August 16, 2024 • 56 mins
This week, I sit down with Klaus von Hohenloe, a professional voice actor and YouTuber, to discuss their experiences in various creative industries. The conversation delves into Klaus's journey into voice acting, sharing the challenges of finding consistent work, creating authentic voices for characters, and dealing with the rise of AI-generated voices that eerily mimic real ones. He touches on the physical challenges of the job, such as jaw issues from long recording sessions, and I share the unique struggles transgender individuals face in voice work, including voice modification and rejection in the tech industry.
Klaus also talks about his love for tabletop role-playing games, affectionately referred to as "titter pigs," and the importance of finding supportive communities in gaming and content creation. Both Klaus and I emphasize the need for authenticity and passion in our work, rejecting the pursuit of popularity or financial gain as the primary motivation. The episode takes a reflective turn as Klaus discusses the discomfort of hearing his voice turned into AI, navigating social anxiety in the comedy world, and the decision not to have children in favor of following his creative passions. We wrap up the conversation by exploring the complexities of adulting, alternative medicine, and the hope for a brighter, more positive future.
Check out Klaus' channel, The Dungeon Newb's Guide!
Executive Producer and Host: Vanessa Joy: https://linktr.ee/vanesstradiol
Vanesstradiol Podcast - Copyright © 2023-2025 Vanessa Joy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vanessa (00:00):
Radar app to keep an eye on whatever's coming at me
(00:05):
here.
Klaus (00:06):
Yes, indeed.
Vanessa (00:06):
So for the listeners and viewers, I'm recording this.
We're recording this on august6. I know this won't go live
until next week, but they're allkinds of interesting weather
coming my way right now, sokeeping an eye on that. Anyways,
welcome back to transcendinghumanity. I'm Vanessa, aka
(00:28):
Vanessa all as reminded viewsand opinions of everyone on here
are their own, so don't yell attheir bosses or whatever.
Patreon send us money. Thank youto our patrons. Remember the
store, you know, go to merchshop and buy shit and just send
me money anyways, withoutfurther ado, since there was a
(00:49):
storm bearing down, I want to atleast get some of this episode
recorded before the power goesoff. I am honored to have Klaus
von Hohenloe, am I pronouncingthat right?
Klaus (01:01):
Yep. Klaus von Hohenloe,
Vanessa (01:03):
okay, thank
Klaus (01:04):
you so much, and the honor is mine. I'm flattered
that you wanted to talk to me.
Vanessa (01:10):
It's like to give some context as to why Klaus is here.
I, as many people know, am aphotographer by trade, and when
I edit photos, I usually haveYouTube on in the background.
And one of Klaus has many jobs.
He he does narration for achannel called mainly facts, and
(01:32):
so I like to have it on thebackground. It's essentially
just reading stories off ofReddit. And there's a number of
similar channels, but there's, Ithink it's the best. Yeah,
there's quite a few. I like isthe best, though, because he
actually has some personalitybehind it, rather than just,
like, reading shit out so andI learned some things about him,
(01:56):
like during as he talk like he'shad about 50 million jobs, and
he's a professional voice actorand YouTuber and Dungeons and
Dragons nerd and so Klaus, I'mgonna let you introduce
yourself, tell us about
Klaus (02:12):
you, yeah, so I think you put it wonderfully. Yeah. My my
day job consists of flittingbetween voicing a number of
different YouTube channels. Um,some people think that they have
them all all down. They don't.
There's so many more out there.
(02:32):
They probably have gained notraction whatsoever. Um between
that and then doing voice over.
Um, anyone who's tried to learnEnglish with Duolingo stories
has probably heard my voice asOscar. People have probably,
yeah, people have maybe heard myvoice in a number of little
mobile games, some local ads,and then, I don't know if your
(02:57):
workplace has some really boringinstructional video on, you
know, how to use a Baylor. Thenmaybe you've heard my voice
there as well.
Vanessa (03:09):
So you're pretty busy in voice acting.
Klaus (03:11):
I try to, you know, there are, there are ups and downs.
There's the busy times wheresuddenly, you know, I'm
recording hours a day every dayfor a couple weeks. And there
are the times where the onlyrecording I'm doing are just
auditions. And that's, that'sthe nature of the business,
especially if you're afreelancer living in Minnesota,
(03:32):
instead of someone making themore profitable, potentially
decision of living out in likeLA or something where you can
get, you know, studio, covid andall that is,
Vanessa (03:42):
yeah, how did you get into voice acting?
Klaus (03:47):
So I I'd always wanted to do some form of acting or
entertainment. I did stand uplocally in Minnesota in my 20s.
I've done a lot of theater, butI always wanted to do voice
acting, because I have alwaysloved cartoons from the moment I
was a little kid to literallylast night I was watching
(04:12):
cartoons Gravity Falls one ofthe best shows out there, and I
just wanted to get into that.
And so about I, I guess it'd bearound about 10 years ago, I
started just doing freelancevoice work, primarily getting
into audio books. And you canstill find a bunch of audio
(04:32):
books on audible with my name,primarily male male erotica, but
there's some male femaleerotica. And no joke, I so
here's a fun fact for anyonewanting to get into voice work,
when you start doing independentaudio books, is there are some
folks out there just trying toshovel stuff out as quick as
(04:53):
they can. And I had one clientwho had me do a few books, and
then they sent me a script. Fora book, just a short, one hour
long read. But I looked at itand I went, Oh, this is, this is
all written first personperspective from a female
viewer. And it's like, andcertainly, as an audio book, you
(05:15):
know reader, you have to voice,you know, all across the
spectrum everyone you have togive every character a voice,
but to have something that'slike first person narration from
a female view. I'm like, that'san odd choice with my voice and
what I typically deliver forthese books. But okay, but I
don't know if it's still up onAudible or not, but they were
(05:36):
just like, No, yeah, do it.
Vanessa (05:40):
I guess maybe you know trans women, yeah, I,
Klaus (05:45):
you know, I, I tried to give it my best that. I think
that was one of the last audiobooks. I think I did it.
Audiobooks are a lot of work,and so I don't do them much
anymore, because you hear $50per finished hour of a book, and
you're like $50 an hour, $50finished hour. And a finished
(06:08):
hour of a book, depending onjust how much effort you're
willing to put in, could taketwo to four hours to do so.
Suddenly, it's not the best.
There are better jobs out there,but good luck there. It's
competitive.
Vanessa (06:23):
Then your your voice also starts going, oh yes, vocal
training is something that I'veonly kind of recently gotten
into being trans, and I've had,you see my scar here. I've had
vocal cord surgery, and myAdam's apple removed, but the
(06:46):
surgery is just part of it. Itraises your pitch a little bit,
like if I can go down this islike as deep as my voice usually
can go now, in before operation,it was more like this. So I had
a pretty deep voice, and I can'tdo that anymore, but like a lot
of people, don't realize whatall goes into creating a voice
and how you have to talk fromdifferent parts of your mouth.
(07:09):
The traditional male way oftalking is from your throat,
like here, yep, but female, it'sa little bit more nasally.
You're talking from the front ofyour mouth, and shit. You have
to think about it constantly. Sodo you do, like, vocal
modifications and stuff too,for, like, different voices, or
Klaus (07:30):
I will try for different characters. I try not to get a
I'll ask the author, or where,you know, whatever client I'm
working with, it's like, howmuch do you want? Because there
are, especially if you get intoaudio books, there are some
authors who are like, No, Iwant, kind of just a standard
(07:52):
read in your voice. And you can,like, do slight shifts for
different characters, but don'ttry and give them, you know,
like extreme voices. And thenthere are other ones who tell
you, I imagine this charactersounding like Willem Dafoe. Can
you kind of make him sound likeWillem Dafoe? And that's a true
story. And to get into thatcharacter, every day that I had
(08:14):
to record for that book, whenI'd come up to his parts, I'd
pause and be like, okay, WillemDafoe, voice, Spider Man finish
it.
Vanessa (08:23):
I'd have to, it's pretty solid.
Klaus (08:25):
I'd have to pick little like anchor phrases for certain
voices that would get me backinto it. But yeah, I did, um, I
remember, actually, um, watchinga video for someone explaining,
like, male and female range andstuff. And they're like, a lot
of guys, if they want to do agirl voice, oh, they're just
like, this, Oh, my. And it'slike, well, there's more to it.
(08:46):
It's like, you can't project thesame way that you would as a man
necessarily. Like, I mean, youcan. People have voices all
across the spectrum, spectrumand sound, you know, every which
way. But typically, if you'rewanting to give a character kind
of authentic voice, yeah, youhave to be like, you know, okay,
so I'm on a female voice, andmaybe I'll kind of bring it more
(09:10):
up here. And, okay, yeah, this,this is what I try to go for,
for, like, a female voice. Andthen, you know, I made a mistake
once in an audio book, I wasdoing a series, and each book of
the series focused on adifferent member of an all male
rock band, uh, where every oneof them discovered that they
(09:30):
were gay throughout the courseof the book, because that's,
that's what happens in erotica.
And, yeah, yeah, it is actuallya very fun series. I love the
author dearly, who sadly haspassed away. But if anyone wants
to read some great male eroticawritten from a female's
perspective, Sandrine gas Dion,lovely person, fun writer, but I
(09:51):
got the first book, and I waslike, Okay, I need voices for
each of the band mates, and Itry to make them all set. I'm
very distinct, not realizingthat point. What's hilarious, I
hear my dog, but there's no waymy dog hurts.
Vanessa (10:18):
Dogs could hear really well. It
Klaus (10:20):
could be anyway. So for one of the characters, I'm like,
okay, each of them needs to havea different voice. So I've like,
one is a little bit higher, oneis a little bit punk, and then I
had one, and I gave him a voicelike this or something. And
that's really fun to do for acharacter that pops up here and
there, but when the book isfirst person narration, and then
(10:43):
suddenly I realized, Oh, I'mgoing to have to do a whole book
as that I had to record in halfhour segments and drink so much
tea because it ruined me. Sothat's a tip for anyone doing
voice acting, and training isgive yourselves reasonable
voices to do unless you knowthat it's going to be, you know,
(11:06):
much briefer, like when I'vedone some video games and I've
voiced like, you know, aminotaur or something, where I'm
like, All right, let's all get,you know, sure I can do that
voice for 10 minutes ofrecording And then take the rest
of the day off. Sure,
Vanessa (11:24):
it's amazing how tired your voice gets. Like, I'm only
finally now able to I'm stilllike performative if, if I'm out
in public trying to talk to aclient or something like that, I
can't keep my femme voice up forsome reason, because you have to
think about it constantly. Andlike, so right now, I'm actually
thinking about it and going asfull time as I can. It's just
(11:48):
weird, just how much thoughtgoes into it and how tiring it
gets. Like, the back of yourtongue starts getting tired,
like, because you're workingmuscles that are, like, why are,
why am I being worked this? Thisisn't supposed to be happening.
