#225- Daniel Henning: Raising His Voice | Award-Winning Audiobook Narrator to LBGTQ+ Advocate - Not in a Huff with Jackson Huff

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
So people do say, oh my God, thank you so much

(00:04):
for not making this boring.
You know, I'm not saying these books are boring.
They're not, they're just academic in nature,
which has a tendency to be drier.
But like the one I'm doing now,
it's a biology book basically, but it's so much fun.
And the author is just,
he writes these personal sides and these things.
It's like, oh yeah, bring it, bring it.
I can, I can, I can make you laugh in this book.

(00:26):
Let's go, let's do that.
Welcome to Not in a Huff with Jackson Huff,
where we interview newsmakers, storytellers,
and all around interesting people.
Sit back, relax, unless you're driving,
and enjoy the show.
Here's Jackson.
Hello, hello, hello.

(00:46):
I am Jackson Huff.
This is Not in a Huff.
Thanks so much for joining me.
As always, really appreciate it.
This week, speaking with Daniel Henning.
Now Daniel is an audio book narrator.
He's done so much more than that.
You're gonna learn a lot about his amazing career.
But let me tell you how I found Daniel.
I was reading slash listening to an audio book

(01:09):
called House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
Recommend that book, really, really, really great book.
There's now a sequel as well,
but oh, just a really, really amazing book.
And I am somebody who always,
I guess, rents the e-book and the audio book of a book
just to get it done quicker, you know,

(01:29):
when I have time to read and in a, you know,
at lunch while at work or just different times
when it's easier to read instead of an audio book.
I'll do that.
And then driving to work, I'll listen to the audio book
so I can get done twice as quick when I can be reading
and listening to the same book.
But I started the audio book of House in the Cerulean Sea

(01:53):
and I just loved the way that Daniel read the book
that I couldn't read it anymore.
And I hope, you know, you see how much of a compliment
that is to Daniel because just the way he read the book,
there's several different characters
and the voices that he made, it was just amazing.
I really, really enjoyed it.
I've listened to a lot of audio books

(02:14):
and Daniel is at the top of the list
when it comes to audio book narrators.
He's won a lot of awards because of that.
So I knew I had to have him on
and I learned so much more about him
in researching to have him on the show.
He owned a play house in the past
and mentored a lot of big stars

(02:37):
that are currently out there now.
He actually was honored by the California Legislator
for his work with LGBTQ plus efforts.
He's just, oh my gosh, he's just such an amazing guy.
This is such a cool conversations
where it could have just been, you know,
or how'd you get into reading audio books?
What is your process of doing that?

(02:59):
We certainly do all that.
We talk about the nitty gritty
of the actual getting in the booth,
he's built a booth in his home.
But then, you know, we talk so much more
about just the world of entertainment,
the world of activism.
Man, just, this is one of my favorite conversations.
And, you know, after 250 of them,

(03:20):
I don't say that lightly.
So what an honor to speak with Daniel.
I really think you're gonna enjoy this one.
Here is Daniel Henning.
Daniel Henning, how are you?
I'm great, how are you?
I'm great as well.
I'm gonna let you kind of do the heavy lifting.
I've listened to you on other podcasts
where they give this big, long, beautiful introduction.

(03:41):
I'm not gonna do that.
Introduce yourself if you would.
Oh my goodness.
Gosh, I don't even know where to start.
Hi, I'm Daniel Henning.
I am an audiobook narrator now at this point in my life.
And it's what I do all day and all night, basically.
Almost every bit of my life is somehow related to books,
which is a lovely thing to say.

(04:02):
I spent a lot of time in the theater business.
I founded a theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles,
called The Blank Theater many, many moons ago.
And two years ago, I stepped down from there.
I'm still on the board.
And they're still doing great work.
And I'm really proud of what I found it and achieved.
And, but it was time for me to move on.
And so I'm an audiobook narrator

(04:25):
amongst many other things
that I've done throughout my life.
Absolutely, I love it.
We're gonna unpack all of the things that you just mentioned,
but I wanna kind of start at the very beginning
because every, I mean, everything that you've done
kind of involves helping others or entertaining others.
What created your passion for entertainment?

(04:46):
You know, I was in a play when I was four and that was it.
That was, I was done.
Like I just knew I had to do that.
And I didn't, I wasn't doing it, you know, like then,
it was just like fun and I had a great time.
And, you know, and then I kept doing theater.
And then I did some, a couple of movies when I was a kid
and that was really fun.
And, you know, and then I went to NYU

(05:07):
and studied acting there and had a great time.
And I, you know, and I knew that that was what I was gonna do
and I was just always gonna be an actor.
It never occurred to me to do anything else really,
even though I was interested in politics and other things.
And what ended up happening is I came to Los Angeles
for pilot season and I founded a theater.
That took me on the journey of being a producer

(05:29):
and a director.
And it took me away from acting actually.
But part of what, if you're doing,
if you're running a nonprofit theater
and you're doing it right,
part of what you're creating is for the community.
You know, it isn't just putting on good plays
or just doing good work.
There are, you know, there are these other opportunities

(05:49):
that you have is kind of the way I've seen it.
So, I really started like creating space in at the blank
for helping other people.
And as it turns out, lots of thousands of actors,
but also I've developed over a thousand new plays.
So what was I doing?
But working with writers, developing their material.

(06:10):
And now in my, you know, retirement
or whatever you wanna call it,
I am doing the same thing.
I am working with writers
and bringing their material to life.
So it's like a 180 from what I was doing before,
but also not, also like the same thing, you know?
And just trying to make a difference in the world
through however I can use my voice.

(06:33):
I absolutely love that.
And I mean, the blank theater was something
I knew nothing about until, you know,
I looked at you, you know, researched you more.
And I mean, what an amazing thing.
I want you to talk just a little bit more about that
because you talk about how you moved from New York.
I think that you had a theater company going there as well.

(06:53):
And then you moved to Los Angeles,
started the blank theater.
What's that look like?
You know, I feel like a lot of people,
when they think of somebody starting a theater,
definitely, you know, here, us in the Midwest,
when we look at a theater, we're thinking,
oh, the actual structure of a building.
And that's not always what starting a theater means.
I mean, sometimes it's just a theater company
within another, you know,

(07:15):
within another actual structural building of a theater.
So I want you to talk a little bit about
what it means to actually start a theater
and start a theater company.
Well, I mean, the blank theater is by its nature,
you know, not confined, right?
It's not defined.
There's no one thing.
So in fact, we didn't have a building
and it wasn't ever, it wasn't meant to do that.
Then we did get a building for a long time.

(07:35):
But well, for me,
so I was running an off-Broadway theater
called Circle and Square.
There's a Broadway theater called Circle and Square,
but originally it was off-Broadway.
And I ran that theater.
And then I came and I'll tell this story.
I don't tell this story very often, actually.
Maybe this is the first time I've ever told it
on a podcast, actually.
I was managing the theater and one night I was,
it was the end of an eight-show week on a Sunday night.

(07:57):
And I was, I had to deliver the box office paperwork
to the doorman at the building
where the managing director lived.
So like after my last show on a Sunday night,
I had to like, you know, deliver this.
So I was doing that and I was in New York
and I was, you know, walking down the street.
And I just, I guess I just delivered the paperwork
and I was just walking away.

(08:19):
And out of nowhere, a guy came up to me
and said, yo man, give me your wallet.
And didn't give me time to do that.
And out of nowhere brought out a lead pipe
and hit me on the head and knocked me to the ground.
And I was with a friend and she told me to run.

(08:42):
And I did.
And she kind of lured the guy away a little bit,
but the cops heard me screaming from like a couple blocks away
in New York City.
I've always had a big voice.
And they, the guy, they lost the guy, but he ran away.
And so I had 47 stitches in my forehead.
And because of that, it was a workman's comp case.

(09:04):
And so they gave me a cash settlement for my facial scar.
And it was $4,000.
And I was just moving to LA at that time.
And I realized, I was like, what do I do with this money?
Like go drinking with my friends?
That doesn't seem right.
You know, like I need to do something good with this.

