My Embarrassing Vocal Warm-Up

Speaking of Mr. Maffin, a couple of weeks ago we had a discussion about our pre-game rituals for speaking engagements. I was surprised that Tod didn’t do a vocal warm-up before speaking (as he speaks more often and to many more people than me).

Our conversation evolved into this embarrassing podcast, the latest in Tod’s How To Do Stuff series. In it, I make a broad range of silly sounds that actors typically use to ready themselves for performances. It’s one of the few things I still use from first-year acting (in which I was truly awful). Any actors among my readers will be ashamed of my poor technique.

In truth, my vocal warm-up is more ritualistic than functional. I’ve got a pretty resonant voice to start with, so most of the time I don’t have to struggle to ‘hit the back wall’ (and in many cases there’s a microphone anyway).