I'm supposed to be just beinghappy. So, yeah, talk,
Klaus (12:07):
talking. You feel like it should be the easiest thing in
the world. But the moment youtry and alter your voice to
something it's not used to it,it is like every muscle in your
cheek and throat and tonguetries to fight against it at
first, but over time, it justbecomes more natural. Because
(12:31):
even for a lot of us, just thenatural voice we might speak in,
there's so many people I talkedI saw a video about someone
talking about like, actuallygetting to your natural voice,
and how a lot of people don'tspeak in a natural voice, yeah,
all sorts of people put onaffectations. I tend to in
(12:52):
conversation, just talking withpeople speak in a little bit
higher register. Sometimes. I'vegot kind of the gravelly
undertone here and there, but Itend to go more up here. But if
I just try and be like,completely relax everything, not
stressing something, and I justgo, Huh, really, my normal
(13:14):
speaking voice should probablybe somewhere more in this,
without adding in that littlebit of height to it. I should
probably speak more around hereall the time, but I don't,
because I'm a weird, eclectic,you know, cheerful, excitable
person, and so I've constantlypushed my voice to reach up here
more, and now it's just natural.
So I can talk like this all thetime forever, when, in reality,
(13:38):
I should probably be relaxed inmy voice more speaking more down
here, I have a more naturallybaritone voice, but I will fight
to be a tenor until the day Idie.
Vanessa (13:51):
I mean, you have to do what you also enjoy, so like and
just talking in general for along time. Just where is you?
Wears out your voice anddifferent times of the day too,
like mornings and evenings canbe different from the middle of
(14:12):
the day. So do you like scheduleyour recordings to be kind of in
a sweet spot during the day? Ordo you just do whatever?
Klaus (14:19):
I typically start recording at around nine
o'clock, and my main block isfrom like nine to 11. But
sometimes, if I have a lot todo, I'll go beyond then. But
nine o'clock is great for me,because that is after I've been
awake for a while. I get up at530 in the morning, of my own
(14:41):
accord, because I just like it.
I'm one of those weirdos, but itgives me enough time to, yeah,
gives me enough time to fullyhydrate, to just kind of work
out some of the kinks, becauseeveryone's got that, you know,
morning voice, you're coughingstuff up, you're half an octave
lower than. Should be, yeah,it's like, I give myself plenty
(15:01):
of time to do that. And so yeah,and I've had to cut back on some
of the longer term recording,because another fun thing you
can discover is if you get intoany kind of thing where you have
to speak for long periods andyou also have TMJ, that is
miserable. Oh, dear I because Iwas at a point doing like, four
(15:27):
straight hours of recording aday for a while. And not only
would it just dry my voice outand get get my voice hoarse to
the point where, come weekends,I was just drinking, like, honey
and tea and barely talking. Butit just something that for most
(15:49):
of my life has been like, oh,occasionally my jaw gets a
little bit sore and it clicks ifI open too much and, you know,
but yeah, but it's like, Ah,it's not that big of a deal.
But, oh boy, I I got to a pointI was recording so much and my
jaw hurt and was so swollen thatI had to, like, take week long
(16:12):
breaks just to recover. So it'sa dangerous line of work,
Vanessa (16:22):
yeah. And like, I have, like, I have jaw issues too, and
part of my facial feminizationsurgery that I hope to get
sometimes actually going to fixthat. But like, it wears on you.
And like, it's weird having yourjaw physically get tired. It's
like chewing on a whole bag fullof Starburst all at once, or
(16:44):
something like that. You know,there's only so much that you
can take before your mouth justwants to be like, No, fuck you.
I am done. And four hours ofrecording at once
Klaus (16:57):
I was that was when I was still doing some audio books,
and I was doing YouTube, and,you know, I was making some good
money at the time, and Iliterally had to walk away from
1000s of dollars a month becauseI'm like, I can't, I just
physically can't keep doingthis, because I try and, Like,
(17:20):
maybe if I just bulk record fortwo days, three, you know, two,
three days, and have restperiods in between and stuff,
and it's like I was so miserablemultiple days a week that I just
had to stop the TMJ basicallyescalated to a point where it
was radiating up through mytemples and giving me migraines.
And so it's no fun having youryour days off, or your evenings
(17:44):
just spent in bed with a pillowover your face, because lights
bad me no like and
Vanessa (17:52):
then the dog still went out. And you know, if Mrs. Facts
isn't home, you know, you haveto deal adult. Adulting is hard,
very, very hard.
Klaus (18:01):
I don't like it most of the time. Luckily, you
Vanessa (18:04):
don't have kids, because that makes adulting even
more adulty. So I
Klaus (18:08):
can only imagine. Yeah, I
Vanessa (18:12):
have one. I'm a horrible mom. I don't live with
him anymore. That's all otherstory. But kids are hurt. Kids
are hurt. Like, I think it'ssomething that you like, I think
you've mentioned, actually,like, in some of your sides
where you know, if you don'twant to
have kids, you don't have tohave kids, you shouldn't feel
pressured about it. So, yeah,
Klaus (18:32):
absolutely, the world has people in it, and to, like, the
the attention and gifts andstuff that I would give kids, I
get to spread between mynephews, my niece and a couple
of dogs, and with so much lesscommitment,
Vanessa (18:51):
the best thing about nephews and nieces say, go home
at the end of the day. SoExactly, yeah, that's a big
thing. So let's pivot to to jobslike this boy has like every
(19:12):
single time I listen to you, youtalk about another job from the
past, like hotels and give giveme like a best of of the
craziest jobs that you've donein the past.
Klaus (19:27):
So let's see some of my favorites. Um, working at the
working at a hotel when I was ateenager was wonderful. Um, I
started at the hotel in themaintenance department, and so a
lot of my day was just wanderingaround drinking free soda from
the restaurant and like settingup functions and stuff like
(19:48):
that. You know, for weddings andparties and stuff like that,
it's very chill. I like that alot. Another job that i i Would
it was darn near the. Perfectjob, except for two things, and
that's when I was the deliverydriver and delivery supervisor
(20:09):
for a bakery in northernMinnesota. Northeast Minnesota,
served the whole area and aworked four days a week, Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, youget a break in the middle of the
week, you get the weekend off.
And wonderful. Most of my nightspent by myself, like, put
together some orders, load upthe truck, bring them all around
(20:31):
to the different towns and stufflike that. And the whole time I
just be listening to audiobooks.
There was one summer where I, Ithink I listened to, I think it
was 31 books over the course ofa single summer. It was magical.
I was delighted. The onlyproblem was a, if you're a
(20:53):
delivery driver for a bakery,you start at midnight and get
done sometime between eight andnoon.
Vanessa (21:01):
So I was gonna say that's, that's even earlier than
your 530 wake up time. Yeah, it
Klaus (21:05):
was miserable. The i I was I had a get together with
friends to play some tabletoprole playing games every Friday
after I got off work at somepoint, and I did some figuring
out. And once a week, while Ihad that job, I would stay up
(21:26):
for anywhere from 36 to 42 hoursstraight without every single
week, I'm pretty sure that jobtook off a few years of my life,
Vanessa (21:38):
I mean, but hopefully otherwise
Klaus (21:42):
free bakery, fresh bread to bring home whenever I wanted
get the freshest donuts, likecake donuts, normally not
interested. A cake donut that isstill steaming because it's come
out of the fryer is like magic.
I miss that stuff so much, and Iworked with some wonderful
people, so that made it better,too. The owner of the place was
(22:03):
the actual devil, though, andworks, yeah, she not, not so
great. So that that Job was awas a great one.
Vanessa (22:17):
How can you be an asshole when you run a when you
have a bakery, it's pretty happything you
Klaus (22:23):
you would think so she was one of the most bitter,
conniving, scheming people, likeshe Oh, she verged on, like 80s
movie villain, and the kind ofschemes She tried to get away
with, with people, but she'sdead now, so I don't care she's
(22:47):
dead. I'm alive. That means Iwon, right?
Vanessa (22:50):
You did. You're dead.
Klaus (22:53):
I'm trying to think I I mean a voice work is obviously
going to be the one that I go toimmediately and recording for
the YouTube the YouTubechannels, they're not, you know,
I don't own them, so I'm justkind of a contract worker for
them. But it is fun to just getto Whoo. It is fun to just get
(23:18):
to be at home and record thesestories, and at the same time,
you know, put in my comments andhopefully some positivity in the
world. I try to insert thatwhere I can you
Vanessa (23:30):
do. I mean, that's why you're here, because you have
something that I am so Oh, butI'm muting muting
Unknown (23:44):
because working, that's okay. How did you
Vanessa (23:48):
How did you land YouTube gigs like that? Um, that
Klaus (23:52):
actually did stem from doing voice work. I was picking
up a lot of just smaller, uh,commercial work and business
work for vo stuff. And I sawthis job posted not on my usual
site. I don't remember where itwas, but it was posted for,
like, oh, do some voices forlike, a YouTube channel. And I
(24:16):
was like, well, that'sinteresting. I've already done
some YouTube stuff, and yeah,sure, it might be a steady
paycheck. And I started doing itfor one channel. I think, I
think the first one was achannel about space stuff. It's
still probably going, I like, Iwas, that's kind of what drew me
to it's like, Oh, I like spacestuff. I like science, sure. And
(24:38):
so I started doing that. Andthen the person who got me doing
that was like, Hey, would youmind doing some other channels?
And I've done little like shortschannels and channels for tick
tock for them too, where it'sjust introducing clips for
stuff, a bunch of things thatjust didn't pan out because they
were ridiculous, but eventuallythey got to, like, mainly facts
(24:59):
and. Mostly facts and stuffreading these Reddit stories.
And at the very beginning it wasjust reading this, reading these
little like prompts and lists ofstuff or whatever without any
input.
But then they're like,Hey, would you mind like, giving
some commentary on this stuff orwhatever. And I was like, yeah,
(25:20):
absolutely. And so I starteddoing that, and people seemed to
like it. So that was, it was aweird rabbit hole of stuff that
I didn't expect to be doing foras long as I have, you know, I
100% when I saw someone waslooking for someone to record
(25:41):
these short, little YouTubevideos, at first, I'm like,
Yeah, this might pay for a fewmonths, a little extra cash, not
a lot of work. Did not thinkthat it would be multiple years
of just recording so much insuch a wild variety of stuff.
And now I'm there's a lot ofcontent. There's there's so many
videos of mainly facts. There'sme on the evaluator, which is
(26:06):
also funny to see that that'sthe other channel that's been
doing. Well, it's near about aquarter of a million which not
bad for YouTube. But it is funnyto occasionally go into the
comments and see people likethis person sounds a lot like
that Reddit guy. And I'm like,I've occasionally, I've
(26:27):
occasionally snuck in on mypersonal accounts. And people
are like, I think this sounds,you know, kind of similar to
that mainly facts guy, and I'lljust go in and reply like, I
think you might be on tosomething. Or I'll hop in and be
like, Nah, I don't know. I thinkit's just an AI voice, because
funny enough doing just themainly facts videos. There have
(26:50):
been channels that have made AIvoices of me and just tried to
pump out the same videos,really, yeah, I can't remember
the names of any of them, butI've had, I've seen people in
the comments go like, Hey,there's this channel, whatever.