(09:24):
Like I need to change this from bad to good.
And so I took that money and I found it
at the Blank Theater Company.
And so that's what that looked like for me,
is taking something that was, well, I almost died that night
and I could have easily, but I didn't.
And so I was like, okay, well, I got to take this
and I got to use, you know, and if, and that money,

(09:46):
you know, that $4,000, it paid back and paid back
and paid back and is still paying back.
And, you know, the work that we did at the Blank
and I created the only nationwide young playwrights festival
that produces, professionally produces the work.
It's been 32 years that we've been doing this.
We've done almost 400 plays by teenage writers
from across the nation.

(10:07):
One of them won the Tony Award in 2016
for the play, The Humans, Stephen Karam.
I was just in New York in October
and I saw another one of our winners,
his play on Broadway that was called Job,
his name is Max Wolf Friedlich.
So, you know, that $4,000 has paid dividends for, you know,
not only me, but like thousands of artists.

(10:29):
So that's what it looked like for me.
I love that.
I think there'd be, you know,
a lot of people would get that $4,000 and just be like,
what a night, I am just gonna go splurge
and, you know, buy myself a motorcycle or something.
So yeah, I think that's really, really amazing.
And it's almost probably a weird relationship you have

(10:53):
with that experience at this point,
just because, you know, I talk to so many people
that talk about the weird relationship they have with COVID
that, you know, COVID is what made them so, you know,
turn into their next passion and stuff like that.
Obviously, maybe all this wouldn't have happened to you
if that wouldn't have happened.
Of course, nobody wants that to happen,
but it certainly opened up a lot of doors, including,

(11:16):
I mean, it opened up your door
and I guess your forehead for a moment, but.
You did, yes.
Yeah.
And you can't really see the scar anymore
because I have lines now, but you could before.
It was a very obvious thing before.
I wanna talk a little bit about,
you already mentioned some of the people
that you've worked with and some of the young people
who have went on and done really great things.

(11:40):
You know, there's so many more too.
I've heard you talk about it in the past.
If you would just name a few more people
that you've been able to work with,
either through that Young Playwrights Group
or through the Blank Theater.
And then also, I guess kind of what it's like now
after so many years to have seen all these people
progress into doing amazing thing,

(12:02):
winning Tony Awards, you know,
being blockbuster movie actors.
I think that has to be a really powerful thing
given that you're so passionate about helping others.
Well, it's interesting, cause I don't know.
It's a funny thing.
I always just, I am still able to see talent
even in very young people.

(12:23):
And so as I look back on my life
and the people that were my friends
or people I worked with or people that I was like,
oh, you just came to town.
I think you're really cool.
Come play with me.
You know, like they, a lot of them
have ended up being quite famous.
And like I coached Sarah Michelle Geller
on her auditions for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I cast Noah Wiley, who was on ER

(12:48):
and he's about to star in this new show called The Pit
on Max in his first play when he was like 19.
Molly Shannon was the first person that I met at NYU
and we stayed close and continued to work together
for years before she got Saturday Night Live, you know,
and there's, and it just goes on and on.
It's funny, you know, in the audio book world
people don't really know me in the theater,

(13:10):
like from the theater world.
So they don't know that background of me.
And just today I posted a picture.
I did a recording for it.
I'm under at NDA so I can't say what,
but with May Whitman, who is from parenthood
and arrested development and you know,
and we did a play when she was 17 that I directed her in
and she and I got to act together yesterday,
which is super fun.

(13:31):
And the list is just, I mean, it's,
I couldn't even possibly begin to say them all, right?
But I have been able to work with a lot of people
who then went on to win their Tonys
or become Academy Award nominees or, you know,
that sort of stuff.
But it comes from, you know, they weren't famous then.
I didn't know they were gonna be famous

(13:53):
except that I knew that they were really talented
and kind of, I don't know, my kind of people, you know?
So I have, and then it's like,
I put up the picture with May Whitman today
and all kinds of comments are like,
oh my God, of course you know her, you know,
are kind of the comments that people make.
It's like, well, I do know a lot of people.
And because of working with the theater in Hollywood

(14:15):
for decades and it being a place where people
who were in film and television
could also come and work with us,
we made it really flexible for them.
A lot of people did and they still are, you know,
they're still coming and it's a really lovely thing to see.
And it's really, I just feel like a proud papa, you know,
watching all of these people sort of make their ascension

(14:36):
and you know, and if you think I didn't cry
when Stephen Caron won that Tony Award,
you'd be wrong.
I'm glad that you be able to stay connected
and then also this, that so many people
have been able to be successful.
And you, I mean, the good thing,
because I talk to so many people
that have done such amazing things

(14:58):
that I just sit and think, man,
I wish more people knew about it
and I wish they were, I guess, honored for that.
And luckily, at least partially you have been,
I believe that you won an award for your work,
both in entertainment and then also your work
with the LGBTQ community

(15:21):
through the California legislator.
What was that like?
I watched the video of you walking out onto the floor there,
that had to be a really awesome moment.
That was a really awesome moment
for a lot of reasons actually.
So one of the things that I do kind of,
I am the resident historian at the Black Cat
here in Los Angeles, which is now a gastropub.

(15:43):
It's on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake,
which is where I live and I've lived for decades.
And, but in 1966, 67, it was a different place,
but called the Black Cat, that same location.
And it was the scene of the first major LGBTQ demonstration

(16:04):
in the United States.
On New Year's Eve, 1966 to 67,
two people kissed in this blacked out windowed gay bar.
There were people in drag and gay men there.
And when they kissed, there were 12 undercover policemen
in the bar who tried to start busting heads
and arresting people.

(16:24):
And the people in that bar said, nope, and they fought back.
And so there was a riot and it went
in the Sunset Boulevard and eventually they arrested 16 people.
But the queers that night sent three policemen
to the hospital as a part of that.
And then, and that was two and a half years
before what is known as the Stonewall Rebellion.

(16:48):
So two and a half years before Stonewall this happened.
And when they opened up this gastropub,
guys about 12 years ago now,
and they renamed it the Black Cat,
and the original sign that was there in 1966,
there's a little cat face, it's been there the whole time.
Even though other things were there,
that little cat face has been there the whole time.
And it's still there.

(17:08):
I went in there and I was, and I loved that they did that,
that they named it this place.
So I, for the 50th anniversary, I said,
oh, I wanna do something big.
And they were like, great, let's do it.
And I got in touch with the city councilman.
And so we did this.
So in 2017, oh, six weeks after the riot,
we then, they then had 500 people came

(17:30):
and they did a political rally in 1967
against police harassment and for LGBTQ equality.
The organization that put that event together
was called Personal Rights in Defense and Education.
It was the first time the word pride had ever been used
in conjunction with the LGBTQ community.

(17:52):
And the newsletter for the pride that Pride put together
to talk about this event and then going forward
was called The Advocate.
And of course, the National Gay News Magazine
that is still with us is The Advocate.
So The Advocate and Pride both came from the black cat.
So I wanted to recreate that night of the rally

(18:13):
in order to create an internet footprint for the story,
because no one knew the story of the black cat.
Everybody knows Stonewall, but no one knew the black cat.
So I recreated that night from 1967.
We had actors come in costumes.
We recreated the original signs.
There are only four photographs from that night,
but we created the signs from that.
And then there was an actual political rally that night

(18:35):
where people made speeches
and it went on for a couple of hours.
We did the same thing.
Ours was a little different.
We weren't fighting the police.
We were there in conjunction with the police.
We had the mayor of Los Angeles
and the associate chief of police
and the one organizer still around from that time.
And all three of them held their hands
and raised it up high.
And we had 1,500 people at our event.

(18:57):
And now, anytime you see an article
about gay rights history in Los Angeles,
sorry, in the United States,
they almost always will mention the black cat.
And if it's a Los Angeles-based article,
they build it around the black cat.
So I am now the resident historian there.
And so a year later in 2018,
the California State Legislature for Pride Month

(19:20):
had honored, I think there were 16 of us, I think.
And from my work there
and then knowing my work at the blank, they honored me.
So they brought me up to Sacramento
and there was a big ceremony.
And one of the other honorees that day is Sarah McBride,
who was just nominated as the first trans
House of Representatives from Delaware.

