd jobs, living with my parents for a little bit until I landed a show that took me on tour as a one person it was actually two different one woman shows fo