And I think they're using yourvoice. And at first when I hear
that, I'm just like, ah, theyjust probably stumbled upon
(27:13):
another channel that I happen todo. But nope, I hop on in there
and it's just like story one,and I am looking to go over here
and do this today, and I'm like,what
Vanessa (27:29):
that is to feel kind of violating. It's really, it
Klaus (27:36):
is such a weird combination of both violating
and flattering, but I mostlyland on violating. It's, it's
the kind of thing where I thinkpeople expect you to just, it's
like, oh, you should beflattered, you know. But you
should, you should like that.
People like your voice enough tosteal it. And it's like, I
(27:57):
guess. But mostly I'd ratherthey didn't.
Vanessa (28:03):
I mean, I mean, it's such a new thing that I don't
even know what the legality ofthat is, like, I don't even know
if that's something you cantechnically sue for. I sue for a
voice.
Klaus (28:14):
I don't know. I think at least on youtube I can, it can
be like, flagged, and be like,Hey, this is AI, and it's using
my voice. And here's the proof,listen to me. And so I think
maybe at least one of thosechannels have been shut down,
and I think a lot of peopledon't stick with them, because
(28:34):
it still doesn't sound quite thesame. It sounds stilted, it
sounds wrong,
Vanessa (28:41):
but uncanny valley, yep,
Klaus (28:43):
but I'm also no stranger to hearing my voice or a voice
that sounds like me digitized.
And you know, if I've happenedto have done text to speech
voices in the past which I canneither confirm nor deny,
perhaps due to contracts, theyalways sound wrong. They always
(29:08):
sound so wrong. I don't likehearing my voice turned into an
AI or a text to speech, becauseit's like it's so close to me,
but it's not, and this is theworst uncanny valley I think I
could have possibly imagined.
(29:29):
It's
Vanessa (29:29):
missing the cadence.
Maybe, I think it's the rightword for it, like the flow, your
natural flow when you talk. And,yeah, uncanny valley, it's
unnatural. Yeah. Well, I knowtend
Klaus (29:41):
to be expressive and weird and put in exactly
fluctuations that it does not doNo,
Vanessa (29:48):
no, and that's part of that's part of it. I remember,
actually, I think you've done alittle bit of like memeing on
it, like where people kept ontrying to say you're an AI vote.
She's, like, I almost had not anAI voice. And then you did the
face reveal for a little bit.
And that had to blow people'sminds, so, but it had to be, it
had to be weird, though, tosuddenly have the face. And then
(30:11):
I noticed it's no longer there.
So,
Klaus (30:15):
yeah, it's, I did laugh when people would say, like, I
don't know. I think this is anAI voice, and partially, it's
because text to speech versionsof my voice may or may not have
already existed at that point.
And so people on Tiktok might belike, wait, I think I've heard
someone who sounds kind of likethis before, but also I can
listen to some older videos thatI've done, and there are some
(30:40):
times where, again, recordingfour hours a day. There are some
times where I'm just onautopilot, reading those things,
and my brains not evencomprehending it. And I'll
listen back and be like, I cansee where they might think this
Vanessa (30:58):
was. I mean, there's only so much, you know, he's
reading back, like stories offof Reddit and all kinds of
things, like my brother sleptwith my dog's best friend and,
you know, all kinds of shit likethat. But eventually it kind of
(31:18):
has to all run together. So it
Klaus (31:21):
does there. There are times where I've gotten to the
end, because we have, there's asmall team that works on mainly
facts, and there are people whogather Reddit stories and put
them into a Word document andeverything, so that I've got
just a nice, clean script towork with, and my time isn't
spent scrolling through all thisstuff that's handy, which also
(31:45):
folks, that's why I'm notreading a lot of the comments
and stuff they don't put it in.
Or people are like, there's anupdate to the story. Why did you
include the update? And I'mlike,
I didn't know to do. Yeah, like,I had no idea. I just read the
thing I'm given. But there,there have been times where
they've accidentally replicatedthe story, and I don't realize
(32:05):
until I'm like, finishing thestory, and my brain goes, Hey,
this sounds familiar.
Vanessa (32:14):
I've noticed that. I've noticed that a few times where
it like, be, like the one storyand the two stories in between,
then back to the original storyand like, but yeah,
the so which came first youdoing voiceover for YouTube or
your YouTube channel?
Klaus (32:33):
So my YouTube channel, I've actually had a couple, one
that is no longer really inexistence, which I started out
13 years ago. I made a YouTubechannel where I reviewed anime
and eventually video games, andit was the real typical caustic
(32:57):
critic stuff, where I was hypercritical of things, and I got
rid of it just because I lookback on it. And a anything anime
was getting copyright strike, soI quit doing it. And some of the
video game things, I just lookedit in. I went this, just this
brings such a negativity tothings, and also I'm not happy
(33:18):
with the quality. I'm not happywith just my general style
there. And so eventually I tookthat stuff down. I just closed
that channel because I'm like,I'm not happy with this, and I
don't, I feel like I'm doing itbecause I have to that.
Vanessa (33:31):
I can't see you doing critical stuff. You're too
upbeat. Oh, I'm
Klaus (33:36):
I am naturally a person who likes to be hyper critical
about stuff, but that issomething that I have very much
chilled on and worked on overthe last decade of my life,
where I'm like, why? But, youknow, people can enjoy stuff,
and I'll still have my moments.
I'll still be critical. Let metell you. Last night, I tried, I
tried for the very first time towatch the Director's Cut of Zack
(33:59):
Snyder's rebel moon. I got about25 minutes in before I turn that
off, because it was the most 15year old edge Lord nonsense. I
hate it. I hate it so much Icould rant about that movie for
hours, and I've only seen 25minutes of
Vanessa (34:20):
it. I think I've heard of it, but I think what I heard
of it was not to watch it. Oh,so don't
Klaus (34:26):
it's so bad. But yeah, no, I used to do really hyper
critical stuff, and I stoppedthat. And now I was, like a I
was doing that because I thoughtit was stuff that would be
popular and get views. And Ijust realized I'm like, I think
that's why I don't like what I'mdoing here, because my my
(34:47):
heart's not in it. I'm notactually passionate about it.
And so something like threeyears ago, very shortly before I
started into doing the voicesfor YouTube with mainly facts
and all that. Stuff, I startedmy own channel, the dungeon
noobs Guide, which is a channeldedicated to tabletop role
playing games, because I've beenplaying those for 25 years. I
(35:10):
play dozens and dozens of games,and I kind of started it because
I wanted to teach some friendshow to play a game that I really
like, that they weren't familiarwith, and I went online to try
and find a resource for it, andthere was nothing very good. No
offense to the people who hadresources for it, but they just
(35:32):
hopped on a camera and just kindof went off the top of their
head talking. And I'm like,that's fine, but I'm like, I
want something that way, though,it's like, I want something with
effort put in and with visuals,and that's been, like, organized
and scripted, to be an actualuseful teaching tool. And so I
started making that, and I doother stuff on the channel, but,
(35:55):
yeah, my main focus was just,like, a I'm just gonna bring
positivity. You know, it's like,I just, I want to teach people,
I want to gush about games thatI love and everything, and I'm
so much happier doing that. Andthat's the biggest advice I can
give anyone. Is boy, oh boy.
Don't just try and get intosomething because you think
it'll be popular and you mightmake money off of it, that that
(36:17):
is a road to madness, but
Vanessa (36:22):
if your heart's not in it, you know it shows when
people have passion, too, andwhen you're putting something
out there that makes you happy,and then you present it in a way
that can make other peoplehappy, you're just creating
positivity in the world, whichThere's nothing wrong with that.
So I only recently finally,like, I've,
Unknown (36:44):
I've been a gamer nerd for
Vanessa (36:48):
for years. Like, I'm 43 so, like, I started out doing
role playing on AOL in the mid90s in Red Dragon in and then I
played a mud called Dragon roomsfor a while.
Klaus (37:05):
Oh, nice. I had friends who knew about that. I never got
that one myself, but yes, I knowthat name very well.
Vanessa (37:13):
It was fun. And then, you know, life got in the way,
and I always wanted to playDungeons and Dragons. So now one
of my partners, we we made itthrough like, three quarters of
a one shot, and then we gotkicked out of library because
someone else needed to use aroom. But then next week, I'm
going to be doing one with mylocal queer, queer and Canton
(37:36):
group, and it's like, Finally,in my 40s, I can finally do
this, and it is so much fun. Youknow, it's,
Klaus (37:44):
it's a wonderful hobby,
Vanessa (37:47):
creative outlet, and just, it lets you be social, it
lets you laugh. And I wish I hadgotten into it sooner so
Klaus (37:59):
there's no wrong time to start.
Vanessa (38:02):
No, does your channel talk about, like, how to find
groups and stuff like that? Not
Klaus (38:07):
really, though, that is something that I should tackle.
Because, I mean, there's so manyways to do it, you know,
depending on which games youwant to play. Because I
personally don't really do D andD anymore. I I've done, I did.
I've done D and D since secondedition, 25 years ago as a
teenager in a friend's basement,just like you're supposed to, I
guess. But yeah, there are somany ways to connect with
(38:31):
people. There's, you know,finding local groups going to
local game shops that have stuffrunning. There's an online one
where you can pay to have a GMdo it. But a lot of times they
have free games running calledstart playing. So
Vanessa (38:47):
I have, I have history with those fuckers. Oh, I don't
hear your story. I
Klaus (38:53):
do always okay.
Vanessa (38:55):
So I applied at start playing to be an executive
assistant, and I theirapplication system was kind of
weird in that before you had theinterview, they gave you the
test and like a project, and itwas like a four hour project.
And so I nailed the project, andI got the screening interview.
(39:16):
They loved my project. Theyloved the screening interview,
and then I had in the interviewwith the CEO, and he this was
about two years ago, so I was Ididn't pass nearly as well as I
do now. And I think he wasthinking, Oh, awesome, Vanessa,
(39:36):
that's a sexy girl name. Iwonder she's gonna be a sexy
girl. And then this Vanessa popsup on their early transition
without any vocal training. SoI'm sounding like this, and I
didn't get that job.
Transcending Humanity (39:54):
I love you.
Klaus (39:56):
Yeah, I will say in the videos I've seen of. The founder
and owner. He's got a real techbro vibe that it was very tech
bro, yeah, I immediately waslike, I don't, I don't love it.
But also, it's so hard to escapethe tech bros online these days,
where it
Vanessa (40:17):
is, they said I didn't fit their company's oath of
growth mentality. Oh, I'm like,bitch. I'm a trans woman. My
life is all about growth. Soyeah, but I talked to other
people that interviewed for thesame role and had the same shit.
So sorry, you brought up. Startplaying. I had to do that a side
story that is a good avenue forpeople to find games to play. It
(40:41):
like
Klaus (40:41):
that can be. I also always recommend folks check out
like, just find people onlineand start making groups there,
on like YouTube, but especiallyTiktok. Tiktok has been like,
you know, I don't love Tiktok asan app. It, it frustrates me. I
(41:03):
think it's got a lot ofnegatives to it, but you can
really move for it. Yeah, it'stough. I can't do it. I can't
I've tried to post on it, and II'm just so bad at it, um, I
occasionally post high eating acup of, you know, guacamole or
something, because that's me,but I've met a number of people
(41:25):
through that in the communitythat there's a I am somewhat
credited with pronouncing theacronym for tabletop role
playing games, TTRPG. I have formany years pronounced it titter
pig because it's easier. It's somuch easier than me. Like TTRPG.