(19:40):
I'm so proud of her.
And I got to be honored with her.
So, yeah, so that's how I was honored by the state.
But they also did it because of my work with young people
in the arts as well.
So it was a really powerful moment for me.
I'm from California.
You know, the things that I was honored for that day
are the things that I was bullied for my whole life

(20:02):
when I was growing up.
So to be recognized for the thing that I was ostracized for
by my home state was incredibly moving.
And certainly something I will never forget.
Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that.
And I just wonder, why don't people know,

(20:23):
why didn't people know about the black cat?
You just talked about all of the huge things
that came out of it.
Everyone I feel like knows Stonewall.
Why didn't people get the memo about, you know,
the things happening two years prior?
I'm always interested just to hear what makes the,
I guess the headlines in the history books
and what doesn't until somebody like yourself brings it up.

(20:47):
Well, I would say that I think there are several reasons,
not the least of which is New York believes
it's the center of the world
and it's gotten lots of other people to believe that as well.
So the fact that that was a New York story somehow just,
you know, they thought it was more important to her.
The second thing is Stonewall was three nights
and it went on and it was a true riot, rock, stones,

(21:08):
you know, I mean, it was a real riot for three days.
I believe that if the black cat had not happened,
that Stonewall wouldn't have happened,
at least not in that way.
The other thing is from Stonewall,
real changes started to happen, not in laws and things,
but just in how people talked about the whole conversation
and people then started to just talk differently

(21:29):
about gay rights.
But also in 1966, 67, you know,
these were the windows of these bars were blacked out.
Like there were two newspaper articles
about this thing happening, that's it.
And they were in tiny little presses.
They were not, none of the major press covered it.
You know, in that time, when I look at the picture

(21:50):
of these brave people who were there,
who let themselves be photographed with these signs,
you know, I look at them and I think, well, I mean,
they're some of the bravest people I know,
except modern day trans people.
Because they could have been fired from their jobs,
they could have been kicked out of their housing,

(22:11):
they could have literally had their livelihoods
taken from them because they were in that picture,
just because they were in that picture.
And so I think that's another reason why
it didn't catch on the same way Stonewall did,
is because it was just a little too early
in terms of when people were fed up enough.

(22:33):
When people were fed up enough to say,
you can't do that anymore.
You can't kick somebody out of their housing
because you think they're gay.
You know, and that started after Stonewall, you know?
So it was still a little bit in the, I don't know,
the dark ages, if you will, even though it's the 60s,
right, you think, what are you talking about?
You know, there were, you know, the flower children

(22:54):
and all that stuff.
Yeah, but not for the gays, not for the gays yet anyway.
Yeah, well, that is certainly a topic,
I think that we could probably spend another hour
talking about, but we're gonna pivot
into now your audio book narration,
because that's how I found you.
I just wonder, you know, we've talked so much

(23:14):
about all the amazing things that you've done.
So now we've got to figure out,
how did you decide to start, I guess, narrating audio books?
It's an interesting pathway.
I've talked to a lot of people in voiceover,
but no one that's ever done narration in book form before.
You know, when I was looking to transition
out of the blank theater, I was trying to figure out a way

(23:38):
to make money, because I didn't, it's a tiny theater,
so I never really made any money,
a little stipend, but not really.
And so I needed to at least cover that,
but I didn't wanna like, I don't know,
start making auto parts or something,
you know what I mean?
Like I wanted to, you know, not against anybody
who does that, that's an amazing thing,
but I don't have that skill.

(23:58):
So it's like, how do I use my skills and make money,
but on a consistent basis?
And I had been working with a playwright
that I directed his plays, and it was Jeff Tabnick.
The play was called Something Truly Monstrous,
and it's about the purported, the well-substantiated rumor

(24:19):
that on the night that John Barrymore died,
Peter Lorry and Humphrey Bogart stole his body
and went joyriding.
So that's what this play was about, and I loved it.
And a year later, I was starting to think about that,
and I asked him, well, you have something to do
with audio books, right?
You direct them or something?
I'd love to get some advice.
And he said, I'm the casting director

(24:40):
for the largest audio book company in the world.
I was like, oh, okay, well, what do you think?
He said, I think you'd be great at it, actually.
And so he gave me my first opportunity,
and he gave me my first 10 opportunities,
and he really shepherded me into the business,
and that was how it began for me.
But as I look back on it, books have always been

(25:02):
a big part of my life.
And when I first came to Hollywood, I was a reader.
In Hollywood, people are hired to read a script
and give what they call coverage, which is a synopsis,
and then your opinion.
Except that I wasn't doing, of course,
I've never done anything like everybody else does,
so for whatever reason, I wasn't reading scripts.
I was doing coverage, but they were books.

(25:25):
So, you know, like now I look back on it all,
I'm like, oh, well, I've been working with books
my whole life, but I didn't realize it.
So it seems like a natural fit.
And then when I'm actually doing what I do,
the director part of me, the producer part of me,
the writer, the person who's developed
over a thousand new plays, and the actor,

(25:45):
they're all in the booth with me.
And so it makes, even though it's a really hard thing
to do, it's exhausting and lonely.
And I recorded three hours of a book today
and about five and a half hours alone
and alone in this little box here.

(26:05):
It's hard, it's really hard, but I find it sort of easy.
It's pretty easy for me.
I just seem to have a natural,
just a natural affinity for it.
And I get to do a lot of different kinds of,
a lot of different genres.
And that's really kind of fun too.

(26:27):
And it also helps me stay, just stay alive, you know,
because like right now I'm doing a book
about literally the evolution of sexuality,
but like not in humans, like in like invertebrates.
And, you know, like, so it's a massive academic book,
but it's also fun and I'm having a great time.

(26:47):
And then, you know, and then I just did this multicast
with May yesterday, and then I have, you know, like,
so and then the next thing I'm doing is,
I don't know, something else entirely.
And then the fiction thing, and then a book on crypto,
and then, you know, so I'm always doing different stuff
and that I use all of those different skills
in all of those different books,
but it helps me, you know, really stay present to it.

(27:10):
Yeah, and you just open the door of your little black box.
I love that you've got your name on it.
I don't know whether you ever just get so,
so entranced that you forget where you're supposed to go,
but you know where you're going
based on the name right there.
Well, this is, it's silly, but this is a really nice,
like, this is like a really plastic,
this is a really great name plate

(27:32):
that they made for me for a trailer.
When I was actually, I was on an episode
of Beverly Hills 90210 that took place on Jeopardy.
So it was, so this was the name plate,
but it's not like a cardboard thing.
This is like a really nice thing.
So I took it because it's nice, you know?
So I've had this around forever.
And it was like, and then finally I was like,

(27:52):
oh, I should put this on my booth door
just in case anyone wonders whose booth this is in my house.
I like that.
And you know what you were saying earlier
about how you've kind of been a part of books
and narrating your entire career and didn't even know it.
I mean, as somebody who has now interviewed,

(28:15):
I don't know, 300 plus people,
I'm always kind of a sucker for voice,
just because that's what I deal with so much.
And I mean, I do think you have the perfect voice
when it comes to narration.
I watched a video of you before the beard,
I think it was 12, 15 years ago.

(28:37):
And you, even in that interview,
before you even narrating,
I just think you have the perfect voice for things.
So I guess that was, there's no question there
I wish to give you a little bit of a big head if I can.
Well, it's funny, you know,
cause like I taught acting for a long time.
And one of the things I did was in that
and is was a relaxation exercise

(28:59):
before the first half hour of class was that.
And then I would give these speeches at the blank
and the Young Playwrights Festival.
And so many people always talked about
like with the relaxation exercises,
like how much my voice relaxed them.
Like they would record it
and they would listen to it every night
before they'd fall asleep.
And you know, and then the speeches that I would give

(29:21):
at the blank, people were always really,
they really responded to them
and they always said things to me about that, you know?
So it's like the clues were all there
but I just didn't see them, you know?
I never thought about doing any of this
when I was actually working at the blank.
I never thought about being a voice actor or anything.

