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Voice Coaches Radio Episode 709 ” Character Demo or Not”
John: [00:00:00] Hello my friends. I am John.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: And this is Voice Coaches Radio, and it's episode 7 0 9
Tina: oh. It is.
John: I believe so. I believe so. I know. Oh, this area, we, we haven't been seen the episodes recently, although I think we did last time, but we haven't been. Uh, but I figured maybe the listener needs to know what episode they're on.
Wait,
Tina: how do we need to write it down and then check it off? That we, that's the number so that we remember. 'cause I forget every time.
John: Right, right. Oh, well. So, uh. You wanted to do an episode?
Tina: Yes. I've been getting, um, I have a lot of students who are interested in, uh, animation, character voices and things like that.
Now, I can't do any character voices. I mean, I could do like a southern thing, but I'd lose it within like two sentences, you know, so I can't do it at all. So they have that interest, and it is more of the question of, you know. How, how [00:01:00] should they get started with it, you know? Sure. Do we do, we start off with just a regular demo, you know, with just their voice.
But then if we do that, how do you get into that then? How do you get into, towards the doing the character and animation. Animation and you, that's something you do?
John: I do. So we'll call the episode character demo or not.
Tina: All right. Yeah, that's a good one.
John: Well. Uh, so I started off as a voice actor doing no character voices.
Tina: Okay.
John: Yeah. So, uh, I, I just did my voice. Mm-hmm. Actually started off as announcer and as a, as, as the industry changed, I also had to change with the industry. So I actually had to get. Voice coaching, voiceover training. Mm-hmm. Twice during my career. Once when, when things started to shift into being more conversational.
Video: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John: So obviously that's something I needed to learn. Um, but then I had clients who all of a sudden outta the blue clients that I, that use me all the time, started asking me to do character voices. Hey, could you [00:02:00] do this in a character? Yeah. And I was thinking, I don't. Really do that. Yeah. So then I got more voice, I got more voice coaching with a character voice actor.
So what you wanna do is work and we do have people on staff here. Yes. Yeah. One of them. Uh, Simone also. Yes. She's one of 'em as well. Those character voices. So, um, the, the trick to character voices and I, I, I explain this to people 'cause once in a while I get someone who tells me they do them. Yes.
Tina: I get that a lot.
Yes,
John: I do character voices, but then they do the character voice and they don't do character voices. They think they do like, and here's what I mean, a character voice isn't you just talking like this and they're talking like this. That's clearly the same person, right? Yeah. It's just you changing your pitch.
Character voice is, um, not just changing your pitch, but what actually makes the voice more different than that is changing your speech pattern, the speed in which you're talking. And sometimes even like slightly. Mm-hmm. Your accent, your affectation. Okay. Right? Yeah. That's what creates a character voice separate from your normal voice, right?
Mm-hmm. Which I had to learn. That's what I learned when I Yeah. You know? 'cause I, I was one of those people who thought I just [00:03:00] changed my voice and I'm doing a character voice. Yeah. But you're not, if you're, if you're do, if your speech patterns exactly the same
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: People know it's you. Right. It's just, yeah.
Now sometimes it doesn't matter if you're not doing your voice than a character voice. Right. Isn't so important. Yeah. But if you, if you're going between voices, like basically someone hires you to do, Hey, can you do like three different voices? I want you to do your own voice. Mm-hmm. Then I want you to do, you can't sound the same.
Oh yeah. You have to, they have to be d distinctly different, right? Mm-hmm. So, so yeah. I mean, if that's something you're interested in, I encourage it. Now, if you don't do it as of yet, um, like if you don't to, if you don't like, uh, toy around with voices at all. I would say you might wanna start just with your regular voice.
'cause I also wanna say this 'cause I know there's people right now getting nervous going, I don't do character voices.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Most professional voice actors don't do voices.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Don't do accents. Don't speak another language and don't sing.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Most professional voice actors are hired for their voice.
Tina: Yes.
John: [00:04:00] However, if you do any of those things I just mentioned. You should absolutely incorporate them into your demo. Mm-hmm. Okay. Or maybe do it, uh, or do a separate demo. Yeah. You know, uh, so. Um, that would be my, now, now if someone says to me, Hey, I don't do character voices, but I really, really want to do that.
Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. I mean, you wanna let us know immediately?
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Right. '
John: cause we, we can start working on that immediately. Mm-hmm. Once we get to the part where you're about to record your demo, it's too late. Right. Because at this point we're, you know, we can't teach you to do character voices in five minutes.
Right. When you're about to do your demo. Mm-hmm. So let us know ahead of time so we can kind of play around with it. Mm-hmm. The, the, and you might get this too, um. Some people tell me, I do character voices, I do great impersonations of other,
Tina: yes.
John: Okay.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So here's what I tell those people. There's not a, to be completely honest, the money is in original voices.
It's not really in impersonating, like, for example, like you're not gonna get a. [00:05:00] It's gonna be very rare. Let's say that, that you get hired to do Sylvester Stallone. Okay. Yeah. 'cause either they'll hire Sylvester Stallone.
Tina: Yeah, yeah.
John: Right. Yeah. Or it's kind of iffy. Like you can't really, like, for a commercial especially, you can't really act like you're Sylvester Stallone and sell something.
Tina: Yeah.
John: It's, there's a kind of a weird gray area there
Tina: that's a, like a copyright type of infringement type of,
John: kind of a weird, it is a weird area. Okay. Um, so, but here, but good news. When someone tells me they do impersonations, I say, if you do impersonations, you can do original voices.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Because you, you, you, you're clearly changing.
Yeah. Again, your voice, your speech pattern. That's true.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah.
John: So if you can do whoever it is, so that's just stall alone, whoever. You can do original voices.
Tina: Okay.
John: So my, my, um, one of the pieces of advice I have for people, and this is what I tell people when I have an opportunity to work with people who would like to do character voices.
Or something that [00:06:00] many don't do at first, and I encourage you to do it because it will, it'll create something in your mind that will help name your voices.