(41:46):
It's like, no, that's Yeah, it'sso many plosives to have to just
spit at somebody. And LGBTQIA
Vanessa (41:55):
lipid is something I heard from that. And
Klaus (41:58):
so, uh, my partner, she does not play, she does not play
tabletop games and so, but she'sinterested in it. She wants to
hear what I have to say. Youknow, she's so supportive, and
she'd want to talk to me aboutabout it. And she'd be like, at
first she was like, Oh, are youplaying your T, um, T R, P, T,
(42:18):
no, T, T R, P, G. And so oneday, I was just like, just call
it tatter pig. And she startedlaughing, and she's like, is
that how people pronounce it?
And I'm like, that's how Ipronounce it, and
Vanessa (42:30):
you need to get that to spread. Plus it has the word
tits in it, and exactly left mesome tits. So
Klaus (42:36):
who doesn't
Vanessa (42:37):
I know the best thing ever. But imagine if you grow
your own shit.
Klaus (42:42):
But now I know there's a discord group out there called
titter pig Academy, and aextremely liber covid, plus
friendly, the person Penny whoruns it, she's a trans woman.
She's wonderful. Met her becauseof Tiktok, and her old channel
(43:04):
is full of people like, Hey, whowants to play this new game? And
they've got old school gameswhere you can play games like D
and D, or new games where youwant to play death match Island,
where you're, you know,basically playing the hunger
games and stuff like that. Youknow, it's like, so there are a
lot of resources out there, butit, it's such a social game that
(43:26):
it does require breaching thosesocial circles and being able to
take those steps to interactwith them, which I am terrible
At. But really I, I'm I, I'm sosocially anxious about stuff,
people would not have thoughtthat about you. Nobody does back
(43:49):
when I used to do stand up. I'dget done with my set, and I'd,
you know, go over to get a drinkfrom the bar, and people would
want to come up to me and chat.
And all I could think is, whyare you doing this? Why are you
talking to me? I only talk onthe stage. I'm done now. Please
don't and I'm fairly good at itnow. I like I've just through
what I do. I've had to becomegood at talking with people, but
(44:14):
it's not natural for me, andespecially online. I've been
invited to so many discordchannels, and I always have to
tell folks these days, I'm justlike, I will gladly join your
channel, and I, if you at me inthe channel and mention me, I'll
try to get in there and respond.
(44:35):
I won't be active. I'm so bad.
Vanessa (44:37):
Otherwise I'm meeting that shit. Yeah, me too. I mute
all of my channels so I'm notbecause it's exhausting. I made
Klaus (44:44):
my own channel for the dungeon noobs guide, and it's
quiet now because I wouldn'tinteract in it, because even
people who were there to talk tome, I was just like, oh, I don't
know. No, I'm not gonna so
Vanessa (44:58):
it uses way too many.
Spoons. It's
Klaus (45:01):
it does I and I have such limited spoons, little
teaspoons, and so I'm not, I'mnot great at that stuff, but
even just taking some littlesteps and interacting more, I'd
say definitely tick tock is oneof the better places to actually
connect with people and startplaying those games, weirdly
(45:22):
enough, but you know also, mymind takes trying to train the
algorithm to show you what youwant to see for Lord knows how,
long before it's slightly lessof a hellscape. So good luck
with that.
Vanessa (45:38):
You mentioned something about like being introverted and
a comedian, and I actually thinkthat's fairly common. I was
listening to Jon Stewart'spodcast a couple days ago, and
someone wrote into him asking,like, I'm an introvert, but I
want to do comedy. And these twomix. He's like, Absolutely. He's
(45:58):
like, I'm an introvert. Almosteverybody I know when comedy is
an introvert, you go up there,you get on stage, you do your
bit, and then you are fuckingdone, you know. So don't feel
like you're alone there. Yeah, I
Klaus (46:09):
think it. And even, yeah, other comedians that I knew, not
the most socially out there,people like we usually after the
show. We mostly just stuck witheach other and talked with each
other, because that's who weknew. We didn't want to talk to
the people who saw our shows,really. But I think it's not bad
for introverts to be able to goon stage and do like comedy or
(46:31):
theater, because it's controlledand you know exactly what the
interaction is. And also youdon't have to like answer
questions. There's not as muchunexpected stuff, aside from
dealing with rowdy audiencemembers, which I've seen go very
well and very poorly. So yeah,
Vanessa (46:49):
that's why I don't know if I could do like I've always
kind of wanted to do stand up,but I don't know how I would be
with hecklers so
Klaus (46:56):
they and especially early on, because anyone who starts
stand up, you're probablystarting in open mics, stand ups
and bars, which is the roughestof crowds, or you're doing it on
like the open mics at comedyclubs, which they're going to be
(47:17):
less drunk, but they're going tobe more demanding, and it's
getting a heckler is rough.
Usually, I think everyone kindof develops their own way of
dealing with it. But there aregoing to be some nights where I
think every anyone who wants todo comedy, get ready to have one
night where a heckler ruins ashow for you, and just try to
(47:41):
just try to go with the flow andignore it. Doing comedy is
basically embracing consistentfailure for a long time and
being okay with that. It's suchan uncomfortable process.
(48:02):
But boy, ohboy. If you're really let it get
to you, things can go bad. I sawone comedian that I was friends
with. He was a little he, I willsay he was a little tipsy before
he went on stage. And that'sdangerous. It was a one. It was
an open mic in a bar. Thereweren't that many people, but
there was this group of youngwomen who were kind of heckling
(48:24):
him, one woman in particular,and he was trying to razz her
back play along. And she keptlike, the way she was heckling
him was making the rest of uscomedians be like, Oh, okay,
gosh. Maybe we should, maybe weshould, like, get her out of
here or something, because thisisn't great. But our folk, our
(48:45):
focus, very quickly shifted whenmy friend on stage was clearly
getting very frustrated withher, until one point, he's just
holding the mic, staring at her,and he goes, if you don't shut
up. I'm gonna throw my fuckingshoe at you. And that's the
moment where my other friend,who was helping to run the open
(49:09):
mic night, looks at me and goes,should I and I'm like, yeah, get
him off the stage.
Vanessa (49:16):
Yeah, yeah. Oh boy.
Then no, no, you don't need toget violent with crowds, folks.
No, it's
Klaus (49:25):
a bad idea. You're
Vanessa (49:26):
not gonna win. You're not gonna win. Yeah,
Klaus (49:28):
you need such a thick skin to get into comedy. And
yeah, there were nights where Iwas getting done and just like,
oh, I don't know if I can dothis, but every time you get a
laugh, it's the best drug in theworld. So it has
Vanessa (49:44):
to be, yeah, unlike anything else. So maybe one day
I'll do it. I don't know. Sowe're getting there in time.
I've been doing a quick littlegame of i. Cards Against
Humanity to wrap up shows. Doyou think Mrs. Facts would mind
if you did a Cards AgainstHumanity with a hot chick like
(50:06):
this? Oh, I
Klaus (50:07):
think she'd be just fine with it. Okay, I'm
Vanessa (50:11):
gonna dig one. So it's not your typical way of doing
it. I just pick a card. Well, wepick a card and then we come up
with something to be the whiteguy. That's all it is. It's just
kind of a fun way to wrap up ashow so, but I probably I need
to shuffle these shits, but thatwould require my autistic brain
(50:36):
to actually be on top of things,and it's not so autistic, ADHD,
PTSD, like, I have all thethings that just kind of send me
off into whatever. So anyways,here are our cards. Um, tell me
about where in the deck youwould like to need to pull
yours.
Klaus (50:56):
Oh, let's go right there.
Right here. Yeah, this cardhere,
that's the one I can feel itOkay, and
Vanessa (51:06):
I'm gonna take the one.
Unknown (51:09):
Whoops, showing you the cards, showing you my cards. I'm
gonna take this one
Vanessa (51:15):
for me. So hopefully it doesn't suck. Last week, I had
no idea what to do with mine. Soare you ready for yours? I'm
ready. Okay, so it says we gottaread that backwards. Hey guys, I
know this was my should probablyhold it so you can read it. Come
here. There we go. Hey guys, Iknow this was my idea, but I'm
(51:39):
having serious doubts aboutblank.
Klaus (51:43):
Oh, hey guys, I know this was my idea, but I'm having
serious doubts aboutI'm having serious doubts about
this picnic slash orgy.
Vanessa (52:07):
Oh, that could be awkward yet kinky. At the same
time, I'm getting Sausage Partyvibes. You go see that shit I
have. It was delightfully awful.
Okay, so mine alternativemedicine is now embracing the
curative powers oftrans girl jizz,
Klaus (52:38):
yes, please,
Vanessa (52:40):
yeah, because we still do come and we still we square
it so trans, you could bottlethat actually, I probably should
bottle, I probably could bottlethat shit and people would buy
it.
Klaus (52:54):
You probably could not to say that as far as as far as
holistic medicines go trans girljizz is one that I can
definitely get behind. Oh,
Vanessa (53:11):
I don't have a beer just stroke anymore, so you have
to do it for me. So yeah, class,this was wonderful.
Klaus (53:21):
This was so much fun.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank
Vanessa (53:24):
you for joining. Do you have any closing thoughts or
anything that you want to throwout there for my tiny audience
compared to your massive
Klaus (53:35):
one? My thoughts are folks as much as you are able
to, and don't stress yourselfover it, but as much as you're
able to put out positivity inthe world and give people as
much grace as you are mentallycapable of giving them, because
(53:55):
we have too little of both ofthose things in the world, I
Think, and you don't alwaysthere are plenty of exceptions
out there, but boy, if we couldall just give each other a
little more grace, a little morepatience and a little more
positivity. I think it hadhelped the world a little bit. I
mean, it can't get a lot worse,can it?
Vanessa (54:18):
I hope not. I actually finally have hope for the future
right now with I don't knowwhere you fall politically, but
I'm very left. You
Klaus (54:27):
know, I'm way over there as well, and I
Vanessa (54:31):
figured as much,
Klaus (54:32):
yeah, is, and I have my problems with the Democratic
Party, I think any should, but Iam excited to hear that
Minnesota zone walls.
Vanessa (54:44):
Yes, yes. God, that was big news. So he,
Klaus (54:50):
he's a pretty delightful guy too. You know, makes me
proud to be a Minnesotan, justlike, just like Tim,
Vanessa (54:58):
that's I can't. Wait, I can't wait to see what the next
few months are gonna bring. SoI'm
Klaus (55:03):
hopeful thing he's crossed. Yeah,
Vanessa (55:06):
so Klaus, people can find you on dungeon
noobs guide, on YouTube, anyplace else you'd like them to
stalk you or say the best.
Klaus (55:14):
I mean, you can find me on the broken down hellscape
that is Twitter. As Klaus von HI post on there just a random
thought, maybe about once aweek, though, I could hardly
stomach to be on it anymore, soI delete that shit. Yeah,
Vanessa (55:31):
Twitter's evil. You're talking to a trans girl. And
yeah, Twitter's evil. But I lovedead, naming it, because, you
know, Elon is perfectly happy,dead, naming his daughter, so
I'll dead, name his fuckingplatform. Yeah, so, but all
right, Klaus, thank you again.