(29:42):
I didn't know I had this ability
to do all these characters like I do.
I didn't know.
You know, I was focused somewhere else and you know.
So it's, over the years,
people weren't saying you should be narrating audio books
but people were telling me
that my voice has an effect on them, you know?
And now I get emails and notes and things

(30:05):
from people, people go to my website and leave me a note
and you know, and say things like
the house in the Cerulean Sea is my comfort listen.
Whenever I'm sad or lonely or bored,
I'll just put on a chapter of it because it makes me happy.
Or other people I've met tell me
that they literally listen to it every night to fall asleep.

(30:25):
And I say, I'm going to take that as a compliment
because you just told me that when I do my work,
you fall asleep.
But it's, you know, but it really is a compliment, right?
To be able to be,
to be able to be that intimate in my work
and allow people to feel that connection to me.
And I just had a note today,
literally somebody just wrote me and said, I love you.

(30:49):
You know, because I'm in their ear, you know?
And whatever the quality I have that makes people,
you know, interested people like really, really take that in.
Not everybody, believe me,
some of the reviews on Audible are evil, but it's okay.
I don't want it to be for everybody.
Yeah, no.

(31:10):
And like when I wrote you,
generally when I pick up a book,
I get the ebook form and then I get the audio book form.
That way I can power through things quickly.
You know, when I can read, I'll read.
And when I'm in the car,
I'll listen and get things done quickly.
But yeah, when I picked up the House on the Cerulean Sea,

(31:31):
once I started listening, I was like,
I feel like I'm missing something
if I try to read it myself.
So I wasn't able to do that,
which I think is it should be a compliment to you for sure.
So I, yeah, I love those books
and I love the way that you read them too.
But I wanna kind of get to, I guess,
your process in it all.

(31:53):
What's, I guess, what's the preparation
for beginning to read an audio book?
Is it something where you need to read the entire book first
just to kind of get the feel of it
and how you're going to create the voices?
Make sure that it's something that you even wanna read.
Do people give you kind of a one pager
so you're not stuck reading a thousand books

(32:15):
before you even, I guess, get paid to do it?
Or what's that look like?
Well, first of all, just to make a reference,
TJ Klune, who wrote the House on the Cerulean Sea
and Somewhere Beyond the Sea, he says,
and I'm just quoting him, but he says that,

(32:37):
he says, honestly, the way to experience
these two Cerulean books is to listen to Daniel's audio book.
He tells people to listen to the audio book
as opposed to reading the book that he wrote.
So, you know, and I can't tell you like what an incredible,
what an incredible like compliment that is
because his writing is just breathtaking.

(33:00):
And I hear it and I see it and it's so vivid to me
and I'll just elated to think that the fact
that he thinks that about what we do together
is just mind blowing to me.
So, your experience with the audio book
is what he would want in a way, yeah.
Absolutely, and before I answer the other question

(33:22):
in a minute, but I'll forget this part.
I guess now thinking about it,
because I know that the House on the Cerulean Sea,
that was supposed to be a standalone
and it wasn't supposed to be another one.
Obviously it did so well that, you know,
it made sense to make another, but I just wonder,
there'd probably be a question for him,
but I just wonder, given that that first book had came out,

(33:44):
he had kind of heard what you had done with it.
I wonder what, how that went into him creating the next book.
I feel like he had to have your voice in his head
thinking how is Daniel, yeah,
how's Daniel going to read this?
And I feel like it probably made it easier
for him to write the book.
Well, I can answer part of that question, which is, yes.

(34:05):
He says in public all the time that of all,
he's written like 30 books.
There's only one character of his that he cannot,
and usually he's done with the book
and the characters go to sleep, they're gone.
They don't come back.
There's only one character of his
that he has not left his head, will not leave his head.
And it's Chauncey.

(34:28):
And Chauncey.
Oh, I love that.
You've got the stuff down.
I do, because it's, you know, I'm a plushie for God's sake.
You better have one.
And available at Barnes and Noble and Kingdom of Threads.
But he says that Chauncey has not left his head.
And when he hears Chauncey's voice in his head,

(34:48):
he hears my Chauncey.
So he says that I live in his head.
So yes, definitely I was in his head
when he was writing book two.
He, and that was good and fun for him,
but also, cause he's evil, he did really hard things.
He wrote some really hard things for me to do,

(35:08):
to see like, oh, good, let's see how Daniel does this.
So, and he's also said publicly, there is a book three coming.
Good, I like it.
It's gonna be a couple of years,
but there's a book three coming.
So.
I love it.
And I'm gonna ask you another question
before I let you finally answer the other one,
because you just mentioned mention Chauncey.

(35:29):
So I've only listened to half of that one book
and then a little bit of other books
just to kind of hear you reading other things,
which we're gonna talk about in a minute.
But, you know, I've in the female characters,
I can kind of hear kind of be, you know,
in the male characters, maybe a little bit of lioness,
but nobody, I don't know that you're breaking out Chauncey

(35:52):
for any other book.
I feel like that may be just for these books.
Well, you know, I mean, I only have the one throat.
Yeah.
Right, so there's the beloved character in TJ's
in the lives of puppets.
There are these two robots.
Well, there's a lot of robots in it,
but there are two robots in it,

(36:13):
and they are Rambo and Nurse Ratched.
And Rambo is definitely Chauncey's cousin,
but not because I don't have the imagination or whatever,
but because they have similar qualities,
they are written by the same man, you know?
So, and then my throat is doing them.
So some people might say that Chauncey and Rambo

(36:34):
are a little bit related here and there.
I worked really hard in Somewhere on the Sea
to bring an entirely different voice
for David, the new character, the Yeti.
Because all these other characters were established,
everybody loves them so much,
and David's voice, of course, TJ described it
like cracked ice.
Thanks, TJ, I'll get working on that, thank you.

(36:56):
And I don't think of it,
I don't think of any of it in that realm,
and I guess this will take me now
to the answer to your question, right?
So if it's nonfiction, you have to do the research
to get the pronunciations correct.
So there's a lot of work that goes into a nonfiction book.
But a fiction book, I absolutely read it

(37:17):
from word one to the last word,
Somewhere Beyond the Sea,
I think I read three or four times.
Normally I just don't have the time to do that much work,
but that book was so important and so special,
but I did.
But I certainly read all fiction at least once,

(37:38):
if not more than once.
As I read through the book, I don't take a lot of notes.
Again, we don't have a lot of time,
so it has to be, my work is just gut instinct.
Any choice you hear me make in any of these books,
it's not because I decided that line
was gonna sound that way.

(37:59):
Or even that there's some passages
in Somewhere Beyond the Sea where the narration gets quite,
I don't even know the word for it, it gets huge.
But that's what's happening in the story,
and so I didn't decide I was gonna narrate it,
I was gonna let it grow like that
as this character literally was growing.
But there it is, the words are on the page, it's growing.

(38:20):
And because of my work with writers over the years,
I can see writing, I can see pacing,
it's just really obvious to me.
So I lean into all of that stuff.
So I don't mark any of that stuff,
but I do mark when the characters
make their first entrance in the book.
And that's the same for a major character
as it is for somebody who has one line.

(38:41):
Because actually when they first appear,
I don't know whether they're gonna be a one line
or a major character.
But that's also when a character usually gets described.
So the author is usually talking
about that character right then.
But I just highlight it and I keep going.
And then I will go back and start at the page one
and go to the highlights and find each of the characters,

(39:03):
read everything I can about them,
take as much time in that moment to flip through
and look at other lines, whatever,
and then I'll create what I call a voice print.
So I'll create the voice and then I'll make a recording
of it.
But even that isn't technical.
Like I don't think, oh, this one's gonna be nasally
or this one's gonna be high or this one's gonna be low.