Tina: That's a good idea. Really good.
John: Yeah. Actually, really actually named them.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Like people will just like launch into voices, right? Mm-hmm. But what you should do is say, you know, this is Pappy.
Tina: Okay. You know,
John: this is Brad. Or, you know, Brad's a weird one, but you know what I mean. Name your voices. Yeah. And in your mind. Imagine who that is. Mm-hmm. And that helps with the voices because then you can be that character, you know what I mean?
Tina: Yeah.
John: But let us know ahead of time.
Tina: Oh, absolutely. I, I have had students who have great, great, um, character voices that they do.
Um, and they, they, the biggest, I think, in my mind, I think, alright, one, you've gotta be consistent with that voice though. So every, what we put on the demo is you've gotta be able to, when they say, Hey, that's. The voice I like, you gotta be able to pre reproduce that every single time they say. That's the voice that, so that's the, that's, I I know that the biggest thing with it.
John: You're absolutely right. That's the, that's the thing that I, that I do [00:07:00] find in some people who say, Hey, I do character voices. They can do like a sentence in that voice they, that they've come up with. Like whatever it is, they can do that sentence, but all of a sudden they start reading copy. And then all of a sudden they can't do that voice.
Tina: Yeah. They go back to a certain,
John: yeah. Right. That's why I said it really does help if you name the voices. Mm-hmm. And create who that is in your mind, because you do need to be able to do. Whatever piece of copy, whatever script they put in front of you, you have to be able to carry that voice through it.
So yeah, you're right. I, I do. Especially in impersonations. Yeah. Right, because they get, they get one line that sve so says and they say that,
Tina: yeah. That, that's in the, so let me ask you if, so, if there is somebody who has one that you know Yeah. I can do like two or three sentence of it, what should they do to perfect that?
John: Keep practicing in that voice? Yeah. I mean to, to keep reading copy in that voice. And I'm talking anything by the way. Yeah. I'm not, forget copy. You should be reading. You know, this is weird to say, 'cause who's reading magazines, but you know what I mean? Yeah. Magazine articles online.
Tina: Yeah. Just art.
John: Yeah.
Articles online. Okay. You should be able to read anything in that character voice.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: [00:08:00] Um, because you're gonna get things that you didn't expect Yeah. To copy.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Right. So I would just start reading in that voice. You'll get it. Mm-hmm. I mean, if you can do the voice, you can do the voice. So now it's just a matter of the problem is your, your brain is linking it to just that sentence.
Yeah. Or that phrase, you have to, you have to disconnect it from that and make it mm-hmm. That made that character a full character in your mind. Yeah. You know, that's, that's what you have to do. Yeah. So. That's cool. You know, and one of the things I'll do at the end of this
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: Is I'll play, I, I'll play my character demo at the end.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: So, uh, people can hear what a character demo should sound like.
Tina: Now, how many different voices do you do? Or accents or characters? Sure. Yeah.
John: Uh, it's hard to say. I mean, on, on the demo, I don't even know how many I do. I do quite a few, but I feel like I could do, you know, I, I can't number them only because.
Sometimes people ask me for an original.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, like for example, I think I told this story before, but I, since we're on the subject, I I will, in case I didn't know or someone didn't hear the episode. Mm-hmm. [00:09:00] Um, like I, I almost got hired to do a public service announcement. It was around Christmas time, you know, holiday season.
Mm-hmm. Holiday season. Mm-hmm. And it was, it was a PSA about adopting, this is what they told me, a PSA about adopting. Dogs.
Tina: Okay.
John: That's all the, that's the information that you, me. All right. That's
Tina: it.
John: And they showed me a picture of the dog, but it was, and it was a cartoon dog. Mm-hmm. It was a cartoon. So I'm the dog, and so I come up with this voice.
Mm-hmm. You know, because they don't give anything else. Just, and so I come up with the Yeah. I'm the, a dog beater, you know? Yeah. That, that's the voice I come up with. Like, look like this dopey dog. I get to the studio. Mm-hmm. It's the saddest piece of copy you've ever read in your life. Oh, it's about dogs being put down during the holidays.
Video: Oh, oh, oh, oh.
John: And I have this, and, and, and they haven't heard the voice yet. Yeah. And I have this dopey dog voice. I'm like, uhoh,
Video: you can't now.
John: Yeah. So now I can't do that voice now. Now I'm [00:10:00] panicking because that's the voice I've been, I've been like, this is the voice I came up with for this picture you gave me.
And so then I had to come up with a completely different voice. Uh, by the time they heard me on the mic, I was like, and I, and I leaned more towards my voice, but just a little different, like, a little like that. So I, I le I came back a little because I was like so dopey and I was like, this is not gonna work.
I'm like talking about how if you don't adopt me, I'm gonna be put down.
Tina: Oh, well
John: yeah, this hold the dog. Like what? It's a lab. Like what? Oh, they're gonna fire me. Uh, so I had to come back and be a little more serious on it, obviously.
Video: Yes.
John: Uh, so, so, so I, you know, as a character voice actor, you should be able to create voices for things, right?
Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so you should have an infinite amount of voices. I mean, you know, you don't have to do that on, on character demo show off 10, show 15 maybe. I think I did. Maybe I, I've never counted 'em on my, you know, but I think maybe I did. I'm gonna say 12 voices maybe. Okay. Wow. On my character demo, maybe something like that.
Yeah. [00:11:00] Um. But you should be able to create a voice. Mm-hmm. Someone should show you something and go, Hey, here's the character I'm thinking about. Uh, what does this sound like? Mm-hmm. And, and I do that sometimes, like when I, when I work with someone and, and I have a, you know, I have copy that is, uh, character driven.
Mm-hmm. And like it's a couple different characters, and I'll tell them, here's how I see this character. The voice you come up with is all you.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: You know, I'll say this is like, there's this piece that we have where I go, you're the gatekeeper. You're the gatekeeper to like a Haiti sort of place.
