Saturday Smackdown: Most Difficult Character?
Hello all,
This week's question is: Which of your characters was the most difficult to learn or perform?
For myself, it's gotta be Christopher Walken. These days I do a Walken impression on a regular basis in Improv performances, but learning him was tricky and took quite a while to get there. Between the cadence, accent, and random punctuation, it was a challange! Add to that the personality, and he's definitely one of the most difficult characters I've learned.
So, what's your most difficult?
Chime in!
Joe J Thomas
JoeActor.com
This week's question is: Which of your characters was the most difficult to learn or perform?
For myself, it's gotta be Christopher Walken. These days I do a Walken impression on a regular basis in Improv performances, but learning him was tricky and took quite a while to get there. Between the cadence, accent, and random punctuation, it was a challange! Add to that the personality, and he's definitely one of the most difficult characters I've learned.
So, what's your most difficult?
Chime in!
Joe J Thomas
JoeActor.com
Tags: characters, difficult, vo
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Drewsean Williams on -
well i think my redd foxx impersonation is my toughest one. his walk was unique because redd was bowlegged.
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Permalink Reply by Joe J Thomas on
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Heh heh! Yeah, bowlegged is a tough voice call!
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Permalink Reply by J S Gilbert on -
Well, I personally think there's a big difference between an impersonation and a character. Impersonations have accounted for less than 5% of the paid work I have received doing characters for commercials or games, despite my being recognized and employed fairly frequently as an Arnold Impersonator. (My voice was actually used and fooled one of the governors speech writers. When I performed standup I found myself constantly working to develop dead on impersonations, but not so much anymore.
When I think of "character" these days, I think of a full person, voice, mannerisms, back story, etc. that I can pull out of my pocket when an audition may call for it. Currently, the two that I am working on are the warm and beleivable grandfather, which works so well for commercials that include retirement homes, investments, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and so forth. I model the grandfathers after some fairly well known older gentlemen, including Walter Bremley, Morgan Freeman, an older Johnny Carson, etc.
The other "character" that I find myself working on, but having a little more difficulty with is the younger, often irreverant voice of so many things these days. Modeled on personalities that include Keanu Reeves, a young David Spade or young Dennis Leary, Keifer Southerland, Dennis Miller and so on. I find myself making excuses to hang out with friends that have late teen to mid 20's kids at home, so I can listen to them for speech patterns, cadence and so forth.
If anybody has any tricks for working on and practicing those 20 something voices, I would love to hear some.
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Yeah, I see your point about characters vs. impersonations (vs. impressions?).
I tend to put impressions/impersonations as a subset of characters.
(aren't we all characters?)
I can't quite get the grandfather tone yet. I'm doing good to hit a caring father kind of voice. More work needed on both of these for me...
For the 20 something voices, I tend to go with a more "head" voice, less "chest". Many times I'll use a higher register, but with a bit of attitude.
Hey, I'm a "Happening" dude ;-)
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Permalink Reply by Big Ed on -
Yeah, I was about to say the same. I teach all my future VO Actors that Heady gives you highs and chest give you lows. I also tell them to close their eyes and put themselves mentally right in the middle of a conversation with whomever you are targeting. But, that goes without saying. I will sometimes hang out with those I am trying to mimic...little kids...grown adults...whoever
Big Ed
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Cooke on -
I've found that a trick to sounding younger is in mimicking the way some words are newly pronounced. Language evolves and actually it evolves very quickly. I have noticed that young people tend to emphasize the "dent" in a word like student. They'll say Stew-Dent. Where as older folks like myself for years have run the dent together almost throwing it away. Like Stewdnt.
While this seems insignificant, these tiny changes are the telltale signs that we are the age we are.
Remember those wonderful Rex Allen reads for nature shows when he'd say, talk about a little Racoon going through a campsite...
"Why just look at this little fellow ... he has his mind made up that this campsite is his"
He starts with the word "why" Nobody does that anymore...if you hear it it sells older. Vintage.
Say the Why word leading with an H sound and you sound even older still!
Words like White, Whale, leading with the H give away age. Like Bing in White Christmas.
Almost as though the w and H are reversed.
Hwite Christmas and Blue Hwale!
There are other little signals too. Good on you for hanging with todays youth to learn the new ways.
I resist speaking the way kids do, unless of course I'm getting paid for it....then all my judgments go out the window!
Kevin Cooke
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... good points. So "youth" is just another character/dialect in a way.
Still, hard to erase all signs of age ;-)
Joe
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Permalink Reply by Big Ed on
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I would say the one that is most difficult, right now, for me is John Facenda. He has a mixture of Grit and Command in his voice that just inbued Football. Usuing facial cues seems to be the trick for me but, getting his baritone low end gives me fits. Even with audio in its, now primitive after thought, he still had a certain Stereo sound. So, I shall press on. I don't have as much natural bass in my voice so, hopefully a little electronic assistance will cover me. So, I shall press on. I am a fan of his VO and really want to add him to my characters out of admiration for his work.
Big Ed
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Permalink Reply by J S Gilbert on
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The Raiders Autumn Wind is one of my favorite v.o.'s of all time. I would think that someone who could get the timbre and delviery of Facenda, but still be able to keep it their own would do very well for all manner of narration and announcer reads.
If I had to guess, his mindest must have been one of constant respect and reverence for his subjects and in general for the words he said.
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Permalink Reply by J S Gilbert on
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And as an aside, I'm a little afraid of "hanging out" with little kids and teenagers to try and get their voices down. That's a great way to get slapped with a restraining order, or worse.
I can see it now, one of the enterprising vo gurus is probably going to jump all over this and come up with "52 kids, teenagers and young adult voices smuggled out ofthe Hollywood playgrounds."
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Permalink Reply by Big Ed on
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LOL...that is a crazy headline...since I don't hang out with them...I stick to hearing them at Church....there are a couple of teenagers who are always taking during church...most people tell them to be quiet but, I never do. I wanna listen to their conversation
Big Ed
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Permalink Reply by DC Goode on -
Well Joe now you've gone and done it '-) I'm gonna try REALLY hard to stick to your question.
I like the thread and how all the contributors (thus far) have differentiated Characters versus Impersonations, etc. It's really all character work when ya get right down to it.
My toughest character these days is the GEN X or GEN Y sound that JS was talking about. It is SO invogue and for me, I fight to keep the "Valley Guy" out of it....ESPECIALLY since I was born in the valley!
The other character that is the toughest is just being me. What a "character" that clown is!
On the impersonation front: I discovered that I am better at impersonating an impersonator. IE I can do Frank Caliando doing John Madden or Billy Crystal doing Fernando Llamas
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