Performance Development

You won’t develop a good delivery style overnight; it takes time and is the combination of developing a good voice, learning how to use the techniques, and becoming an effective reader of copy, particularly material you haven’t written. A few beginners assume they can “sight read” cold copy. This is unlikely. It’s hard enough mastering material that you’ve practiced. The best thing to do is record yourself regularly and be critical of the results. Even that can be challenging, as you will tend to hear what you think you said, even if it isn’t clear. Having someone else review, the recording with you will be a good check. This is a practice even veteran pros do regularly. Often station managers have regular meetings with talent at which they critique these recordings known as air checks . Some comedians even record their entire performance and analyze it, trying to determine why one joke worked and another failed. You can record a sentence or two, listen to it, and record it again, trying to make improvements. Work on the same short passage until it sounds the way you want it and then go to another and repeat the process. You really can’t overdo it.