Mm-hmm. Uh, this, this person guarding the gate is apathetic, doesn't care about you at all. You're human. They don't care about you, but they don't like you either. Mm-hmm. And so that's the character. Now you come up with the voice.
Tina: Okay. You
John: know what I mean? Yeah. So that, that's. And, and, and, and let me tell you, I've had people come up with so many, the, the, the different Yeah.
Ways that people, you know, everyone's different.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: So you'll have someone that will come up with that deep, you know. Mm-hmm. You know, I guard the gates, you know, they'll do that. Yeah. And then someone else is doing a [00:12:00] high pitched voice. Yeah. It's like so interesting on people's brains work and yeah.
None of 'em are wrong. It's how you, it's how you see that character, right? Mm-hmm. So, but as if you wanna become a character voice actor, you should be able to have that imagination.
Tina: Yes.
John: Right? How, how, who would, how would this person sound? So, but show off. Like I would say if you wanna do character demo show off like 12, I don't wanna use, you know, I would say you need to have at least eight, let's say that.
Okay. To do a good character demo, you should have at least eight voices.
Tina: Okay.
John: Um. And I'm not saying, you know, now someone who has six gonna be like, oh, I get 30.
Tina: Yeah, no, I don't.
John: You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, you know, I'm just saying eight's a good amount. Mm-hmm. To show that you have a good range of voices.
Yeah. If you have six voices, you could do one too. But you know, it's, uh, you know. It's less is, you know, we're dunking six voices and you can still do a demo. 'cause you could probably stretch it to a minute, do 10 seconds each voice. But that seems long for a character voice. Yeah. Once I hear it, I hear it.
You know, you don't have to read a full mm-hmm. 10 seconds. So I would say 10 voices is good. Now, if you do [00:13:00] three. You should incorporate into your regular demo.
Tina: Okay. That's what I was gonna ask
John: you. Yeah. Yeah. If you do like three character voices mm-hmm. You're not, there's no point in doing a,
Tina: a whole separate demo by itself?
John: No. Just incorporate into your regular demo.
Tina: Okay.
John: Yeah, just put into, because that, that shows you have some range
Tina: that you've got the, yeah,
John: Hey, I can do a character voice, but you know, you're not showing up. And by the way, even if you do do a bunch of character voices, but you're not quite ready yet to do a character demo.
I still encourage you to, to incorporate those into your demo.
Tina: That's what I try to do. We know it's, um, when I get, you know, students that will say, oh, you know, oh, I do a character voice. And they're like, alright, well let me hear it. Or when we're getting to that one class where we're picking out de um, scripts for their demo look for, look for a script that you feel matches your, your, that character.
You have that voice that you have. And then I also even tell him, I said, if not. Let me hear it. Tell me what that, about, that voice, and I'll write you a script, you know? Yeah. That's great to match with. It's great. Yeah. So,
John: yep. Absolutely. That's great. Yeah. So I, I do that for people too. [00:14:00] Um, sometimes I come up with a through line, you know, if they, if they wanna do characters, and I'll say, okay, what, what, what are these character, where are these characters?
What are they doing? Are they all together? Are we somewhere?
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, sometimes they're not, it just depends. Mm-hmm. But, um. Yeah. So that's cool. Yeah, if, if you wanna do character voices, I encourage it, but don't think you have to.
Tina: Yeah. That's
John: all.
Tina: You definitely don't have. I, like I said, I don't have any, no.
Let me ask you about accents, about like someone doing, you know, from Russia, from Ireland, from, what do you think?
John: Okay, so, uh, this is a tough subject and here's why. Um. Uh, so I used to say something that doesn't necessarily apply anymore, and here's what I used to say. An accent either has to be authentic or over the top.
It can't be in between. But these days that has changed a little because, and, and, and the reason why is not even the people who have the accent. Mm-hmm. [00:15:00] Like, I'll give you an example. They don't use Abu on the Simpsons anymore.
Tina: Oh, I did not know that
John: because it was. Someone putting on an over the top Indian accent.
Tina: Okay,
John: and you know who wasn't upset at all?
Tina: So
John: people from India.
Tina: Yeah.
John: They love the character. It was other people
Tina: Yeah.
John: Who were like, this is insulting.
Tina: Oh.
John: And so they ended up, not that they don't use the character anymore, so there's kind of like a weird thing going on. Yeah. I don't know. But, but listen, you can definitely get away with Russian.
I mm-hmm. You can get. Irish. Yeah. It was like what you get away with, no one cares. You know, you could be the, you could do this accent. No one cares. Uh, like, you know, lucky Charms, no one cares. That's an over the top Irish accent that is not realistic. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, so, 'cause my grandparents were from County Cork.
Mm-hmm. And you couldn't understand a word they said.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah.
John: They're like, I right here. Black Asty fire you. That's how they talk. Like they, they did not do that. Lucky charm. Call every got started. Yeah. You know, like, that's how they talk. [00:16:00] Like you're barely, I didn't understand a word they said till I was 12.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, um, but, um, so you can, yes, you can do accents. Mm-hmm. But tasteful, let's, how about, I'll use that. I'm gonna change what I said before too. You, you can do accents, but they have to be tasteful.
Tina: Okay. About that. Yeah. All right.
John: You know, uh, so that, that's where I would say, you know, I, I'm, you know, I, I feel like I'm so old, you know, we've been doing this for so long that I'm like one of those people that's like, I, I remember the old days when we can do any accent.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, but.
Tina: Time
John: changed.
Tina: Yeah. Times change and,
John: and so, uh, yeah. Lean on your voice coach for that. Let them say, Hey, maybe we don't do that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Because I, I will tell you, in the, in a long time ago, I heard so many voice actors mm-hmm. Doing, yeah.
Tina: Like
John: Indian accents mm-hmm. That were not Indian.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And they were over the top and, right. Mm-hmm. These, you probably couldn't put that on your demo now. No.
Tina: Yeah. Right. Yeah.
