In-Show | Documentary | Commercial | Promo - Mr. Versatile Thom Pinto

Well, my guest today is one of the most accomplished voice actors in the business. His commercial credits include Audi, AT &T U-verse, Clorox, Infuse Tea.

As a narrator. History Channel’s Charles Manson, Discovery’s Arctic Rescue, The Weather Channel’s American Supernatural, CBS’s All Access Twilight Zone, and Smithsonian Channel’s Crazy Monsters.

Since 2007 he's been a promo voice for CBS News including CBS This Morning, 48 Hours, and the CBS Evening News.

He's also been the signature promo voice for KRON San Francisco, get this,for the last 29 years.

More than that, he's one of the most humble, kind, and generous people you will ever meet in this business or outside of this business.

Please give a warm welcome to the VO Pro Podcast to Thom Pinto. Thom, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on, man.

Thank you. We just, how do we put it? Yeah, we just cracked year 30 for KRON in San Francisco. And, you know, I feel quite fortunate because it's also,close to where I live. I think, let me put it this way, nothing against, let's say Nashville, but why would just be just as happy, but to know that I've got friends and family and former, a lot of students who live in the Bay area that they hear me, you know, and, and, and, uh, so they can kind of, you know, call me on something and say, Oh, I heard you on that such and such. You didn't pronounce that word right or something like that, or.

They'll say, oh, wow, I heard you on this one. I didn't recognize you. You got to use your sports voice. Well, that's, that's what it's for. So, but thank you. What does it mean? Because it's a rare thing to be the promo voice for a particular affiliate or network or anything in this business for 30 years. What, what does that mean to you when you look back at it? Um, there have been last count. We're on the fifth creative director of the department since I started.

Wow.

And usually that's a time where that person wants to make the change. And there have been a couple of instances where the person wanted to make the change. But during the search, they realized that, well, maybe we're OK with this guy. And this is not false humility, Paul. I think this is I can tell you that I think this has happened for a lot of people.

Not so much even the voiceover industry, but sometimes when you've been there a long time and you're like really part of that fabric, it's like somebody saying, well, we can't fire her or we can't let him go type of thing. They're associated with the station. So I think there's been a bit of luck doing that, but you know what? You just never take it for granted. And it's not even so much about showing my gratitude.

It's about letting the gratitude show up in turning stuff around on time. Being there available when there's an emergency that happens, whether it's an earthquake or whether it's a shooting or it's a protest at SFO airport with Palestinians as it was. I don't know. It was like, I got the email seven o 'clock one night and they said, we need to turn something around. The editors are going to work tonight. We want it to run.

because we're going to have a special on it in the morning. So you try to go the extra mile on that stuff. Affiliates are a quick turnaround because the new stuff is like they get the stories and let's say it's 1 32 o 'clock or something like that. Like for example, right now I can probably tell you at around 2 there will be a script that will come down the pipe.

We need to knock it out. And I mean that. It needs to be done within 15, 20 minutes because they want to get it on the air by four o 'clock to promote the 6 p .m. news. So that that's the rhythm of affiliates. And I know people say, well, that's kind of like what happens to me when I'm doing unpaid plays that I've got to turn around or else they won't have my audition. So I said, you're used to it then.

When you're doing promo, you know, I've heard from other talent, for example, Donovan Cornitz, Joe Cipriano, they say they absolutely love, these are guys that live and breathe and, you know, just consume themselves with the promo world and they're very, very good at it. You, on the other hand, while you're amazing at promo, you've also had success outside of that particular genre in show narration and documentaries and commercial. To what do you owe that success outside of yourself and then maybe inside? Like, what is it about you that is able to work in genres that are pretty different from each other?

When I signed with Sutton Barth Vennari, who was my second agent, okay. I had one agent in LA for about two and a half, three years. And then I got discovered by a Producer who was in tight with Rita Venanri and I get a phone call from Rita Vennari says I understand that I need to sign you I'm like, okay, that's great But what she used to say to me god lover when I was with them for all those years She goes you're my ringer Because I'm versatile now. I'll just say this Versatile for some people you can say. Oh, well, he's not distinctive and guess what many times that does apply?

