Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Bob Bergen Speaks: Part 1 & Part 2
The following is part 1 of an e-mail interview with legendary animation voice and voice over teacher Bob Bergen. Bob did half the the interview and emiled it to me before he ran off to a convention in Orlando. Now that he is back he has finished answering my questions. I have reprinted part 1 here and added part 2 at the end.
If you have already read part 1 (shown below in blue) you can skip down the page to part 2.
Not only is Bob the official voice of Porky Pig, he has voiced Luke Skywalker for a number of Star Wars animations, done the voices of Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird, voiced No-Face and the Frog in Miyazaki`s Spirited Away (along with a number of other Anime redubs) done Additional Voices in just about everything and has been teaching Voice Over seminars for over 18 years.
LL: Bob, first off, thank you for doing this interview and thank you for running in and doing the last half of the ASIFA State of the Animation Industry panel at Comic Con. You saved our butt on that one.
BB: You`re welcome!! I had a blast at Comic-con!! And I enjoy panel hopping. It allows me to keep my pigish figure!
LL: Let`s start with your background, how did you get into this crazy business and when did you know that this is what you want to do?
BB: I was 5 when I told my folks I wanted to be Porky Pig when I grew up. Not the kinda thing a Jewish mother wants to hear. My Dad moved the family to LA when I was 14, and I went through the Yellow Pages looking up anything and everything that said "cartoon" or "animation". I found Hanna Barbara`s number and talked to Ginny McSwain, who referred me to Daws Butler. I studied with Daws for years, along with anyone else who taught a voice-over class in LA. A week after high school I got my first agent, Don Pitts. That same week I booked my first cartoon, Spiderman and his Amazing Friends. I worked as a tour guide at Universal for about 5 years before I was able to make it fulltime as an actor.
LL: You have been teaching your Voice Over seminars for 18 years. That means, first off, that you like teaching. Secondly, it means that you have mentored a lot of people.
How did you get into teaching?
BB: I was doing a play in 1987. My bio in the program mentioned my voice-over background. A gentleman came up to me after one of the performances and told me he was opening an acting school, and wondered if I was interested in teaching an animation voice-over class. I told him no, but thanks for asking. A few weeks later I was contacted by SAG asking if I would teach a seminar for members. They paid nothing, so I decided to do it. I figured if I sucked I wouldn`t feel guilty about getting paid. I found I not only enjoyed it, I was good at it! So I taught for free at SAG Conservatory for about a year. I then contacted the guy from the acting school and offered my services as their animation VO instructor. I taught there for about a year before opening my private animation voice-over workshop. Not only do I teach here in LA, but I also travel the country teaching weekend animation voice-over seminars.
LL: What do you get out of teaching other people to be your competition?
BB: I never think of it that way. My philosophy is if you are right for the job you`re going to get it, no matter who the competition is. This business is always looking for new talent. I take it as a compliment, and quite honestly get a thrill out of seeing a former student make it in the business.
LL: Who are your successful former students?
BB: OY, it`s 3:30 am, and I`m about to leave for a fan convention. My mind isn`t working on full caffein capacity yet, but here`s a short list off the top of my sleepy head:
Quinton Flynn, who does lots of cartoons including Johnny Quest,
His brother Bart [Flynn] who does the promos for Jeopardy! (good talent genes in the Flynn family)
Michael Reisz.
I know there are oodles more but just can`t think right now. I`ll get back to you when I get back on this one.
LL: Who were your mentors in the business?
BB: Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, June Foray, Frank Welker, Dom Messick, Paul Winchell, etc.
LL: One of the things that stayed with me from your appearance on the ASIFA panel at Comic Con is a statement you made about animation voice acting not just being funny voices, it was finding the character and acting in that funny voice. I knew I butchered the paraphrase so why don`t you restate and then explain/expand this idea a little more?
BB: It`s not about how many voices you can do, but rather how good an actor you are with the voices you have. In this business they are looking for actors first and funny voice people second. This means if you do 5000 voices but can`t act the odds are against you. But if you are a solidly trained actor, you stand a better chance of making it.
LL: I have been out to your web-site as of late. I noticed that you talk or write about your 3-step process for creating and sustaining a voice characterization. If it would not give away the secrets of your seminars could you talk a little about that process and where you came up with it?