This was wonderful, and you'rewelcome back anytime, if you
(55:51):
ever have something you want totalk about. Thank you. We know
we can pop you on.
Klaus (55:56):
I will definitely keep that in mind. This was
delightful.
Vanessa (56:01):
I glad you liked it. So all right, everybody, until next
time, don't forget to send usmoney. Send him money too. So,
you know, maybe he likes money.
We all like money. So listen tohis stuff. He's fun. Tootles.
Do.
Radar app to keep an eye on whatever's coming at me
(00:05):
here.
Klaus (00:06):
Yes, indeed.
Vanessa (00:06):
So for the listeners and viewers, I'm recording this.
We're recording this on august6. I know this won't go live
until next week, but they're allkinds of interesting weather
coming my way right now, sokeeping an eye on that. Anyways,
welcome back to transcendinghumanity. I'm Vanessa, aka
(00:28):
Vanessa all as reminded viewsand opinions of everyone on here
are their own, so don't yell attheir bosses or whatever.
Patreon send us money. Thank youto our patrons. Remember the
store, you know, go to merchshop and buy shit and just send
me money anyways, withoutfurther ado, since there was a
(00:49):
storm bearing down, I want to atleast get some of this episode
recorded before the power goesoff. I am honored to have Klaus
von Hohenloe, am I pronouncingthat right?
Klaus (01:01):
Yep. Klaus von Hohenloe,
Vanessa (01:03):
okay, thank
Klaus (01:04):
you so much, and the honor is mine. I'm flattered
that you wanted to talk to me.
Vanessa (01:10):
It's like to give some context as to why Klaus is here.
I, as many people know, am aphotographer by trade, and when
I edit photos, I usually haveYouTube on in the background.
And one of Klaus has many jobs.
He he does narration for achannel called mainly facts, and
(01:32):
so I like to have it on thebackground. It's essentially
just reading stories off ofReddit. And there's a number of
similar channels, but there's, Ithink it's the best. Yeah,
there's quite a few. I like isthe best, though, because he
actually has some personalitybehind it, rather than just,
like, reading shit out so andI learned some things about him,
(01:56):
like during as he talk like he'shad about 50 million jobs, and
he's a professional voice actorand YouTuber and Dungeons and
Dragons nerd and so Klaus, I'mgonna let you introduce
yourself, tell us about
Klaus (02:12):
you, yeah, so I think you put it wonderfully. Yeah. My my
day job consists of flittingbetween voicing a number of
different YouTube channels. Um,some people think that they have
them all all down. They don't.
There's so many more out there.
(02:32):
They probably have gained notraction whatsoever. Um between
that and then doing voice over.
Um, anyone who's tried to learnEnglish with Duolingo stories
has probably heard my voice asOscar. People have probably,
yeah, people have maybe heard myvoice in a number of little
mobile games, some local ads,and then, I don't know if your
(02:57):
workplace has some really boringinstructional video on, you
know, how to use a Baylor. Thenmaybe you've heard my voice
there as well.
Vanessa (03:09):
So you're pretty busy in voice acting.
Klaus (03:11):
I try to, you know, there are, there are ups and downs.
There's the busy times wheresuddenly, you know, I'm
recording hours a day every dayfor a couple weeks. And there
are the times where the onlyrecording I'm doing are just
auditions. And that's, that'sthe nature of the business,
especially if you're afreelancer living in Minnesota,
(03:32):
instead of someone making themore profitable, potentially
decision of living out in likeLA or something where you can
get, you know, studio, covid andall that is,
Vanessa (03:42):
yeah, how did you get into voice acting?
Klaus (03:47):
So I I'd always wanted to do some form of acting or
entertainment. I did stand uplocally in Minnesota in my 20s.
I've done a lot of theater, butI always wanted to do voice
acting, because I have alwaysloved cartoons from the moment I
was a little kid to literallylast night I was watching
(04:12):
cartoons Gravity Falls one ofthe best shows out there, and I
just wanted to get into that.
And so about I, I guess it'd bearound about 10 years ago, I
started just doing freelancevoice work, primarily getting
into audio books. And you canstill find a bunch of audio
(04:32):
books on audible with my name,primarily male male erotica, but
there's some male femaleerotica. And no joke, I so
here's a fun fact for anyonewanting to get into voice work,
when you start doing independentaudio books, is there are some
folks out there just trying toshovel stuff out as quick as
(04:53):
they can. And I had one clientwho had me do a few books, and
then they sent me a script. Fora book, just a short, one hour
long read. But I looked at itand I went, Oh, this is, this is
all written first personperspective from a female
viewer. And it's like, andcertainly, as an audio book, you
(05:15):
know reader, you have to voice,you know, all across the
spectrum everyone you have togive every character a voice,
but to have something that'slike first person narration from
a female view. I'm like, that'san odd choice with my voice and
what I typically deliver forthese books. But okay, but I
don't know if it's still up onAudible or not, but they were
(05:36):
just like, No, yeah, do it.
Vanessa (05:40):
I guess maybe you know trans women, yeah, I,
Klaus (05:45):
you know, I, I tried to give it my best that. I think
that was one of the last audiobooks. I think I did it.
Audiobooks are a lot of work,and so I don't do them much
anymore, because you hear $50per finished hour of a book, and
you're like $50 an hour, $50finished hour. And a finished
(06:08):
hour of a book, depending onjust how much effort you're
willing to put in, could taketwo to four hours to do so.
Suddenly, it's not the best.
There are better jobs out there,but good luck there. It's
competitive.
Vanessa (06:23):
Then your your voice also starts going, oh yes, vocal
training is something that I'veonly kind of recently gotten
into being trans, and I've had,you see my scar here. I've had
vocal cord surgery, and myAdam's apple removed, but the
(06:46):
surgery is just part of it. Itraises your pitch a little bit,
like if I can go down this islike as deep as my voice usually
can go now, in before operation,it was more like this. So I had
a pretty deep voice, and I can'tdo that anymore, but like a lot
of people, don't realize whatall goes into creating a voice
and how you have to talk fromdifferent parts of your mouth.
(07:09):
The traditional male way oftalking is from your throat,
like here, yep, but female, it'sa little bit more nasally.
You're talking from the front ofyour mouth, and shit. You have
to think about it constantly. Sodo you do, like, vocal
modifications and stuff too,for, like, different voices, or
Klaus (07:30):
I will try for different characters. I try not to get a
I'll ask the author, or where,you know, whatever client I'm
working with, it's like, howmuch do you want? Because there
are, especially if you get intoaudio books, there are some
authors who are like, No, Iwant, kind of just a standard
(07:52):
read in your voice. And you can,like, do slight shifts for
different characters, but don'ttry and give them, you know,
like extreme voices. And thenthere are other ones who tell
you, I imagine this charactersounding like Willem Dafoe. Can
you kind of make him sound likeWillem Dafoe? And that's a true
story. And to get into thatcharacter, every day that I had
(08:14):
to record for that book, whenI'd come up to his parts, I'd
pause and be like, okay, WillemDafoe, voice, Spider Man finish
it.
Vanessa (08:23):
I'd have to, it's pretty solid.
Klaus (08:25):
I'd have to pick little like anchor phrases for certain
voices that would get me backinto it. But yeah, I did, um, I
remember, actually, um, watchinga video for someone explaining,
like, male and female range andstuff. And they're like, a lot
of guys, if they want to do agirl voice, oh, they're just
like, this, Oh, my. And it'slike, well, there's more to it.
(08:46):
It's like, you can't project thesame way that you would as a man
necessarily. Like, I mean, youcan. People have voices all
across the spectrum, spectrumand sound, you know, every which
way. But typically, if you'rewanting to give a character kind
of authentic voice, yeah, youhave to be like, you know, okay,
so I'm on a female voice, andmaybe I'll kind of bring it more
(09:10):
up here. And, okay, yeah, this,this is what I try to go for,
for, like, a female voice. Andthen, you know, I made a mistake
once in an audio book, I wasdoing a series, and each book of
the series focused on adifferent member of an all male
rock band, uh, where every oneof them discovered that they
(09:30):
were gay throughout the courseof the book, because that's,
that's what happens in erotica.
And, yeah, yeah, it is actuallya very fun series. I love the
author dearly, who sadly haspassed away. But if anyone wants
to read some great male eroticawritten from a female's
perspective, Sandrine gas Dion,lovely person, fun writer, but I
(09:51):
got the first book, and I waslike, Okay, I need voices for
each of the band mates, and Itry to make them all set. I'm
very distinct, not realizingthat point. What's hilarious, I
hear my dog, but there's no waymy dog hurts.
Vanessa (10:18):
Dogs could hear really well. It
Klaus (10:20):
could be anyway. So for one of the characters, I'm like,
okay, each of them needs to havea different voice. So I've like,
one is a little bit higher, oneis a little bit punk, and then I
had one, and I gave him a voicelike this or something. And
that's really fun to do for acharacter that pops up here and
there, but when the book isfirst person narration, and then
(10:43):
suddenly I realized, Oh, I'mgoing to have to do a whole book
as that I had to record in halfhour segments and drink so much
tea because it ruined me. Sothat's a tip for anyone doing
voice acting, and training isgive yourselves reasonable
voices to do unless you knowthat it's going to be, you know,
(11:06):
much briefer, like when I'vedone some video games and I've
voiced like, you know, aminotaur or something, where I'm
like, All right, let's all get,you know, sure I can do that
voice for 10 minutes ofrecording And then take the rest
of the day off. Sure,
Vanessa (11:24):
it's amazing how tired your voice gets. Like, I'm only
finally now able to I'm stilllike performative if, if I'm out
in public trying to talk to aclient or something like that, I
can't keep my femme voice up forsome reason, because you have to
think about it constantly. Andlike, so right now, I'm actually
thinking about it and going asfull time as I can. It's just
(11:48):
weird, just how much thoughtgoes into it and how tiring it
gets. Like, the back of yourtongue starts getting tired,
like, because you're workingmuscles that are, like, why are,
why am I being worked this? Thisisn't supposed to be happening.
I'm supposed to be just beinghappy. So, yeah, talk,
Klaus (12:07):
talking. You feel like it should be the easiest thing in
the world. But the moment youtry and alter your voice to
something it's not used to it,it is like every muscle in your
cheek and throat and tonguetries to fight against it at
first, but over time, it justbecomes more natural. Because
(12:31):
even for a lot of us, just thenatural voice we might speak in,
there's so many people I talkedI saw a video about someone
talking about like, actuallygetting to your natural voice,
and how a lot of people don'tspeak in a natural voice, yeah,
all sorts of people put onaffectations. I tend to in
(12:52):
conversation, just talking withpeople speak in a little bit
higher register. Sometimes. I'vegot kind of the gravelly
undertone here and there, but Itend to go more up here. But if
I just try and be like,completely relax everything, not
stressing something, and I justgo, Huh, really, my normal
(13:14):
speaking voice should probablybe somewhere more in this,
without adding in that littlebit of height to it. I should
probably speak more around hereall the time, but I don't,
because I'm a weird, eclectic,you know, cheerful, excitable
person, and so I've constantlypushed my voice to reach up here
more, and now it's just natural.
