Do You Have A "Good" Voice for Voiceover?

**Sorry about the bad audio quality! We had to use a cell phone in a pinch!**

Has anyone ever told you, you have a GREAT voice? That's awesome! But what if they haven't? Even better!! In this video, I tag teamed with Lisa Biggs and we talk about all the things we've heard over the years about our voices. Spoiler Alert: they're NOT good, but they sure are funny!

Do You Have a “Good” Voice for Voiceover? – 7:13

Gabby: Welcome to a very special edition of The Gift of Gab. I want to talk to you today about something that is super near and dear to the hearts of all voice actors. Have you ever been told that you have a great voice? I mean a really great voice. Well, good for you, because you know what? I was never told that! And today I have a very special guest with me, and we’re going to explore this topic and share with you some of our personal experiences. This woman is an amazing voiceover actress. She has been in the business as long as I have, maybe even a little bit longer. She is known for hundreds of voiceovers. She is the director and the star of the new Cartoon Network series Badanamu. She has been the voice of dozens of Hasbro toys, literally, she has been under your Christmas tree (which I think is amazing!). And she’s the founder of the Voxy Ladies. Let me introduce you to my good friend Lisa Biggs.

Lisa: [laughs] Yay!

Gabby: For those of you who don't know Lisa, Lisa, go ahead and kind of just tell us a little bit about your start in the voiceover career and of course your specialty in voiceover.

Lisa: Well, I have a weird voice. No one’s ever told me I had a good or a great voice. [dramatic crying] I –

Gabby: This is your natural speaking voice.

Lisa: Yes.

Gabby: That’s what we want people to understand. Right?

Lisa: This is how I was born. Yeah, I’ve always had a different voice, unique, special. There have been many other words for it. [both laugh] I started studying acting and voiceover and got started right out of college, moved to L.A. and did that whole thing, and I’ve been really fortunate to kind of hold it together, and make this thing work for the last almost 20 years, yeah, as the voice of toys, animation, video games, like animals, like my creature voices like book [weird noise], like a lot. Like a boy voice, I have three radio spots before I came over here as a boy. I do all the weird stuff. Like I make funny sounds and people write me big checks. And it’s great. It’s a girl’s dream come true. [laughs]

Gabby: We are two of the hardest working, busiest beeyotches in voiceover, hands down, and neither one of us got into this industry being encouraged because of our “vocal prowess.” So we’re going to share with you some of the really strange things that we heard and sometimes still hear regarding our voices.

[caption: Your voice is too cute]

Lisa: You think my voice is cute, you should see my face. [laughs]

[caption: Your voice is too New York]

Gabby: So, here's the thing. I grew up in New York. I grew up on the island, Long Island being specific. This is the way I talked growing up. This is, it’s attractive, I know. It’s very nice. It’s very ladylike, right? And yeah, so if people actually heard this voice, I'd never get hired for [beep] no more. That's, that's a certainty. But you know, some days I just feel like saying [beep] with all this voiceover [beep]. I'm just gonna go to Starbucks, and I'm gonna make coffee for living, OK?

[caption: Your voice is too annoying]

Lisa: Gosh, yeah, I get that, especially when they don’t think that you can hear them. Honestly it still hurts my feelings. [sad noise]

[caption: Don’t ever laugh on mic]

Gabby: [laughs] No [beep], I had a program director look me dead in the eye, tell me that one day. “Don't ever laugh on air.”

[caption: Your voice is too wheezy]

Less wheezy… Like this wheezy?

>> ¶ Moving on up ¶

[caption: You have a bit of a Southern accent]

Lisa: Well, where I first learned how to talk like I was from the South was watching “Different World.” Do you remember?

¶ it's a different world, oh!

And where you come from ¶

I had my dad's voice down pretty pat. Lisa, Lisa Renée Biggs, I can't believe you left them dadburn lights on again. We do not own a power company, Lisa Biggs. Lisa, Lisa Biggs, Lisa Renée Biggs, that's when you know you’re in trouble. You get all your names.

[caption: Could you not do…that?]

Gabby: Breathing. I was just breathing. That's all. [takes deep breath]

[caption: You’re too old]

Lisa: [laughs] No [beep]. [laughs] I’m 37! I know! Trust me.

[caption: You’re too shrill]

Gabby: Oh my God, what do you mean I'm shrill? I'm so not shrill! [fake cry]

[caption: You sound too phlegmy]

Lisa: I can take care of that. Phlegmy, you say. [snorts] Can't imagine why.

Gabby: The point is that despite all of this horrible, ridiculous [beep] that she and I have been told in the course of our careers, w’re still here.

Lisa: Yeah, that's true. God, that's so poignant.

Gabby: We never gave up. We never let it really bother us. We never – OK, like don’t get me – like it bothers us. We have feelers, we’re people.

Lisa: Voice actors have feelings too!

Gabby: It’s true, it’s very true, but we persisted, and we persevered, and we worked through it, and we found a way to turn some of those… not so nice things that people said into moneymakers.

Lisa: Yeah.

Gabby: So like hello, hells to the yeah.

Lisa: It’s quite a motivation.

Gabby: Right? So yeah. It’s kind of one of those things where if you’ve been told you have a great voice your whole life, that's cool. But if you’ve been told you’ve a less than perfect voice, even better. You’re our peeps.

Lisa: Yeah, totally.

Gabby: Thanks for watching, guys.

Lisa: I wave like a five-year-old. Hi, mom!

Gabby: I'm going to have to lint brush your ass before you leave.

Lisa: Oh no, it’s OK. I’ve got dogs. I don’t care.

Gabby: No, I have to lint brush your hiney.

>> It’s not because she has to, it’s because she wants to.

Gabby: I want to, I want to lint brush your hiney. It’d the highlight of my day.

Lisa: Mine too. [laughs]

704-674-8294 / GabrielleNistico.com / gabby@voiceovervixen.com

Gabrielle Nistico, Gabby Nistico, The Voiceover Vixen, The Business First VO Coach, #VoiceoverVixen #VoiceOnFire #BusinessFirstVOCoach Voiceover, Success, Entrepreneur, Voiceover Coaching, VO Coaching, Voiceover Coaches, Working Actors, Los Angeles, New York, Charlotte, North Carolina, Lisa Biggs, I know that voice, good voice, accents, vocal pitch, Voxy Ladies, women in voiceover