Bacardi Europe Campaign

There is a certain amount of irony in that I don’t drink and that I’ve been hired for a second well-known alcohol brand. This past December, I was hired to be the voice for Bacardi Europe’s internal communications.

As with most of my auditions, I usually forget about them right after I submit them. In a business where rejection (or rather, just not being selected) is the norm, it’s generally a best practice to not dwell on auditions; I’m not going to land most of them.

The upside is that when I do hear about booking a gig, it’s a fun surprise.

It was the first day of PAX Unplugged. I had my away message on for all incoming emails, as it was my intention to spend the entire weekend nerding out with my friends who I hadn’t seen in three years over tabletop games and what’s rapidly becoming my newest hobby/obsession: Kill Team, the skirmish game by Games Workshop set in the Warhammer 40k universe.

My phone buzzed, and I idly looked down at the notification. It was from my European representation, and all I saw was the subject line: You’ve been hired for BacardiX.

I’m glad I didn’t ignore the email notification. Yeah, I wanted to be “off”, but in the world of a voice actor, or any freelancer, you can’t ever really be unreachable, especially in the beginning of your career.

So I did my little internal dance of joy, but then realized: I’m at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The day just started. Do I need to leave right now and get this done?

Fortunately, they didn’t need the audio until Monday afternoon, so with a sigh of relief and a spring in my step, I went back to enjoy the rest of the PAX Unplugged convention.

Brian WigginsComment