An Evening with Bob Bergen, the Voice of Porky Pig

This past weekend, Bob Bergen graced San Francisco with his characters prowess at Voice One for its annual offering of “That’s NOT All Folks,” which promises to “take your character voice development to a whole new level.”

I had a unique opportunity to spend some time with Bob prior to the class, and he was charming, relaxed, and easy. Those are great stand-alone traits, but I was especially grateful for them prior to class because they ameliorated some of my trepidation around animation and character voice over.

Character voices aren’t exactly my forte. I took my first character classes last summer and knew instantly it was one area of voiceover I had absolutely no interest in. I’m pretty sure I left those classes exhausted and on the verge of frustrated tears.

The good news is that I’m getting better with characters! It took a while for me to understand that animation and toys don’t always require extreme monster-esque voices. That realization placed the world of character voiceover in an entirely new light and provided a new comfort level that enabled me to expose myself a little bit more. I also blame it for my piqued interest in the prospect of voicing educational toys and games–who knows if that’s something I’ll pursue; but the 180-degree shift to intrigue feels like a monumental feat.

Bob’s approach and style nurtured that intrigue. He made me enjoy this character stuff in a way I hadn’t experienced before! It was almost like Bob helped me interact with the script. As one of my colleagues, Alan, put it quite simply: “Bob just brought the best out of everyone.”

In addition to his fantastic direction, Bob told us–quite humorously–how he got started (you can check out his bio here and even listen to the phone conversation 14-year-old Bob had with Mel Blanc about voicing characters), and he shared his intel about things like

• episodic and feature animation;
• the different types of animation scripts;
• creating, practicing, and cataloging characters;
• vocal health;
• and auditioning.

I especially loved learning about character permutations, and one of my favorite pieces of advice from Bob was a simple reminder to always audition for the fun of it–not to please the auditioners.

I’m so glad I got to meet Bob and participate in a snippet of his class; it definitely evolved my approach to characters to a new level. If you ever get the chance to study with this guy or have a conversation with him, don’t pass it by.

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