The folks at Amazon are definitely making an effort to get creative with the features of their Alexa device. The famous talking smart speaker will feature Shaquille O’Neal’s voice for all of those interested in listening to Shaq on a daily basis. This comes on the heels of Amazon announcing that you can also change the original Alexa voice to Samuel L Jackson’s. The company is looking to add even more voices. So far along with Shaq, we’ve got Melissa McCarthy on board as well.
The Most Difficult Thing I’ve Ever Done
Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Shaq went through multiple basketball training camps from high school through college and obviously in the pros. In his experience though, sitting down to record his voice on the device was “the most difficult thing I’ve ever done”. Shaq recalls that the experience was like reading out a dictionary. That very well may just be what they had him do. How else could his voice be recorded to be able to utter out so many different phrases just as the typical Alexa voice does!
I’m back, baby! Feel the power of contrast therapy, so you can rise from pain! @icyhot pic.twitter.com/XVa4xSGUZY
— SHAQ.SOL (@SHAQ) June 14, 2021
He Worked From Home
Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Scalable Grid Engine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Even though the whole ordeal was a difficult experience for Shaq he at least had the advantage of working from home. Amazon actually built a studio within Shaq’s home to be able to have him record. Many people don’t want to recall Shaq’s failed rap career. Taking that into consideration though it’s very possible that Shaq had a recording studio at home already. The folks at Amazon just made the adjustments to make sure that they had everything they needed so that everything ran smoothly.
Melissa McCarthy’s Personal Phrases
https://www.flickr.com/photos/greg2600, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
There’s not a ton of information as far as what type of wisdom you can expect to hear from the Big Aristotle. Melissa McCarthy on the other hand has already revealed some of the phrases that you can hear her utter if you buy her voice on your Alexa device. Some of these phrases are,
“I wish I had an exotic name like Svetlana or Giselle. But you can call me Melissa” also your alarms are going to have a new sound specifically Melissa saying, “Hey, remember when you said to set that alarm for you? Um — this is the alarm going off. So, you’ve been alarmed.”
Around 5 Bucks Per Voice
What’s it going to take for you to have one of these voices on your device? Only about 5 dollars. Jeff Bezos is not exactly short in cash so making adjustments to Shaq’s home studio were pocket change for him for sure. However, the company is probably expecting a large sum of revenue to trickle in through the sale of these voices. If all goes well, there’s a good chance more celebs will sign on. Ideally, they’ll get someone like Morgan Freeman on board!
