Using Humor to Help Your Voiceover Career

I’ve written many times about the many different roles that the average voiceover artist must fulfill in order to keep his or her career on the desired path.  In most instances, this does involve the actual business operations, because most voiceover actors and actresses are self-employed and contracted by clients to record.  This also means that there is a need for a healthy understanding of marketing.  In this day and age, much of the marketing will be done online, and this blog post is going to look at how humor can play a big role in that arena.

The inspiration for this blog post comes from an article featured in a sports publication, believe it or not.  The story, though, had a lot to do with voiceover because it was about the humorous efforts of one voiceover talent to put a spin on the OJ Simpson parole hearing.  This involved a lot of questionable humor, of course, including language that would not appeal to all.  However, for those who have been wound up in the Simpson drama since the release of the documentary not long ago, the footage is being widely shared and discussed.

Whether you love it or hate it, you must admit that the voiceover work was a spot of genius from a marketing standpoint.  It showcased the artist’s ability to show emotion, to time his recording to match the video, and to infuse humor in his work.  More importantly, it gained him a lot of exposure as the video has been viewed more than 19,000 times (at the time that this is being written) and has received more than 400 comments.

The fact is that people appreciate humor, which is something that is important to remember as you market your own brand.  You will, undoubtedly, want to release samples of your voiceover work, but not all have to be straightforward works.  There is value in engaging audiences in other ways.  People are more apt to share and engage with your content if they feel that they are getting something out of it, so give them a laugh.  And that OJ video with the VO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRfIiui9Qxw  WARNING: Foul language