I don't think anybody says, wow, that Thom Pinto, he's so distinctive. They say that about Joe Cipriano. They say that about Deb Harada. You know, so if you're not a distinctive voice, you need to be a versatile voice. So in this day and age, agents are like going, I've got too many people in my.

stable as it is, so I need people who are, oh, let's say, send this to Pinto, because it's a voice match, see if he can do, what was the one that I wasn't even sure that I could do? It was John Cusack. Cusack. Really? No, no, wait a minute, seriously. I still don't think it was, but it was a character in a movie, and it was a seven second line that they needed cut down to four seconds for, the trailer. So I think versatility helps you in terms of working in other genres. Now I'll also say this, necessity Paul, you know, I mean, I had a really wonderful 80s and early 90s in the commercial realm.

In the movie trailer realm and in the light comedic promo realm and and this is you know humility is good I think sometimes but what happened was uh we like more actors now well the commercial stuff started doing that promo um you know he he's it sounds a little a little old for this younger promo not as hip and cool we love that [indistinct] okay so that goes away movie trailers

I was doing the coming of age stuff, 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, Uncle Buck, Married to the Mob, Pretty in Pink, things like that.

A lot of the John Hughes stuff.

A lot of the John, yeah, I kind of got on that gravy train. I'm going to say that he liked me and I found that out that he liked me. And it was like… Point was is that I got to a point to where, and I think maybe you've met Richard Redfield, who's been doing a lot of coaching more. I worked with so much stuff with Richard and eventually Richard said on something says, you know, where so just thinks you're not young enough on the comedy, not not young enough on this comedy stuff. And then, but I don't have the voice or didn't have the voice for the kind of drama, you know, in the world, that kind of stuff. So it's about survival. It's about reinventing yourself. It's about, you know what?

I suddenly had a little more gravitas to do news promos. So while I was working at the ABC affiliate doing their entertainment shows like I and LA and the morning news and things like that, it's when Bill Ratner had back surgery and I had to fill in for him for about three months to where I developed more news chops. The creative director there moved on to another station.

Guess who he hired? So part of it is about evolving with the industry. Taking, and I know this sounds like not being proactive, but it's really not. Be proactive to listen to what's going on out there and where you're gonna fit so you can work, so you can take care of your bills, and also so you can enjoy.

And I'll be honest with you, I started narrating in the early 90s and I never thought I would be a narrator because the long form scared me when I found out that, oh, we're only gonna do it a paragraph at a time, how fun. There we go, that's more my cup of tea. But I love storytelling and I think the older I've become, it's just enhanced. My love for it enhances the reads and then,

I started writing again because I used to write years ago and now I have more respect for the written word than ever. So in terms of looking at a documentary, a docu -series, I mean these people have lived with this stuff for years. It's not like they had to bang out a 30 second cheeseburger commercial, you know, overnight because we have a session Thomorrow. No, they're living with it for a couple of years. The visuals, the material, the music, the interviews.

And it's like, well, guess what? If he has used or she has used a particular kind of phrasing in there, don't automatically think that you're going to contract that word. If he has used cannot, there may be a reason why they've chosen cannot instead of can't. So I think that has helped me in that genre. But you know what? You have to keep...

We have to keep growing. We have to keep learning. And pardon, when you say about me, I love, I love learning. I love, I love a chance. I love a new challenge. I think that's one reason that you're such an effective teacher is that you have a love of learning because I don't think you can do one without having the other. Let's, let's look at these genres that we've talked about.

We've talked about trailer, commercial, promo, in show narration. Let's do a little, ff you're game for it, a little free association. I'll bring up the genre and you tell me what you think is the challenge in that genre. Let's, let's start with movie trailers.

Not as much work in movie trailers as there was during the golden era. I mean, seriously. Okay. Um, I think on movie trailers now you have to be able to say, how do I button the story? Because most of the time a VO doesn't even start it.

