I mentioned here the other day the panel we're going to be doing at Comic-Con about how to break into the field of cartoon voice work. I got a lot of messages from people who said they wish they could be there for it and is there any way they could get a video or even an audio of the panel. No, there isn't. But there's plenty of good, solid advice out there if you know where to look for it. As a general rule, listen to people who actually work. For instance, Dee Bradley Baker has set up this website full of tips and counseling. Dee (who'll be on our Cartoon Voices II panel on Sunday at Comic-Con) works all the time. So does Bob Bergen, who teaches on the side. This article tells you a number of things that his students learned in a recent class.
Bob is an example of someone who works a lot in V.O. and also teaches. There are others in this category like Gregg Berger and Bill Farmer and Brian Cummings and I think Charlie Adler is still teaching. There are others and they provide useful information for what it seems to me is a reasonable price. There are also V.O. classes and coaching available from folks who don't work very often…and some who have less paid hours at the microphone than some of their students. A few of them charge what does not seem to me like a reasonable price…and more annoying is this: If you have very little talent, a reputable tutor will say to you, "I'm sorry. Even if you spend a lot of money on lessons with me, you will never make much (if any) money in this business." The not-reputable tutor will say, "My God, you have so much potential! With a little seasoning and coaching, you could be getting all the jobs Rob Paulsen gets. All it will take is…uh, how much money did you say you had in the world?"
I am not saying everyone with little or no working experience is a crook. Some of them, I'm sure, are quite helpful and honest. But my observation is that almost everyone who is a crook is in the category of not working very much if at all. So notes of caution and skepticism about those folks are not unwarranted.