John: Times have changed and positive or negative, however you wanna look at it. Mm-hmm. They just have,
Tina: yeah, yeah. [00:17:00] No, and just ask us, you know, that's the, that's
John: the thing. Ask We'll, we'll let you know.
Hey, maybe not.
Tina: Yeah. Mean I'll, I'll, I'll be nice and say, why don't we work on it just a little bit and then, you know, take this copy and practice it.
John: Yeah. Yeah. Like I do, I, I do like a Russian accent on my character demo. Uh, and it's funny, I met someone who was Russian, came to my voiceover. I did a live presentation.
And so I played it. Yeah, I said had to, I said how authentic she goes. Not very authentic. Oh, I said, come on. She goes, no, no. I mean, not bad for a Quin.
Tina: Oh,
John: but not, not good.
Tina: Yeah, but not good. No, not good.
John: And if she's listening, she's like, he's doing it again.
Tina: Yep.
John: She's doing the accent again.
So, you know. Yeah. Uh, some people have thicker skin. They don't care. Yeah. She thought it was funny. Yeah. You know, uh, and the British, the British don't care. We, we do fake British accents all the time. All
Tina: the time.
John: Know I do one, one on my [00:18:00] demo and British people think it's hilarious. They're like, that is so stereotypical British accents.
And there's so many different British accents, by the way.
Tina: There is. Yeah.
John: So yeah, like, like America. Mm-hmm. It's like America. It is probably everywhere, you know? I bet there's like. I bet there's probably 20 different Russian accents, right?
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Yeah. 15 different Greek accents, probably different regions, you know?
That's how it goes. I know, I know. Uh, Spanish is like that.
Tina: Oh,
John: yeah. Yeah. That's definitely, and Don, not only that, and this again, just like that here, if you speak Spanish, there's different regions and they have slang that other people who speak Spanish have a hard time understanding. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, 'cause I have friends, I have really close friends that are Dominican, but my wife's whole family is Costa Rican and they do not speak the same exact
Tina: Oh yeah.
John: Dialect.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah. That's
John: close. They're close actually. Mm-hmm. But yeah, but like Puerto Rico, definitely not. No, it's very different.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Yeah. So, um, yeah, I went to Costa Rica too.
Tina: Oh, wow. Look at that.
John: I keep saying we're gonna talk about, I think I said that last time. I, I went around the holidays. It was fun.
Tina: Oh, that's good.
John: [00:19:00] Yeah. I don't speak enough Spanish though. I've learned that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Yeah. I, I, yeah, I have to, I have to. Definitely. I'm, I'm on a, I'm doing Duolingo all the time. Yeah. I dunno how much helps to be honest, but I'm doing my best. Oh
Tina: yeah. I can't, no characters, no language, no nothing. Just me, just my voice.
This is it. This is all you get.
John: Yeah. I act like I'm learning a lot. You know? I act like it, like, like, like it was my, uh, father-in-law's birthday. I, I, uh, you know, he, he, we conversed back and forth via WhatsApp and so I was like, Felice ano. He's like, you're learning. I'm like, well, look it up. I, not magic, no.
From Duolingo, but anyone can say Elise Anos. Everyone knows that's Happy Birthday. Uh, I
Tina: did not know that. So there you go. I know. It was like some type of ho I ki it sounded like a holiday, but I just said no, it was a birthday.
John: Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, but yeah. Alright. So yeah, no, anything else? Any, anything else about
Tina: that, that was the main, yeah, just people, I get a lot of people who, you know, they've got that in the back of their mind.
They wanna, how do I get [00:20:00] into that part of it, you know, the characters and animation. So I think we covered it.
John: Alright. Uh, alright, cool. So. What next? Nothing. All right. We're gonna play, we're we're gonna play
Tina: your, your character. You're
John: gonna play my
Tina: yes,
John: uh, character demo.
Video: Where you going? Mason? You know what we want? Hand it over.
Tina: And now all I can think about is revenge. No matter how long it takes, these
Video: men will pay with their lives. It'll be a long. Road, but you
Tina: are the chosen one. Respect the decision of the gods.
Video: You will die at the hands of Mort Ma.
John: This is the KGB. There are no mistakes.
Video: Anime position located black hawks on the way.
John: Game death [00:21:00] match. Get the medic, come ahead. You'll take the order and do what you're told. Alright, boys into the truck and let's show. How we do things cover me. I'm reloading. Oh, please man, I didn't see anything.
You don't have to do this. Oh, no.
Video: Oh yeah. There she is. Just like I told you, but you lay one finger wrong me. And she goes, Cabo, like a bottle rocket. On the 4th of July
ly. I would've never taken this case, but this dame was a knockout and now a bullet in my belly tells me I was nothing but an. Another janer.
John: I am the
Video: shopkeeper for upgrades, spells, and new weapons. You come to see me to revive you. Go to the end, hold the tanks in the front, and I want the artillery on the other side.
Hold
John: the to access your names mainframe,
Video: type in your mission name, and press continue.
John: All right, so there you go. That was my [00:22:00] character demo. Hope you enjoyed it.
Tina: That was good.
John: You like it? Thank you. Yeah, I did. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, alright, cool. So, uh, hope you enjoyed that and you get an idea of what a, a character demo should sound like.
Mm-hmm. And, uh, there you go. So, uh, we're gonna take off. I'm John Gia voice coaches.com
Tina: and tina voice coaches.com.
John: And again, email us with any, anything that you need. Yes. Not anything I don't,
Tina: well, I know
John: plumbing or anything, but, you know, voice voiceover related. Yeah. But again, um. Webinar. Yes. Time for the webinar.
Use the code pod that is gets you 50% off. Go to the website voice coaches.com uh, and sign up for that if you wanna meet me. And you do. I know you do. You
Tina: do. You wanna meet me? You do wanna meet me
John: and you wanna read for me? You want to get some feedback, so do it. Okay. Alright. Thank you everybody. We out.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: And this is Voice Coaches Radio, and it's episode 7 0 9
Tina: oh. It is.