BB: I came up with this from experience. It`s a combination of the classes and workshops I took, various directors I`ve worked with, and my own take on creating characters. The 3 things that make up a good character are:
1) The Voice
2) Your acting
3) A signature, which is that lil something "extra" that you the actor bring to the character that makes it memorable and gives it the essennce of it`s personality. It can be a catch phrase, an accent or dialect, phrasing or a specific speech pattern, impressions, etc. It`s Porky`s stutter, Homer Simpson`s "D`oh!!", Snagglepuss` "Exit, stage left!!", etc. It`s the "it" factor when it comes to cartoons and auditioning for cartoons. It`s why one actor gets the job over the other 500 who didn`t. It`s taking risks, not being safe. And it`s often hard to define.
LL: As a fellow teacher I know the secret that all teachers know and no one else will ever believe, mainly, that the teacher gets more out of the lesson than the student does. I think that is mainly because we don`t really know what we know until we organize it so that we can teach it to someone else.
Do you find any truth to this statement or am I just full of it?
If there is any truth to this statement, do you have any examples of this from your 18 years as a teacher?
BB: Absolutely!!! I learn from my students all the time. When I`m auditioning or working I`m too busy in my own process to be able to self direct the way I can with my students. I`ll often times give a student direction or an idea to play with, then write it down for my own future auditions. I also encourage all students to pay attention to their fellow classmates while they are at the mic. Don`t lose out on an opportunity to take the ideas they are throwing out in the booth, or the direction they are being given by the teacher!
LL: The question that everybody outside the business always want to know, how to you break in? How much does networking have to do with it? What are the best places to network? And how should you act in the presence of professionals and heroes?
BB: It`s all about who you know. But you`d better be ready for the opportunity when you`re asked to show your wares. This means don`t pursue til you are ready! In voice-over you get one shot per listener. Make it count!!!! And keep in mind that your "heros" are just regular folks who are fortunate and talented enough to be able to make a living at what they do. I don`t know of any VO actor who doesn`t love to take the time to talk to fans. They paid for our houses!!! Just be courteous, and don`t ask them to do funny voices in the men`s/ladie`s room !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As for networking, classes, cons, etc. I also have a monthly happy hour I put together for anyone in or interested in the world of voice-over. I call it VOX on the Rocks. The info is on my website. If you live in LA come join the fun!! We get everyone from actors, to students, casting directors, agents, studio engineers, etc. It`s more of a social thing than a blatant networking thing. But it`s a great way to meet really cool people within the business.
OK-that`s all for now. More to come!!
;-),
BB
END PART ONE:
Part 2:
LL: You have a very exciting event coming up this February. You are taking your voice acting seminar to the high seas in the form of a cruise and seminar to Ensenada. I know that you picked up a lot of bookings at Comic
Con.
Do you still have some cabins available?
What is the cost?
What in the agenda?
Here is your chance to go completely commercial and tell everybody about this event.
BB: Thanks for the opportunity to talk about this. The cruise is an idea I've had for quite some time. It's a 3 day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. While at sea I'll be teaching my animation voice-over seminar.
This is the same weekend seminar I teach around the country, only this one has a 24 hour buffett! ;-) Everyone will work on mic with real animation audition copy. They'll also leave with information on agents, casting directors, demo producers, etc., from all over the country.
Included in the weekend will be a 2 hour Business of the Business seminar.Q&A. My goal is that everyone leaves this excursion knowing all they need to know about the world of voice-over, though the on mic work will be exclusively animation and character.
The first night on board we will have a meet and greet cocktail party. Sort of like VOX on the Rocks (see above).
The next day we port in Mexico.
That night I'll be performing my one man show "Bob Bergen: Not Just Another Pretty Voice" which ran for 3 months here in LA, and was also adapted as an opening act for Kenny Rogers' concert tour.
So you can see this will be a very full weekend.
As for the costs, people should refer to my website bobbergen.com as the costs vary depending on cabin size. However, I do know that cabins are cheaper if you share a room!! There is an additional cost of $200.00 per person to participate in my workshops and VO related activities.
This is at a discounted price from my regular weekend seminars, which run about $400.00 per person. FYI-my goal is to do a longer, more exotic cruise in the future. Included in that cruise would be voice-over seminars and workshops taught by a variety of voice-over professionals, including agents from all over the country, casting directors, demo producers, commercial voice-over instructors, anime, ADR, etc. This, again, is my goal. If my animation cruise in February is a hit, I'll then start putting together the BIG voice-over cruise.
Cabins are still available for the February cruise, but the cruise line has a cuttoff date. I don't know what that date is as of right now. You can get info about the cruise on my website or call Georege Aballi at Connection to Cruise at (888) 798-9133.
LL: What is in the future for Bob Bergen? What projects (that you can talk about) are you working on now?
