expressive delivery Quotes

Speech is the best show a man puts on.

Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions of musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious, where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view.

I studied acting and there's certainly an element of performance. I think that the songs are in many ways written to be performed. I think about what it's going to be like to sing them on stage rather than what it's going to be like to have someone at home listening to them on a CD. I guess in that way there's a connection between my acting experience and the songwriting and the way the songs are written.

As an actor, the last thing you ever want to end up on is just a procedural show where you're just a talking head. There's nothing worse than just spitting out words. Words interrupt performance. Performance is king in my world, when it comes to why I'm in this business.

In my case, performance is part of the medium. Sometimes I feel that it's my main medium, and that the presentation of my poems on the page is secondary.

I've always talked a lot on stage - I really wanted to communicate my ideas and when you're playing at a lot of shitty punk clubs they don't have good PAs and so no one knows what you're singing about.

That is my most comfortable place: close-up beauty shots! I also love to stand and speak in front of people. I can get a bit nervous while I'm speaking, but I love to touch others with my message. TV hosting with a teleprompter is also a comfort zone. I love to nail the copy quickly with the right expression and facial expression. Delivery is key!

I do lots of weird voices and I kind of act out my raps. That's something that's always been in me.

You are always looking for a different kind of read and a different kind of intention when you are by yourself in the booth. Occasionally you are playing off of people, but it is a bit of a different muscle that you have to flex. At the end of the day though, it really is all just great fun and play that we are lucky enough to get paid for.

There's not much to say about acting but this. Never settle back on your heels. Never relax. If you relax, the audience relaxes. And always mean everything you say.

He formed his sentences hesitantly and then threw them at me with such force that I felt as if I were receiving a present each time

The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.

Somehow writing has always seemed to me to have an element of performance.

It's the singer not the song that makes the music move along.

When you're onstage, it's important to try and feel some type of therapy in getting the material out, because then you don't leave the stage so tired. If you're onstage and you're doing the same routine over and over, then it gets monotonous. You want to be able to try to get to the truth constantly, and I think the more you do that, the easier it is.

The more you're able to understand how to do a good dramatic performance, that can inform your comedy. It all informs one another. And it keeps everything interesting.

I studied with Stella Adler and I didn't like the representational aspect of most opera singers. Most of the opera singers had not a false, but over theatrical way of presenting.

It's almost like I get to be more theatrical when I work in voiceover.

There are some singers that have great technique and then there are those that have a certain quality or style in their voice. Some have both, like Freddie Mercury, but to me, I prefer style over technique.

The script is like music to me. I approach it like it's a musical piece and I hear how it's supposed to sound when people say the words. There's rhythms and there's intonations and things, and so, when somebody comes in and hits the notes that I hear, I go okay. Or, they come close enough, and then I'll say "Well how about you try it like this?" and if they have a good ear and they can pick it up, then I think okay, they've got it.

I want to throw my voice more, I want to manipulate melody more... I want to be less deliberate and mechanical... I want less melody.

The camera can move, you can make the shots, blah blah blah, but as long as the actors are good, you have something.

When I was in acting class, we did a lot of really serious scenes, and we didn't do comedic scenes. I felt like doing those scenes, it didn't come out of my mouth the right way. I don't know if it's because my voice is different, or what it is about me, but it just seemed a little off.