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?
Writers and Voice Actors Are Dance Partners
The most important word in storytelling is feeling. My colleague Brandon Violette — animation screenwriter and host of The Story Series Podcast — reminded me of that recently. But here's what I want YOU to know: that equation doesn't stop at the page. It travels straight into the booth. Writers and voice actors are dance partners. And once you understand that... everything changes.
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.
Voice Acting Is NOT About Your Voice.
This is the first thing I say to every single person who starts working with me. Not "let's warm up your voice" or "let's talk about microphones." This: Voice acting is NOT about your voice. The room always goes quiet. Then I explain — and everything changes.