So I can talk like this all thetime forever, when, in reality,
(13:38):
I should probably be relaxed inmy voice more speaking more down
here, I have a more naturallybaritone voice, but I will fight
to be a tenor until the day Idie.
Vanessa (13:51):
I mean, you have to do what you also enjoy, so like and
just talking in general for along time. Just where is you?
Wears out your voice anddifferent times of the day too,
like mornings and evenings canbe different from the middle of
(14:12):
the day. So do you like scheduleyour recordings to be kind of in
a sweet spot during the day? Ordo you just do whatever?
Klaus (14:19):
I typically start recording at around nine
o'clock, and my main block isfrom like nine to 11. But
sometimes, if I have a lot todo, I'll go beyond then. But
nine o'clock is great for me,because that is after I've been
awake for a while. I get up at530 in the morning, of my own
(14:41):
accord, because I just like it.
I'm one of those weirdos, but itgives me enough time to, yeah,
gives me enough time to fullyhydrate, to just kind of work
out some of the kinks, becauseeveryone's got that, you know,
morning voice, you're coughingstuff up, you're half an octave
lower than. Should be, yeah,it's like, I give myself plenty
(15:01):
of time to do that. And so yeah,and I've had to cut back on some
of the longer term recording,because another fun thing you
can discover is if you get intoany kind of thing where you have
to speak for long periods andyou also have TMJ, that is
miserable. Oh, dear I because Iwas at a point doing like, four
(15:27):
straight hours of recording aday for a while. And not only
would it just dry my voice outand get get my voice hoarse to
the point where, come weekends,I was just drinking, like, honey
and tea and barely talking. Butit just something that for most
(15:49):
of my life has been like, oh,occasionally my jaw gets a
little bit sore and it clicks ifI open too much and, you know,
but yeah, but it's like, Ah,it's not that big of a deal.
But, oh boy, I I got to a pointI was recording so much and my
jaw hurt and was so swollen thatI had to, like, take week long
(16:12):
breaks just to recover. So it'sa dangerous line of work,
Vanessa (16:22):
yeah. And like, I have, like, I have jaw issues too, and
part of my facial feminizationsurgery that I hope to get
sometimes actually going to fixthat. But like, it wears on you.
And like, it's weird having yourjaw physically get tired. It's
like chewing on a whole bag fullof Starburst all at once, or
(16:44):
something like that. You know,there's only so much that you
can take before your mouth justwants to be like, No, fuck you.
I am done. And four hours ofrecording at once
Klaus (16:57):
I was that was when I was still doing some audio books,
and I was doing YouTube, and,you know, I was making some good
money at the time, and Iliterally had to walk away from
1000s of dollars a month becauseI'm like, I can't, I just
physically can't keep doingthis, because I try and, Like,
(17:20):
maybe if I just bulk record fortwo days, three, you know, two,
three days, and have restperiods in between and stuff,
and it's like I was so miserablemultiple days a week that I just
had to stop the TMJ basicallyescalated to a point where it
was radiating up through mytemples and giving me migraines.
And so it's no fun having youryour days off, or your evenings
(17:44):
just spent in bed with a pillowover your face, because lights
bad me no like and
Vanessa (17:52):
then the dog still went out. And you know, if Mrs. Facts
isn't home, you know, you haveto deal adult. Adulting is hard,
very, very hard.
Klaus (18:01):
I don't like it most of the time. Luckily, you
Vanessa (18:04):
don't have kids, because that makes adulting even
more adulty. So I
Klaus (18:08):
can only imagine. Yeah, I
Vanessa (18:12):
have one. I'm a horrible mom. I don't live with
him anymore. That's all otherstory. But kids are hurt. Kids
are hurt. Like, I think it'ssomething that you like, I think
you've mentioned, actually,like, in some of your sides
where you know, if you don'twant to
have kids, you don't have tohave kids, you shouldn't feel
pressured about it. So, yeah,
Klaus (18:32):
absolutely, the world has people in it, and to, like, the
the attention and gifts andstuff that I would give kids, I
get to spread between mynephews, my niece and a couple
of dogs, and with so much lesscommitment,
Vanessa (18:51):
the best thing about nephews and nieces say, go home
at the end of the day. SoExactly, yeah, that's a big
thing. So let's pivot to to jobslike this boy has like every
(19:12):
single time I listen to you, youtalk about another job from the
past, like hotels and give giveme like a best of of the
craziest jobs that you've donein the past.
Klaus (19:27):
So let's see some of my favorites. Um, working at the
working at a hotel when I was ateenager was wonderful. Um, I
started at the hotel in themaintenance department, and so a
lot of my day was just wanderingaround drinking free soda from
the restaurant and like settingup functions and stuff like
(19:48):
that. You know, for weddings andparties and stuff like that,
it's very chill. I like that alot. Another job that i i Would
it was darn near the. Perfectjob, except for two things, and
that's when I was the deliverydriver and delivery supervisor
(20:09):
for a bakery in northernMinnesota. Northeast Minnesota,
served the whole area and aworked four days a week, Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, youget a break in the middle of the
week, you get the weekend off.
And wonderful. Most of my nightspent by myself, like, put
together some orders, load upthe truck, bring them all around
(20:31):
to the different towns and stufflike that. And the whole time I
just be listening to audiobooks.
There was one summer where I, Ithink I listened to, I think it
was 31 books over the course ofa single summer. It was magical.
I was delighted. The onlyproblem was a, if you're a
(20:53):
delivery driver for a bakery,you start at midnight and get
done sometime between eight andnoon.
Vanessa (21:01):
So I was gonna say that's, that's even earlier than
your 530 wake up time. Yeah, it
Klaus (21:05):
was miserable. The i I was I had a get together with
friends to play some tabletoprole playing games every Friday
after I got off work at somepoint, and I did some figuring
out. And once a week, while Ihad that job, I would stay up
(21:26):
for anywhere from 36 to 42 hoursstraight without every single
week, I'm pretty sure that jobtook off a few years of my life,
Vanessa (21:38):
I mean, but hopefully otherwise
Klaus (21:42):
free bakery, fresh bread to bring home whenever I wanted
get the freshest donuts, likecake donuts, normally not
interested. A cake donut that isstill steaming because it's come
out of the fryer is like magic.
I miss that stuff so much, and Iworked with some wonderful
people, so that made it better,too. The owner of the place was
(22:03):
the actual devil, though, andworks, yeah, she not, not so
great. So that that Job was awas a great one.
Vanessa (22:17):
How can you be an asshole when you run a when you
have a bakery, it's pretty happything you
Klaus (22:23):
you would think so she was one of the most bitter,
conniving, scheming people, likeshe Oh, she verged on, like 80s
movie villain, and the kind ofschemes She tried to get away
with, with people, but she'sdead now, so I don't care she's
(22:47):
dead. I'm alive. That means Iwon, right?
Vanessa (22:50):
You did. You're dead.
Klaus (22:53):
I'm trying to think I I mean a voice work is obviously
going to be the one that I go toimmediately and recording for
the YouTube the YouTubechannels, they're not, you know,
I don't own them, so I'm justkind of a contract worker for
them. But it is fun to just getto Whoo. It is fun to just get
(23:18):
to be at home and record thesestories, and at the same time,
you know, put in my comments andhopefully some positivity in the
world. I try to insert thatwhere I can you
Vanessa (23:30):
do. I mean, that's why you're here, because you have
something that I am so Oh, butI'm muting muting
Unknown (23:44):
because working, that's okay. How did you
Vanessa (23:48):
How did you land YouTube gigs like that? Um, that
Klaus (23:52):
actually did stem from doing voice work. I was picking
up a lot of just smaller, uh,commercial work and business
work for vo stuff. And I sawthis job posted not on my usual
site. I don't remember where itwas, but it was posted for,
like, oh, do some voices forlike, a YouTube channel. And I
(24:16):
was like, well, that'sinteresting. I've already done
some YouTube stuff, and yeah,sure, it might be a steady
paycheck. And I started doing itfor one channel. I think, I
think the first one was achannel about space stuff. It's
still probably going, I like, Iwas, that's kind of what drew me
to it's like, Oh, I like spacestuff. I like science, sure. And
(24:38):
so I started doing that. Andthen the person who got me doing
that was like, Hey, would youmind doing some other channels?
And I've done little like shortschannels and channels for tick
tock for them too, where it'sjust introducing clips for
stuff, a bunch of things thatjust didn't pan out because they
were ridiculous, but eventuallythey got to, like, mainly facts
(24:59):
and. Mostly facts and stuffreading these Reddit stories.
And at the very beginning it wasjust reading this, reading these
little like prompts and lists ofstuff or whatever without any
input.
But then they're like,Hey, would you mind like, giving
some commentary on this stuff orwhatever. And I was like, yeah,
(25:20):
absolutely. And so I starteddoing that, and people seemed to
like it. So that was, it was aweird rabbit hole of stuff that
I didn't expect to be doing foras long as I have, you know, I
100% when I saw someone waslooking for someone to record
(25:41):
these short, little YouTubevideos, at first, I'm like,
Yeah, this might pay for a fewmonths, a little extra cash, not
a lot of work. Did not thinkthat it would be multiple years
of just recording so much insuch a wild variety of stuff.
And now I'm there's a lot ofcontent. There's there's so many
videos of mainly facts. There'sme on the evaluator, which is
(26:06):
also funny to see that that'sthe other channel that's been
doing. Well, it's near about aquarter of a million which not
bad for YouTube. But it is funnyto occasionally go into the
comments and see people likethis person sounds a lot like
that Reddit guy. And I'm like,I've occasionally, I've
(26:27):
occasionally snuck in on mypersonal accounts. And people
are like, I think this sounds,you know, kind of similar to
that mainly facts guy, and I'lljust go in and reply like, I
think you might be on tosomething. Or I'll hop in and be
like, Nah, I don't know. I thinkit's just an AI voice, because
funny enough doing just themainly facts videos. There have
(26:50):
been channels that have made AIvoices of me and just tried to
pump out the same videos,really, yeah, I can't remember
the names of any of them, butI've had, I've seen people in
the comments go like, Hey,there's this channel, whatever.
And I think they're using yourvoice. And at first when I hear
that, I'm just like, ah, theyjust probably stumbled upon
(27:13):
another channel that I happen todo. But nope, I hop on in there
and it's just like story one,and I am looking to go over here
and do this today, and I'm like,what
Vanessa (27:29):
that is to feel kind of violating. It's really, it
Klaus (27:36):
is such a weird combination of both violating
and flattering, but I mostlyland on violating. It's, it's
the kind of thing where I thinkpeople expect you to just, it's
like, oh, you should beflattered, you know. But you
should, you should like that.
People like your voice enough tosteal it. And it's like, I
(27:57):
guess. But mostly I'd ratherthey didn't.
Vanessa (28:03):
I mean, I mean, it's such a new thing that I don't
even know what the legality ofthat is, like, I don't even know
if that's something you cantechnically sue for. I sue for a
voice.