(39:25):
I mean, there are some aspects of that
because I want, if there's two male characters,
I want you to be able to tell the difference
between the two.
So I'm probably gonna have one who speaks a little higher
and one who speaks a little lower
because it's just easier for you to hear that.
But what I'm really doing is living inside the characters.
So even if I have this voice print
or I have this voice character that I've created,

(39:49):
that's just the jumping off point
because then that character goes on the journey
that that character goes on
and that changes how they talk in a moment, in any moment.
They might not talk like,
they might not sound like that initial recording
in this scene because they're mountain climbing
in the Himalayas and they're whatever, who knows?

(40:09):
You know what I mean?
But so those are also just,
like Chauncey's voice grows, it changes.
And in Somewhere Beyond the Sea,
it was really fun for all of those voices
because they all, they grew up a little bit
from the first book,
but they grew up a lot during the book.
So like Sal, I was really happy to be able to,

(40:33):
he starts as a shy voice.
And in the first book, he was very shy,
almost the whole time,
but in the second book, he finds his voice.
So I was able to find Sal's voice,
even though the one I'd originally created
was this shy voice.
So I really, I mean, I really do think
that they're alive in me.

(40:55):
And they just, once I have the sort of idea of who they are,
I let them go where they go.
And so they really do take on a life of their own,
if you will, you know?
And I'm always thrilled to let them run, you know?
And so it's a remarkable journey for me to go on

(41:18):
because I feel like I'm channeling somehow.
I'm not, it's not just me.
It's me and every teacher I ever had
and every actor I've ever worked with.
But more importantly, it's like my soul
is just responding to these words,
and these words make that line come out this way.
So have you talked to a lot of other, I guess,

(41:39):
audio narrators just because I feel like in most books
I listen to, you know, that they have one or two male voices,
one or two female voices,
and they just get switched back and forth.
They don't put that much into it.
You just talked about how, you know,
these characters live in you and that,
I mean, obviously it shines through.
And that's why I think you have the success

(42:02):
that you've had, but have you talked to a lot of other people
and do they share this passion just because I guess
I'm kind of just, I don't know, I guess I'm kind of in awe
of just how much thought you put into all of it
and just listen to you right now talk about it.
Well, I would say that in general, in general,

(42:23):
audiobook narrators are really hard workers.
And so I would think that most of them
would think that they're a significant portion,
more than half maybe,
would want to live in the realm that I'm talking about.
You know, this place where the characters are,
you know, are real characters

(42:44):
and they're trying to really tell each of their stories.
I would say old school narration is more flat,
you know, is more just reading the words
and not putting a lot on top of that.
But that's an art in and of itself to be able to,
you know, to give tiny subtle little variations.

(43:06):
I've never been subtle about anything in my life.
So, I mean, and I could do that.
I just did what they call literary fiction,
which is they wanted a lot like,
and then I was walking down the street and I, you know,
that sort of thing.
I can do that.
And I was really proud of the one I did this year,
but it's not where I really live.

(43:28):
But most narrators, most,
really want to get this right.
And we're not paid enough money to do that.
We're not, like, it's not,
we're pretty crazy people.
Like, most people are super dedicated
and they will read it several times.

(43:48):
And they may not live at sort of the height
where I do in a lot of my narration,
but that doesn't mean that they're not living
at their own height, if that makes sense.
So I would say that, yeah,
a lot of narrators want to be differentiating characters.
They may not have the ability to do more

(44:08):
than two male voices and two female voices.
That might be it, but, you know,
like they work really hard to get the accents right.
You know, I mean, like a lot of,
most audio book narrators I know,
if they got a book that required an Irish accent,
they would go to a coach
and they would get coached on the Irish accent

(44:29):
because they don't want it to sound Scottish
or Welsh or something, you know what I mean?
So I would say that in general, yeah,
I'm definitely, like, I've just studied so much in my life
and been a part of so many creations
of dramatic situations inside the theater.
That I do the work and I'm super prepared,

(44:56):
super, super, super, super prepared,
but I also let it fly.
So sometimes my accents go a little wonky.
I don't care because I'm so invested in the moment
that you probably won't even notice it.
Yeah, well, the last thing I'll say about,
I guess, my experience in reading
or in listening to the books that you've been a part of

(45:18):
is I've listened to hundreds of books
and I feel like audio narration is almost a thing
that you don't necessarily realize
when people are doing a passable job.
You realize when they're doing a really bad job
or a really, really good job.
And I don't really feel like I've,
I've never, honestly, until I've listened to the books

(45:41):
that you've narrated,
I've never really even looked at the name of the narrator.
So I do think that that says something for sure.
So I-
Thank you very much.
Big compliment, thank you.
For sure.
So I wanna, I guess I wanna ask you,
just because you talked a little bit about
how you prepare for things
and that you don't necessarily put a lot of notes into it.

(46:02):
You may read it three or four times
or you don't put a ton of notes.
And I feel like that just makes it,
I guess, even more interesting
on how you're able to successfully create these voices
just because I was listening today to,
there's always, every time that I talk to somebody,
I'm always gonna forget something.
I cannot remember the name of that other book.

(46:24):
What's the name of the other book?
The Body in the Back Garden.
The Body in the Back Garden.
I was listening to that today and listening to it,
you know, with knowing I'm speaking to you today in mind
and thinking about how you were able to narrate it.
And for instance, you know, the officer character,

(46:45):
when he came to that investigation,
you had to create a voice for him.
And it was, I think, like two or three chapters later
that he was actually described
and that we actually heard kind of what he was about,
maybe a little bit about his physical characteristics.
So that, and you kind of answered it,
but I just wonder how you create these characters

(47:05):
because a lot of times you're right,
you know, exactly you said,
they are described immediately when they're introduced.
But sometimes that's not the case.
Or how did you already,
what kind of notes did you have to take
to be able to know that this is gonna be
kind of a deep voice, gruffer, kind of masculine type guy,

(47:26):
but we don't learn for two chapters, that's who he is.
Well, you know, I mean, you know, if it's a,
and of course that book is a mystery, right?
So it's a cozy mystery, as they say,
but it's also a cozy queer mystery.
So there's gonna be some romance element in it, right?
And so, you know, if I'm narrating something in general,

(47:47):
you know, I'm not gonna narrate a book like this
because that's not my natural state of being.
But if that's what the book required, I would,
I just don't get those books a lot, right?
So I try to, the narrator often lives in my natural ranges
so that I can really let myself go, you know?

(48:10):
And so oftentimes the romantic character
who's opposite the main character,
I want him to sound different.
So, you know, so sometimes, you know, I will purposely,
you know, I will make a choice that is different than that.
With that one, I did, I found, you know,
I got to that place in the book and I had already read that,

(48:30):
so I already knew who he was.
But then I also, but then it's just like, who is he?
Do you know what I mean?
Like, it's not just like, oh, he's the guy and he's a cop
and he's a this or whatever, but he's also,
oh, and he has a partial indigenous background and whatever,
but also just like, okay, well, when these two people
are talking to each other, like, how are they relating?

(48:53):
You know?
And that's a lot of where I find that too,
is in literally how the characters talk to each other.
Funny little note about accents, by the way, on that book,
because that book is written by a Canadian
and it takes place in Canada, but I'm not gonna do,
you know, I'm not gonna, you know, do an Aboot,

(49:14):
you know, Canadian accent, eh, you know,
cause it's just, it's so cheesy, right?
When an American does that, cause they're so,
it's so subtle, right?
So it's so subtle that in that book, I didn't need to,
he's not French, I didn't need to, you know, whatever.
But I was like, okay, but the author's Canadian
and it takes place in Canada and I'm assuming
that Canadians are gonna listen to this.

(49:35):
So I wanna give them something, just like,
what's one word that I can say and not Aboot, right?
That is like, you know, I can keep,
and I was like, I know what it's gonna be
and it shows up a lot in that book.
And now when you hear it, you'll laugh when I do it.
But in that book, I'm totally my accent,
never do anything else, except when I say, sorry.

(49:59):
Is that right?
I always say sorry in the Canadian way in that book.
So that's my little bit of an accent for that book.
I love that, I love it.
And the last question I have when it comes to just
the process of narrating, what does it look like
when it comes to booking these jobs?

