If you ask most people to play word-association with the term “acting,” they’ll usually respond pretty quickly with the word “scripts.” Indeed, for the layman the two seem to go hand in hand. Obviously, most acted content, whether on-camera, theater, or voiceover is in fact scripted. After all, we’d be fairly lost without a story, right? However, what is often unnoticed by the average viewer, theatergoer, or listener, is just how many elements of a performance are driven by good improvisation skills.

The improv techniques actors bring to bear in their performances are often lost on the public because they seem so natural. A pause, as though in thought. A sigh, a chuckle, a conversational “well” or “but” added before a scripted line. Even a stammer or a stutter can be an extemporaneous improvisation that transforms an otherwise mechanical performance into something authentic and relatable. When done with skill and cleverness, improv is invisible.

Broadway producer and actor Rob Schiffmann has said that in improv, “The key is to use something that is a mystery to you, and then follow it. And let it reveal itself without too much concern for solving that mystery.” Robin Williams, perhaps the most skilled improv actor showbiz has seen, said, “You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

The question, of course, is where does one refine that little spark of madness?

Improv skills come naturally to many, but very few actors can improvise on an elite level without exercising their abilities in an environment designed to train and grow them. To many, the first name that comes to mind when we think of improv is The Groundlings.

The Groundlings are an LA-based improv and sketch comedy organization, and have been home to many legendary performers including Will Ferrell, Kathy Griffin, Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Phil LaMarr, Conan O’Brian, and Tyra Banks, among countless others.

With more than 2,000 students per year passing through their competitive, audition-based program, having The Groundlings on your resume as an actor is instant credibility in the eyes of many casting directors both for on-camera talent and voice actors.

Yet, other options exist as well. Well-known commercial actor, voice actor, and sought-after improv coach Scott Parkin has this to say about improv in general. “Improvisation is one of the most important tools in ANY actor’s toolbox because it supports, shapes, and can define an honest performance. As a voice actor defining and maintaining your character from start to finish is an important way to compete and stand out, and improvisation is the key to character definition and development.”

Scott continues, “On stage improv is a different animal but offers the easiest access to improv training. In voice over, generally speaking, the window to improvise on your audition is much narrower than on stage, but the skill sets are grounded in the same techniques. I would say find a fun local group in your own town …you don’t need The Groundlings or UCB to learn the basics.”

For actors of all stripes, it’s clear that being able to understand the principles of improv can be key to getting traction in the industry. Even if their skills are so strong that the audience never notices that they are improvising at all.

Voice acting can be a struggle. Training, investment, hours and hours of auditioning and marketing. It’s tough. Eventually, though, it can start to pay off. Before you know it, there you are, face-to-face with paying clients from major corporations who are looking to you to bring their message to the masses. It’s intimidating. Like a professional athlete, singer, or stage actor, the spotlight is on you, it’s your voiceover session. It’s time to perform.

And then….suddenly….you have marbles in your mouth. Lots of marbles. It’s practically a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. And the butterflies in your stomach are flying in formation like insectoid Blue Angels threatening to cause the marbles to depart your mouth in a most inglorious fashion. You’re sweating. They’re looking at you. You start your first read and halfway through…..word salad.

How you react in that moment will define your client’s impression of you. Will you catch your breath and seamlessly hit a pickup? Will you show your fear and apologize? Will you run screaming from the studio in utter panic?

As a coach, demo producer, and commercial producer I have directed a lot of talent. Over time, I have come to see a pattern among the ones who make it versus the ones who don’t. Surprisingly, it doesn’t have as much to do with actual ability and hustle, (both of which are, of course, very important,) as it does with confidence, or at least the ability to project it.

When you are hired and find yourself in a live-directed environment, more and more of which take place with an on-camera component these days as clients are increasingly moving to Zoom and other video platforms to conduct sessions, even if the audio is going through SourceConnect, you are in both an enviable and vulnerable position. Most live-directed sessions pay well. Typically at least close to a thousand dollars, and frequently many thousands. Looking at you are people who would sell their beloved puppy to earn several thousand dollars in thirty or sixty minutes. Most people don’t understand the life of a voice actor…they just see someone with a $5,000 an hour price tag who better be freaking amazing. You’re gonna get a solid payday from your session, but you are now in the dangerous position of providing a high-priced service that is extremely subjective and intangible when it comes to defining quality. You have to own your value.

