The Voice of Three Degrees From Justice’s Audio Book

Inside the Voice Over Studio calls Daniel Dorse “One of the most famous voices you don’t know.” As the voice of the audio book Three Degrees From Justice, I had listened to him for hours, but what did I really know about him? Yes, I knew he was fabulously talented and a prolific voice of novels on Audible.com (84 so far) —but what did I really know about Dorse?

So after a "Hey, can I question you" email, he was kind enough to submit to a Q & A session. What I learned is he’s sort of a master of disguise —but with voices. Character after character can roll off out of his mouth into your imagination. Not surprising once you learn that he is a classically trained actor with a PhD in Theater. What I respect most is that he is a talented person who has always found a way to put creativity in his life and still pay the bills —when not doing professional voice over work, he worked in major Las Vegas casinos as a craps dealer and box man for over 25 years.

Some quick background

We met through Audible Creation Exchange (ACX), which is a place writers and voice actors can meet. As Daniel describes it, ACX provides the matchmaking structure so the people can connect, and the legal structure to do business without going crazy working all that out.

After Audible selected Three Degrees From Justice for its stipend program (LINK) to cover the production costs, the book attracted talent —like Dorse— who auditioned for the work. Once I heard his audition, there was never a doubt in my mind. He was the guy for the book.

“You can do this all on your own, but why do all the work?” Dorse says. “ACX makes it simple.”

Without ACX, a talent like Dorse and I would never have met. Even just 10 years ago, the ability of writer and voice actor to meet, create and distribute an audio book this easily would not have been possible. Big thank you to ACX for this, and now that you know how we met, here's the Q & A.

The Q & A

Q. In the last few years, you have voiced or performed over 84 audio books. With each story, it's fair to say you bring a tremendous sense of theater. So, I was not surprised to see you studied theater at University of California at Santa Barbra. Do you recall a moment or an event from your childhood that created a love of theater and led you to UCSB?

A. I was an early reader, because I was interested in the story, and the stories were always more interesting the more elaborate they got. And, less interesting when stumbled through haltingly by a second-grader in one of the lower reading groups. So, by third grade, I was reading at a sixth-grade level and assisting the teacher with the top groups. For me, it was always about telling the story, not struggling with the words, which I could always either sound out or figure out from context.

By middle school, I'd read all the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift Jr. and even Nancy Drew cover to cover, and I was starting to work on some American classics like The Last of the Mohicans. In my high school English classes, when we had to read aloud from Dickens or Shakespeare, I was still frustrated by my classmates monotonic reads. Couldn't they hear what the language was doing? What the characters sounded like? The pace and intensity of the action?

The next step was high school drama for three years, plus the Speech team, specializing in Dramatic and Comedic interpretation. Then a Drama major at UCSB. It's always been about bringing story and characters to life.

Then, a M.A. from UCLA, while working full time at the (now defunct) Pickwick Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard --at the time, the biggest bookshop West of Chicago. After that, work on a Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Q. Is it true Michael Douglas was at UCSB when you were? Do you remember anything about him from class or campus?

A. Michael and I did three shows together while we were at UCSB, including his Senior Directing project, in which I played the lead. He'd sat out a year or two, and he was a couple of years ahead of me. Both of us experienced a lot of growth, and he worked hard at his acting--not only in college but in workshops subsequently, as well as working with talented mentors like Karl Malden.

While I was at UCLA, I performed in a production of Euripides' The Bacchae, in which all the training in Classical acting styles at UCSB suddenly made sense and were useful, as well as a recently completed audio book based loosely on Greek mythology, where at least I knew all the accepted pronunciations of Greek names & places.

Q. You have a great ear for voices and accents, which naturally lends itself to understanding character. I've heard that Pickwick Book Shop in Hollywood was your laboratory for accents and character work. How did that happen, and what exactly did you do?

A. As a clerk there, I met a lot of amazing people, ranging from Cicely Tyson to Maggie Smith, from Elvis Presley to Mick Jagger, from Mae West to Bing Crosby to Ruth Gordon, from Ray Bradbury to Michael Korda. Given its location and atmosphere, I was able to spend days speaking in one accent or another--sometimes for the sheer novelty of it, sometimes to add credibility and street-cred. I would put on a deeper voice with a Brooklyn accent when someone on the phone was looking for a book on truck repair, or a Southern accent when someone was looking for a book on hunting.

Q.What did the other employees at Pickwick think of your voices?

A. I think they were sometimes amused, but probably mostly just rolled their eyes.

Q. You also performed stand-up? Where did you perform? And, what was your favorite bit, joke or routine?

A. The Comedy Underground in Seattle, The Comedy Store, The Improv and the Laugh Factory in LA. I usually performed as a Brit, under the name Danny Elliott, and I could go on at length about the differences between American English and English English--same language, different meanings.

Q. When did you start working in voice overs?

A. Did a little bit in Buffalo, NY, when doing dinner theater there, and upon returning to Seattle, I found some friends who'd been making some side money doing radio and TV commercial VO, inquired about it, cut a demo and started working almost immediately. Once I'd gotten a national TV spot (for Roman Meal bread), I decided it was time to try hustling VO in the "Big Pond"--LA. So, I moved back down to So-Cal, got an agent and booked a few gigs, while continuing to try to break in to stand-up, and of course, because I was in Show Biz, I was also in the restaurant biz--waiting tables, tending bar and managing a couple of places.