(50:21):
Do you create, you know, like a one chapter
and the author is listening to a bunch of them?
Is it even the author that makes the decision?
Is it the publisher?
Like, what's that look like?
Well, I'll answer that in two parts.
So I'll tell you about how I got the house
of the Cerulean Sea and then I'll answer it in a bigger way.
So I had been narrating a little bit through that guy

(50:43):
who hired me for that while I was still running the blank.
And there's a way to meet, there are no casting agents
per se and there's like no agent submissions.
There's no way to like, mostly, there's no way to know
what books are available.
So the people who are the producers

(51:04):
are also the casting people.
There are a few companies that have casting directors
separate, but in general, they're one in the same.
So you just have to know them.
Like that's the only way.
You just have to meet them somehow, some way.
So one of the ways you can do that is there's a one day
conference every other year now called APAC

(51:24):
and it's where everybody is for one day.
And so in 2019, I sent out 30 emails to people
who I had their email addresses and somebody had said,
you've got to know these people.
And I said, I'm going to be at APAC, I'd love to meet you.
And I put some samples, some links to samples.
I got an email back like 15 minutes later from a man
named Tom Meese, who was at Macmillan.

(51:47):
And he said, I just listened to your samples.
I love your voice.
I can't wait to meet you.
Great, because it's hard.
It's hard to get to meet these people and to get in, right?
And so I went to this conference and knowing he was there
and I found him and I walked up and I said,
I'm Daniel Henning.
He's like, oh, it's so great to meet you.
He's like, I have a book for you in winter 2020.
And this was like May of 2019.

(52:09):
And I was like, oh, great.
Well, you have my email.
You know how to get me.
And then I get this audition
and it was The House in the Cerulean Sea.
But it was just the first chapter.
So I didn't see any more of the book.
The first chapter of that book is actually,
Linus, the main character is in it, but no one else is.

(52:30):
It's a whole different scene.
Everything about it is different.
But I didn't know that.
This was the book.
So I worked on it and I worked hard on it
and I did my audition and I got the book.
And so what I didn't know was that Tom Meese was so sure

(52:52):
that this was my book.
And T.J. Klune had done, like I say,
like 30 books at that point,
but he indeed self-produced the audio books and things.
So he didn't even know if at Macmillan,
he could say who did the audio book.
He didn't even know.
And before he could ask the question,
Tom Meese said,
here's the one audition that you need to listen to

(53:15):
for this book.
This is the guy.
And T.J. heard it and he immediately knew,
oh my God, this is the guy.
So I got the job.
I didn't know that I was the only one up for it.
And that's a almost never happens kind of scenario,
which I'll explain in a minute.
But so then I sat down to do the book.

(53:37):
It's just like two months earlier, I got the job
where I sat down to do the book
and I kept listening to that chapter
because I wanted to get whatever tone it was
that they wanted.
Like I wanted to get that back and make sure I got that.
And I was listening to it and listening to it.
And I was like,
I've never done this before or since actually.
But I said, oh, and he asked me to do the whole chapter.
Normally an audition is five minutes,

(53:59):
but he gave me the whole chapter because he didn't know me
and he just wanted to sort of see.
It was like, sure, fine, no problem.
So when I started to sit down to record it,
I was like, I don't know what I would do differently.
I don't know what I would change.
So I reached out to Tom and I said,
is this a strange thing?
And I don't know, this is so weird,

(54:21):
but can we use my audition as the first chapter?
And he wrote back and he said, well, you nailed it.
So yeah, I think we should.
So the first chapter of the House in the Cerulean Sea
was my audition for the House in the Cerulean Sea.
I love it, that's awesome.

(54:41):
But normally how things happen is you either get an email
that says, here's, we have a book for you.
Can you do it?
Do you wanna do it?
It's like, it's a direct offer.
Sometimes you get an email that says, here's a book.
It's in this timeframe.
Are you interested?
We will be submitting a few people, are you interested?

(55:02):
And I can say yes or no.
And then they submit me and then they pick somebody.
And sometimes there are auditions.
With rare exception, if I'm auditioning
or if I'm one of those people that they asked
if I wanna do the book, if I'm available,
there are two to four other people

(55:24):
that are auditioning or being submitted.
And that's it.
Three to five people are up for every book.
So the people who do what they do work really hard
to pick those three to five people.
And then usually those auditions are passed on to the author.
Sometimes it's the author's agent or in conjunction with

(55:45):
or depends on who the author is.
Sometimes it's in a state that the author's dead
and things like that.
But so sometimes they just give me a book.
Sometimes they ask me if I'm interested
and then throw me in a pile with other names.
And sometimes they actually have me audition.
But it's still a very small pool.

(56:05):
I mean, I've spent my life in Hollywood, right?
Hundreds of people auditioning, 500 people auditioning
for the call for you online one Mr. Jones role.
But the numbers in the audio book world,
if you get to the places where the good stuff is,
like you've got a good shot

(56:25):
at getting everything you're up for.
Got at least a 20% shot.
So it's a very, and I really like that about this business
that it, I don't feel like I'm wasting my time
as much in auditioning.
If I don't get a book, I just don't get a book.
It's fine, there's gonna be another one.

(56:47):
But with like TV or film or something like that,
it's not, it's a really tough numbers game.
Yeah.
You feel pretty good about being offered an audition
for that third Australian sea buck?
Yeah, I don't think there will be any auditions for that.
I think the fans would go insane if I didn't narrate it.

(57:10):
I agree with you there.
So what's it look like when you,
so you've got the, we've got you through the auditions
for just being, accepting the book.
What does it look like?
Are you doing one book at a time?
Is it something where you kind of gotta break your mind away
or do you need to focus on one at a time?

(57:30):
Are you doing several or are you doing one at a time?
Different people do it different ways.
I'm very much, I mean,
I am working on several projects at once
because I might be prepping a book,
which is reading the fiction and like explained that
or non-fiction I'm going through and pulling out the terms
and getting, my husband actually does my research for me.

(57:53):
So that's really great.
But like, so I might be prepping that
and recording something different during the day.
In general, I prefer to start a book and finish it
and then start the next one and finish it.
But like this book I'm in the middle of,
I had to go away, step away yesterday
and do this other multicast project with May Whitman.

(58:17):
So sometimes other things pop up,
but I'm in charge of my schedule.
It's very rare that, I mean, sometimes as a last minute,
oh my God, we were starting to record this with an author
and he was just dreadful.
And we finally said,
please let us hire a professional narrator to do this.

(58:37):
And the author finally said,
yeah, I am pretty dreadful, okay,
except we need this done in two weeks.
So can you, you know,
and I'll try to do those if I can,
if it's something I wanna do
because you know, work is work, right?
So, but in general,
I like to do one book at a time and finish it
and then do the next book and finish it
and do the next book and finish it.
But I am prepping, you know, like I, my iPad

(58:59):
or one of my iPads is I read off a big iPad in the booth,
but I have the regular, the smaller iPad
that is like stapled to my hand
because I'm either, you know, dealing with the, you know,
emails and things that are coming in
because we're entrepreneurs, so it's all just us.
But I'm also in my, like, I annotate,

(59:20):
I have five books that are all in prep phase
that are there that I've either read or haven't yet
or whatever, but they're all there
so that I can just open up, I annotate and go,
oh, okay, what am I prepping today?
You know, but the actual, but then, you know,
and then, but the narration is one and done
and done and done, you know.

(59:40):
But I, you know, but like sometimes things are booked
long time in advance and I mean, the third Cerulean book
I'm gonna do, I don't know, three or four years from now,
maybe, so it's sort of booked, but you know,
who knows when, but other, so other things,
I'm booked six months in advance
and some things like it's a last minute thing,

(01:00:01):
so it's all a little shifty and changey, but I like that.
I can, I'm able to, you know, having run a theater
for so long, I can deal with changes, not a problem.
But I also get to like, you know,
I have my life the way I like it.
Like I'm not going away for Christmas
when everyone else goes away.
I'm going away in January because it's cheaper

(01:00:24):
and I have something particular I'm gonna do
and it's not when all the tourists will be there
and I can just, I'm gonna work every day
right around Christmas and New Year's, all of that,
and then I'm just gonna take my time off
and go on my trip, you know, so I get to schedule all of it.
But it doesn't mean, in general, like that trip in January,

(01:00:44):
it doesn't mean I'm not gonna do
whatever book I was offered.
It just means I'll just put it in February or whatever,
you know, so it gives me lots of flexibility
while also, you know, keeping me inside this dark box
all day long.
Yeah, yeah.
And it sounds like you just mentioned that your husband
helps you with the research side,

(01:01:05):
so at least you take input at least in that.
What's it like when it comes to the actual narration?
Are you somebody who likes to just trust your own instinct
and go with that?
Do you bounce ideas off of him or other people,
you know, trying to get a character right?
Or what's that look like?