John: I believe so. I believe so. I know. Oh, this area, we, we haven't been seen the episodes recently, although I think we did last time, but we haven't been. Uh, but I figured maybe the listener needs to know what episode they're on.
Wait,
Tina: how do we need to write it down and then check it off? That we, that's the number so that we remember. 'cause I forget every time.
John: Right, right. Oh, well. So, uh. You wanted to do an episode?
Tina: Yes. I've been getting, um, I have a lot of students who are interested in, uh, animation, character voices and things like that.
Now, I can't do any character voices. I mean, I could do like a southern thing, but I'd lose it within like two sentences, you know, so I can't do it at all. So they have that interest, and it is more of the question of, you know. How, how [00:01:00] should they get started with it, you know? Sure. Do we do, we start off with just a regular demo, you know, with just their voice.
But then if we do that, how do you get into that then? How do you get into, towards the doing the character and animation. Animation and you, that's something you do?
John: I do. So we'll call the episode character demo or not.
Tina: All right. Yeah, that's a good one.
John: Well. Uh, so I started off as a voice actor doing no character voices.
Tina: Okay.
John: Yeah. So, uh, I, I just did my voice. Mm-hmm. Actually started off as announcer and as a, as, as the industry changed, I also had to change with the industry. So I actually had to get. Voice coaching, voiceover training. Mm-hmm. Twice during my career. Once when, when things started to shift into being more conversational.
Video: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John: So obviously that's something I needed to learn. Um, but then I had clients who all of a sudden outta the blue clients that I, that use me all the time, started asking me to do character voices. Hey, could you [00:02:00] do this in a character? Yeah. And I was thinking, I don't. Really do that. Yeah. So then I got more voice, I got more voice coaching with a character voice actor.
So what you wanna do is work and we do have people on staff here. Yes. Yeah. One of them. Uh, Simone also. Yes. She's one of 'em as well. Those character voices. So, um, the, the trick to character voices and I, I, I explain this to people 'cause once in a while I get someone who tells me they do them. Yes.
Tina: I get that a lot.
Yes,
John: I do character voices, but then they do the character voice and they don't do character voices. They think they do like, and here's what I mean, a character voice isn't you just talking like this and they're talking like this. That's clearly the same person, right? Yeah. It's just you changing your pitch.
Character voice is, um, not just changing your pitch, but what actually makes the voice more different than that is changing your speech pattern, the speed in which you're talking. And sometimes even like slightly. Mm-hmm. Your accent, your affectation. Okay. Right? Yeah. That's what creates a character voice separate from your normal voice, right?
Mm-hmm. Which I had to learn. That's what I learned when I Yeah. You know? 'cause I, I was one of those people who thought I just [00:03:00] changed my voice and I'm doing a character voice. Yeah. But you're not, if you're, if you're do, if your speech patterns exactly the same
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: People know it's you. Right. It's just, yeah.
Now sometimes it doesn't matter if you're not doing your voice than a character voice. Right. Isn't so important. Yeah. But if you, if you're going between voices, like basically someone hires you to do, Hey, can you do like three different voices? I want you to do your own voice. Mm-hmm. Then I want you to do, you can't sound the same.
Oh yeah. You have to, they have to be d distinctly different, right? Mm-hmm. So, so yeah. I mean, if that's something you're interested in, I encourage it. Now, if you don't do it as of yet, um, like if you don't to, if you don't like, uh, toy around with voices at all. I would say you might wanna start just with your regular voice.
'cause I also wanna say this 'cause I know there's people right now getting nervous going, I don't do character voices.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Most professional voice actors don't do voices.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Don't do accents. Don't speak another language and don't sing.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Most professional voice actors are hired for their voice.
Tina: Yes.
John: [00:04:00] However, if you do any of those things I just mentioned. You should absolutely incorporate them into your demo. Mm-hmm. Okay. Or maybe do it, uh, or do a separate demo. Yeah. You know, uh, so. Um, that would be my, now, now if someone says to me, Hey, I don't do character voices, but I really, really want to do that.
Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. I mean, you wanna let us know immediately?
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Right. '
John: cause we, we can start working on that immediately. Mm-hmm. Once we get to the part where you're about to record your demo, it's too late. Right. Because at this point we're, you know, we can't teach you to do character voices in five minutes.
Right. When you're about to do your demo. Mm-hmm. So let us know ahead of time so we can kind of play around with it. Mm-hmm. The, the, and you might get this too, um. Some people tell me, I do character voices, I do great impersonations of other,
Tina: yes.
John: Okay.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So here's what I tell those people. There's not a, to be completely honest, the money is in original voices.
It's not really in impersonating, like, for example, like you're not gonna get a. [00:05:00] It's gonna be very rare. Let's say that, that you get hired to do Sylvester Stallone. Okay. Yeah. 'cause either they'll hire Sylvester Stallone.
Tina: Yeah, yeah.
John: Right. Yeah. Or it's kind of iffy. Like you can't really, like, for a commercial especially, you can't really act like you're Sylvester Stallone and sell something.
Tina: Yeah.
John: It's, there's a kind of a weird gray area there
Tina: that's a, like a copyright type of infringement type of,
John: kind of a weird, it is a weird area. Okay. Um, so, but here, but good news. When someone tells me they do impersonations, I say, if you do impersonations, you can do original voices.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Because you, you, you, you're clearly changing.
Yeah. Again, your voice, your speech pattern. That's true.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah.
John: So if you can do whoever it is, so that's just stall alone, whoever. You can do original voices.
Tina: Okay.
John: So my, my, um, one of the pieces of advice I have for people, and this is what I tell people when I have an opportunity to work with people who would like to do character voices.
Or something that [00:06:00] many don't do at first, and I encourage you to do it because it will, it'll create something in your mind that will help name your voices.
Tina: That's a good idea. Really good.
John: Yeah. Actually, really actually named them.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Like people will just like launch into voices, right? Mm-hmm. But what you should do is say, you know, this is Pappy.
Tina: Okay. You know,
John: this is Brad. Or, you know, Brad's a weird one, but you know what I mean. Name your voices. Yeah. And in your mind. Imagine who that is. Mm-hmm. And that helps with the voices because then you can be that character, you know what I mean?
Tina: Yeah.
John: But let us know ahead of time.
Tina: Oh, absolutely. I, I have had students who have great, great, um, character voices that they do.
Um, and they, they, the biggest, I think, in my mind, I think, alright, one, you've gotta be consistent with that voice though. So every, what we put on the demo is you've gotta be able to, when they say, Hey, that's. The voice I like, you gotta be able to pre reproduce that every single time they say. That's the voice that, so that's the, that's, I I know that the biggest thing with it.
John: You're absolutely right. That's the, that's the thing that I, that I do [00:07:00] find in some people who say, Hey, I do character voices. They can do like a sentence in that voice they, that they've come up with. Like whatever it is, they can do that sentence, but all of a sudden they start reading copy. And then all of a sudden they can't do that voice.
Tina: Yeah. They go back to a certain,
John: yeah. Right. That's why I said it really does help if you name the voices. Mm-hmm. And create who that is in your mind, because you do need to be able to do. Whatever piece of copy, whatever script they put in front of you, you have to be able to carry that voice through it.
So yeah, you're right. I, I do. Especially in impersonations. Yeah. Right, because they get, they get one line that sve so says and they say that,
Tina: yeah. That, that's in the, so let me ask you if, so, if there is somebody who has one that you know Yeah. I can do like two or three sentence of it, what should they do to perfect that?
John: Keep practicing in that voice? Yeah. I mean to, to keep reading copy in that voice. And I'm talking anything by the way. Yeah. I'm not, forget copy. You should be reading. You know, this is weird to say, 'cause who's reading magazines, but you know what I mean? Yeah. Magazine articles online.
Tina: Yeah. Just art.
John: Yeah.
Articles online. Okay. You should be able to read anything in that character voice.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: [00:08:00] Um, because you're gonna get things that you didn't expect Yeah. To copy.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Right. So I would just start reading in that voice. You'll get it. Mm-hmm. I mean, if you can do the voice, you can do the voice. So now it's just a matter of the problem is your, your brain is linking it to just that sentence.
Yeah. Or that phrase, you have to, you have to disconnect it from that and make it mm-hmm. That made that character a full character in your mind. Yeah. You know, that's, that's what you have to do. Yeah. So. That's cool. You know, and one of the things I'll do at the end of this
Tina: mm-hmm.
John: Is I'll play, I, I'll play my character demo at the end.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: So, uh, people can hear what a character demo should sound like.
Tina: Now, how many different voices do you do? Or accents or characters? Sure. Yeah.
John: Uh, it's hard to say. I mean, on, on the demo, I don't even know how many I do. I do quite a few, but I feel like I could do, you know, I, I can't number them only because.
Sometimes people ask me for an original.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, like for example, I think I told this story before, but I, since we're on the subject, I I will, in case I didn't know or someone didn't hear the episode. Mm-hmm. [00:09:00] Um, like I, I almost got hired to do a public service announcement. It was around Christmas time, you know, holiday season.
Mm-hmm. Holiday season. Mm-hmm. And it was, it was a PSA about adopting, this is what they told me, a PSA about adopting. Dogs.
Tina: Okay.
John: That's all the, that's the information that you, me. All right. That's
Tina: it.
John: And they showed me a picture of the dog, but it was, and it was a cartoon dog. Mm-hmm. It was a cartoon. So I'm the dog, and so I come up with this voice.
Mm-hmm. You know, because they don't give anything else. Just, and so I come up with the Yeah. I'm the, a dog beater, you know? Yeah. That, that's the voice I come up with. Like, look like this dopey dog. I get to the studio. Mm-hmm. It's the saddest piece of copy you've ever read in your life. Oh, it's about dogs being put down during the holidays.
Video: Oh, oh, oh, oh.
John: And I have this, and, and, and they haven't heard the voice yet. Yeah. And I have this dopey dog voice. I'm like, uhoh,
Video: you can't now.
John: Yeah. So now I can't do that voice now. Now I'm [00:10:00] panicking because that's the voice I've been, I've been like, this is the voice I came up with for this picture you gave me.
And so then I had to come up with a completely different voice. Uh, by the time they heard me on the mic, I was like, and I, and I leaned more towards my voice, but just a little different, like, a little like that. So I, I le I came back a little because I was like so dopey and I was like, this is not gonna work.
I'm like talking about how if you don't adopt me, I'm gonna be put down.
Tina: Oh, well
John: yeah, this hold the dog. Like what? It's a lab. Like what? Oh, they're gonna fire me. Uh, so I had to come back and be a little more serious on it, obviously.
Video: Yes.
John: Uh, so, so, so I, you know, as a character voice actor, you should be able to create voices for things, right?
Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so you should have an infinite amount of voices. I mean, you know, you don't have to do that on, on character demo show off 10, show 15 maybe. I think I did. Maybe I, I've never counted 'em on my, you know, but I think maybe I did. I'm gonna say 12 voices maybe. Okay. Wow. On my character demo, maybe something like that.
Yeah. [00:11:00] Um. But you should be able to create a voice. Mm-hmm. Someone should show you something and go, Hey, here's the character I'm thinking about. Uh, what does this sound like? Mm-hmm. And, and I do that sometimes, like when I, when I work with someone and, and I have a, you know, I have copy that is, uh, character driven.
Mm-hmm. And like it's a couple different characters, and I'll tell them, here's how I see this character. The voice you come up with is all you.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: You know, I'll say this is like, there's this piece that we have where I go, you're the gatekeeper. You're the gatekeeper to like a Haiti sort of place.