But they may do the last 10, 15 seconds. So to capture the essence of the drama specific, don't just think, well, this is my drama voice. You know what I mean? The nuances, romantic drama, dramedy, apocalyptic drama. I don't work much in trailers anymore, but when I do, it's usually a film of distinction or an independent film.

where they don't mind an older voice. So you still have to tell a story, even if it's just in 10 or 15 seconds. I think if I were to advise anybody in trailers, the biggest thing to start working on, in terms of your big responsibility in the script, reviews, review spots. You know, when they say,

I mean, you come up with the killers, you know, killers of the flower. Okay. You know, how would you navigate talking about Leo's performance? Lily Gladstone delivers Scorsese does it again, you know, that type of stuff. That's probably where most of our responsibility is now these days. Yeah. The review spots are big. Let's switch to in show narration. What's the big challenge there? Um,

I think with documentary and in-show, okay, doc is more responsibility, in-show more reality series, is really being aware of all the different networks that are out there so we don't do de facto narrator. That really is important to understand their brand. I mean, I tell the story frequently about how I narrated something for Smithsonian.

It was called Animals Aloft and it was out about animals that, you know, were in airplanes that were shot up in space, you know, things like that, or shot out of cannons that aired on Smithsonian for a couple of years, Paul. And then suddenly I was kind of like scrolling because I thought, Oh, maybe I'll put this on my demo. And I'm scrolling and I found it and it wasn't me. It was a younger.

fresher, more conversational voice. I said, okay, well I got replaced. Then I saw that it was on Animal Planet. And I said, well, that makes sense. Animal Planet likes people that sound a little more real, a little more grounded, a little more like animal lovers, and not necessarily just your historical narrator. Let's fast forward, I don't know, maybe five, seven years?

Smithsonian buys the show back because they decide we're having a streaming channel. I go to Smithsonian because I love all the stuff that they have there, not just the stuff that I narrate. I just love their style. So it's going boop, boop, boop, boop. And I go, animals aloft. Yeah, right. And I clicked it on.

And it was you.

It was me. So the brand of a network does really count. and getting very specific about it in terms of looking at the story, purpose of the documentary, Paul. I would tell people three things. They say, I can't afford your workshop. Okay, ready? When you get an audition, you've got to know the purpose of the documentary. You have to know a specific attitude or point of view that works for you and possibly the knowledge of the network. And thirdly,

Hail to the visuals, hail to the visuals, hail to the visuals, because the visuals are king.

Let them breathe. Let's wrap up with commercials. What's the big challenge for you on commercials?

I find today, I know my while I'll, you know, now I get a lot of, which is totally cool. Now I get a lot of, we need a grandpa or how about this? We need… a national spot that I had, you know, doing COPD. You know what I mean? For pharma. I think for commercials, I want to make sure that I represent that brand because there are so many people out there doing this now. We've got people that can cover that. You know, again, we don't, Thom, no, no, no, we want you. So I try to make, I'll tell you for me,

My challenge is, I say, Go with the story, tell the story, honor the pictures, and the rest is up to the VO gods, okay? The other part of it is, I find for other people out there, I look at the direction. When they say, and I say they, whatever, nothing commercial, nothing this, nothing this, don't do this, don't do that, all the things that we don't do,

But where the hell is the specifics on the do? Be real, be conversational. That's not enough. That's not enough. So I just think that what we're getting is when there's people are listening to 400 reads, we're getting some people who are looking at that and saying, fuck it. I need to have some give a shit factor. Not everything could be throw away.

Not everything can be throw away. There are certain products to where you do something in a tag at the Xfinity, the future of awesome. Fine, you can throw that away. It'd be cool. But if you've got to navigate 30 seconds of copy, you have to tell a story. You have to tell the story. And yes, not dominate the picture. So it's that balance. It's that balance of I want to compliment, but I don't want to dominate. I want to be memorable.

But again, I don't want to sound like I'm chewing the scenery. So I think it's a balance that everybody works on. And I, I have to work on it too.

All that segues perfectly into my next question as a guy that's been doing this for decades, how do you keep it fresh? How do you constantly challenge yourself? How does a guy that's been doing this for 30, 40 years wake up in the morning and go, I want to try that.