Q. Did you ever use your English accent while in the restaurant biz?

A. Yes, I found I could get more work pretending to be British. If I went into a restaurant and asked for a job application, people were not always helpful, but if I asked with a British accent, they would fall over themselves to be helpful. American’s are great Anglophiles. “We don’t have anything now, but we are going to have an opening in a couple of weeks.” The problem became if they hired me I had to keep speaking in a British accent. For three years, I managed a restaurant using an English accent, and I would only speak in an American accent at home with my family. So after that, I didn’t apply for work using accents again. The upside is my British accent became good enough to convince British people and allowed me to pursue audio book and commercial work in the UK.

Q. No one gets a PhD in theater without auditioning a lot. Similar to writing, it can involve more rejection than acceptance. What's the biggest thing you learned from auditioning?

A. You've got to learn to submit and forget. If you don't land a gig, it rarely has anything to do with your talent or skills. Most often, it's just that you don't fit the author/director/producer's preconceived notions. You don't match what they see or hear in their heads when they conceived the project. Like the old Ricky Nelson song: "You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself."

Q. Are you the same Daniel Dorse that appears in the 1989 Val Kilmer movie Kill Me Again as the father at a rest stop? What was that experience like?

A. Yep. A lot of standing around for what wound up being about a minute-and-a-half on film. Six lines turned into two. I only worked with a kid and Michael Madsen, but I still like him (and adore his sister) as an actor.

Q. Like a lot of creative people, you have had other jobs/professions supporting your creative life. In particular, you were a craps dealer and later a box man for 25 years. What is the number one piece of advice you would give a good friend about to play craps?

A. Know the rules and the odds, & toke (tip) the dealers. They're on your side, because they want you to bet for them alongside you. They don't win unless you do, so trust me, whether you're playing craps or blackjack, they'll want you to win and will advise you accordingly.

Q. Ever thought of producing your own audio book on How to play craps?

A. From time to time.

Q. As a voice over artist, you have done work for national brands like A1 Steak and McDonalds, but what was it like being a voice for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling?

A. Wackiest and longest-lasting VO gig I ever had. I only met the ladies a couple of times and never saw any of the "matches" live. For three seasons, I was "Motormouth Mike Morgan", working from a script in a studio and "monitoring the moves, maneuver and mayhem in the squared circle.” Earned me the down payment for my first house.

Q. How do you decide on a character’s voice?

A. Mostly based on the author's description and the over-all tone of the book. Occasionally, I'll "cast" the book with actors from film & TV. I'm not good at impressions, so no listener is likely to get that a particular character is my version of John Wayne or Dustin Hoffman, but being able to attach that actor's image or voice to a particular character helps me remember how they sound whenever they turn up. And frankly, I re-use voices just for simplicity, because no listener to my version of one of the characters in Three Degrees, is also going to listen to an erotic Regency Romance that I narrated and think, "AHA! That's the same voice he used in Three Degrees, but with a British accent!"

Q. I have told anyone that would listen that Three Degrees From Justice had no business getting a voice actor as talented and professional as you, but thanks to the ACX that happened. What about ACX do you like the most? And what's surprised you about working through their stipend program?

A. For me, it's given me a foot in the door of the audio book industry, and ACX has enabled me to hone my voice acting and technical skills. And, it keeps me busy and earning in between other, better-paying VO jobs. It's also nice getting an ever-increasing royalty check each month. The stipends and per-finished-hour projects help address my tendency to be a shop-o-holic.

Q. What attracted you to Three degrees From Justice? And what surprised you the most about the project?

[Spoiler Alert: Answer to this question spoils the end. Skip to next question to avoid.]

A. Initially, just the fact that there was a stipend attached to it. That told me that it was probably well-written and that ACX believed in it enough to put their money where your mouth was. Then, upon reading the short audition passage, I liked the characters, the wild action and the sense of humor. Most surprising was that the "hero" didn't escape justice. I both liked that (because it was more realistic) and disliked it, because I liked the character and wanted to see more of him--a sequel perhaps?

Q. Of the 84 audio books, what stories have stood out to you or just stuck with you through the years. Perhaps titles that listeners are not familiar with but will enjoy.

A. I very much like M.C.A. Hogarth's science fiction novels. She's an absolutely fantastic writer--vivid characters, interesting ideas and nuanced use of language. Big fan of Thomas Scott's Virgil Jones series and looking forward to doing the second one. Witty, wise, convoluted (in a good way), both a good listen and a good read. Looking forward to your next one, John.

Q. What did I not ask you that I should have?

A. I'll be introducing myself at a some upcoming authors conventions in hopes not only of bring some authors to the audio book fold, but of using my dulcet tones to do so. I'll also be teaching an Intro to Audio books class for voice actors at the Voice Actors Workshop in Las Vegas. Hoping to continue a new series conflating steam-punk and supernatural romance--interesting concept, you gotta admit.

You can listen to Daniel Dorse perform Three Degrees From Justice here.

Also available on Kindle, Google Play Books, Barnes & Noble Nook and Kobo.