VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[sdaeley17]

For those of you doing character-based work (Animation, Audiobooks, Video games, and character Commercials), do you find that there are certain impressions, accents, or dialects you get asked to do over and over again? I`ve always had a propensity for imitation, and while I`ve moved away from it to become more familiar and expressive with my own voice, I do want to begin building a wheelhouse of characters and dialects, and was curious if any celebrity voices or accents were "more in demand" then others, so I might be able to start my focus with a competitive foundation. As always, your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated!

Warmest Regards,

Sean
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"There's Magic all around us; you just have to see it. And the most wonderful Magic of all, is just bein' alive." -Uncle Montork, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

[Bruce]

Hi Sean. I moved this from the GEAR section as this is a general kind of topic as opposed to an equipment kind of subject.

IMO, I think there is less and less need for impressions/impersonations these days, at least in the realm of everyday commercials and such. Back in the days when we had just 3 TV networks and just a handful of major movies coming out each month it was easier to find iconic stars and personalities you could mimic. But now with literally thousands of channels of entertainment, and hundreds of "personalities" it's tougher to find someone interesting to do that a large swath of audience would appreciate.

Plus nowadays if you want a well known voice to do your ads, frequently you can just hire them.

Admittedly Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons and such still thrive on impersonation, but I think they're in rarefied territory these days.

The path to coming up with good, unique characterization can be through impersonations, but I think there's much more opportunity with original creations.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[sdaeley17]

Thank you very much, Bruce! And i appreciate your moving the thread, no idea how it ended up in gear! Thanks again!

Warmest Regards,

Sean
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"There's Magic all around us; you just have to see it. And the most wonderful Magic of all, is just bein' alive." -Uncle Montork, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

[ConnieTerwilliger]

During any political cycle, there will be some demand for voices that are like the current crop of candidates.
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[Lee Gordon]

Most of the time, when I see specific celebrity voice impersonations requested, other than the political ones (and sometimes including them), it's for relatively low-paying custom phone answering messages or ringtones.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Scott Pollak]

As far as actual paying jobs:

- Impersonations: Rod Serling and Arnold Schwarzenneggar (or however it's spelled)

- Accents/dialects (which I'm awful at): One of the very first audiobooks I had to do I had to voice a character in an Irish brogue. Ugh. Also a fair amount of Brit accents and some hispanic accents in some mystery/intrigue books I've narrated.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[sdaeley17]

Thanks everyone!

The general consensus is to stick with what you got, and learn how to breathe life into copy with that, so I shall! However, as a fan of Jim Meskimen, JB Blanc, and of course Jeff Bennet, it's something I'd like to return to in the future (if for no other reason than to stretch my chops, and hey, there's always Librivox!)
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"There's Magic all around us; you just have to see it. And the most wonderful Magic of all, is just bein' alive." -Uncle Montork, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

[Bob Bergen]

Bruce is correct. The ability to create original, solid characters will take you further than relying on impressions. Now, an impression can be the genesis of an original character. But you are limiting creative opportunities by just relying on impressions.

The voice is just one layer of character. Every character has a voice. But not all voices have character. Celebrities who work in animation don't approach the script thinking how they should adjust their voice for the character. Their strategy is to bring the character to life. Producers look for celebrities whose personalities work for the character. When Pixar was researching a voice for Woody in Toy Story, they took a Tom Hanks scene from Turner and Hooch and animated Woody doing the dialogue. They found their Woody.

Your acting range and abilities are far more important than your vocal range. In a perfect world, you excel at both. But a brilliant actor who only does their own voice is far more desirable than a dead on impressionist who can't act.

When they held auditions for Space Jam, one of the call backs was to do Looney Tunes characters performing Shakespeare. The producers thought there were many out there who could mimic Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. But how many can stay in character while performing Hamlet? It was genius, and a fun challenge. But it also separated the impressionists from the actors.

[scottnilsen]

Bob, that last paragraph about acting as those characters who are in turn acting as other characters does sound like quite the challenge. Maybe even a party game.

Sounds like a good Faffcon breakout group. Hmm....
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Well, that and mimes.

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[sdaeley17]

The Looney Tunes do Shakespeare? Now that I'd pay to see!

Bugs as Hamlet, Daffy as Richard III, Foghorn Leghorn as Polonius, the gophers as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, it practically writes itself!
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"There's Magic all around us; you just have to see it. And the most wonderful Magic of all, is just bein' alive." -Uncle Montork, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

[Darren Altman]

I'm asked to impersonate all the time and have a specific impressions showreel. I'm always happy to research and demo for clients. It tends not to be for radio and TV ads as it enters a legal minefield, although I have voiced "sound-a-likes" for radio!

Impressions that I get asked to do the most are Jeremy Clarkson, Austin Powers, various classic cartoon characters and voice of The X-Factor show here in the UK amongst others.
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[Deirdre]

I was recently asked to do an Italian accent for a pasta ad!

I played an Italian in "Lend Me A Tenor" a few years ago, so was able to call it up. I've had to cultivate other accents for stage roles including Norwegian, genteel American Southern, Texan, generic Irish, upper class English and low class English. I check my English accents in with Philip from time to time to make sure I am not getting sloppy or making heinous mistakes.

I've used most of these for game work, too— but outside of bizarro world creature voices, most of the scripts I see for games are straight White-Folks American accent, or epic, semi-English-accented stuff.
They're looking for attitude, age, and acting more than accent.
Occasionally I'll get something out of the ordinary and some accents I've used for games include Ohio, "New York" (once in a while you get asked for a specific borough, and if you don't know it, don't try to fake it! just ask Ex.), "Spanglish", eastern-Euro-trash, and "Asian".
I've also been asked for Portuguese at the end of a session, but I had to offer something else. That's one I didn't have in my pocket.
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[Bruce]

Darren, I'm not surprised you're doing lots of impersonations over there. You blokes have a higher number per capita of truly unique personalities.... Clarkson for sure.

I've not done a lot Hispanic accents over the years (there are so many voice talents here who can do it naturally), but for the past few months I've been the voice of a talking Latin American coffee bean teaching employees how to make cappuccinos for the world's largest pastry purveyor. You never know.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .