We were lucky to catch up with Eric Horowitz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I watched a lot of cartoons and figured out how to make my voice sound like baby animal from muppet babies. I never thought of myself as an actor or ever really wanted to take an acting class. I was very interested in how films and tv were shot. So I went to school for behind the scenes work and did that for a few years. I was a PA/Grip/Gaffer in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. If I had known that I could have studied Voice acting while I lived in Los Angeles who knows where I would be now. However the other side, by doing it the past 10 years I would never have become friends with so many amazing people that are part of my Podcast, The Potchki Audio Chronicles.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am the type of person that will talk to myself to figure out a solution to a problem. Except I will answer in a different voice either outloud or in my head. Which voice depends on the problem and the solution. I studied voice over locally for a year and then branched out thanks to Blumvox Studios. I had the opportunity to take classes with some of the best voice actors working in the industry today. Since I am in the philly area this has all been through Zoom classes. I have also had the brief opportunity to work locally with a gentleman named Chuck Mckibben who happened to be Mel Blancs engineer. He and I would work on commercial copy. If you want to do animation then you have to live in Los Angeles but commercial voice over you can be anywhere. At least that was how the industry worked pre covid. Since then it has all changed. I have stopped working with Chuck because he left my area post covid. I have been working with my current coach Richard Tatum who has also produced my animation demo and we will be doing my commercial demo wthin the next few months. My goal is to voice commercials with the guy next door sound. The guy who could be your friend helping you decide which pizza to get for dinner or which new car/truck to get next. I enjoy working with people who are fun, energetic and want to think outside the box.
The one thing I am proud of is bringing back a character that was created 23 years ago with my best friend Rob Palmer. We created a bumbling detective and shot our own indie film in 2000. In 2019 when I was getting very serious in Voice over we decided to take this character and produce, write, edit our own scripted comedy podcast called the Potchki Audio Chronicles. We are in the middle of our second season and we just keep gettig more creative creating our crazy universe.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Its starting to get scary in the entertainment world with AI looming over us. People want to praise it and it does have its merits. But like everything we need to respect what it does as well as respect the creative person using it. To be an artist an to have the creative imagination to be a sculpter, painter or writer is an amazing thing. We take the pictures in our mind and bring them to life. One of the most fun things to any voice actor is bringing the words that we read to life. In a way pending on what we are reading we are the Jiminey Cricket helping you make some decisions in your life.
We grab you with the first words we say in a movie trailer that make you go “OH cool”
When we get a picture of a character we have to look it over and think what does this character sound like. Does he have a speech impediment, are they tall or short, thin or fat. Will the voice be deep or high pitch and possibly have an accent. Its playing around until you find it that gets the creative juices flowing.
Can a computer do this? No, but companies out there want them too and they want to bypass the artist, sculptor, writer, actor. Its not right and in the end doesn’t have that heart felt touch a person can bring to someone.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Making people smile or laugh or even better roll their eyes. When I write for my podcast my goal is to make Rob, my creative partner, laugh. If I make him laugh I know what I wrote is funny and vice versa. One of my favorite things to do is to do a read through of a new script on zoom with our cast. I will try to watch and see who laughs at what joke or if they even get the joke. Sometimes the joke is so subliminal that our actors won’t laugh but when they listen to the podcast and hear it in context it becomes one of the funniest moments. We may not have many followers or listens to our show The Potchki Audio Chronicles but one thing Rob and I vowed to each other, as long as we can make each other laugh and enjoy writing then we keep going. Who knows maybe one day you can watch Lester Potchki in animated form somewhere. Another creative endeavor that Rob and I brought back was a character we created in 1997 named Bubba Brewski which is an improvised backwoods comedy about a not so smart host. Bringing him back opened some more doors and we have entered him in some short film competitions that have got us a few compliments.
There is just something about being creative that fills my heart with smiles and happiness.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ericnhorowitz.com
• Other: www.potchkiaudiochronicels.com