FREE Voice Over Tips & Insights – From a 25+ year Pro
You Are Part of Someone Else's Hero's Journey. Act Like It.
Joseph Campbell spent his career identifying the universal pattern underlying every great story ever told across every culture in human history. Pixar knows it. Disney knows it. Every great video game writer knows it. And voice actors who understand it — who know exactly where their character lives inside that journey — don't just perform a character. They tell a STORY. Let's dig in.
If You Can Tell Me a Story Without Sound... Guess What I Guarantee You Can Do?
I say this in almost every class and workshop I teach. It comes directly from my puppetry background — and it stops actors cold every time: "If you can tell me a story without sound... guess what I guarantee you can do?" The answer changes everything about how you approach the mic.
The Suspension of Disbelief: Your Most Powerful Ally — and Your Most Tenuous One
Last week I re-watched WALL-E with my four-year-old. I cried three separate times. Over robots. That don't really speak. In a movie I've seen before. And I knew — the whole time — that I was watching computer animated images on a screen. So why was I weeping? And what does that have to do with your next voice acting audition?
The 12 Principles of Animation — And Why Every Voice Actor and Puppeteer Needs to Know Them
In 1981, two Disney animators named Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston published what has since been called the "Bible of Animation" — a book called The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. In it, they laid out 12 foundational principles that govern how great animation moves. Voice actors, they are NOT just for animators. Puppeteers, you need to take note too. Here's why — and what each principle means for the performance you bring to the mic and beyond.
So You Want to Play the Villain? Good. This Is the Most Fun You'll Ever Have Behind a Mic.
Let me tell you something about villains: they are the MOST fun you will ever have behind a microphone. The cackle. The monologue. The dramatic pause before the really terrible thing happens. All of it. But here's what separates a genuinely terrifying, memorable, bookable villain from a cartoon monster doing a funny voice — and it starts with a question most voice actors never think to ask.
What Toy Story Teaches Voice Actors About Adaptability
Toy Story 5 hits theaters this weekend — 30 years after the original changed animation forever. And it's the perfect moment to talk about the one skill that's carried voice actors through three decades of evolving animation technology. Hint: it's not a voice. It's adaptability.
It's Demo Month! (And Everything You Need to Know Before You Make Yours)
🎙️🎉 It's been DEMO MONTH here at Begle Booth Studios — and I could not be more proud of my actors. But before you get excited and start Googling "how to get a voice over demo," there are some things we need to talk about first. Because a demo is a tool, not a trophy. And like any tool, it only works if you know how to use it.