Ken Nordine: Video Toaster, voiceovers, Word Jazz, and the infamous (nsfw) F-Word script

[Brian Roth]

I debated where to post this since many members avoid this section of the forum. But, here it is.

For some reason, I decided to look up info re. the Video Toaster which was arguably the original desktop video production system circa 30 years ago. I remember it well. Found this video:



Cool blast from the past....but that voiceover caught my attention. In the comments the name Ken Nordine was credited. I knew that name from my ad agency days! I kinda recalled that wonderful voice from years ago. We hired him for VO work several times. So I dug further:

https://pleasekillme.com/word-jazz-ken-nordine/

Discussion of his Word Jazz records and examples as well as some ad voiceovers. In that article is an old pic of Ken in his studio with an Ampex MM-1000 16 track in the background.

Found this next.....what make/model of desk is in the early part of the video?



What a voice! And then...and DAMN! A mystery solved? This tape has been floating around for decades and I always wondered who read it:

https://ia902803.us.archive.org/28/...MontyPythontheWordFuck/The_Word_Fuck_64kb.mp3

I'm 99% certain that is Ken Nordine. It fits with his eclectic mindset...and that resonant voice.

That is all......

Bri

 

[Brian Roth]

Ran across a demo tape:



Bri

 

[cyrano]

Interesting, Brian. We released our first "multimedia" project in 1996. That was already ITB. Macromedia Director. No external hardware needed. And we're a Mac shop, not Amiga.

So I wondered why I never came across this Video Toaster. Alas, NTSC only. It seems a PAL version was planned, but never released. It's nice to see the Amiga community and archive.org still keep the software available for download.

For me, the one American voice I'll never forget, is Wolfman Jack. I used to listen to his show on SHAPE radio.