Wednesday, February 9, 2011

'King's Speech' brings clamor for voice coaches | Business Of Life | Crain's Chicago Business

'King's Speech' brings clamor for voice coaches: Business Of Life Crain's Chicago Business
"Voice coaches are feeling the buzz of “The King's Speech,” the film about King George VI of England, which has snared 12 Oscar nominations. Business at Chicago-based Total Voice Inc. was up 25% this January over last, following the late-December opening of the film about the king and his coach, Lionel Logue. “The film is capturing something in the ether,” says owner Kate DeVore, 41. “It's making people aware that vocal coaching is even a service.”

A Word from Lisa:
One day in February 2010, I realized I was suddenly overbooked with my accent, voice and speech coaching, and had to go to a waiting list!

In the middle of the night, I bolted up in bed from my sleep, and yelled, "It's The King's Speech! That's it! It was nominated for all those academy awards! THAT'S IT!"  The dog barked, the birds stirred and said, "go to bed," and even the cat raised it's head in curiosity.  Of course, it immediately went back to sleep.  I didn't.  "Wow," I replied, scratching my head in wonder, "Wow."  "Say it right!" quipped my African Grey, Valentina Dinero (she loves vowel sounds and plosives.)

Because of this movie and all it's nominations for academy awards, it is now not only stylish to work with a speech coach, but it's 'officially chic'!  I have not had a chance to see the movie yet, but a couple of my clients called me from New York and said, "Lisa you HAVE to see this movie, it reminds us of our sessions with you... doing all those strange and fun things you made us do, like talking with corks in our mouth!"
So I researched on the internet, and sure enough, I found my midnight hunch was correct. So I thank the writers and producers of the movie for showing the public that working with a speech coach is FUN, EXCITING and it works!