Interview with Narrator Michael Crouch

 

Michael Crouch is a New York City based actor specializing in voiceover. His audiobook narration has earned Audie Awards, multiple Earphones Awards, and AudioFile Magazine’s Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. He can also be heard on national commercials, cartoons, video games, industrials, and the animé series Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon.

 

JONATHAN LOWE) How did you get started narrating audiobooks? What did you do beforehand?

MICHAEL CROUCH) I’ve been acting since I was a kid. Lots of theatre. Shortly after graduating college I realized I didn’t want to pursue a career on the stage. But I still felt an itch to act in some form. That’s when I started exploring the art and business of voiceover. I began taking commercial and animation classes and eventually began working in the field. At that point I was still a stranger to audiobook narration.

In late 2013 I enrolled in a narration course taught by Grammy-winning producer and director Paul Ruben. I found the work frustrating and fascinating. The class met once a week for six weeks, and around the third week my agent sent me an audition for an audiobook for Random House. I applied the techniques I’d been learning in Paul’s class, and right after the course ended I found out I got the job! The timing was amazing. Still, it took another two years of persistence and patience before I started working consistently.

Q) How many audiobooks have you done so far, and what is your preferred genre?

A) If you include full cast projects, I've done about 330 audiobooks in total. It's hard to pick a preferred genre. It's all about the writing. When it's good it's good! Some of my personal favorites are more literary in style and contain dark subject matter. A perfect example is the audiobook I most recently finished, I Am the Light of This World by Michael Parker.

 

Q)  Favorite authors and titles?

A) Well, definitely the one I just mentioned. I Am the Light of This World by Michael Parker. Here are a few more highlights off the top of my head: THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai, a Pulitzer and National Book Award Finalist. Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick. Simon vs. Homo Sapiens Agenda, which is a movie. And Wink by Rob Harrell, about surviving middle school, Soar by Joan Bauer, about a kid who loves baseball, and Groundskeeping by Lee Cole, a coming of age story about a wannabe writer who moves in with his Trump loving uncle.

Q)  Congratulations at your recent boost in exposure as a narrator. Have you done any writing yourself, and where have you been featured?

A) I have not done any writing. I'll leave that to the pros!

 

Q) What is your advice for new listeners and for upcoming narrator wanna-bes? And what's next for you?

A) For new narrators, I would remind them to take it easy on themselves. Audiobooks are not easy. You are going to mess up. A lot. It's okay. That's what editing is for. You're being asked to record tons of material in a very short period. And you're making artistic choices throughout, not just spewing words (at least I hope you're not). To me, the best narrators are sensitive readers--meaning they open themselves up to every shift and turn in the text and let it affect them. It's a moment by moment experience.

Next up for me: A new Animorphs audiobook and a thriller entitled CHANCE by Matthew FitzSimmons.

Lowe: Thanks much for your time. You are a very talented and versatile voice actor with a great future! I hope your listeners share and comment here. BTW, I was surprised to see your photo in Audiofile below Perdita Weeks. She’s on the Magnum PI Reboot (and narrated Circe, among others.) I am admin for the private Facebook group with 7100 members, and am posing the best questions by members for a Robin Masters book.