How about public appearances? Anything coming up there? And personal projects, are you working on something of your own? Do you want to directed?
BB: I'm working on 2 series right now, Curious George and The Emperor's New School. I have lots of commercials on the air, and several CD Roms including voicing Luke Skywalker in LucasArts latest Star Wars games.
I have a book I'm in the process of researching, as well as original projects I'm hoping to develop both animated and non animated. As for directing, I'm dying to voice direct!!!!!! I've been teaching for 18 years and voice directing would be a great next level to my career.
LL: What about all the stars getting voice parts? What are your thoughts on this trend?
BB: This is not a new phenominon. Disney has used celebs to voice their cartoons forever. In the early films many of the celebs were from radio. The reason it feels like this is a new trend is because there is much more animated product out there today then there use to be. What with animated features, straight to video, Cartoon Network, etc., there's never been more animation products available to consumers. That said, I think that at times a "personality" adds to the character. But I don't think that "celebrity" brings in box office. Toy Story is a perfect example of celebrities whose personalities brought the characters to life, and gave the animators so much to work with.
Then there's a film like Sinbad, where no matter what kind of a star he is Brad Pitt's celebrity wasn't enough. There are many brilliantly trained animation actors who only get a chance to play supporting characters or record temp tracks because studios want names to voice the leads. The bottom line is, it's always about script, story, and character. There isn't a Julia Roberts or Tom Crusie in Hollywood who can use their celebrity to make a bad animated script/story good.
LL: A lot of Voice Over people also act or do stand up. Is that something you do or would want to do?
BB: I host. I love hosting. I hosted a kid's version of Jeopardy! a few years back called Jep! for Gameshow Network. Back in the 80s I did a lot of sitcoms and soap work. Then my VO career took off. I`d love to do more theatrical work.
LL: Anything you want to say to the ASIFA-Hollywood audience while we have them here?
BB: Follow your dream and enjoy the journey!!! Because the journey never ends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have fun!!!!!!!!!
LL: Thank you so much for being part of this interview and good luck with you Voice Cruise.
BB: Thanks!! Come take the cruise, folks!! I promise a good ol time!! Eh-thuh-the-eh-thuh-the-eh-thuh-that's all folks!! bobbergen.com
¶ 5:12 AM
The following is part 1 of an e-mail interview with legendary animation voice and voice over teacher Bob Bergen. Bob did half the the interview and emiled it to me before he ran off to a convention in Orlando. Now that he is back he has finished answering my questions. I have reprinted part 1 here and added part 2 at the end.
If you have already read part 1 (shown below in blue) you can skip down the page to part 2.
Not only is Bob the official voice of Porky Pig, he has voiced Luke Skywalker for a number of Star Wars animations, done the voices of Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird, voiced No-Face and the Frog in Miyazaki`s Spirited Away (along with a number of other Anime redubs) done Additional Voices in just about everything and has been teaching Voice Over seminars for over 18 years.
LL: Bob, first off, thank you for doing this interview and thank you for running in and doing the last half of the ASIFA State of the Animation Industry panel at Comic Con. You saved our butt on that one.
BB: You`re welcome!! I had a blast at Comic-con!! And I enjoy panel hopping. It allows me to keep my pigish figure!
LL: Let`s start with your background, how did you get into this crazy business and when did you know that this is what you want to do?
BB: I was 5 when I told my folks I wanted to be Porky Pig when I grew up. Not the kinda thing a Jewish mother wants to hear. My Dad moved the family to LA when I was 14, and I went through the Yellow Pages looking up anything and everything that said "cartoon" or "animation". I found Hanna Barbara`s number and talked to Ginny McSwain, who referred me to Daws Butler. I studied with Daws for years, along with anyone else who taught a voice-over class in LA. A week after high school I got my first agent, Don Pitts. That same week I booked my first cartoon, Spiderman and his Amazing Friends. I worked as a tour guide at Universal for about 5 years before I was able to make it fulltime as an actor.
LL: You have been teaching your Voice Over seminars for 18 years. That means, first off, that you like teaching. Secondly, it means that you have mentored a lot of people.
How did you get into teaching?
