We were lucky to catch up with Rob Ricotta recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Rob , thanks for joining us today. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?
Firstly, throughout school I was a very poor math student and hated testing, quizzing and hours of plaguing numbers, formulas and rules. All that to say I thrived and was intrigued by english/literature and history. However, to my literature teacher I and my friend were a big problem in the classroom (acting up and making voices and faces) etc. Somehow Mrs. Boyer saw this as frustrating, but as a turning point (an opportunity). She motioned for my troublesome friends and I to take turns crafting the characters we read of in her literature books and to shape their voices and narrate for the class; or act and dress up as characters in history.
Mrs. Boyer brought her husband in to help calm our minds and he would hush the classroom with his low booming and authoritative tone in reading to our class. It was voiceover, (I didn’t know it) but thats exactly what voiceover was at the time. The underlying valuable message from this would be that maybe whats been a joke to you or others all your life, Just maybe what has been your quirk (this thing that you have an aptitude for) could be the very skill that brings the most joy to you or the craft that you should pursue most in your life and future. Who knows if it could be your brand and business in the future and your own way of getting your unique art out into the world.
Rob , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I suppose you could say I fell into it. I was asked by a friend of mine in college if I would announce a band that was touring the USA for the first time. He bribed me with a free burrito lunch as I was a broke college student. That’s all it took, he said, “I just need a low american accented voice”. I joyfully accepted (though I described I had never done it but could try). It was a scene out of the beginning of Mrs. Doubtfire as I stepped up to the microphone whilst three people in the industry (whom were professionals) watched in silence, emotionless. I reverted back to my younger years attempting to. make them laugh with accents and dialects (characters). Next thing you know we all were laughing and one of the veterans in the industry said, “I am not sure if you realize this, but you could do this for a living”. Sometimes that is all you need, someone who knows the industry enough and believes in you. I then (with assistance) created a reel of characters, accents and dialects for an audiences audible pleasure and I have never looked back since that moment.
I have harnessed this craft for over 14 years and gained a wealth of experience in this field.
These days the products, services and creative work I provide can be expressed by the following:
Script Writing/Revision, Creative Producer, Audio Editing, Voice Over, Public Speaking, On Camera Acting, Brand Strategy & Marketing, Brand Management. I act as a liaison/small agency for a myriad of other voice actors and as an event producer for visual and audible elements.
I solve the details of visual and audible adaptation for marketing purposes for each of my clients. I would say I bring the “human” element to what a brand or organization desires to communicate.
Best way to sum this up is that I ensure that everything that a human being is using their senses for, I see to it that they are overall experiencing something they can tangibly feel and is genuine.
What sets me apart from others in my industry is that I remain believable. Acting is actually being true to oneself and I would attest that I am that on a microphone or on camera.
As we know from many artists in their various mediums; it takes around 10,000 hours to master a skill or craft (or at least be on your way towards mastering it). I can say with certainty I’ve set my focus on my personal focal point thus far and it has set me apart in my industry. Though I am nearing 10,000 hours of Voice Acting; I dare not take a stance of “arrived”. I have much more to learn and to develop in. This I’m well aware of.
I am most proud of not allowing myself to become a “one trick pony”, I have put the work in to own a toolbelt to pull from in the areas of tonality, accents and various characters.
The main things I desire potential clients/followers/fans to know about their experience with me is that it will be unique. I do not do each project the same. I am a professional whom gives more than enough material to work with and I will make certain that each person is satisfied with the result of their vision of a project.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
You write your own history. When we as onlookers dive more deeply into a creatives (actor, musician, artist’s etc.) career we try to find a recipe for their seemingly mass success’. However, the more interviews, stories and the vast array of quotations published by these individuals are very telling of one thing, “there is truly no method to the madness”.
Some people were trained from a young age to be avid at their skill honing their specific craft early on. Others it came more naturally to and someone in their lives simply encouraged them in the field of their gifting.
However, there is a reoccurring theme in the greatest, most recognized and honored artists stories, “Failure”. Every one of these humans is well acquainted with this inevitability. We have to ask ourselves as renaissance men and women, are we willing to fail? Can we rise above the failure and still receive vision for the rest of our existence.
When the years go by and your career doesn’t look like what you had hoped. When your place in life doesn’t match the dreams you swear you saw in your head. Do we dare to ask ourselves, have I written my best song, painted my greatest work of art and played my most meaningful role? These questions come loaded with an inspiration that far exceeds our past failures or where we’ve come up short thus far.
Creatives who don’t create feel as if they are not being or doing enough in life, like there is something lacking, missing and a change must occur.
So if there is no perfect, “method to the madness “of our industries and failure is inevitable. Well then go ahead and fail, and after that let’s move on. Cause right around the corner of that failure is a vision that will make you leap out of bed just to experience it.
You and I have yet to fully live out those dreams, so in the meantime have fun failing and I’ll see you on the other side of it.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Non creatives may struggle to understand is how to compare our desires to desires they may have. A simple solution to this may be to ask someone in a non creative vocation, what do you desire in your vocation? Is it accolade, craftsmanship, quality or longevity?
When I consistently ask myself, it has bode me well over the years as I’ve built the blocks of my own craft. Once I start with the foundation each year of this very question, it results in a trajectory for the days and months that so quickly go by. Please don’t think of it merely as a, “new years resolution”; more so it is a starting place.
I am not the same person I was 5 years ago, and guess what, neither are you. Our desires for our life change and take on new forms over time. This simple exercise is a self check on where we are at in the here and now. It becomes all apart of the process of being present with the realities of our current lives; yet gives us hope and dreams once again for whats to come.
So if we have a desire, how do we see it come into fruition?
Incremental steps towards our desires are of pinnacle importance. So many times we look at all we have to become and it’s impossibly intimidating. It stares back at us and with its ugly scowl says, “You can’t find time for that”, “You’re too old” or the inevitable “Comparison game with others in our industry”. This is where passivity creeps in and debilitates our potential.
If we tell ourselves and agree that “this very incremental step I am apart right now will get me over there”, then we are really going places!
In conclusion, “What do you desire?” for your life and your vocation?
Contact Info:
- Website: robertricotta.com
- Instagram: @rricotta
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rricotta?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-ricotta-12318156
- Twitter: @RobRicottaJr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@robricotta7347
- Other: https://www.robertricotta.com/industry-thoughts https://www.robertricotta.com/contact To contact for a project !
Image Credits
Eric Ahlgrim Raul Serpas Ernie Passwaters Buck Cumbo Doltyn Snedden