Agents & Demos
To get work as a voice actor, you must have an agent. Casting directors will not even consider you if you are not represented. (In the US, you can get a list of agent from AFTRA and SAG, the two actors' unions.) Equally important is that you really should live where the jobs are; in North America, this means Los Angeles, where most of the cartoon voice work is cast and recorded. Some actors such as David Kaye and Stephanie Morganstern are based in Canada, but they are exceptions. No one will hire you if you live in New Jersey or Texas, no matter how talented you are. When a casting call comes, you need to be there, sometimes within the hour.

In order to get a good agent, you need a great demo tape. Bob Bergen feels, "As far as the demo tape process goes, I don't believe in telling a story. Each segment should sound like it's a clip from a cartoon, where your character is involved and doing some kind of action. You should never repeat a voice on your demo tape. Each clip should have a totally different scene; perhaps one is jet fighter pilot, another a nerdy kid trying to ask a girl out, but scenes that contrast. You want to leave the listener asking for more. The average length of a demo tape is two-and-a-half minutes. I recommend one-and-a-half, because you are asking someone to take one-and-a-half minutes of their life for your life. And chances are you are one of 20 or 30 tapes they have to listen to that day."

Nancy Cartwright.

How To Audition
Auditioning is perhaps the most difficult part of an actor's life. You will be rejected most of the time, and will need to get used to this. You should learn to enjoy the process, because you will be auditioning much more than you will be working. There are a few ways to make this experience a fruitful one.

David Kaye points out the importance of showing your unique skills. "When I went in to audition for the Megatron voice," he notes, "I had just finished a Shakespeare workshop, and I pulled from some of what I had been studying. I learned the Laban method, and used it a lot when I auditioned for cartoons. It is based on different 'weights' you give a line reading. For example, instead of screaming, `Don't ever do that to me again!', you can use a light weight, and softly, but powerfully say the line, which is more menacing than just outright shouting."

"I do full-bodied performances," Joe Alaskey says, "with expressions to match, just like Mel [Blanc]. I'm not just concentrating on my voice, though that's where the performance is concentrated; I try to become a cartoon--body, soul, mind and voice (not always in that order)--and then make my selections for the readings, of which there is usually only one `right' one."

Phil Proctor.

June Foray, best known as the voices of Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Granny in the Sylvester & Tweety cartoons, feels that you must always observe your surroundings, and draw from what you see and hear in your life when auditioning. "When I as working for Chuck [Jones] on The Curiosity Shop, I was the aardvark, and that was easy. For the giraffe, I did a very haughty type woman, and then came the elephant; I thought, `What can I do for the elephant that would be almost incongruous and yet acceptable?' Well, my husband and I were at a party, and there was a very heavyset lady chatting, and her voice was just a tiny, sweet little voice with very high tones. I listened to her and thought, `That is the elephant!' It was a contradiction in terms, but the voice was just perfect."

"When I landed the part of Bart Simpson," explains Nancy Cartwright, "I wasn't even called in for that part. I was originally called in for Lisa, but I couldn't get a hook on her. `I can't do her,' I said. But I had taken the time out in the lobby to look at Bart's audition and I said, `Aha, I can do that!' I only gave them one voice, one concept, and I was hired on the spot."

Developing A Voice
Voice actors today are faced with a number of stumbling blocks to creating truly original character voices. The studios want the familiar, not the new. Most of the great voices actors, such as Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, and Paul Frees are gone now, and the studios need sound-alikes to keep their cartoon franchises going.

Joe Alaskey explains that, "Revivifying the classic Warner Bros. voices is tremendous fun, but it isn't easy. The responsibility of doing all the voices for Marvin The Martian in the Third Dimension was a white-knuckler, the sessions were ongoing for over a year (but worth it!). But doing a more or less original voice such as Stinkie on Casper is no less intense an experience."