BB: I was doing a play in 1987. My bio in the program mentioned my voice-over background. A gentleman came up to me after one of the performances and told me he was opening an acting school, and wondered if I was interested in teaching an animation voice-over class. I told him no, but thanks for asking. A few weeks later I was contacted by SAG asking if I would teach a seminar for members. They paid nothing, so I decided to do it. I figured if I sucked I wouldn`t feel guilty about getting paid. I found I not only enjoyed it, I was good at it! So I taught for free at SAG Conservatory for about a year. I then contacted the guy from the acting school and offered my services as their animation VO instructor. I taught there for about a year before opening my private animation voice-over workshop. Not only do I teach here in LA, but I also travel the country teaching weekend animation voice-over seminars.
LL: What do you get out of teaching other people to be your competition?
BB: I never think of it that way. My philosophy is if you are right for the job you`re going to get it, no matter who the competition is. This business is always looking for new talent. I take it as a compliment, and quite honestly get a thrill out of seeing a former student make it in the business.
LL: Who are your successful former students?
BB: OY, it`s 3:30 am, and I`m about to leave for a fan convention. My mind isn`t working on full caffein capacity yet, but here`s a short list off the top of my sleepy head:
Quinton Flynn, who does lots of cartoons including Johnny Quest,
His brother Bart [Flynn] who does the promos for Jeopardy! (good talent genes in the Flynn family)
Michael Reisz.
I know there are oodles more but just can`t think right now. I`ll get back to you when I get back on this one.
LL: Who were your mentors in the business?
BB: Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, June Foray, Frank Welker, Dom Messick, Paul Winchell, etc.
LL: One of the things that stayed with me from your appearance on the ASIFA panel at Comic Con is a statement you made about animation voice acting not just being funny voices, it was finding the character and acting in that funny voice. I knew I butchered the paraphrase so why don`t you restate and then explain/expand this idea a little more?
BB: It`s not about how many voices you can do, but rather how good an actor you are with the voices you have. In this business they are looking for actors first and funny voice people second. This means if you do 5000 voices but can`t act the odds are against you. But if you are a solidly trained actor, you stand a better chance of making it.
LL: I have been out to your web-site as of late. I noticed that you talk or write about your 3-step process for creating and sustaining a voice characterization. If it would not give away the secrets of your seminars could you talk a little about that process and where you came up with it?
BB: I came up with this from experience. It`s a combination of the classes and workshops I took, various directors I`ve worked with, and my own take on creating characters. The 3 things that make up a good character are:
1) The Voice
2) Your acting
3) A signature, which is that lil something "extra" that you the actor bring to the character that makes it memorable and gives it the essennce of it`s personality. It can be a catch phrase, an accent or dialect, phrasing or a specific speech pattern, impressions, etc. It`s Porky`s stutter, Homer Simpson`s "D`oh!!", Snagglepuss` "Exit, stage left!!", etc. It`s the "it" factor when it comes to cartoons and auditioning for cartoons. It`s why one actor gets the job over the other 500 who didn`t. It`s taking risks, not being safe. And it`s often hard to define.
LL: As a fellow teacher I know the secret that all teachers know and no one else will ever believe, mainly, that the teacher gets more out of the lesson than the student does. I think that is mainly because we don`t really know what we know until we organize it so that we can teach it to someone else.
Do you find any truth to this statement or am I just full of it?
If there is any truth to this statement, do you have any examples of this from your 18 years as a teacher?
BB: Absolutely!!! I learn from my students all the time. When I`m auditioning or working I`m too busy in my own process to be able to self direct the way I can with my students. I`ll often times give a student direction or an idea to play with, then write it down for my own future auditions. I also encourage all students to pay attention to their fellow classmates while they are at the mic. Don`t lose out on an opportunity to take the ideas they are throwing out in the booth, or the direction they are being given by the teacher!
LL: The question that everybody outside the business always want to know, how to you break in? How much does networking have to do with it? What are the best places to network? And how should you act in the presence of professionals and heroes?
BB: It`s all about who you know. But you`d better be ready for the opportunity when you`re asked to show your wares. This means don`t pursue til you are ready! In voice-over you get one shot per listener. Make it count!!!! And keep in mind that your "heros" are just regular folks who are fortunate and talented enough to be able to make a living at what they do. I don`t know of any VO actor who doesn`t love to take the time to talk to fans. They paid for our houses!!! Just be courteous, and don`t ask them to do funny voices in the men`s/ladie`s room !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As for networking, classes, cons, etc. I also have a monthly happy hour I put together for anyone in or interested in the world of voice-over. I call it VOX on the Rocks. The info is on my website. If you live in LA come join the fun!! We get everyone from actors, to students, casting directors, agents, studio engineers, etc. It`s more of a social thing than a blatant networking thing. But it`s a great way to meet really cool people within the business.
OK-that`s all for now. More to come!!
