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Help The MTA Pick The Voice Of The Second Avenue Subway

By

Garth Johnston

Published Jan 30, 2013

Modified Jan 30, 2013

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Who will talk supreme?

 

By

Garth Johnston

Published Jan 30, 2013

Modified Jan 30, 2013

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As we saw yesterday the fabled Second Avenue Subway (SAS) is coming along nicely. And though it won't be open for a few more years, the MTA does plan on opening a Second Avenue Subway Community Information Center this spring—and for that they need your help. Time to pick the voice of the T line everybody!

Last fall the MTA put out an open casting call for very local voice actors to lead guests through the Community Information Center on 86th Street and Second Avenue (how local? Only those who live between First and Third avenues and 63rd and 105th streets were eligible). That casting call closed in October, and since then somebody deep in the heart of the MTA has been going through hours of recordings of people saying the same thing over and over and over ("If you ever see the beginning auditions for American Idol, it was kind of like that," an MTA employee joked to the Post). In the end they narrowed the possibilities down to six potential voices of the SAS—and now they want your help picking two winners (one man and one woman).

The contestants have now been whittled away to three men and three women, each with a distinctive voice. There's a man who sounds like Wyatt Cenac doing an impersonation of a B-list voice over actor, some less humorous sounding voices and an Australian woman because why not? Anyway, here they are:

Here's Male Contestant #1:

Here's Male Contestant #2:

And here's Male Contestant #3:

Here's Female Contestant #1:

Here's Female Contestant #2:

And here's Female Contestant #3:

Got a favorite? Vote for your Second Avenue Idol right here.

So what will the winners be doing? Here's how the MTA describes their duties:

The voiceovers will be featured in an interactive video that will be part of the first exhibit installed in the newly created Community Information Center on Second Avenue. The Community Information Center’s first exhibition will feature an interactive video and other displays featuring the history of the Second Avenue Subway, first proposed in 1929.

The SAS Community Information Center aims to foster and encourage a continued exchange among neighbors and the SAS team regarding the construction of the Second Avenue Subway. It will be located at 1628 Second Avenue and will serve as space for the public to meet with community liaisons and discuss construction-related matters. The facility also will serve as an educational center where programs will be offered to schools, community groups and other organizations about public transportation in New York.

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second avenue idol

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