Accents and Impersonations
I tried to come up with a useful doc to help people expand their voice ability, but I failed miserably 
I can put on quite a few accents so thought it was a good start, but trying to write in phonetic voice proved much more difficult than I imagined, it started off ok, but then as I was going through them I realised that in order to write things they way they sound I was sometimes repeating word patterns that had previously sounded different in my head, so as I can’t write down 2 different sounds in the same way and have them still be effective I decided to turn to you – the experts.
Like I said I can mimic a fair few accents, Afrikaans is one of my strongest as I grew up there, my Irish is apparently quite good but non-regional unless you count hollywood, I can do some Oriental and Indian but not much, Russian and German but again not much, I tend to simply mimic phrases I’ve heard from people or watched on TV, so I guess most of my regional dialect would be classed as Hollywood really.
Impressions are less varied with me I do a very good Ralph Brown as Danny the drug dealer in Withnail and I, a passable Sean Connery and occasionally manage to nail a few others by pure chance only to have them fade out again when I re-try.
So anyway like I said over to you the experts, what accents or impersonations do you do? Have you always done them or did they take a lot of effort to learn? What advice do you have for people trying to improve their range?
There are quite a few videos you can watch online that help with this, but it’s often strangely easier to read phonetic script to learn how to do something than it is to just listen to someone doing it, in the beginning anyway, the only true way to really master an accent or impersonation is to immerse yourself in it as much as possible. I’m here looking for help for those taking the first steps so all comments welcome.
Ken Bruce
Stephen Fry
Peter Jones (Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – not Dragon’s Den).
Hello everyone!
When it comes to learning how to do a new accent or mimic of a famous voice, I have found that continuously practicing that voice, plays a very big part. From a young age I’d been mimicking teachers at primary school to impress my class (and a few certain girls
). What was great was that kids are brutally honest! If I nailed it the response was Great!….If it was bad they would tell me.
My method has always been the same, simple yet very effective! For example, when I wanted to learn how to portray a very real authentic Scottish accent, I would surround myself in everything Scottish. I would watch Brave heart, listen to Scottish Radio online, watch people like Duncan Bannatyne on TV and listen to how they pronounce their words, their inflections when speaking and flow. I would keep doing the voice over and over again, day after day until I was starting to hear it come together!
Then the next step which is one of my trade secrets…..I would get the stamp of approval from a bunch native Scottish speakers. I would simply call up a few local business’s based in Scotland, ask a few general questions and using my newly developed accent pick up any key words they use. Once the call would end I either leave them thinking I was another native or sometimes step back from the character and reveal my London accent and tell them I was practicing, what did they think? Most times if it was good they would tell me and be very surprised! Asking if I was the “Fonejacker” etc…No not I would reply
So in essence for me its a form of method acting where I become the accent and create a identity for this voice, and start to bring it to life.
This is going to sound typical of the Artsy lot, but in order for it to sound real you need to surprise yourself! You should have thoughts like “Wow was that me?” or “Holy Smokes did that come out of my mouth?”
To keep it sounding sharp and real, keep practicing! I find a good form of practice, is when recording from my studio, I read what ever script I have in front of me in a bunch of different accents. Partly to warm up and partly to help learn the script for it to sound natural.
I have many more tricks up my sleeve…but to find out more, you will need to buy my book!…just kidding
Drop me a message or email and I will be more then happy to help!
Best of Luck guys!
KPC
I spend time with earbuds and my iOS device listening to audiobooks narrated by those who I wish to mimic, or to soundbites of others (if they’ve not narrated an audiobook).
I then pick one from my list and (to the frustration of my family – not least when they phone, and I answer) spend days speaking with only that chosen voice – resisting, as much as possible, the temptation to revert to my natural voice/accent/sound.
It is this way I learned Ken Bruce-ish, Peter Jonesi-sh (not the one from Dragon’s Den), Stephen Fry-ish and many others.
Most are largely variations on my own natural speech (save the scots).
I almost never attempt cartoons or other popular animated voices – as they are often too much fun … even for me!
I am currently working on a voice not dissimilar to that of Sean Connery – a request from a client who’s been booking me for a while now.
Otherwise, just plain inimitable Uncle Karl!