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CHICAGO — JoBe Cerny, most famous for being the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy, was on one recent rainy morning sitting in a studio at his Cerny/American Creative, a production company/recording studio on Illinois Street. He was drinking coffee and nibbling at some doughnuts and listening to the voice of Jesus Christ as he died on the cross.
"Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?" he said. Well, in a word: Yes. Jesus’ voice was actually the voice of actor Jim Caviezel, one of the hundreds of voices that are part of one of the most ambitious audio projects in history.The Word of Promise Audio Bible is the King James Bible in its entirety: a 79-CD set of more than 98 hours of dramatic audio theater, with an original score by Stefano Mainetti, feature-film-quality sound effects, narration by Michael York and the work of 600-some actors, including such stars as Richard Dreyfuss (Moses), Gary Sinise (David), Marisa Tomei (Mary Magdalene), Stacy Keach (Paul), Louis Gossett Jr. (John), Joan Allen (Deborah), Max von Sydow (Noah) and Luke Perry (Judas). Martin Jarvis, a relatively unknown British actor, had what was perhaps the most daunting part: He plays God.In the beginningThe project began four years ago when Cerny was approached by an old Chicago friend, Carl Amari, a moviemaker and radio-show producer. "I just never thought this would take four years," says Amari, who got the idea when visiting his friend Caviezel on the set of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. "There have been other audio versions of the Bible, most featuring one voice, like James Earl Jones. This was to be something vastly different." He started recruiting other actors, but there was one man for the job of director. "JoBe is one of the greatest radio guys there is. He did all the sound design on [the Amari-produced syndicated radio show] The Twilight Zone," Amari says. "He gets all the credit for this. He’s the one who lived with it every day for four years." The first part of the project appeared in 2007 with The World of Promise New Testament Audio Bible, a mere 20-CD/21-hour package. It was awarded the Christian Book of the Year for 2008 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, the first audio Bible to ever receive the award. It has sold more than 700,000 copies. And while it was selling, Cerny & Co. kept working. "It feels like my entire career has been preparation for this project," Cerny says.The man He was born and raised in Cicero, Ill., carrying his unusual name as the result of playful parents named Joe, an engineer, and Bea, an artist. He got the theater bug while attending Valparaiso University in Indiana and later earned a master’s degree in theater at Northwestern University. He became part of Second City’s national touring company, but like many actors he began doing a lot of commercial work, eventually opening his production house in 1986. As an actor, Cerny has appeared in or been the voice behind more than 3,000 commercials.
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