(01:01:27):
In general, when you work for Penguin Random House,
you generally will have a director with you,
but they're not like a theater director.
They're there to make sure you're saying the words right.
They might say, oh, you know what?
You might take this paragraph again.
You know, they might give a couple of little things
here and there or help a little bit
with the shape of something maybe.

(01:01:47):
But in general, it's pretty much you do you.
And it took me, I've done like,
I think this is my, I think I'm working on my 267th book.
And so, but the first like 100 of them,
and I'm not really exaggerating,

(01:02:08):
I was always sort of going, oh God, what do they want?
You know, what, oh God, what are they, you know,
like, oh my God, I hope they'll hire me again.
I hope, you know, I hope I don't ruin it.
And there's almost no feedback in this business.
It's just so, there's so much, you know,
books are super long and they do lots of them.
And you know, so there's not a lot of like,
you did great on that last book.
It doesn't, they just give you another book

(01:02:29):
and that's how you find out.
But so I was, for a long time, I was like,
what do they want?
And I try to like do what they want, right?
But I realized what they want is me.
They hired me to do that book.
So what they want is for me to do my best job
at doing that book.
And I would say out of 267 books,

(01:02:51):
there are like two, there are like two that,
and I won't tell you what they are,
that like I maybe shouldn't have done
or I maybe didn't do what they wanted
because really I didn't really mesh with the material.
You know, I was trying to deliver
what I thought the book was asking for,

(01:03:11):
which is a much better question to ask,
not what do the producers want or the publishers want,
but what does the author want?
What is the author saying in these words?
And so what I deliver is what I can see
that the author says in those words.
So now I figured out that that's what they want me to do.
They want me to take my instrument

(01:03:31):
and play that symphony that was written by TJ Klum.
So I do that.
And sometimes am I, you know, like am I too big sometimes?
I don't know.
I'm just doing what I'm doing.
And you know, so there are some people
who don't like my work,
but I'm sure there's some people
who don't like everybody's work

(01:03:53):
because nobody likes everything.
I'm not a taco.
I can't make everybody happy.
So I sometimes actually go on Audible
and especially with Cerulean Sea
or somewhere beyond the sea,
and you know, read and I read,
like I'll read reviews, but I don't read all of it,
but I read some, right?
And actually the ones that I'm fascinated by

(01:04:14):
are the ones that say like,
this is the best audio book I've ever heard in my life.
And then the next one is like one star
and says worst narration ever.
And I love that.
Not that, I mean, I do want to make everybody happy,
but you know, but I can't and I know that.
But like I certainly made them feel something

(01:04:34):
one way or another.
So, you know, so I feel like that's also some, a win,
you know, if they, if the reviews were like, meh,
that I'd be upset, you know?
Yeah.
I get that.
I get that for sure.
I want, you know, we've talked so much about the fun books
that you've been able to do, which is, is, is numerous,

(01:04:57):
but you know, you also have to pay the bills
and not every book is going to be amazing
when it comes to like the fun aspect.
So, you know, I've done a deep dive
into some of your other work
and I've listened to five or six minutes of you,
you know, talking about mathematical equations

(01:05:17):
and formulas.
So how do you get yourself excited for some books
that I'm not going to say are not, you know, are boring,
but maybe just not, you know, not joy for reading anyway.
Yeah, academic and textbooks.
And I do, TJ Clune love, anytime he and I,
anytime TJ and I do a public event,

(01:05:38):
he always makes me talk about the, the, like the three
or four like 20 hour study guides for the exam to become
a computer cloud security professional.
He just, it tickles him pink that Chauncey reads those books.

(01:05:59):
So the way I do it, honestly, like I'm, you know,
like I'm, I'm next month, I'm doing a 27 hour book
on Bitcoin and crypto.
That is not going to be fun, but I just,
I just pretend it is.
I just make it fun for myself, you know, I,

(01:06:24):
I like learning things.
I like teaching things, you know, so I,
like those study guides, I, how I made those fun for myself
was when the quizzes came up and like when I was listing
the answer or the questions and then answer is B.
Like I just had fun, like give it that, right?
Because I do think in those books, even more so,

(01:06:46):
if I can bring them alive for the listener who has to listen
to the 27 hour book on whatever, like on the,
on what could be a dry subject, I think that's like
a specialty I have, you know?
So even in the driest thing, like if I can just give you
a little bit more life than you expect in it,

(01:07:08):
then it's going to make it, you're going to enjoy
the book more.
And at the end of the day, that's my job.
My job is to deliver the book to you in a way,
in the best way for you to take it in, whatever that is,
you know, and it's, that's, it's in my opinion
of what that is, right?
But, and for the Cerulean books, it's living deeply

(01:07:28):
in the characters and bringing them fully to life.
In another book, it's, you know, it's finding the humor
wherever I can or just keeping it alive, not droning on,
you know, so.
Do you ever get to, do you ever get to read audible reviews
on some of those type of books?

(01:07:49):
It's funny, they get reviewed a little less in that way,
but yes, like those books about the computer cloud
security professional, like one of them had like five stars
for like quite a long time.
So people do say, oh my God, thank you so much
for not making this boring, you know?
I'm not saying these books are boring, they're not.

(01:08:09):
They're just academic in nature,
which has a tendency to be drier.
But like the one I'm doing now, it's, it's a, it's a,
it's a biology book basically, but it's so much fun.
And the author is just, he writes these personal sides
and these things and it's like, oh yeah, bring it,
bring it, I can, I can, I, I can make you laugh
in this book, let's go, let's do that.

(01:08:30):
I love that.
And you know, this is a question I ask authors a lot,
maybe a little bit more difficult for you to answer
just because, you know, it's not the, the audio is your work,
but you're reading somebody else's.
So people, you know, when people happen to kind of
dish on their own work, it's a little easier,
but I always like to ask people, you know, okay,

(01:08:53):
of course we've talked about your, your New York Times
bestseller and the book that everyone raves about,
but what's a book that you have that hasn't gotten as much,
I guess, as much credit and as much play, but it should,
that you're really, really proud of it.
So what's something that you've recorded
that maybe very few people know about?

(01:09:14):
You've got two audio, audible reviews of it,
but it's just a really awesome thing
and you wish more people listen.
There's two things and one I'll, one I'll just mention
and then there's two that come to mind.
Like two of my, in the past couple of years,
my most favorites and, and, and I'm actually,
the Society of Voice Arts Awards are coming up

(01:09:35):
in like a week and a half and it's a,
it's like the SAG Awards.
It's like, it's the peer judged awards
for the voice community.
And I am almost embarrassed to say that I'm nominated
in eight categories.
Or sharing, of course.
And two of these books are in, are, of these nominations.
The first one actually is Edith Wharton's

(01:09:57):
The Age of Innocence that I did this year.
And there are many versions of that as audio books.
So that hasn't really had a lot of listens
because it just came out and whatever,
but I am so freaking proud of my work in that.
I can't even tell you.
I'm deeply proud of that.
The other one is a book I did last year,
which is nominated in the humor category
and it's called Feral Covington and the Limits of Style.

