MIchael Klein

Wolf Man Jack or The Joker

I've been a poet and writer--and teacher of writing--for over 20 years and was also in the VO market around 15 years ago when you had to pound the pavement and go to maybe five or six auditions a day! I loved it, but I didn't have the time or--at that period in my life--the kind of experience (VO and LIFE) one really needs to succeed. I was signed with J. Michael Bloom and freelanced with William Morris after that. I've mellowed w/age, I think and now I'm in better tune. Someone once described my voice--the "experience" of hearing it--as listening to someone gargle with gasoline. And in the years I was auditioning, it was considered the voice of damage. There were a lot of us then. It was in fashion to sound like that. It was a damaged time. But I like to think my voice has become something more over the years of training and curiosity--that it's become a voice of romance and comedy and sophistication. In other words--a voice that holds both joy and sorrow--kept alive by talking and singing and reading poems out loud. I've studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Alvin Epstein and at the American Academy of Dramatic Art with Paul J. Curtis and others. I was a voice major at Music & Art High School and majored in writing at Bennington College. More recently, I coached for VO work with Joan Bogden, Charles Michel and Dan Duckworth and took a month-long class last April with Bruce Kronenberg at the Stella Adler Studio. iRig mic, Twisted Wave, MacAir Pro Poet and Writer, 6 books published. I teach writing at Goddard College in Vermont and at Hunter College in New York.