Klaus (28:14):
I don't know. I think at least on youtube I can, it can
be like, flagged, and be like,Hey, this is AI, and it's using
my voice. And here's the proof,listen to me. And so I think
maybe at least one of thosechannels have been shut down,
and I think a lot of peopledon't stick with them, because
(28:34):
it still doesn't sound quite thesame. It sounds stilted, it
sounds wrong,
Vanessa (28:41):
but uncanny valley, yep,
Klaus (28:43):
but I'm also no stranger to hearing my voice or a voice
that sounds like me digitized.
And you know, if I've happenedto have done text to speech
voices in the past which I canneither confirm nor deny,
perhaps due to contracts, theyalways sound wrong. They always
(29:08):
sound so wrong. I don't likehearing my voice turned into an
AI or a text to speech, becauseit's like it's so close to me,
but it's not, and this is theworst uncanny valley I think I
could have possibly imagined.
(29:29):
It's
Vanessa (29:29):
missing the cadence.
Maybe, I think it's the rightword for it, like the flow, your
natural flow when you talk. And,yeah, uncanny valley, it's
unnatural. Yeah. Well, I knowtend
Klaus (29:41):
to be expressive and weird and put in exactly
fluctuations that it does not doNo,
Vanessa (29:48):
no, and that's part of that's part of it. I remember,
actually, I think you've done alittle bit of like memeing on
it, like where people kept ontrying to say you're an AI vote.
She's, like, I almost had not anAI voice. And then you did the
face reveal for a little bit.
And that had to blow people'sminds, so, but it had to be, it
had to be weird, though, tosuddenly have the face. And then
(30:11):
I noticed it's no longer there.
So,
Klaus (30:15):
yeah, it's, I did laugh when people would say, like, I
don't know. I think this is anAI voice, and partially, it's
because text to speech versionsof my voice may or may not have
already existed at that point.
And so people on Tiktok might belike, wait, I think I've heard
someone who sounds kind of likethis before, but also I can
listen to some older videos thatI've done, and there are some
(30:40):
times where, again, recordingfour hours a day. There are some
times where I'm just onautopilot, reading those things,
and my brains not evencomprehending it. And I'll
listen back and be like, I cansee where they might think this
Vanessa (30:58):
was. I mean, there's only so much, you know, he's
reading back, like stories offof Reddit and all kinds of
things, like my brother sleptwith my dog's best friend and,
you know, all kinds of shit likethat. But eventually it kind of
(31:18):
has to all run together. So it
Klaus (31:21):
does there. There are times where I've gotten to the
end, because we have, there's asmall team that works on mainly
facts, and there are people whogather Reddit stories and put
them into a Word document andeverything, so that I've got
just a nice, clean script towork with, and my time isn't
spent scrolling through all thisstuff that's handy, which also
(31:45):
folks, that's why I'm notreading a lot of the comments
and stuff they don't put it in.
Or people are like, there's anupdate to the story. Why did you
include the update? And I'mlike,
I didn't know to do. Yeah, like,I had no idea. I just read the
thing I'm given. But there,there have been times where
they've accidentally replicatedthe story, and I don't realize
(32:05):
until I'm like, finishing thestory, and my brain goes, Hey,
this sounds familiar.
Vanessa (32:14):
I've noticed that. I've noticed that a few times where
it like, be, like the one storyand the two stories in between,
then back to the original storyand like, but yeah,
the so which came first youdoing voiceover for YouTube or
your YouTube channel?
Klaus (32:33):
So my YouTube channel, I've actually had a couple, one
that is no longer really inexistence, which I started out
13 years ago. I made a YouTubechannel where I reviewed anime
and eventually video games, andit was the real typical caustic
(32:57):
critic stuff, where I was hypercritical of things, and I got
rid of it just because I lookback on it. And a anything anime
was getting copyright strike, soI quit doing it. And some of the
video game things, I just lookedit in. I went this, just this
brings such a negativity tothings, and also I'm not happy
(33:18):
with the quality. I'm not happywith just my general style
there. And so eventually I tookthat stuff down. I just closed
that channel because I'm like,I'm not happy with this, and I
don't, I feel like I'm doing itbecause I have to that.
Vanessa (33:31):
I can't see you doing critical stuff. You're too
upbeat. Oh, I'm
Klaus (33:36):
I am naturally a person who likes to be hyper critical
about stuff, but that issomething that I have very much
chilled on and worked on overthe last decade of my life,
where I'm like, why? But, youknow, people can enjoy stuff,
and I'll still have my moments.
I'll still be critical. Let metell you. Last night, I tried, I
tried for the very first time towatch the Director's Cut of Zack
(33:59):
Snyder's rebel moon. I got about25 minutes in before I turn that
off, because it was the most 15year old edge Lord nonsense. I
hate it. I hate it so much Icould rant about that movie for
hours, and I've only seen 25minutes of
Vanessa (34:20):
it. I think I've heard of it, but I think what I heard
of it was not to watch it. Oh,so don't
Klaus (34:26):
it's so bad. But yeah, no, I used to do really hyper
critical stuff, and I stoppedthat. And now I was, like a I
was doing that because I thoughtit was stuff that would be
popular and get views. And Ijust realized I'm like, I think
that's why I don't like what I'mdoing here, because my my
(34:47):
heart's not in it. I'm notactually passionate about it.
And so something like threeyears ago, very shortly before I
started into doing the voicesfor YouTube with mainly facts
and all that. Stuff, I startedmy own channel, the dungeon
noobs Guide, which is a channeldedicated to tabletop role
playing games, because I've beenplaying those for 25 years. I
(35:10):
play dozens and dozens of games,and I kind of started it because
I wanted to teach some friendshow to play a game that I really
like, that they weren't familiarwith, and I went online to try
and find a resource for it, andthere was nothing very good. No
offense to the people who hadresources for it, but they just
(35:32):
hopped on a camera and just kindof went off the top of their
head talking. And I'm like,that's fine, but I'm like, I
want something that way, though,it's like, I want something with
effort put in and with visuals,and that's been, like, organized
and scripted, to be an actualuseful teaching tool. And so I
started making that, and I doother stuff on the channel, but,
(35:55):
yeah, my main focus was just,like, a I'm just gonna bring
positivity. You know, it's like,I just, I want to teach people,
I want to gush about games thatI love and everything, and I'm
so much happier doing that. Andthat's the biggest advice I can
give anyone. Is boy, oh boy.
Don't just try and get intosomething because you think
it'll be popular and you mightmake money off of it, that that
(36:17):
is a road to madness, but
Vanessa (36:22):
if your heart's not in it, you know it shows when
people have passion, too, andwhen you're putting something
out there that makes you happy,and then you present it in a way
that can make other peoplehappy, you're just creating
positivity in the world, whichThere's nothing wrong with that.
So I only recently finally,like, I've,
Unknown (36:44):
I've been a gamer nerd for
Vanessa (36:48):
for years. Like, I'm 43 so, like, I started out doing
role playing on AOL in the mid90s in Red Dragon in and then I
played a mud called Dragon roomsfor a while.
Klaus (37:05):
Oh, nice. I had friends who knew about that. I never got
that one myself, but yes, I knowthat name very well.
Vanessa (37:13):
It was fun. And then, you know, life got in the way,
and I always wanted to playDungeons and Dragons. So now one
of my partners, we we made itthrough like, three quarters of
a one shot, and then we gotkicked out of library because
someone else needed to use aroom. But then next week, I'm
going to be doing one with mylocal queer, queer and Canton
(37:36):
group, and it's like, Finally,in my 40s, I can finally do
this, and it is so much fun. Youknow, it's,
Klaus (37:44):
it's a wonderful hobby,
Vanessa (37:47):
creative outlet, and just, it lets you be social, it
lets you laugh. And I wish I hadgotten into it sooner so
Klaus (37:59):
there's no wrong time to start.
Vanessa (38:02):
No, does your channel talk about, like, how to find
groups and stuff like that? Not
Klaus (38:07):
really, though, that is something that I should tackle.
Because, I mean, there's so manyways to do it, you know,
depending on which games youwant to play. Because I
personally don't really do D andD anymore. I I've done, I did.
I've done D and D since secondedition, 25 years ago as a
teenager in a friend's basement,just like you're supposed to, I
guess. But yeah, there are somany ways to connect with
(38:31):
people. There's, you know,finding local groups going to
local game shops that have stuffrunning. There's an online one
where you can pay to have a GMdo it. But a lot of times they
have free games running calledstart playing. So
Vanessa (38:47):
I have, I have history with those fuckers. Oh, I don't
hear your story. I
Klaus (38:53):
do always okay.
Vanessa (38:55):
So I applied at start playing to be an executive
assistant, and I theirapplication system was kind of
weird in that before you had theinterview, they gave you the
test and like a project, and itwas like a four hour project.
And so I nailed the project, andI got the screening interview.
(39:16):
They loved my project. Theyloved the screening interview,
and then I had in the interviewwith the CEO, and he this was
about two years ago, so I was Ididn't pass nearly as well as I
do now. And I think he wasthinking, Oh, awesome, Vanessa,
(39:36):
that's a sexy girl name. Iwonder she's gonna be a sexy
girl. And then this Vanessa popsup on their early transition
without any vocal training. SoI'm sounding like this, and I
didn't get that job.
Transcending Humanity (39:54):
I love you.
Klaus (39:56):
Yeah, I will say in the videos I've seen of. The founder
and owner. He's got a real techbro vibe that it was very tech
bro, yeah, I immediately waslike, I don't, I don't love it.
But also, it's so hard to escapethe tech bros online these days,
where it
Vanessa (40:17):
is, they said I didn't fit their company's oath of
growth mentality. Oh, I'm like,bitch. I'm a trans woman. My
life is all about growth. Soyeah, but I talked to other
people that interviewed for thesame role and had the same shit.
So sorry, you brought up. Startplaying. I had to do that a side
story that is a good avenue forpeople to find games to play. It
(40:41):
like
Klaus (40:41):
that can be. I also always recommend folks check out
like, just find people onlineand start making groups there,
on like YouTube, but especiallyTiktok. Tiktok has been like,
you know, I don't love Tiktok asan app. It, it frustrates me. I
(41:03):
think it's got a lot ofnegatives to it, but you can
really move for it. Yeah, it'stough. I can't do it. I can't
I've tried to post on it, and II'm just so bad at it, um, I
occasionally post high eating acup of, you know, guacamole or
something, because that's me,but I've met a number of people
(41:25):
through that in the communitythat there's a I am somewhat
credited with pronouncing theacronym for tabletop role
playing games, TTRPG. I have formany years pronounced it titter
pig because it's easier. It's somuch easier than me. Like TTRPG.
(41:46):
It's like, no, that's Yeah, it'sso many plosives to have to just
spit at somebody. And LGBTQIA
Vanessa (41:55):
lipid is something I heard from that. And
Klaus (41:58):
so, uh, my partner, she does not play, she does not play
tabletop games and so, but she'sinterested in it. She wants to
hear what I have to say. Youknow, she's so supportive, and
she'd want to talk to me aboutabout it. And she'd be like, at
first she was like, Oh, are youplaying your T, um, T R, P, T,
(42:18):
no, T, T R, P, G. And so oneday, I was just like, just call
it tatter pig. And she startedlaughing, and she's like, is
that how people pronounce it?
