THE MAN IN BLACK
Callbox Guy is the original creation of Nikki Saco, my Graphic Designer.
A shadowy figure in black, he evokes a very British superhero: a James Bond-like character, who slips in and gets tough jobs done neatly, with a minimum of fuss – and without drawing too much attention to himself in the process. (Just like a good Voiceover Artist, in fact…)
I like to think he's wearing a tux and a bow tie. But of course, we can never really know for sure.
Nikki created versions for different occasions, too. Here are a few variations that you might see around the place:
Thinking Outside the (CALL) Box
I loved working with Callbox Guy from the start, but something was missing. I realised that he needed to move, so two of my clients came to the rescue – in what turned out to be a truly international project.
Raakesh Rajiah and his team at Lunanim, in Mauritius, created the flawless animation, and the sound design is the work of Mesut Kahramanoglu, in Istanbul, Turkey.
You'll see this logo animation tagged onto my video samples (check out my Vimeo page).
Callbox Guy – in the Wild…
The Callbox Guy Next Door…
Here's me as Callbox Guy, in a snowstorm just outside Boone, North Carolina.
It was Valentine's Day 2016, and the weather had just put paid to our plans for a romantic evening at a boutique hotel (complete with massages and a slap-up dinner).
But on the way out of town, I spotted something familiar next to the road, so we stopped to grab a picture… (You can see Marc's reflection in the glass!)
Bev Standing
Here's our Callbox Girl, Bev, Standing (yes, there's a joke there) outside a red telephone box in Old London Town.
As well as being a good friend, Bev is a well-established Canadian voiceover talent. She's even been known to stretch to a British accent when required.
In 2021, Bev found herself unexpectely in the spotlight when she sued the social media giant, TikTok, saying that the app was using her voice without permission. The case helped to raise awareness of the issues around usage and licensing for voice talent in the age of text-to-speech and A.I.
Check out Bev's work at bevstanding.ca
Ian Russell
Ian is a fellow British Voiceover in America. In the vastness of the USA, it just so happens that Ian lives about 60 miles from me – over the border in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
We sometimes collaborate on projects where one "MVO - British" just isn't enough (yes, it happens, and e-learning projects with multiple characters are a good example).
Here's Ian at Bicester Outlet Mall, near Oxford, but you'll also find him online at thebritishvoice.net
Sophia Cruz
Sophia said it was too cold in London to stand outside the phone box. But she's Mexican, so she probably feels it more. After all, she recently moved herself from Chicago to Los Angeles so she could enjoy the beach life more. We'll let her off.
A bilingual Voice Talent, Sophia was also my partner for VO Business Tools, where we helped voice actors to find great software solutions to help run their businesses.
Sophia sounds great in English or Spanish. Hear her work for yourself at sophiacruzvo.com
Theresa Dodge
Theresa is a voice talent who's based north of Detroit. She found this stray call box on Main Street in Sutton’s Bay, Michigan. Sutton’s Bay is on Lake Michigan – the northwest side of the state – so this one's a long way from home!
Like me, Theresa found her way to voiceover via the world of radio, and takes everything from the neighbour-next-door to "sassy" in her stride.
Check out Theresa at tdvoiceovers.com
Simone Fojgiel
Hailing from Montevideo, Uruguay, Simone believes she’s the most successful voice that her country of origin has ever exported, and she’s now one of the top female Spanish Voice Over Talents in the United States. Simone’s promise is “High Art in Spanish Voice Overs”, and she’s been at it for over 25 years.
As well as being an active member of the voiceover community, Simone is a true music lover, especially the Classic Rock & Pop bands and artists of the 70s and the 80s. So here she is, striking a Rock Chick pose as Callbox Girl!
Find out more about Simone at simonevoicetalent.com
Shelley Avellino
Our Shelley’s from Wales (there’s lovely…) but she’s lived in the Far East and currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada – which is where she found this red telephone box!
Shelley’s Welsh accent – and the fact that she’s lived overseas – lends a slightly different quality to those projects that call for a British voiceover. She voices for clients all over the world, spending a lot of her time working on e-learning projects and explainer video, among other things, and often working in her pyjamas at odd times, to accommodate the time differences she faces.
A true jet-setter (with a husband who’s a private jet pilot!) Shelley can be heard at shelleyavellino.com.
Kris Estep
Here’s fellow Mountain Man, Kris Estep, who found a red telephone box at Disney and decided to give us his best Callbox Guy impression.
Growing up listening to radio shows from the 1940s and 1950s, Kris was drawn into voiceover by the “Theater of the Mind” that a great performance creates, and spent many hours as a child with a tape deck, a microphone, and a vivid imagination crafting shows, commercials, and voices. And now he’s doing it for real!
Kris lives very close to me, in Western North Carolina, and has a versatile voice that can move effortlessly from General American to Hometown Appalachian on request. And when he’s not voicing, you’ll find him working on one of the largest collections of vintage motorcycles in the country!
Hear Kris at krisestepvo.com
Colette Redgrave
And finally for now, we’re off to the English Lake District. No, we’ve not gone on holiday by mistake, though fans of the cult classic movie “Withnail and I” will immediately get why Colette Redgrave is clutching her DVD copy.
Having run a successful fire safety, security, training and management company in England - including winning the Women in Business UK Fire Safety Leader Award in 2016 - these days, Colette is living her new life in the sun in Portugal, living off the grid in a converted windmill - complete with a sustainable, zero-carbon footprint voiceover studio. You can find out more at redgravevoice.com.
(And yes, in case you’re wondering, she tells me she is “distantly” related to those Redgraves…)
THE BACKSTORY
Of course, the traditional British Red Telephone Booth is more than just a logo for my voiceover business: it's a true design icon, found on everything from Christmas tree ornaments to teapots – like this one that I keep on display in my home voiceover studio.
If you're interested to learn more about its rise to fame (and eventual decline), here's a great site by Richard Coltman that tells the story.
My colleague, Trish Sarson, also sent me this longer read from The Guardian on “The last phone boxes” and who’s still using them…
And if you want your own red telephone box, there's even a company that makes full-size replicas…
Are you Callbox Guy?
Got a picture of you standing next to a Red Telephone Box? Send it along!