(01:10:19):
And it's by Paul Rudnick, who is a Broadway playwright.
He wrote the movie Sister Act and Adam's Family Values.
And he's a writer for the New Yorker.
And he's funny as all get up.
And this book is a 50 year story that takes place
in like real American history

(01:10:40):
and the real history of the gay movement.
Paul gave the main character basically his writing career.
So this writer doesn't write a movie called Sister Act.
He writes a movie called Habit Forming.
So it really is like a Ramona Clay.
It really is like a lot of things from his real life.
And so the characters in it are actually real life people,

(01:11:01):
but they're covered.
And then he adds this character named Feral Covington
and these two main characters have a 50 year love relationship
that goes through it.
And it is epic and beautiful and funny and brilliant.
And I'm really good in it.
And I'm really deeply proud of what I was able

(01:11:21):
to give to Paul's book.
So that's certainly one of the ones that I am just,
and I can pretty much guess that I always will be deeply
proud of that book.
And it will always be like one of my top 10.
Something to check out for sure.
So do you feel, you've done so much,
this is kind of where your passion lies right now.

(01:11:45):
Do you feel like if this is what you do,
I guess the rest of your career,
are you content in your current work?
I am, I am.
As people say like,
well, what do you want to do in your retirement?
Well, I'd like to, I don't know, sit around and read books.
Okay, well, guess what I get to do, right?
And I get health insurance out of it.
So that's great, right?

(01:12:06):
I do, again, I didn't realize I had sort of these abilities.
So I didn't never thought about it before,
but I do, I now understand that I do have a large capacity
for characters, for creating characters
and sort of big wild characters and stuff.
So I am getting into animation.

(01:12:27):
I'd like to do that as well,
because I think I'd just have a great time.
And I obviously have, I mean, if you've listened to
Cerulean, you know I can do that, right?
So I really enjoy doing the character work.
So that's a place where I'm able to do that.
So that's something else I'd like to explore more as well.

(01:12:48):
But in general, yeah, I feel like,
I think maybe if I was just doing romances all day long,
which often are quite similar when you have a bunch of them,
or just thrillers or just one genre,
I think I might get a little more bored.
I know that people do.
But because I'm bouncing around from Ukrainian short stories

(01:13:13):
to House in the Cerulean Sea to even the textbooks,
whatever, it's never the same thing twice in a row,
pretty much.
And I even have a little bit of a chance
to schedule it that way too, right?
So I can make sure I don't have to crypto textbooks
back to back or something, or I can say no.

(01:13:33):
But that's so, at least for now, I feel super content.
I don't have to leave my house.
I can be with my dog and not wear shoes or pants
or, you know, and just go read a good book.
And as I'm getting more well-known,
I'm getting better books, right?

(01:13:55):
So the books are getting better,
which is really interesting.
I've always, people have been really great with me
and they've always, like almost all of the books I've done,
I've found something to really be interested in.
And so I'm honored that the producers
and the casting people and the publishers hear me
in all of these different ways, you know,

(01:14:16):
because it keeps it alive for me for sure.
Yeah, I can't imagine just all the things
that you've been able to learn
just through reading all these books.
That has to be really cool too.
Yeah, it is.
I speak a little Russian.
I was a guest of the Soviet Union
at the end of the Soviet Union
to visit Soviet theaters and theater schools

(01:14:36):
when I was a kid, basically.
And so I learned a little Russian before I went
and I never used it again, but I was glad I did.
But then audio books come along.
And if you have a little bit of a language in audio books,
that's a good thing.
So they'll hire you to do books
that have like a lot of Russian names or whatever.
So I've done something like 300 hours in total,

(01:14:59):
like many books of Russian, Soviet, Ukrainian,
Belorussian history, and certainly Ukraine now,
there's so many things.
I mean, I've done some like modern history,
some like Kutuzov, the general who won against Napoleon,
to I just finished a book about,

(01:15:21):
called Battleground Ukraine.
So I had this little skill, which is,
I speak a little Russian,
which means I speak terrible Russian.
And, but because of that, I can pronounce things properly.
So I've been given a lot of Russian stuff.
Well, I mean, the world right now,
it's important to be aware of what's happening there.

(01:15:42):
So I am, you know, and I feel like I have a master's degree
in Russian, Ukrainian, Soviet history at this point,
because of the hours and hours and hours
and hours and hours that I've done.
So yeah, and I really, I appreciate that.
I know more about the world than I knew before.
And I, you know, I knew a lot about the world,

(01:16:05):
but like even more now.
And I kind of also love the,
a little bit of the random nature of it.
Okay, you're gonna learn about, you know,
today you're gonna learn about Kutuzov, that's, you know,
and then tomorrow it's gonna be about whatever,
you're gonna do an Edith Wharton novel, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
And it's really cool.

(01:16:25):
And I love that, you know, the listener,
these, my listeners have been able to learn
a little bit more about you today.
There's so much more we could cover.
You know, we didn't even talk about your,
I guess, close personal relationship with Star Wars,
your small role in the band played on.
You've done so many really, really cool things.

(01:16:48):
I guess, how can people connect with you?
I guess, you know, there's so many books
they can just pick up and listen to your voice.
How are they gonna connect with Daniel Henning?
Well, my website is danielhenning.net.
I'm on all the socials at Daniel Henning, LA.
You can go to Audible or even Libby

(01:17:10):
and type in Daniel Henning and narrator search
and you'll find a lot of those things.
I will say, if you're interested,
Google Daniel Henning, Alec Guinness, Star Wars
and you'll find that story, which as you say is,
we could probably do a whole podcast just on that

(01:17:32):
because I am literally,
this is such a crazy thing to say out loud,
but I'm literally a world famous Star Wars fan.
You certainly are, you certainly are.
When I meet people and that story happens to come up,
they'll say, oh my God, you were that kid?
Everywhere I tell that story,
there's someone in there who goes, you're that kid?

(01:17:54):
So yeah, but we'll leave that for your listeners
to find for themselves.
Absolutely.
I also did a little audio book of that story actually.
So if you poke around my Audible,
you may find that there too.
Well, that's what I recommend people do.
Yeah, no, I really appreciate your time today.

(01:18:14):
Thanks so much.
Absolutely, it's been a pleasure, Jackson.
Thank you.
So that was Daniel Henning,
just an honor and a thrill to speak with him.
So glad that he was able to dedicate a little bit of time
to speaking to me.
So yeah, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.
Definitely, definitely go check out
House on the Shrillian Sea,
check out the, really any book that T.J. Klune has written.

(01:18:39):
I know Daniel has read most of those books,
but he's read so many other books.
We talk about that too.
So, you know, I know on my app, you know,
with the library, the Libby app,
you can search by audio book narrator as well.
And I've done that a few times,
just searching for books that Daniel's read.
And even if the book is not my favorite,

(01:19:01):
just hearing, I guess, from Daniel,
hearing from an old friend in my ear,
it just makes it a little bit better.
So I really appreciate Daniel's time.
Go check out all things Daniel Henning,
the links will be in the show note to his website.
Go follow along with him on social media.

(01:19:23):
I know that he'll appreciate that.
So many amazing things in store for him
in this kind of new career.
You know, he's been doing it for a while,
but he's done so much in entertainment.
And then this is kind of a second wind, if you will.
And he's just excelling at it so much.
So, man, I'm really excited that I was able to speak with him.

(01:19:44):
Maybe eventually we'll talk to T.J. Klune as well.
And there's, you know, there's not the opportunity
for Daniel to read so well without the words being on it.
And he's being on the page.
So it'd be great to speak with him too.
But yeah, go, if this is your first time listening
to this podcast, so you haven't already,
go follow along on Instagram and on TikTok.

(01:20:05):
Not enough podcasts.
Go listen on Apple and on Spotify.
It's all 250 other episodes.
That'd be great.
But even if this doesn't do a few that interest you the most,
leave that five star review.
That helps a ton.
Leave a written review on Apple.
It helps even more.
But until next week, take it away, Chris.

(01:20:27):
This has been Not in a Huff with Jackson Huff.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to join us next time where we will interview another amazing guest
who is sure to make you laugh or make you think or, hey, maybe even both.
But until then, keep being awesome.

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#225- Daniel Henning: Raising His Voice | Award-Winning Audiobook Narrator to LBGTQ+ Advocate

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#225- Daniel Henning: Raising His Voice | Award-Winning Audiobook Narrator to LBGTQ+ Advocate