Mm-hmm. Uh, this, this person guarding the gate is apathetic, doesn't care about you at all. You're human. They don't care about you, but they don't like you either. Mm-hmm. And so that's the character. Now you come up with the voice.
Tina: Okay. You
John: know what I mean? Yeah. So that, that's. And, and, and, and let me tell you, I've had people come up with so many, the, the, the different Yeah.
Ways that people, you know, everyone's different.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: So you'll have someone that will come up with that deep, you know. Mm-hmm. You know, I guard the gates, you know, they'll do that. Yeah. And then someone else is doing a [00:12:00] high pitched voice. Yeah. It's like so interesting on people's brains work and yeah.
None of 'em are wrong. It's how you, it's how you see that character, right? Mm-hmm. So, but as if you wanna become a character voice actor, you should be able to have that imagination.
Tina: Yes.
John: Right? How, how, who would, how would this person sound? So, but show off. Like I would say if you wanna do character demo show off like 12, I don't wanna use, you know, I would say you need to have at least eight, let's say that.
Okay. To do a good character demo, you should have at least eight voices.
Tina: Okay.
John: Um. And I'm not saying, you know, now someone who has six gonna be like, oh, I get 30.
Tina: Yeah, no, I don't.
John: You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, you know, I'm just saying eight's a good amount. Mm-hmm. To show that you have a good range of voices.
Yeah. If you have six voices, you could do one too. But you know, it's, uh, you know. It's less is, you know, we're dunking six voices and you can still do a demo. 'cause you could probably stretch it to a minute, do 10 seconds each voice. But that seems long for a character voice. Yeah. Once I hear it, I hear it.
You know, you don't have to read a full mm-hmm. 10 seconds. So I would say 10 voices is good. Now, if you do [00:13:00] three. You should incorporate into your regular demo.
Tina: Okay. That's what I was gonna ask
John: you. Yeah. Yeah. If you do like three character voices mm-hmm. You're not, there's no point in doing a,
Tina: a whole separate demo by itself?
John: No. Just incorporate into your regular demo.
Tina: Okay.
John: Yeah, just put into, because that, that shows you have some range
Tina: that you've got the, yeah,
John: Hey, I can do a character voice, but you know, you're not showing up. And by the way, even if you do do a bunch of character voices, but you're not quite ready yet to do a character demo.
I still encourage you to, to incorporate those into your demo.
Tina: That's what I try to do. We know it's, um, when I get, you know, students that will say, oh, you know, oh, I do a character voice. And they're like, alright, well let me hear it. Or when we're getting to that one class where we're picking out de um, scripts for their demo look for, look for a script that you feel matches your, your, that character.
You have that voice that you have. And then I also even tell him, I said, if not. Let me hear it. Tell me what that, about, that voice, and I'll write you a script, you know? Yeah. That's great to match with. It's great. Yeah. So,
John: yep. Absolutely. That's great. Yeah. So I, I do that for people too. [00:14:00] Um, sometimes I come up with a through line, you know, if they, if they wanna do characters, and I'll say, okay, what, what, what are these character, where are these characters?
What are they doing? Are they all together? Are we somewhere?
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, sometimes they're not, it just depends. Mm-hmm. But, um. Yeah. So that's cool. Yeah, if, if you wanna do character voices, I encourage it, but don't think you have to.
Tina: Yeah. That's
John: all.
Tina: You definitely don't have. I, like I said, I don't have any, no.
Let me ask you about accents, about like someone doing, you know, from Russia, from Ireland, from, what do you think?
John: Okay, so, uh, this is a tough subject and here's why. Um. Uh, so I used to say something that doesn't necessarily apply anymore, and here's what I used to say. An accent either has to be authentic or over the top.
It can't be in between. But these days that has changed a little because, and, and, and the reason why is not even the people who have the accent. Mm-hmm. [00:15:00] Like, I'll give you an example. They don't use Abu on the Simpsons anymore.
Tina: Oh, I did not know that
John: because it was. Someone putting on an over the top Indian accent.
Tina: Okay,
John: and you know who wasn't upset at all?
Tina: So
John: people from India.
Tina: Yeah.
John: They love the character. It was other people
Tina: Yeah.
John: Who were like, this is insulting.
Tina: Oh.
John: And so they ended up, not that they don't use the character anymore, so there's kind of like a weird thing going on. Yeah. I don't know. But, but listen, you can definitely get away with Russian.
I mm-hmm. You can get. Irish. Yeah. It was like what you get away with, no one cares. You know, you could be the, you could do this accent. No one cares. Uh, like, you know, lucky Charms, no one cares. That's an over the top Irish accent that is not realistic. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, so, 'cause my grandparents were from County Cork.
Mm-hmm. And you couldn't understand a word they said.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah.
John: They're like, I right here. Black Asty fire you. That's how they talk. Like they, they did not do that. Lucky charm. Call every got started. Yeah. You know, like, that's how they talk. [00:16:00] Like you're barely, I didn't understand a word they said till I was 12.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, um, but, um, so you can, yes, you can do accents. Mm-hmm. But tasteful, let's, how about, I'll use that. I'm gonna change what I said before too. You, you can do accents, but they have to be tasteful.
Tina: Okay. About that. Yeah. All right.
John: You know, uh, so that, that's where I would say, you know, I, I'm, you know, I, I feel like I'm so old, you know, we've been doing this for so long that I'm like one of those people that's like, I, I remember the old days when we can do any accent.
Tina: Yeah.
John: You know, but.
Tina: Time
John: changed.
Tina: Yeah. Times change and,
John: and so, uh, yeah. Lean on your voice coach for that. Let them say, Hey, maybe we don't do that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Because I, I will tell you, in the, in a long time ago, I heard so many voice actors mm-hmm. Doing, yeah.
Tina: Like
John: Indian accents mm-hmm. That were not Indian.
Tina: Yeah.
John: And they were over the top and, right. Mm-hmm. These, you probably couldn't put that on your demo now. No.
Tina: Yeah. Right. Yeah.
