Erica Tobolski<\/a>, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Gilbert Gottfried\u2019s voice has alternatively been described as \u201cshrill<\/a>,\u201d \u201cannoying<\/a>\u201d and \u201cgrating<\/a>,\u201d you can\u2019t say it isn\u2019t memorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gottfried, who died on April 12, 2022<\/a>, didn\u2019t naturally sound this way. Watch him perform as a cast member during on the sixth season of \u201cSaturday Night Live<\/a>,\u201d and you\u2019ll hear a voice that sounds downright angelic by comparison. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/idtrUge0wAQ?wmode=transparent&start=0 Gilbert Gottfried\u2019s brief run as a cast member on \u2018Saturday Night Live\u2019 occurred before the development of his signature voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as he developed his comic persona, that distinctive sound made its way into his performances in stand-up comedy, advertising, television and film \u2013 perhaps most famously as Iago in \u201cAladdin<\/a>,\u201d Mr. Peabody in \u201cProblem Child<\/a>\u201d and as a squawking duck<\/a> in advertisements for the insurance giant Aflac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearly, Gottfried figured out how to create a character that perfectly synced a personality with a voice that matched \u2013 a particularly valuable skill for actors that requires a combination of technique and instinct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2001, the Center for Voice Disorders at Wake Forest University surveyed Americans<\/a> asking them who possessed the best and worst voices. The actors with the three best voices were James Earl Jones, Sean Connery and Julia Roberts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The worst? Leading the pack was Fran Drescher of \u201cThe Nanny<\/a>\u201d fame, followed by Roseanne Barr and \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 Gilbert Gottfried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a voice specialist<\/a> who teaches acting, voice and speech, I work with students and clients who often want to sound more like Connery and Roberts, and less like Gottfried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three distinct subsystems are involved in vocal production: the larynx, or voice box<\/a>, which houses the vocal folds; the lungs and diaphragm in breathing; and areas where sounds resonate, or the vocal tract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking well involves a mix of understanding this vocal anatomy, utilizing proper breathing techniques and learning how to speak without excess tension. Collectively, these elements are known as the voice mechanism<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a student or client comes into a session seeking a more effective voice, it\u2019s these fundamentals that will be addressed. When these elements work together, they create a balanced vocal quality, one that\u2019s generally perceived as confident and professional \u2013 think Morgan Freeman<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there\u2019s a special niche for voices that are unusual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The very skills that an actor learns to create a melodious voice can also be manipulated for a character voice \u2013 which is exactly what Gottfried was able to do, along with other actors who developed memorable characters, such as Jim Carrey in \u201cThe Mask<\/a>\u201d and Eartha Kitt as Yzma in \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Groove<\/a>.\u201d Meryl Streep has been especially adept at creating unique voices for a number of roles, but one that stands out to me is her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in \u201cThe Iron Lady<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understanding what you can change \u2013 and how to change it \u2013 is the key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my voice-over class, for example, I introduce a range of vocal qualities that can be mined to develop new voices. Five of the most common are a hoarse voice, a breathy one, a creaky one \u2013 also known as vocal fry<\/a> \u2013 a voice that incorporates hypernasality and one that accentuates hyponasality, which refers to how most people sound when they have a cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the best and most immediate ways to change your voice is by placing it in a specific resonating area of the body \u2013 such as the sinuses or throat \u2013 or by changing how the vocal folds vibrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a class on character voice, I coach students to direct the sound of their voice into their nasal cavity for a hypernasal sound, and into the back of their throat, the pharyngeal cavity, for a hyponasal sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To trigger a hypernasal sound, you could quack like a duck \u2013 \u201cAflac!\u201d \u2013 or mimic Margaret Hamilton\u2019s<\/a> Wicked Witch of the West from \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d with the phrase \u201cI\u2019ll get you, my pretty!\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OQ_g6NOo7yo?wmode=transparent&start=0 The Wicked Witch of the West in \u2018The Wizard of Oz\u2019 possesses the hallmarks of the hypernasal sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a hyponasal sound, pinch your nostrils together so no sound comes through the nasal passage, and you\u2019ll sound like you have a stuffy nose. Widening the back of your throat while you speak will create a sound similar to that of Lenny from \u201cLoony Tunes.\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bs-Q0JmWjj0?wmode=transparent&start=0 Sounding droopy and dopey like Lenny can involve accentuating a hyponasal sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to sound like Julie Kavner\u2019s<\/a> rendition of Marge Simpson, who speaks with a creaky voice? Relax your throat and say \u201cuhhh\u201d in a very low pitch. The vocal folds are short and thick and create a slow vibration. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RUPi9e_LWM4?wmode=transparent&start=0 Marge Simpson pushes back against suggestions that she sounds like Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To achieve a breathy quality, sigh out an easy \u201chahhh\u201d with half voice and half breath. Marilyn Monroe singing \u201cHappy Birthday<\/a>\u201d to President John F. Kennedy captures this vocal quality perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Gilbert Gottfried were to walk into my classroom and ask me to analyze his character voice, I would describe it as a combination of hypernasality and raspy, with a bit of stridency thrown in. He speaks in a relatively high pitch with little modulation and stays at a consistently high volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, Gottfried perfected this sound, and it worked in tandem with his brand of humor. If you were to develop something similar, just make sure you could figure out when to hit the \u201coff\u201d switch. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R-SxktKa7Fc?wmode=transparent&start=0 Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Peabody in \u2018Problem Child.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation\u2019s newsletters to understand the world.<\/em> Sign up today<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Erica Tobolski<\/a>, Professor of Theatre and Dance, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Erica Tobolski, University of South Carolina Though Gilbert Gottfried\u2019s voice has alternatively been described as \u201cshrill,\u201d \u201cannoying\u201d and \u201cgrating,\u201d you can\u2019t say it isn\u2019t memorable. Gottfried, who died on April 12, 2022, didn\u2019t naturally sound this way. Watch him perform as a cast member during on the sixth season of \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d and you\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[11156,9536,11735,4523,3377,5366,2793,7109,695,9944],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29407,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29405\/revisions\/29407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The smooth operators<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Developing a character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n