The First 3 Things to Do If You Want to Do VO (Spoiler: None of Them Are Buying a Mic)
Every week, somebody asks me some version of: "Where do I even start with voice acting?"
I have an answer. The same answer, every time. And I'm going to give it to you in order — because the order genuinely matters.
Number 1: Take an acting class.
Number 2: Take ANOTHER acting class. Preferably with a different teacher. Preferably in a different technique.
(Oh — you didn't know there were different acting techniques? That's exactly why you need the class. 😏)
Number 3: Improv.
Notice what's NOT on this list. No mention of a microphone. No mention of a home studio. No mention of demos or auditions or agents. Those things matter — eventually. But they are not where this craft begins.
This craft begins with acting. Today, let's talk about that third one — improv — because it might be the most underrated tool in your entire toolkit.
Why Improv Matters for Voice Actors
Here's a myth I want to dismantle right away:
Many actors believe spontaneity only happens on the FIRST read. That once you've done a take or two, the discovery is gone — you're just repeating what you already found.
I'm telling you that's not true. Every single read can be exciting — if you're playing in your imagination.
The work of an actor is to DISCOVER your thoughts, not just plan them and execute the plan over and over. A truly alive read grows and expands every single time you do it — even the fifteenth time, even the take you've done a hundred times before for a client revision.
Improv is the tool that keeps you there. It trains the part of your brain that discovers instead of recites. And once you've built that muscle, it shows up in EVERY read — scripted or not.
Four Ways Improv Transforms Your Voice Acting
1. PLAY — and Use All of Your Senses
Every script takes place somewhere. You are not actually sitting in a closet or a home studio, no matter where your microphone physically lives.
You're in a bakery, smelling fresh bread. You're holding a warm cup of coffee right under your nose. You're standing on a busy street corner with traffic noise and the specific energy of a Tuesday afternoon.
Most voice acting classes spend their time hitting words and finding the conversational read. Important work — but not immersive enough on its own.
Find your who, what, where — use your technical tools — but leave genuine room for curious discovery. Keep the text spontaneous by giving your imagination somewhere real to live while you say it.
2. LET GO of Over-Preparing Your "Motivation"
Here's a trap a lot of trained actors fall into: over-intellectualizing the motivation text until every choice is locked, planned, and rehearsed into stiffness.
You are a creative artist. See yourself as that — not as someone simply producing a relaxed vocal tone.
Instead, discover something IN the text. Surprise yourself. That element of surprise is exactly what convinces an audience this text has become your own thoughts, feelings, and memories — which is, ultimately, your entire goal as a voice actor.
Plan less. Discover more.
3. SEE Who You're Speaking To
We've talked about this elsewhere on the blog, and it bears repeating here in the context of improv specifically:
See the mic as someone you love.
This single shift gives you the right volume and genuine intimacy automatically — without you having to manufacture either one technically. Say the name of someone you love out loud before you begin a read. See their eyes in your mind.
Personalized intimacy is the goal. Discover your thoughts as you speak to someone you know completely, intimately, specifically. Then the listener gets invited into your thoughts AS you discover them — in real time, the way improv works at its absolute best.
4. WHAT Are You Doing?
Always — always — ask yourself this question.
What am I doing right now?
Because in life, you are always doing something. Even sitting still has an active intention behind it. Creating that sense of reality is essential across every genre — animation, narration, commercial VO, video game acting, promos, even medical narration.
It is ALL about the discovery of your thoughts in real time. Improv trains exactly that instinct.
Where Are You?
Let's go deeper on the sense work, because this is where improv genuinely transforms a performance.
As a voice actor, constantly ask yourself: Where am I?
You are never just a voice floating in a void. You are somewhere specific.
Are you in a cozy cafe with close friends? On a busy, chaotic street? At a dinner party, several glasses of wine in, telling an animated story to a captive table?
Then go further: What are my other senses doing?
What do I smell? What am I sitting on? What am I hearing in the background? How do I genuinely feel about this specific place I've put myself in?
Why This Changes Everything
Here's a practical example of why this matters so much:
If you're reading a mystery script and you imagine yourself comfortably in a cafe with friends... you will miss the tone of mystery and fear entirely. The read will sound pleasant. Wrong, but pleasant.
Now imagine instead: a dark, cluttered basement. An unknown animal rustling somewhere in the clutter, just out of sight. Suddenly your read transforms completely — without you ever consciously trying to "act scared."
Then ask one more question: Why am I here?
Are you telling a story someone specifically warned you not to tell? Are you whispering secrets you shouldn't know? The "why" adds yet another layer of specific, improvised reality to a performance that was just words on a page thirty seconds ago.
Play Is the Whole Job
Voice acting is not about hiding as a performer. It's about revealing more of what you're feeling and carrying inside — using every tool available to you, including the senses most actors forget they have access to behind a microphone.
Go so far beyond just how you sound.
Where are you when you're talking to us? What are you feeling? What are you doing — and smelling, and hearing, and touching — in the world you've built for yourself in that moment?
This is a whole new playing field. Far beyond technique. Far beyond "sounding good."
This is play. And play — genuine, curious, improvisational play — is where the best voice acting in this industry actually lives.
Start Here
If you're brand new to this industry and wondering where to begin — here it is, one more time, in order:
Take an acting class. Take another one, in a different technique. Learn improv.
THEN worry about microphones, demos, and auditions.
The craft comes first. It always has. It always will.
Ready to Build Your Foundation?
Acting fundamentals — including improv-based work — are exactly where I start with new coaching students, regardless of what genre they eventually pursue. If you're ready to build real craft from the ground up...
Nate Begle is a voice actor, audio producer, and performance coach at Begle Booth Studios with over 25 years in the voiceover industry.
