We have all heard them, the voices we recognize, but we can almost never connect the real voice to the face. Fry from Futurama, Zorak from SGCTC, hell, even Handy smurf. My question is how do these people get into that business?
I have never seen an ad asking for people with strange or interesting voices, does anyone know? I can do many voices, and could hold conversations for hours as stitch, kermit, yoda, meatwad, marlon brando, and many others. In fact I have sang rainbow connection many times at karaoke to much applause. I want to know how to get into this racket.
Probably the best way is to contact a regular talent agency and ask if they fill positions for voice work. Most of the voice talents I know around Tokyo got into it as a side to their regular work: english teachers doing recordings fro ESL tapes, TV extras getting an MC or announcer gig, or people in advertising stepping in to provide a voice-over for one of their ad projects (the latter two are how I got into it).
You probably won’t be able to make a living off it, but it can be fun.
You’ll need a reel. Something short, like a minute long (go to the websites of voice actors you like and listen to their reels for an idea.) Do as many different styles and as large a range as you can. Not just character voices, but your own natural voice and announcer-type voices. The point of a reel is to have the person listening catch something that sounds like what they want–which is why you do very short bits of as many types of work as you can.
I’m not sure of impersonations of existing characters is something you want to fill your reel with. I’d imagine you’d want to keep as much unique material in it as possible, but I’m not in that business specifically, so I can’t be sure.
Good luck! You won’t make any money out of it, but it’s fun.