If you want to have some fun with voice acting, then you’re at the right place. In this article, we’ll look at 9 different ways that you can do voice acting just for the fun of it.
Some of these suggestions are just zany, crazy fun for entertainment, others are a great way to develop yourself as a voice actor so you can one day go pro.
If you do ever want to go pro, having fun with voice acting is an awesome way to remove some of the pressure while you improve your chops.
Hot tip: Put some effort into recording your audio as well as you can. Which means using a decent mic and recording in a space that’s been acoustically treated (or a closet full of clothes — that works!). Check out my resources page for some affordable mic options.
While I was searching for videos to add to this list, I found a lot of stuff that sucked but could’ve been cool if the audio was good. People will tolerate bad video but not bad audio. It’s just too painful to sit through.
1. Do Dubs of Animals, Babies & Movies
This might surprise you but there aren’t a lot of channels — by amateur or pro voice actors — doing dubs of animals or babies. And the internet loves that stuff. Even a total beginner could get something going here, as long as you’re at least a little funny.
Hot tip: Write the script first. Unless you’re amazing at doing unrehearsed comedy, you’ll want to write a script first. Watch the video and then see what you can come up with. You can do this while you’re on the loo, even. Just take notes on your phone. Then do a quality recording of it.
Here are some examples for inspiration:
If you’re not super-confident in your comedy-writing skills, then dubs might not be for you. In which case, you can respond to casting calls where someone else has written the script for you.
2. Try “Casting Call Club” (and These 6 Other Casting Call Sites)
One of the best-known places for beginners (or “for fun” voice actors) to find casting calls is “Casting Call Club”.
On their website they say:
“We largely focus on the actor trying to make a name for themselves instead of the professional voice actors”
Casting Call Club mostly features amateur projects like indie games, fan dubs, amateur animations, fan fictions and visual novels/audio plays.
It can be a great way to work on your recording, voice acting and voiceover skills. Usually someone else has written the script and prepared the visuals so it’s kinda like doing “pro” work where you can just “show up” and focus 100% on your performance. (Although “show up” still likely means recording at home and sending your work over the internet.)
Most of the gigs are unpaid but there are also paid gigs on the site. Here’s a sample of the kind of gigs you might find on CCC:
Another great community for finding indie voice acting work is VoiceActingClub.com. They have a chat channel on Discord (like old-school IRC) where folks post (and respond to) paid and unpaid casting calls.
From their website:
The Voice Acting Club (VAC) is an online community with a simple mission: to create a central space for voice actors and content creators to connect and get their needs met—whether it’s connecting voice talent with project developers, educating and mentoring aspiring talent, or simply having a place for like-minded people to discuss and hang out.
Along with their chat channel, they also have a forum with audition boards for paid & unpaid work on games, visual projects & audio projects. What you see there is what’s currently active. Older casting calls that have already been cast are moved to an archive.
In both their forum and chat channel, they have a space for feedback and critique on your demo reels & clips. Plus somewhere to show off what you’ve done with help from others in the club.
Health Tip: Keep in mind that if you decide to do any recording for games that your voice could end up putting your voice under a lot of strain. Check out this article I wrote where I go over how you can hurt your voice as a voice actor and what to do to prevent that.
Here are a few more places you could find casting calls perfect for beginners:
- Behind the Voice Actors Casting Call
- Reddit: Record This For Free
- Newgrounds Voice Acting Forum
- Voice Acting Alliance (Unofficial Group)
- Youtube (search for “voice casting call” and order the results to show the most recent ones first)
3. Scam The Scammers Like IRLRosie:
You’ve probably heard of scammers who call you, or get you to call them, with some kind of offer that sounds legit, and then they turn things around and ask you to send them money?
Well IRLRosie is a voice actor who decided to scam the scammers. She can do pretty awesome impressions of Siri (iPhone voice assistant), Alexa (Amazon voice assistant), Britney Spears and a bunch of others.
She uses her awesome skills to trick scammers into writing out “I am an idiot” or “S-C-A-M-M-E-R” to her. Stuff like that.
Sometimes they “get” what’s going on but a lot of times they don’t. It’s pretty hilarious and a great way to spend some of your free time if you’ve got some voice acting chops.
The nice thing is you don’t really need pro gear for this. I’d still recommend using a good mic for recording your side of the call, so that at least your part of the video sounds good.
Get some inspiration from IRLRosie:
Stick around for her Britney Spears impression! And then stick around some more for her cat coz cats are awesome.
4. Entertain Yourself And Others
This is probably what got you into wanting to be a voice actor in the first place, right? I know it’s what got me wanting to do this. Same goes for my nephew (although he has much loftier goals now).
Basically, if you were always the class clown, there’s no reason to stop just because you’re an adult now. One thing you’ll notice about pro voice actors is that they still act like kids. Just keep having fun and entertain yourself and others.
I’m sure there are times I drive my wife insane with all the voices I try to do but there are also times I get her howling with laughter when I nail a voice or a line from a character she loves.
Right now I can do a pretty convincing Scooby Do laugh and 2 lines from Rick, the Hormone Monster in Big Mouth. (“What’re you gonna do?” and “You da man, Steve.”) She loves both and everyone loves Scooby Do!
