From the Host's Chair: The Voice Behind the Magic with Brian Nefsky
From the host's chair
When you host a workshop, you get the best seat in the house. You are not the one at the mic, and you are not the one giving all the notes. You get to sit back and watch your students meet someone new, take a risk, and come out the other side a little braver than they went in.
On August 31, that someone was Brian Nefsky, Lead Casting Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, our guest for The Voice Behind the Magic in the Hanne Rickert Voiceover Workshop Series. Brian casts the voices you hear in the parks. He brought theme park scripts of every kind for my students to read: a ricocheting high energy guide, an old radio announcer, a ghoulish hotel host, a sweet character for little ones, an ancient hag, a nighttime spectacular, and a joyful robot.
I want to tell you what I saw from my chair.
I watched them get braver
The first thing I noticed was the nerves. You could feel them at the top of the evening, the careful, correct first reads. And then Brian did something I love. He did not ask for perfect. He asked for true. He kept pushing my students to make the bolder choice, and one by one, they did.
I watched an actor who came in sweet get permission to be truly mean, old, and evil. I watched another find that holding back, almost laughing but not quite, was scarier than any big villain voice. I watched someone with a huge high energy read get redirected to something slower and richer, and trust it. I offered my own notes along the way too, and it was a joy to hear Brian and me coming at the same moment from two different angles. Each time, the second take had more life in it than the first.
I Can Hear Your Face™
If you have trained with me, you have heard me say it more times than you can count. I Can Hear Your Face™. It is my tagline, it is trademarked, and it is the heart of how I teach. Your body is part of your instrument. If your face, your shoulders, and your hands are doing nothing, your voice usually is too.
On this night, I did not have to say it. Brian said it for me.
When an actor playing a witch curled her hands into claws, the voice changed right along with them. When he asked actors reading the Hag to imagine their teeth were gone, the sound that came out was something no one could have found by "doing a voice." Again and again, his direction went to the body first, and the voice followed.
I smiled through most of it. We were in complete agreement, and it was a gift to watch my students hear it from a Disney casting director. Sometimes it takes hearing it from someone else for it to really land. That night, it landed.
The quiet lesson
Near the end, Brian shared that some long running roles, including the Disneyland monorail voice, started with a cold call. Then he invited everyone to stay in touch by email.
I watched my students take that in. This business is built on craft, but it runs on relationships. Being kind, being professional, and following up are part of the job too.
Thank you, Brian
Brian, thank you for your generosity, your clear and kind direction, and for making it safe for my students to go big. You gave them permission to play, and they took it.
To every actor who stepped up that night, I am so proud of you. I watched you take a note, trust it, and try again. That is the work.
We train with heart. If you’d like to train with us, join the next session of the Hanne Rickert Voiceover Workshop Series or book a one-on-one session today. Feel free to share this blog with others, and download Brian Nefsky’s Character Voice Guide for insights to support your voice acting journey.
Hanne
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