;-),
BB
END PART ONE:
Part 2:
LL: You have a very exciting event coming up this February. You are taking your voice acting seminar to the high seas in the form of a cruise and seminar to Ensenada. I know that you picked up a lot of bookings at Comic
Con.
Do you still have some cabins available?
What is the cost?
What in the agenda?
Here is your chance to go completely commercial and tell everybody about this event.
BB: Thanks for the opportunity to talk about this. The cruise is an idea I've had for quite some time. It's a 3 day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. While at sea I'll be teaching my animation voice-over seminar.
This is the same weekend seminar I teach around the country, only this one has a 24 hour buffett! ;-) Everyone will work on mic with real animation audition copy. They'll also leave with information on agents, casting directors, demo producers, etc., from all over the country.
Included in the weekend will be a 2 hour Business of the Business seminar.Q&A. My goal is that everyone leaves this excursion knowing all they need to know about the world of voice-over, though the on mic work will be exclusively animation and character.
The first night on board we will have a meet and greet cocktail party. Sort of like VOX on the Rocks (see above).
The next day we port in Mexico.
That night I'll be performing my one man show "Bob Bergen: Not Just Another Pretty Voice" which ran for 3 months here in LA, and was also adapted as an opening act for Kenny Rogers' concert tour.
So you can see this will be a very full weekend.
As for the costs, people should refer to my website bobbergen.com as the costs vary depending on cabin size. However, I do know that cabins are cheaper if you share a room!! There is an additional cost of $200.00 per person to participate in my workshops and VO related activities.
This is at a discounted price from my regular weekend seminars, which run about $400.00 per person. FYI-my goal is to do a longer, more exotic cruise in the future. Included in that cruise would be voice-over seminars and workshops taught by a variety of voice-over professionals, including agents from all over the country, casting directors, demo producers, commercial voice-over instructors, anime, ADR, etc. This, again, is my goal. If my animation cruise in February is a hit, I'll then start putting together the BIG voice-over cruise.
Cabins are still available for the February cruise, but the cruise line has a cuttoff date. I don't know what that date is as of right now. You can get info about the cruise on my website or call Georege Aballi at Connection to Cruise at (888) 798-9133.
LL: What is in the future for Bob Bergen? What projects (that you can talk about) are you working on now?
How about public appearances? Anything coming up there? And personal projects, are you working on something of your own? Do you want to directed?
BB: I'm working on 2 series right now, Curious George and The Emperor's New School. I have lots of commercials on the air, and several CD Roms including voicing Luke Skywalker in LucasArts latest Star Wars games.
I have a book I'm in the process of researching, as well as original projects I'm hoping to develop both animated and non animated. As for directing, I'm dying to voice direct!!!!!! I've been teaching for 18 years and voice directing would be a great next level to my career.
LL: What about all the stars getting voice parts? What are your thoughts on this trend?
BB: This is not a new phenominon. Disney has used celebs to voice their cartoons forever. In the early films many of the celebs were from radio. The reason it feels like this is a new trend is because there is much more animated product out there today then there use to be. What with animated features, straight to video, Cartoon Network, etc., there's never been more animation products available to consumers. That said, I think that at times a "personality" adds to the character. But I don't think that "celebrity" brings in box office. Toy Story is a perfect example of celebrities whose personalities brought the characters to life, and gave the animators so much to work with.
Then there's a film like Sinbad, where no matter what kind of a star he is Brad Pitt's celebrity wasn't enough. There are many brilliantly trained animation actors who only get a chance to play supporting characters or record temp tracks because studios want names to voice the leads. The bottom line is, it's always about script, story, and character. There isn't a Julia Roberts or Tom Crusie in Hollywood who can use their celebrity to make a bad animated script/story good.
LL: A lot of Voice Over people also act or do stand up. Is that something you do or would want to do?
BB: I host. I love hosting. I hosted a kid's version of Jeopardy! a few years back called Jep! for Gameshow Network. Back in the 80s I did a lot of sitcoms and soap work. Then my VO career took off. I`d love to do more theatrical work.
LL: Anything you want to say to the ASIFA-Hollywood audience while we have them here?
BB: Follow your dream and enjoy the journey!!! Because the journey never ends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have fun!!!!!!!!!
LL: Thank you so much for being part of this interview and good luck with you Voice Cruise.
BB: Thanks!! Come take the cruise, folks!! I promise a good ol time!! Eh-thuh-the-eh-thuh-the-eh-thuh-that's all folks!! bobbergen.com
¶ 5:12 AM
