Posted by Jon Bailey may not be a name you know yet, but if you watch YouTube you’ve more than likely heard his voice. I had an opportunity to ask some questions to Jon, someone I consider one of the greatest voice actors of the 21st century.
(Danniel Slade) Jon, thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions. I would like to start with your introduction. Would you be willing to tell our audience a little bit about yourself?
(Jon Bailey) I’m a full-time professional voice actor in over 2,000 professional jobs and counting. I’ve voiced characters for video games like XCOM 1 & 2, Dishonored 2 and many Steam games; characters in webtoons for How It Should Have Ended, FOX Animation Domination High Definition, Cartoon Hooligans. I’ve done internet, radio & television commercials and almost 300 television, game & movie trailers and promos. I also did 2 documentaries and an audiobook. I fill-in for actors voices. I’m most well known as Epic Voice Guy in Honest Trailers.
(DS) How did you learn that you could make a career out of your voice?
(JB) When I booked my first gig and saw my check. I had no idea how great this career paid. It only took 2 years until I was doing it full-time.
(DS) Most of our audience will know you from ‘Honest Trailers‘; what was your favorite episode to record?
(JB) To record 50 Shades of Gray because it was the first time the script that got me to break and crack up. As far as my personal favorite one it would have to be Pacific Rim.
(DS) At the end of ‘Honest Trailers’, you often read quotes submitted by fan comments; is there anything you’ve been asked to say ‘in your awesome voice’ that you’ve point blank refused?
(JB) They keep requesting “titty sprinkles” and I don’t get why.
(DS) You produced a video where you explain what exactly ADR is. Which films might we have seen that either you replaced or added as additional dialogue?
(JB) So so many. I can’t even count. Currently you can hear me in the trailers for the films WTF, Bad Grandpa, Snow White & The Huntsman 2 and Gods of Egypt but I’ve also been in Movie 43, Snow White & The Huntsman 1, Fast & The Furious 7, 47 Ronin & dozens more.
(DS) I am a huge ‘Transformer’ fan and really enjoy ‘Prime Reviews’. How did you come up with the concept for that show?
(JB) My YouTube friends all kept harassing me to review toys which I thought was a silly idea because so many people already did it but after some of the Star Wars toys came out that I did the voices for came out, the concept of characters reviewing characters popped into my head like “Wouldn’t it be funny if Captain Rex reviewed himself?” to “Optimus Prime reviewed himself” to creating a different persona for him that was always well received online. I’m bringing them back to my channel by the way, at least 2-4 a month and I’ll be doing them weekly on my second channel.
(DS) How does recording for a video game like ‘XCOM’ differ from a recording session like ‘Honest Trailers’?
(JB) Video games have hundreds of lines over the span of 4 hours in which the last hour is all attacking, dying, etc. Brutal on the voice. Honest Trailers are weekly 7-9 page scripts I record through twice and that’s it. Real trailers only take minutes to record and send in.
(DS) Is there a project that you wish you were able to provide your voice for?
(JB) One of the last things on my bucket list is to book a recurring character on an animated series but definitely something official for Transformers.
(DS) What is on the horizon for Jon Bailey that we should be watching out for?
(JB) XCOM2, Dishonored 2 and another game I’m not allowed to speak of yet will be out this year and you can hear me in all of them. Still working on booking cartoons and I’ll be in LA for much longer periods to collaborate more with all my big YouTube friends. You can also hear me in the season finale of one of my favorite TV shows but I can’t tell you which one yet.
(DS) What other projects are you involved with?
(JB) Follow me on all the social medias Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat @EpicVoiceGuy and on YouTube at YouTube.com/c/realepicvoiceguy and I’m trying to raise funds for hardware and production costs and eventually to move to LA permanently at Patreon.com/epicvoiceguy with some AWESOME perks like behind the scenes and bloopers videos, personal Skype calls and hangouts, playing games online or actually being in my videos as well as new bluray/DVD combos, new games or new adult collectibles. You can also order personal recordings under 15 seconds for only $5 at fiverr.com/jbvoiceover and part of the proceeds go to Autism Society of America.
Jon, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. Please take a look at Jon Bailey’s social media sites and check out his videos on YouTube.
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