Here’s some inspiration from Nancy Cartwright who’s the voice of Bart from the Simpsons:
In that video, it’s all about enjoying yourself. And that’s a key thing to keep in mind. It’s so easy to get caught up in “getting good” at voice acting that you might forget to enjoy yourself. So find some voices and sound effects that you’d love to do and just practice them as you’re doing chores around the house.
Eventually you’ll get good and you can use your voices and sound effects to entertain (or annoy or prank) your friends and family. What could be better? 😆
5. Express Yourself, Do What You Love
If you’re looking outside yourself for ways to have fun with voice acting, maybe you’re missing out on amazing material that lives right inside you.
Whether it’s character voices, accents or weird sounds, you’ve already got a spark inside you. Spend some time nurturing that spark so you can grow it into a flame and, maybe eventually, a raging fire.
This is important because, even if you just want to do voice acting for fun, some of the best stuff the pros ever did came from “just having fun”. Let yourself be a bit crazy. It doesn’t matter if you’re 13 or 73, you’ve got something amazing inside you to let out. (And the world needs more of that.)
Sure, there’s a lot to learn from copying some of the masters that have inspired you. And by all means, do that. It’s a great way to improve your range and flexibility. But the most unique stuff isn’t out there, it’s in you.
For some people, that means doing voice acting in a way that benefits a special cause. Love dogs? Why not do voice acting for dogs in shelters? Help them get homed!
Or maybe you have a passion for food but you’re not much of a chef. Ok, great, do some dubs over cooking shows.
Or maybe you have a spiritual message you’d like to share with the world. Great, use your voice acting to do that.
You are unique. Use the things you love and are passionate about to grow yourself as a voice actor. That could be the way that you add your own unique value to the world.
Here’s a video from Nancy Cartwright giving you permission to do what you love:
6. Write And Record Your Own Skits
This one might call for some good comedy writing chops. Pick out scenarios in everyday life that are funny or awkward and act them out.
One of the most popular “voice acting for fun” YouTube channels I found is ProZD. He’s a professional voice actor who does some fun and weird skits on his YT channel. Here are a couple to inspire you:
It’s pretty rare to be good at voice acting and comedy writing. But it’s a skill that can be developed. Great comedy writers (like Seinfeld) got great by writing a joke every day. Not every joke you write will be good but if you write 365 in a year? You’ll definitely have some gems.
So that’s my advice if you wanna do skits: Do a crap-load of them! It might be tough to do one a day, especially if you’re making a video to go with it. But you could probably record 2 a week.
Try writing one skit every day, but then record only your favorite 2 skits each week. You should eventually develop a knack for knowing which skits will work and which ones won’t. And which ones your audience will love.
But don’t make it only about your audience. Remember tip #5? Do what you love. If you focus only on what people will “like” and “subscribe” to, you’ll water down your uniqueness and put out stuff nobody cares about. Or you’ll put out stuff that you hate to do. Either way, you’ll end up quitting before you find “your groove”.
7. Real-Life Scenarios as Characters
If you’ve built up some good character impressions, why not test them out in the real world? Pick 1 or 2 of your favorite characters and go out and do something “normal” but using your character voices.
Like Scooby Do & Shaggy going through the drive thru:
Here are some more ideas of “normal” things you could try as characters:
- Pay your bills over the phone as your favorite cartoon characters.
- Order in take-out as a well-known and loved character.
- Go to a convention (like Comic-Con) as your favorite character and do their voice the whole time!
- Do your grocery shopping in a character’s voice. Ask other shoppers for help. Talk to the teller as your character.
- Get a haircut but use your character’s voice the whole time. (Hairdressers love to talk!)
Come up with some of your own and just have a blast.
8. Sing Your Favorite Disney Songs As Characters:
You might need some singing chops for this one. Pick a song from an animated movie you love and then try and sing it as characters from that movie (or other movies, too).
I love watching these on YouTube. Here’s one of my faves:
Brian Hull (from that 👆 video) does a ton of voices but don’t let that stop you from going down this road. Just pick a single voice you think you can do and start with that. Maybe do just the chorus of a song you love as that one character. Then build from there.
It’ll be tons of fun and I bet a bunch of people will subscribe just to watch your progress as you get better and better. (We all love watching a success story unfold.)
9. Draw & Voice Your Own Characters
If you can draw, then this is another way you can have fun with voice acting all by yourself. Get some suggestions of characters from your friends and draw them.
Once you’ve got a few, try making some character voices for them and record something. You don’t have to animate them or anything. Just enjoy yourself coming up with personalities and voices for your characters. It’s great practice for “more serious” cartoon work if you ever do decide to go pro.
In this video, Brian shares some tips on his process for drawing characters and then creating voices for them:
10. BONUS! Do A “Wheel of Impressions” Challenge
Here’s a fun one you can even do at home. Invite over a friend who can do impressions, pick the characters together (do a 50/50 split to keep it far), and then… SPIN THE WHEEL!
This is extra fun because you might not land on an impression you can do. So you have to test yourself and push yourself beyond your limits. I love what Brian and Brizzy did in that video 👆 because they have completely different vocal ranges. So that made things more interesting (and challenging).
Hot Tip: Don’t hurt your voice. Like don’t pick a character voice to do outside your natural range and then do that voice the whole day. That’d be dumb and will probably mess up your voice.
Got any to add to my list? Tweet me @MoonlightingVO and I could add your suggestion here with a link back to your profile or website!