My Lucky Career…love, laughs and great clients …sharing good work. Thank you Rod Eaton!

"When I was producing audiovisual programs Shirley Venard-Diercks was one of my favorite narrators. She was always terrific to work with – the perfect choice for a film I made about midwife assisted births. Narrators rarely see scripts before the recording session. There’s no rehearsal. If a mistake is made or the director wants a different interpretation the narrator just reads the line again. Sometimes two or three takes are recorded before everyone’s happy. Shirley’s always a pro. She rarely makes mistakes and sessions go quickly and smoothly. Until this one time. According to Shirley she was recording a program for a local hospital. Things were going swell until she came to this sentence: “The hospital has fifty nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists.” Not a line that trips easily through the lips. Shirley took a breath and tried the line a second time. Again she stumbled. She tried again – and failed. As the number of takes increased Shirley, the director, and the recording engineer became increasingly frustrated. After what seemed an endless series of botched reads Shirley finally nailed the line. “The hospital has fifty nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists.” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The tape continued to roll. Shirley turned the page. The next line began “And of those fifty nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologists…”