Grab a handkerchief and follow along to learn how to perform “Baby in a Hanky.” Brought to you by the Resnick Interactive Group, your voice over production company.
Transcript: Somehow I got tagged as a guy to do a lot of strange sounds, and talking backwards, and making nonsense. I did Cousin Itt: . You know, things like that, which is natural to me, I mean, it’s perfect for being stupelexic, which I am.And most of the stuff I learned — although I went to school, and I got an MFA in Acting — I learned at recess. Or I picked up from other people. And one of the tricks that I love is, I call “Baby in a Hanky.” And I was doing a show with Mel Blanc — Captain Caveman, at Hanna-Barbera — and they said “Mel, we need your baby,” and he reached in his pocket and he took out his handkerchief, and this is what I heard: .
And it was like, oh my goodness. The whole room stilled. And the way you do it, is you go, in a high pitch: , and then you go a little like the baby’s lungs are being fulled. And then we he gets real fussy, you jump an octave . Right? But when you muffle it , you get that baby sound.
And I’ve done pilots, and I’ve done all sorts of covering babies in case, you know, they have to cry on cue, I’m backstage at a microphone with my hanky. And you get calls on the phone for auditions for those, you know, you’ll just literally call the producers and go, “Okay, give me a baby.” And I go, “What baby? What do you want? You want an Italian baby? Oh, oh, Jewish baby?” Who knew.
