The Small Business Spotlight: Voice Actor Chris Griesemer
In this "Small Business Spotlight," presented by American Bank, Austin Meek of Waco Business News highlights voice actor Chris Griesemer.
Voice actor Chris Griesemer from his desk in McGregor. Chris typically edits at this workspace and records audio in the sound-proof room next door. A working dad, he completes his tasks with an eye on the baby monitor.
If you've ever seen a commercial for Fosters Australian Beer or the Royal Bank of Scotland, you've heard a thick Aussie accent or Scottish brogue imploring you to deposit your funds, either in the bar’s till or a safety deposit box. What your ear probably didn't notice is the similarity between the two tones, or the fact they sound so similar because they were both recorded in McGregor, Texas.
"My name is Chris Griesemer and I am a voice-over actor and I do silly voices into pieces of plastic"
Chris was always the funny guy growing up and he learned to mimic his favorite characters as a young boy.
[Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck voices]
One night as a high schooler in Denver, he stepped on stage at a comedy club. A chance encounter changed his life forever, though in a different way than he’d planned.
“It went pretty poorly but a lot of it was just doing voices. They were like, 'Hey…your material is terrible. Never do that again. But your voices are great."
An agent attending the show contacted Chris and started booking radio commercials, including for his local PBS station:
When I arrived, Chris was recording a commercial for an Australian carpet cleaning company using a Scottish accent.
"A lot of tote bags that I promised."
Traversing the voice acting mountain has been a steady, upward climb.
"The little local ads became regional ads or became TV spots which then became national spots and then recurring spots and you know just kept bigger and bigger from there."
Two primary factors shape this industry in 2020. One is the proliferation of content. It’s not just radio and TV spots anymore: now, it’s voice over work for Covid safety videos, audio books, podcasts, and more.
"One of the things I do is for a Top 20 YouTube channel that’ll have these videos like, ‘The Top 20 Yachts’ and I will just narrate that. And they send me, like, six scripts a week. I charge generally either per time or per word and these are like 20 minute scripts so I’m like like yeah, keep sending them, because that's crazy."
Austin, Texas, is a hub for video game development. Chris has worked on multiple games for Oculus, the virtual reality platform. It's more economical for a game designer to hire Chris because he can voice literally every character in a game.
The “whisper room” in Griesemer’s home studio where he records most of his audio.
"Sometimes it could be background characters [character voices]. Other times I’m the narrator who leads you through modules before you get to game play [character voices].
“I’ve been wizards, I’ve been pirates, I’ve been penguins that sound like Joe Pesci, I’ve been librarians that sound like Stewie from ‘Family Guy.’ [character voices].”
A second issue impacting the industry is the pervasive nature of technology. Anyone with a few hundred bucks can make a home studio that sounds nearly as good as Chris’s.
“There are so many different types of ways voice work can be used now that was not the case 20 years ago. But additionally it’s a lot easier to get into voice work than it used to be 20 years ago because you can buy full studio-grade equipment off Amazon for $400 and get yourself set up. All of the sudden, there’s a lot more competition out there."
There will always be a cheaper option as technology continues to drive down costs. But companies would rather pay up for someone like Chris for a simple reason:
"I have a wider than normal range of different stuff that I can do.
"I do more dialect work than probably any voice over actor in the State of Texas."
As with any efficient market, the cream rises to the top. A bevy of broadcast characters keeps him busy both in the US and abroad, and should continue until his lungs give out.
The Small Business Spotlight is presented by American Bank with three locations in town including an expanded branch at Franklin and 4th.
This "Small Business Spotlight,” co-produced by Waco Business News and KWBU, first aired on Friday, November 6, 2020, in Episode 93 of Downtown Depot on 103.3 KWBU-FM Waco.