Yeah. Right. Well, what's great is that it seems like there are a number of opportunities that will arise that will kick you out of the ho -hum. You know, when somebody says, I'll give you one. I can't mention what it was. Audition. Don't know if I got it or going to get it, but I'll just say this animated piece and I don't do a lot of animation anymore, but I'm starting to I I actually my beginning of the year my thing was new layer Refresh your animation in your mind. I've worked with Kristen Paiva a couple times privately I took one of her three hour things, boy, you're just a bowl full of information and inspiration.

And this is, this is for a sports app, an animated character, six episodes, they're seven minutes long, a sports app, and let's see, careful how I'm gonna, I don't wanna give, I get a chance to play an older guy who runs an Italian eatery, which isn't that far from the truth because I work for my dad's pizza place. So Paul, it's kinda like, why aren't I gonna do that? And you wouldn't be great to be, to book it?

But I had so much fun last week digging into that and it brought back memories of my dad, you know, saying, Hey, go grate some cheese. You know, that type of thing.

Almost sounds like an insult. Ah, go grate some cheese.

Well, you know what? Actually, Paul, the insult is, uh, and my brother's name is Paul. Then my dad would go, Paul, go make some boxes. Then, Tommy never makes boxes.

The pizza boxes, right? You got to put them together. Exactly. So you've been doing this for a little while now and it looks like you're going to stick with this and have a fairly successful career. What work do you enjoy most?

The storytelling.

And no matter what the genre?

Yeah. I did some stuff for DeKalb Herbicide and it was so... I didn't even have to say the word herbicide, but it's about the respect for farmers, people growing things, the fruit basket of the world, blah, blah, blah, and we're here for you, that type of stuff. I'm shrink wrapping it and not getting too sappy, but I loved it because I also, by the way, since 2005, I have lived in Stockton. Stockton is in the Central Valley of California for those who don't know, and it is...

of the food basket. We are surrounded, you go two minutes, grapes, olive trees, pistachios, walnuts, cherries, you know, it's really very, very important. So I have this reverence and so I enjoy those kinds of stories. I also enjoy when I get a chance to do a story on a promo like a couple years ago for the MLB playoffs, about giving a little history about how it all started. What's some of the big thing? You know, you've got the shot of Carlton Fisk, you know, hitting the ball and saying, go, go, go.

You've got, what's his name? Bill Buckner, unfortunately. You know, the ball going through his legs. Things like that. Or Kirk Gibson, you know, hitting the walk off home run. Iconic moments. Yeah. So it wasn't like pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, promo. It was storytelling promo. Again, there we go.

And then, um, a couple of years ago, I had the good fortune to do a wonderful piece on the Arctic climate. And it was sort of an accommodation nature conservation thing. And it was done by a company out of Australia and the pictures was so great. The music was great. And yes, I worked to picture. So I said, no, no, no, no, no, I like working with a picture. No problem.

I'll rent a studio because I don't have Pro Tools anymore. Don't worry about it. They ended up picking up the tap of the studio as well. Wow. But it was like working the picture, hearing the music in my head, you know, reading about, you know, these particular animals watching these polar bears slowly marching, you know, crawling across the glaciers. It filled all my passions of, you know, about, you know, the planet that we're leaving for our children, or I'll say our grandchildren, but the good storytelling, the really nice writing. I mean, it was like, how do I put it?

They didn't have as much money as what I normally get. And I told my agent, I said, no, I auditioned for this. This is great. I will do it. That's fantastic.

So you, fortunately for the industry, you have also become one of the best coaches in the industry.

Thank you.

When you're teaching new talent and I, you know, the first time I met you was in an X session a few years ago at VO Atlanta…

And you were on the money. Well thanks. You know, you size it up, you size it up, you give, I recall this, he's kind of like, I'm going, okay, guy knows what the story is. It's time to, and as a teacher, you know what I love is when you have 12 people and somebody comes in and does a really decent first take.

It's like, great. For anybody out there saying, in this room who's saying, okay, that's good. No, I dig into the details. And I know I'm certain that I pushed you. I'm certain that I said, would you consider what possibly will happen here and here and here? Because it's the variety in this, that the variety in a story that always keeps us engaged. So.

