Shameless Pleasure #3 - Bison Dip

My favorite food is Bison Dip! Ok not so much a food but a snack.  Specifically chips and dip. And it HAS to be Bison Dip brand. What does Bison Dip have to do with my voice over business you ask? Well hang in there I’ll connect the dots for you. But first lets talk about this dip and why its so embarrassing and its this episodes “shameless pleasure.”

Have you ever thought about why every celebration, holiday, social event, date, or even sporting event has FOOD as the center piece? At the core, people seek joy and connection and food is a powerful way to create that.

I went to college in Buffalo, NY. That’s where Bison Dip is made.  It’s a hometown company making food in what’s arguably the most home town community.  Just look at the Bills Mafia if you don’t believe me about hometownness there!

So being in Buffalo, every game, celebration or even fancy happy hours, had Bison Dip. It was My favorite snack.  I’m a salty not a sweet so I always reached for Bison Dip and chips first. It was my munchy food after the bars in college too! Not great for the college weight mind you – ever hear of Buffalo Girls. Oh boy.

Now where this gets embarrassing is HOW MUCH dip I used to eat in a sitting. My roommate Karen and I would go out to the bars together and have some fun.  Back then the bars in Buffalo stayed open until 4:00 am – can you image. I cannot stay awake that late any more!

But as we walked home, we’d stop at English Farms, a Buffalo convenience store, because we walked right by it and because it was open at 4 am too. Not a good idea.  Karen and I would buy a bag of chips and a container of Bison Dip, she loved it too.

But we didn’t just buy one bag and dip but ONE FOR EACH of US! Because we didn’t want to share. It was too hard to shovel in the beautiful, creamy, wonderful dip if we had to wait our turn.  Oh my god we were gluttons on the stuff. So embarrassing.

Ok not too bad since that was college and after all you’re supposed to eat and gain a few right? Right.

But I am embarrassed to report, this habit did not vanish after I graduated.  In fact it didn’t vanish after I had kids either. But as an adult, I didn’t have to fight Karen for the dip and chip bag, I had to fight my family.  My husband was judgy, in a good way at least – he helped me kick my habit eventually. Now at least I can share.  But Marrissa, his cousin, she had the same Bison Dip affliction so we faced off at the snack bowl in Buffalo quite often! Haha. Not really but she and I definitely shared the love of the dip. Once they got Wegmans near me in Virginia; Wegmans is another Buffalo staple, I even gave her dip for Christmas one year.

So ok back to the connection to VO. As I said at the beginning, celebrations are made with food. And in the VO business, we need to celebrate our wins – big or small!  If we didn’t we’d go crazy and probably give up. It’s a tough world out there for actors.

Small wins are like watching a webinar, finishing a class, emailing that client, doing x number of auditions a day, etc.  You get the idea. They are small daily wins and they add up and make your heart happy to have a list of those at the end of the week.

But for the bigger wins, like I booked a gig, my audiobook was released, an award, etc. those you gotta celebrate with – you guessed it food.  And yes, I do it with Bison Dip!

So there you have it, full circle! What food is your favorite to celebrate with?

Next time you are in a Wegman’s, I encourage you to try Bison Dip!

And remember, life’s too short to feel guilty about the things we love.