John: Times have changed and positive or negative, however you wanna look at it. Mm-hmm. They just have,
Tina: yeah, yeah. [00:17:00] No, and just ask us, you know, that's the, that's
John: the thing. Ask We'll, we'll let you know.
Hey, maybe not.
Tina: Yeah. Mean I'll, I'll, I'll be nice and say, why don't we work on it just a little bit and then, you know, take this copy and practice it.
John: Yeah. Yeah. Like I do, I, I do like a Russian accent on my character demo. Uh, and it's funny, I met someone who was Russian, came to my voiceover. I did a live presentation.
And so I played it. Yeah, I said had to, I said how authentic she goes. Not very authentic. Oh, I said, come on. She goes, no, no. I mean, not bad for a Quin.
Tina: Oh,
John: but not, not good.
Tina: Yeah, but not good. No, not good.
John: And if she's listening, she's like, he's doing it again.
Tina: Yep.
John: She's doing the accent again.
So, you know. Yeah. Uh, some people have thicker skin. They don't care. Yeah. She thought it was funny. Yeah. You know, uh, and the British, the British don't care. We, we do fake British accents all the time. All
Tina: the time.
John: Know I do one, one on my [00:18:00] demo and British people think it's hilarious. They're like, that is so stereotypical British accents.
And there's so many different British accents, by the way.
Tina: There is. Yeah.
John: So yeah, like, like America. Mm-hmm. It's like America. It is probably everywhere, you know? I bet there's like. I bet there's probably 20 different Russian accents, right?
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Yeah. 15 different Greek accents, probably different regions, you know?
That's how it goes. I know, I know. Uh, Spanish is like that.
Tina: Oh,
John: yeah. Yeah. That's definitely, and Don, not only that, and this again, just like that here, if you speak Spanish, there's different regions and they have slang that other people who speak Spanish have a hard time understanding. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Yeah.
John: So, 'cause I have friends, I have really close friends that are Dominican, but my wife's whole family is Costa Rican and they do not speak the same exact
Tina: Oh yeah.
John: Dialect.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah. That's
John: close. They're close actually. Mm-hmm. But yeah, but like Puerto Rico, definitely not. No, it's very different.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Yeah. So, um, yeah, I went to Costa Rica too.
Tina: Oh, wow. Look at that.
John: I keep saying we're gonna talk about, I think I said that last time. I, I went around the holidays. It was fun.
Tina: Oh, that's good.
John: [00:19:00] Yeah. I don't speak enough Spanish though. I've learned that.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Yeah. I, I, yeah, I have to, I have to. Definitely. I'm, I'm on a, I'm doing Duolingo all the time. Yeah. I dunno how much helps to be honest, but I'm doing my best. Oh
Tina: yeah. I can't, no characters, no language, no nothing. Just me, just my voice.
This is it. This is all you get.
John: Yeah. I act like I'm learning a lot. You know? I act like it, like, like, like it was my, uh, father-in-law's birthday. I, I, uh, you know, he, he, we conversed back and forth via WhatsApp and so I was like, Felice ano. He's like, you're learning. I'm like, well, look it up. I, not magic, no.
From Duolingo, but anyone can say Elise Anos. Everyone knows that's Happy Birthday. Uh, I
Tina: did not know that. So there you go. I know. It was like some type of ho I ki it sounded like a holiday, but I just said no, it was a birthday.
John: Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, but yeah. Alright. So yeah, no, anything else? Any, anything else about
Tina: that, that was the main, yeah, just people, I get a lot of people who, you know, they've got that in the back of their mind.
They wanna, how do I get [00:20:00] into that part of it, you know, the characters and animation. So I think we covered it.
John: Alright. Uh, alright, cool. So. What next? Nothing. All right. We're gonna play, we're we're gonna play
Tina: your, your character. You're
John: gonna play my
Tina: yes,
John: uh, character demo.
Video: Where you going? Mason? You know what we want? Hand it over.
Tina: And now all I can think about is revenge. No matter how long it takes, these
Video: men will pay with their lives. It'll be a long. Road, but you
Tina: are the chosen one. Respect the decision of the gods.
Video: You will die at the hands of Mort Ma.
John: This is the KGB. There are no mistakes.
Video: Anime position located black hawks on the way.
John: Game death [00:21:00] match. Get the medic, come ahead. You'll take the order and do what you're told. Alright, boys into the truck and let's show. How we do things cover me. I'm reloading. Oh, please man, I didn't see anything.
You don't have to do this. Oh, no.
Video: Oh yeah. There she is. Just like I told you, but you lay one finger wrong me. And she goes, Cabo, like a bottle rocket. On the 4th of July
ly. I would've never taken this case, but this dame was a knockout and now a bullet in my belly tells me I was nothing but an. Another janer.
John: I am the
Video: shopkeeper for upgrades, spells, and new weapons. You come to see me to revive you. Go to the end, hold the tanks in the front, and I want the artillery on the other side.
Hold
John: the to access your names mainframe,
Video: type in your mission name, and press continue.
John: All right, so there you go. That was my [00:22:00] character demo. Hope you enjoyed it.
Tina: That was good.
John: You like it? Thank you. Yeah, I did. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, alright, cool. So, uh, hope you enjoyed that and you get an idea of what a, a character demo should sound like.
Mm-hmm. And, uh, there you go. So, uh, we're gonna take off. I'm John Gia voice coaches.com
Tina: and tina voice coaches.com.
John: And again, email us with any, anything that you need. Yes. Not anything I don't,
Tina: well, I know
John: plumbing or anything, but, you know, voice voiceover related. Yeah. But again, um. Webinar. Yes. Time for the webinar.
Use the code pod that is gets you 50% off. Go to the website voice coaches.com uh, and sign up for that if you wanna meet me. And you do. I know you do. You
Tina: do. You wanna meet me? You do wanna meet me
John: and you wanna read for me? You want to get some feedback, so do it. Okay. Alright. Thank you everybody. We out.
Tina asks John about character voices.