And that was my question… is… when you're working either, you know, one -on -one or in a group setting or whatever it might be, what is it that fires you up about teaching the art?

It's really interesting. And I've said this over the years, really, I've said it over the years and some people go, really? And I go, no, it is really. What makes my pocketbook happiest? National commercials and regular promo clients. What makes my heart happiest? Telling stories, which doesn't pay like those others. But the biggest happiness I get, Paul, is when I hear somebody else do what I directed them to do in their zone. It's a great joy. And, you know, if you talk to some of the other really top coaches, they will say that themselves. That's why Mary Lynn Wissner continues to do it. You know, she loves

taking somebody from here and taking them to there. We work in an industry that a couple things happen, especially in social media. Oh, wow, that's great. Oh, I loved you on that. Oh, you're wonderful. And by the way, thank God people err to the side of doing that as opposed to I don't think that was a good read. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But sometimes we don't always get that kind of validation to say and you appear and I want to say,

The man is giving out good information. The man is trying to get people to start asking questions. And you're trying to get people, and correct me if I'm wrong, to know what their worth is, you know, in the marketplace and not undersell them. And I gotta tell you, I saw it this morning, out of the corner of my eyes, something, I don't know what it was, but it just said,

There was a woman behind mic and it said, affordable voiceovers. And I'm going, okay, how about an affordable lawyer? I don't know. How about an affordable physician, a surgeon? I don't know. How about an affordable painter? Yeah, it's going to look like hell. We know what that means. It means cheap. And that's why I tell people because obviously I'm a union talent, but the industry has changed.

The industry has changed. People getting into it. You can't say, okay, you need to join the union as soon as you can and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That finger wagging probably was happening 15 years ago. Uh -uh. Uh -uh. You know what? The genie is out of the bottle. So I just say people need to know really what their worth is. You know, I mean, there are several places to find the rates. I know GVAA does a nice, they check in with me from time to time to say, hey, what are the rates on this and this and this now?

I also, people who I work with, who eventually, and this is always the great news when they go, hey, I think I'm getting my first gig. You know, it's not through my agent, but I did self -marketing, person heard me on the website. And my first question is, don't give a quote until you got the script. You need to get a sense of the script.

and please don't use word count, don't let them use word count. Word count is not what we do. And then try to find out these things. Is it something they're producing, hoping to pitch to a network? Is it something that they are doing and they know it's going to be on a particular network? And in that case, which network?

Because Smithsonian and History Channel, have more money to pay than Oxygen. These smaller channels, you know, they've got to run a heck of a lot more spots. So I try to say, I tell those people, I'm happy to give you a ballpark for those people who have worked with me to give an estimate because I want to help them to not totally undersell themselves.

Thom, I got to tell you, this has been one of the most amazing episodes we've had. It's been long on my mind to get you on the podcast if I could. I can't thank you enough for your generosity and not just today, but for what you give back to the VO community. We need leaders like you who are so kind and so generous and so encouraging without, and this isn't tricky balance, without smoke blowing, right?

It's not about false praise. It's about

being supportive of people and bringing them along.

Yeah.

And you know what helps in terms of the smoke blowing aspect, and I totally get that, is people spend far too much money on coaches and demos and their studio, home studio set up, marketing experts and everything else to not be told the truth, to be patient with this a little bit that you can't you know what I used to say years ago.

I would say you know if it was as easy as two workshops put together a demo and you book a national campaign there'd be a line going down Bridgeway Avenue that's in Sausalito when I used to give that lecture to those people up in Marin County. I said everybody and mother's son would want to do that. Now that was before.

it really opened up to the flyover states. So now everybody is doing it. So it's even more important to, you've got to get better. Yes, marketing is definitely important, but please don't forget about getting better. Yeah. It all starts with being a good voice actor in the age of AI, in the age of all of these pressures that we have.

I still say good actors will continue to work. And it all starts there.

I agree with you, Paul.

Thom, it's been a pleasure, man. Thanks for being with us today.

You're welcome, Paul. Bye-bye.