In a session, WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES. We have good days and bad days. There are good directors and bad directors. There’s good writing and bad writing. You are GOING TO fumble words, slur something, have mouth noise that sounds like Churchill’s bulldog, and otherwise suck from time to time. It’s normal. We aren’t machines.

How you handle these hiccups, however, will often determine whether or not you get hired again by that client.

There are two kinds of voice actors. Those who look at the mic and say, “I hope this goes well,” and those who look at the mic and say, “Wait ’til they see what I can do.” In my experience, the latter find themselves booking far more often than the former.

With your clients, you always want to be respectful, courteous, customer-service-oriented, and professional. With the mic? You need SWAGGER! Blew a word? No worries. Take a beat and hit that pickup like the star you are. On take 10 of a three word script? Make a joke in a cartoon voice and then hit that next ABC like it’s fresh. Client over-direction driving you nuts? Smile, and dance monkey dance. It’s their time. But whatever you do, DO NOT apologize. Do not ask if, “that was okay?” Do not say, “This doesn’t usually happen.” And do not ever show uncertainty on your face.

It’s your job to make the client comfortable that you’ve got things under control, even if you’re panicking inside. Put on your poker face. Project confidence. You can ask a question if you are unsure about their direction, but ask it clearly and concisely and without hesitation. When you screw up, instead of saying, “I’m sorry,” you say, “I’ll take that from the top,” then hit it again. Be the pro, at all times, and the client will respect you and see your value. Show fear, and you lose your credibility.

It doesn’t always take a straight flush to win the hand. Sometimes it’s enough to make the rest of the table BELIEVE you’re holding the winning cards.

Twice in the past week, I’ve seen the power of bold, even edgy, performance choices on the part of voice actors validated by industry gatekeepers. In one case, a demo client who has a signature snark was signed by a sought-after agent who proactively reached out after hearing his demo that led with a two-bleep beer commercial as the first spot. In the second instance, Executive Producer Kelsea Seavey of Oberland in New York encouraged voice actors attending a GFTB webinar to take chances in their auditions and get her attention by being fun, edgy, and different.

As the pool of voice actors continues to grow, success may be defined by thinking outside the constraints of classic decorum and offering bold choices to stand out from the competition as someone who will likely be fun to work with.

Buyers and agents listen to dozens if not hundreds of auditions and reels daily. The terrible ones are dismissed out of hand, but once the 80% of non-viable submissions are culled, the remaining 20% are still vulnerable to very fatigued ears. In today’s marketplace, making vanilla choices can often be more dangerous than taking calculated risks.

Over the summer, I booked a fun campaign for a trendy credit union by dropping a full line ad-lib into the first take of my audition. The read was about the initial lockdowns in 2020, and the script went something along the lines of, “You probably did some stupid stuff during the lockdown, like filling your living room with toilet paper, or letting your cat run that Zoom meeting….” to which I added, deadpan, “Yeah, your ass is fired,” before continuing with the rest of the script. The ad lib got me hired, and they added a version of the line I created to the actual spot.

Now, this was not a 5 or 6-figure job, and I might have been more circumspect if it was….but perhaps not.

If there’s one thing my voiceover career has taught me, it’s that fortune favors the bold. Half of the battle is just showing up. The other half is making them remember you.

Of course, you always run the risk that you’ll land on the desk of the uptight individual who doesn’t appreciate South Park and American Dad-style humor. However, it’s not always about shock value. Sometimes being bold can mean going way off-spec on a B-take (or even an A-take if you’re feeling really frisky.) I booked a series of Boost Mobile national TV spots several months back by ignoring the spec on my B-take and giving a read I thought might fit better. They went for it. No edgy humor….just their copy in an unexpected manner.

Sometimes, these choices can best be deployed on unexpected content. I’ve booked countless E-Learning and Corporate Narration jobs by unexpectedly dropping an Easter egg into an otherwise bog-standard read. It can pay off if you are the ONE talent among a hundred who takes a shot.

That said, be careful, and trust your instincts. There are many places where ad-libbing or taking an odd approach with delivery style would be a poor or inappropriate choice. A spot about a deadly disease or missing kids is not the place to demonstrate how clever you are. And when it comes to demos, be aware of whom you submit them to. I can think of five or ten agents where a well-placed bleep could get you signed…..I can also think of five or ten who would mark you down for it. You should discuss this with your producer before considering going over the top with your demo. Making a more vanilla version of a spot for a specific audience should not entail a lot of extra expense.