And I'm like, that's how Ipronounce it, and
Vanessa (42:30):
you need to get that to spread. Plus it has the word
tits in it, and exactly left mesome tits. So
Klaus (42:36):
who doesn't
Vanessa (42:37):
I know the best thing ever. But imagine if you grow
your own shit.
Klaus (42:42):
But now I know there's a discord group out there called
titter pig Academy, and aextremely liber covid, plus
friendly, the person Penny whoruns it, she's a trans woman.
She's wonderful. Met her becauseof Tiktok, and her old channel
(43:04):
is full of people like, Hey, whowants to play this new game? And
they've got old school gameswhere you can play games like D
and D, or new games where youwant to play death match Island,
where you're, you know,basically playing the hunger
games and stuff like that. Youknow, it's like, so there are a
lot of resources out there, butit, it's such a social game that
(43:26):
it does require breaching thosesocial circles and being able to
take those steps to interactwith them, which I am terrible
At. But really I, I'm I, I'm sosocially anxious about stuff,
people would not have thoughtthat about you. Nobody does back
(43:49):
when I used to do stand up. I'dget done with my set, and I'd,
you know, go over to get a drinkfrom the bar, and people would
want to come up to me and chat.
And all I could think is, whyare you doing this? Why are you
talking to me? I only talk onthe stage. I'm done now. Please
don't and I'm fairly good at itnow. I like I've just through
what I do. I've had to becomegood at talking with people, but
(44:14):
it's not natural for me, andespecially online. I've been
invited to so many discordchannels, and I always have to
tell folks these days, I'm justlike, I will gladly join your
channel, and I, if you at me inthe channel and mention me, I'll
try to get in there and respond.
(44:35):
I won't be active. I'm so bad.
Vanessa (44:37):
Otherwise I'm meeting that shit. Yeah, me too. I mute
all of my channels so I'm notbecause it's exhausting. I made
Klaus (44:44):
my own channel for the dungeon noobs guide, and it's
quiet now because I wouldn'tinteract in it, because even
people who were there to talk tome, I was just like, oh, I don't
know. No, I'm not gonna so
Vanessa (44:58):
it uses way too many.
Spoons. It's
Klaus (45:01):
it does I and I have such limited spoons, little
teaspoons, and so I'm not, I'mnot great at that stuff, but
even just taking some littlesteps and interacting more, I'd
say definitely tick tock is oneof the better places to actually
connect with people and startplaying those games, weirdly
(45:22):
enough, but you know also, mymind takes trying to train the
algorithm to show you what youwant to see for Lord knows how,
long before it's slightly lessof a hellscape. So good luck
with that.
Vanessa (45:38):
You mentioned something about like being introverted and
a comedian, and I actually thinkthat's fairly common. I was
listening to Jon Stewart'spodcast a couple days ago, and
someone wrote into him asking,like, I'm an introvert, but I
want to do comedy. And these twomix. He's like, Absolutely. He's
(45:58):
like, I'm an introvert. Almosteverybody I know when comedy is
an introvert, you go up there,you get on stage, you do your
bit, and then you are fuckingdone, you know. So don't feel
like you're alone there. Yeah, I
Klaus (46:09):
think it. And even, yeah, other comedians that I knew, not
the most socially out there,people like we usually after the
show. We mostly just stuck witheach other and talked with each
other, because that's who weknew. We didn't want to talk to
the people who saw our shows,really. But I think it's not bad
for introverts to be able to goon stage and do like comedy or
(46:31):
theater, because it's controlledand you know exactly what the
interaction is. And also youdon't have to like answer
questions. There's not as muchunexpected stuff, aside from
dealing with rowdy audiencemembers, which I've seen go very
well and very poorly. So yeah,
Vanessa (46:49):
that's why I don't know if I could do like I've always
kind of wanted to do stand up,but I don't know how I would be
with hecklers so
Klaus (46:56):
they and especially early on, because anyone who starts
stand up, you're probablystarting in open mics, stand ups
and bars, which is the roughestof crowds, or you're doing it on
like the open mics at comedyclubs, which they're going to be
(47:17):
less drunk, but they're going tobe more demanding, and it's
getting a heckler is rough.
Usually, I think everyone kindof develops their own way of
dealing with it. But there aregoing to be some nights where I
think every anyone who wants todo comedy, get ready to have one
night where a heckler ruins ashow for you, and just try to
(47:41):
just try to go with the flow andignore it. Doing comedy is
basically embracing consistentfailure for a long time and
being okay with that. It's suchan uncomfortable process.
(48:02):
But boy, ohboy. If you're really let it get
to you, things can go bad. I sawone comedian that I was friends
with. He was a little he, I willsay he was a little tipsy before
he went on stage. And that'sdangerous. It was a one. It was
an open mic in a bar. Thereweren't that many people, but
there was this group of youngwomen who were kind of heckling
(48:24):
him, one woman in particular,and he was trying to razz her
back play along. And she keptlike, the way she was heckling
him was making the rest of uscomedians be like, Oh, okay,
gosh. Maybe we should, maybe weshould, like, get her out of
here or something, because thisisn't great. But our folk, our
(48:45):
focus, very quickly shifted whenmy friend on stage was clearly
getting very frustrated withher, until one point, he's just
holding the mic, staring at her,and he goes, if you don't shut
up. I'm gonna throw my fuckingshoe at you. And that's the
moment where my other friend,who was helping to run the open
(49:09):
mic night, looks at me and goes,should I and I'm like, yeah, get
him off the stage.
Vanessa (49:16):
Yeah, yeah. Oh boy.
Then no, no, you don't need toget violent with crowds, folks.
No, it's
Klaus (49:25):
a bad idea. You're
Vanessa (49:26):
not gonna win. You're not gonna win. Yeah,
Klaus (49:28):
you need such a thick skin to get into comedy. And
yeah, there were nights where Iwas getting done and just like,
oh, I don't know if I can dothis, but every time you get a
laugh, it's the best drug in theworld. So it has
Vanessa (49:44):
to be, yeah, unlike anything else. So maybe one day
I'll do it. I don't know. Sowe're getting there in time.
I've been doing a quick littlegame of i. Cards Against
Humanity to wrap up shows. Doyou think Mrs. Facts would mind
if you did a Cards AgainstHumanity with a hot chick like
(50:06):
this? Oh, I
Klaus (50:07):
think she'd be just fine with it. Okay, I'm
Vanessa (50:11):
gonna dig one. So it's not your typical way of doing
it. I just pick a card. Well, wepick a card and then we come up
with something to be the whiteguy. That's all it is. It's just
kind of a fun way to wrap up ashow so, but I probably I need
to shuffle these shits, but thatwould require my autistic brain
(50:36):
to actually be on top of things,and it's not so autistic, ADHD,
PTSD, like, I have all thethings that just kind of send me
off into whatever. So anyways,here are our cards. Um, tell me
about where in the deck youwould like to need to pull
yours.
Klaus (50:56):
Oh, let's go right there.
Right here. Yeah, this cardhere,
that's the one I can feel itOkay, and
Vanessa (51:06):
I'm gonna take the one.
Unknown (51:09):
Whoops, showing you the cards, showing you my cards. I'm
gonna take this one
Vanessa (51:15):
for me. So hopefully it doesn't suck. Last week, I had
no idea what to do with mine. Soare you ready for yours? I'm
ready. Okay, so it says we gottaread that backwards. Hey guys, I
know this was my should probablyhold it so you can read it. Come
here. There we go. Hey guys, Iknow this was my idea, but I'm
(51:39):
having serious doubts aboutblank.
Klaus (51:43):
Oh, hey guys, I know this was my idea, but I'm having
serious doubts aboutI'm having serious doubts about
this picnic slash orgy.
Vanessa (52:07):
Oh, that could be awkward yet kinky. At the same
time, I'm getting Sausage Partyvibes. You go see that shit I
have. It was delightfully awful.
Okay, so mine alternativemedicine is now embracing the
curative powers oftrans girl jizz,
Klaus (52:38):
yes, please,
Vanessa (52:40):
yeah, because we still do come and we still we square
it so trans, you could bottlethat actually, I probably should
bottle, I probably could bottlethat shit and people would buy
it.
Klaus (52:54):
You probably could not to say that as far as as far as
holistic medicines go trans girljizz is one that I can
definitely get behind. Oh,
Vanessa (53:11):
I don't have a beer just stroke anymore, so you have
to do it for me. So yeah, class,this was wonderful.
Klaus (53:21):
This was so much fun.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank
Vanessa (53:24):
you for joining. Do you have any closing thoughts or
anything that you want to throwout there for my tiny audience
compared to your massive
Klaus (53:35):
one? My thoughts are folks as much as you are able
to, and don't stress yourselfover it, but as much as you're
able to put out positivity inthe world and give people as
much grace as you are mentallycapable of giving them, because
(53:55):
we have too little of both ofthose things in the world, I
Think, and you don't alwaysthere are plenty of exceptions
out there, but boy, if we couldall just give each other a
little more grace, a little morepatience and a little more
positivity. I think it hadhelped the world a little bit. I
mean, it can't get a lot worse,can it?
Vanessa (54:18):
I hope not. I actually finally have hope for the future
right now with I don't knowwhere you fall politically, but
I'm very left. You
Klaus (54:27):
know, I'm way over there as well, and I
Vanessa (54:31):
figured as much,
Klaus (54:32):
yeah, is, and I have my problems with the Democratic
Party, I think any should, but Iam excited to hear that
Minnesota zone walls.
Vanessa (54:44):
Yes, yes. God, that was big news. So he,
Klaus (54:50):
he's a pretty delightful guy too. You know, makes me
proud to be a Minnesotan, justlike, just like Tim,
Vanessa (54:58):
that's I can't. Wait, I can't wait to see what the next
few months are gonna bring. SoI'm
Klaus (55:03):
hopeful thing he's crossed. Yeah,
Vanessa (55:06):
so Klaus, people can find you on dungeon
noobs guide, on YouTube, anyplace else you'd like them to
stalk you or say the best.
Klaus (55:14):
I mean, you can find me on the broken down hellscape
that is Twitter. As Klaus von HI post on there just a random
thought, maybe about once aweek, though, I could hardly
stomach to be on it anymore, soI delete that shit. Yeah,
Vanessa (55:31):
Twitter's evil. You're talking to a trans girl. And
yeah, Twitter's evil. But I lovedead, naming it, because, you
know, Elon is perfectly happy,dead, naming his daughter, so
I'll dead, name his fuckingplatform. Yeah, so, but all
right, Klaus, thank you again.
This was wonderful, and you'rewelcome back anytime, if you
(55:51):
ever have something you want totalk about. Thank you. We know
we can pop you on.
Klaus (55:56):
I will definitely keep that in mind. This was
delightful.
Vanessa (56:01):
I glad you liked it. So all right, everybody, until next
time, don't forget to send usmoney. Send him money too. So,
you know, maybe he likes money.
We all like money. So listen tohis stuff. He's fun. Tootles.
Do.
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