The Pat Fraley/Brad Garrett Comedy Class

Pat Fraley has an upcoming class in Los Angeles called ‘Crafting Comedy under the Stars.’ The stars the title refers to are “Everybody Loves Raymond” alum Brad Garrett, stand-up-comedian/voice-over artist Vanessa Marshall and, of course, the great Pat Fraley himself.

If you were at Voice 2010 this past June, you were treated to an early morning surprise visit from Brad during Mr. Fraley’s opening day comedy class. What seemed to be a loud heckler somewhere in the audience turned out to be one of the most recognizable faces-and voices-in comedy today. Audience members were invited to read scripts alongside Pat and Brad, with hilarious results!

Pat has created a promo piece for his upcoming workshop using photos and audio from the Voice 2010 session. I think it's worth your time to watch it. It’s the rare promo video that actually dares to teach you something, instead of only offering hyperbole. For instance, I like the insight of NOT playing drunk, but rather playing an intoxicated person struggling to appear sober. Brilliant! And that’s not the only tip you’ll glean from this short video. Take a look.



Great stuff! Interested in taking the class? Visit http://patfraley.com/Events/Crafting/CCUS.html

I wish I could be there. Take notes for me, huh?

Despicable Me (Celebrity Voice-acting with a Twist)

The hit film “Despicable Me” follows the trend of casting celebrities in animated features, but with a twist: the actors are doing character voices, rather than just lending their familiar pipes to a version of their on-screen personas.

Steve Carell headlines the villainous comedy as Gru, and he adds a very un-Steve Carell accent. Watch the clip below to see Steve in action and hear the results.



Jason Segel also stars in the film as a young, nerdy bad guy named Vector. In this interview from HitFix, Jason explains that the character designs came before he was cast, which influenced his approach to the voice of Vector.



“Despicable Me” has met with mostly favorable reviews, and done so well at the box-office ($195,373,890 as of this writing) that, according to imdb.com, we can expect a sequel by 2013.

Stephanie Ciccarelli Guest Blog

Dave Courvosier's blog just featured a great guest column from Voices.com's Stephanie Ciccarelli. It deals with understanding your brand, and how in these days of online social-networking, the face you show your friends and family is inevitably the same face you show your clients. Whether you mean to or not! Your best bet is to be careful about what you put out there, while being true to who you are.

Okay, that's the teaser. Click over to the Stephanie Ciccarelli Guest Blog for the full meal deal.

A Voice Over Historical Landmark - The Voicecaster Demo Wall

The days of reel-to-reel may be gone, but this wall-of-demos is worth preserving. Check out the star-studded collage at Voicecaster studios in Burbank, California. Great blog post from Some Audio Guy!

Go, Speed Racer, Go. Godspeed.

Peter Fernandez, the voice of Speed Racer, has passed away. He was 83 years old. Learn more about Peter's interesting career in radio, on broadway and in the military at Animation World Network.

Demo this advice

I'm not sure where I heard this advice recently, but it makes so much sense that I had to share it with you (in an illustration no less)!

What does this mean? It means that if you're doing audio book narration, and you want to do commercial work, you should include some commercial examples on your demo! Nobody is going to listen to your genre demo and think to themselves, 'this guy (or gal) should really be doing this other genre.' No one is going to discover you that way. You have to make them see you! Find a few scripts in the genres you want to tackle, and start recording. Good luck!

Will the real Donald Duck please stand up?

I was searching Twitter for other voice-actor "tweets" when I stumbled across a gentleman calling himself VActor4Disney. It caught my attention. As it turns out VActor4Disney is actually the page of an aspiring Disney voice-actor. Still intrigued, I gave one of his videos a looksee. You know what? He's good! Check out his impression of