In the end, however, today’s buyers are getting younger and younger. They have grown up with edgy takes on life to a degree that previous generations did not. Safe and vanilla are not the order of the day. Fortune….favors the bold.

Talent. It’s defined as, “A special, often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude.” This word frequently gets conflated with another word, ability, which is, “Possession of the means or skill to do something.” Cue the debate among creatives about whether the innate possession of talent or training is the key to success, or whether talent is simply a matter of skills acquisition.

In most cases, they work hand in hand. They are both important to success in any field, voice over being no exception. When searching for justifications for why someone is successful or not, it’s rarely a cut and dried matter of someone possessing inherent talent who utters one word in an audition and lands a career, or someone who could not string a sentence together without losing their listener simply working hard until they rose to the top of their game. Do both happen? Sure, but rarely.

Let’s talk about talent for a moment, and why it’s important to have some natural ability if you want to succeed in voiceover. Natural talent in voice acting is like an aspiring quarterback with an incredibly strong arm. Players like Jeff George and JaMarcus Russell demonstrate that talent alone is no guarantee of success, but there aren’t many guys who make it in the NFL as a QB who can’t put some heat on the ball.

I have to say that most of the people I’ve seen hit six figures plus in VO have a level of natural talent, (and no less important, well-rounded knowledge of the world,) that makes performing relatively easy for them compared to most. That isn’t to say that they don’t have to work at and refine their craft, but rather that they have the most potential for growth and success through training and development. The more talent at the start, the easier it is to acquire the skills needed to move farther in their career, faster.

It’s not that hard work doesn’t pay off. It can. I’ve seen talent I would define as mediocre, (and they might define me the same way, to be fair,) earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in VO by dedicating themselves to building a business that maximizes their more limited skill set. I have also seen others fail despite being world-beaters in terms of natural aptitude, for lack of hustle.

That said, I do think the message of “keep plugging away,” becomes harmful after a while……if you’re not seeing results several years in, that’s the market telling you something. It doesn’t mean your dream is over, but it’s a strong signal. Always remember to consider the source of advice to keep at it when you are in the red after years of effort or investment…..are they trying to sell you something?

There’s a culture of, “This thing takes ten years,” out there that strikes me as being driven by a sales-based agenda. It really doesn’t take that long for most people who are going to make it, (there will always be exceptions.)

Hard work and diligence are important, but be honest with yourself about your skillset, because fundamental talent does play a part, which is why musicians and actors and even some broadcasters often have an easier road in VO. And yes, you can keep plugging away and working hard, but if that effort is not paying off, you may be happier expending it elsewhere, and you may avoid throwing good money after bad.

A voiceover agent’s worth and rates are a very common discussion among voice actors. Whether it is a talent just starting out, or experienced professionals encountering a new type of project they’re being asked to quote that they’ve not done before, or others wanting to make sure that their quotes aren’t undercutting the market, it seems like this conversation is everywhere. But often we ask our colleagues, consult existing rate guides, and post in Facebook groups all while overlooking an excellent source of information on rates and how to negotiate them – your agents.  Agents are a great resource to help you when you are struggling to figure out how to charge for something. After all, that’s what they do – evaluate and negotiate rates. All day, all the time.

Walking a good job into an agency can often be a leg-up in getting representation if you aren’t already signed. And if you are already on their roster, bringing your agent work is a great way to stay top of mind and build rapport.  Also, it establishes a more collegial relationship based on trust between you and your agent. They don’t earn if you don’t earn, and the more motivated both of you are to bring in income, the better for the relationship.

Additionally, if talking rates with potential clients brings up all kinds of emotional blocks about bragging, or claiming your worth, an agent is the perfect representative to do that for you, and can often negotiate a higher rate than perhaps you would do for yourself, or find other ways to negotiate to better your position, (Shorter usage, no in-perpetuity, renewal options, etc).

HOWEVER…if you ask one of your existing agents for help with a rate, you have a duty to offer them the opportunity to handle that job for you out of respect for your relationship with them.

Furthermore, it is not right to expect your agents to give you rate advice for free. You are asking them to do their job for free when you ask for rate advice but don’t offer them the chance to negotiate on your behalf, and that’s no different than a client asking you to do a VO for free as a favor. So be sure that you respect their time and expertise and be willing to compensate them accordingly.

A good agency relationship can bring a whole new level of success to your business, well beyond the auditions they send your way. Don’t overlook opportunities to have talented negotiators on your side.