Samantha Paris - Finding the Bunny: The secrets of Americas most influential and invisible art revealed through the struggles of one womans journey

THE SECRETS OF AMERICAS MOST INFLUENTIAL AND INVISIBLE ART REVEALED THROUGH THE STRUGGLES OF ONE WOMANS JOURNEY

Through narration, flashback, inner monologue, and snappy laugh-out-loud dialogue, Samantha Pariss Finding the Bunny artfully peels back the curtain on the fascinating world of voice-over, and much more. With untethered honesty and humor, voice-over genius Paris reveals her intensely personal storythat of a woman in mid-career, recovering from a disastrous childhood, dealing with a failed but far-from-loveless marriage, running a hugely successful business, shep-herding thousands of students through the learning process so that they can realize their dreams, while dealing with a burning internal conflict about what happened to hers.

Through Pariss odyssey, a reader will be inspired to examine and access ones own inner true voice. As Peter Coyote writes in this books Foreword, Finding the Bunny is an eye-opener, a thought-provoker, an education, an adventure, and an inspiration...[Its] about transformation more than anything elseoffering ideas that may challenge or freshen your thinking, enrich your life, and light your own path.

Samantha Paris is a natural-born teacher, entrepreneur, and force of nature. Her greatest gift has been teaching others that the power of possibility actually already exists in your own internal life, if you just give voice to it.

Finding the Bunny

by Samantha Paris

Published by

Voice Haven Productions

1207 D Bridgeway

Sausalito, CA 94965

415-331-8800

www.findingthebunny.com

Text copyright 2018 by Samantha Paris.

Photos copyright 2018 by Samantha Paris.

Finding the Bunny is my life story, as I recall my memories and experiencesalthough, at times, some timelines had to be changed for storytelling purposes, and some names had to be changed for legal purposes. I chose to insert the names of friends and loved ones whenever possible.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Names: Paris, Samantha. | Coyote, Peter, writer of supplementary textual content.

Title: Finding the bunny : a memoir / Samantha Paris; foreword by Peter Coyote.

Description: Sausalito, CA : Voice Haven Productions, [2018]

Identifiers: ISBN 978-0-9993121-0-0 (softcover) | ISBN 978-0-9993121-1-7 (POD) | ISBN 978-0-9993121-2-4 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Paris, Samantha. | Voice actors and actresses--United States--Biography. | Voice-overs. | Self-actualization (Psychology) in women. | LCGFT: Autobiographies.

Classification: LCC PN2287.P37 A3 2018 (print) | LCC PN2287.P37 (ebook) | DDC 791.43028092--dc23

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017952319

Editors: Terry Bisson and Gail M. Kearns

Book and cover design: the BookDesigners

Book production coordinated by To Press & Beyond.

Printed in the USA.

I dedicate this book to my beloved students, past and present. During my thirty-year teaching career, I am convinced that you have taught me far more than I ever taught you. Namely, what love, devotion, and family are all about. I am so proud of each you and I am proud to say that because of you, I was able to find my bunny.

To my Voicetrax team, Vicki Baum, Roni Gallimore, and Chuck Kourouklis, you exemplify every day how great teamwork makes the impossible, possiblehelping our students realize their dreams, and helping me realize my own.

For my chosen mother Janet Mann, Andre, and Graziano. I am where I am today because of your unconditional love and support. I know that down to the deepest parts of my soul and will remain forever grateful.

If you picked up this book because you think its about voice acting and that it might help you polish your chops and pick up extra income, youre sadly correct. Because by concentrating so intensely on your personal career, youre missing 90 percent of the value of what Samantha Paris can teach you. But lets start at the beginning.

I know something about the art of voice acting. After forty years of voice-overs; ads; 150-something documentaries; two Emmys; having been the voice of General Motors, Tylenol, Oracle, Brita, Chiquita Banana, Mazda, Claritin, lots of other brands; and doing seven, long-form Ken Burns documentaries, perhaps my initial resistance to a voice teachereven one as lovely and charismatic as Samantha Parismight be excused as an overdose of arrogance and self-importance.

Its not that I thought that I knew it all, or had nothing to learn or to teach, when Samantha approached me to teach a class at her school, Voicetrax, but I have a particular way of working, and I just knew that she would never get it, because if she did, I thought it would render her and her school superfluous.

In the first place, I never rehearse. I never even read the copy before I enter the studio to record. I read everything in the recording studio for the first time, because I have a kind of mystical belief that the first time I read something is when it makes the deepest impression on me, and that somehow my voice will transport that information to the listener. When I first met Ken Burns, and he entered the room carrying pads, pens, DVDs, and enormous scripts so that I could prepare for the National Parks series that he wanted me to narrate, he was horrified to learn that I never prepare. Startled, he blurted out, That will never work. Seven films later, were still working together.

So, when Samantha (did I mention, quick, sharp, dazzling, and charming?and, as I soon learned, brilliant) first came to see me, I was polite, because theres never a reason to be hurtful to others. I tried gentle dissuasion by explainingin escalating detailwhy my method would never work at her school. She kept smiling (did I mention dazzling?) and laughing and saying, Thats what I teach. Finally, at the edge of exasperation, I remember saying, Samantha, Im not about