Hi friends!
Ginny Di here, and I'm here to teach you to do Jester Lavorre's accent!
Jester is a tiefling cleric played by Laura Bailey in the D&D web series Critical Role
I've been cosplaying Jester for a few months now, and I have had a lot of fun learning
to do her accent and just kind of play the character
Quick disclaimer: I am far from an expert, I don't actually know anything about accents,
I've just been mimicking what Laura does on the show and I've had a few requests for this,
So I'm just gonna do my best
When asked about where the accent is from, all Laura has said is that it's Eastern European
Obviously that is a broad region, and since Laura herself is not Eastern European,
it may not be an accurate accent
She may not even want it to be
So rather than learn a specific Eastern European accent, we are just gonna talk about the kind
of accent that Laura does on the show
So, first let's talk about some of the sounds that she uses
When we would say "ih," she says "ee."
So "things" becomes "theengs."
"This" becomes "thees."
"Big" and "little" become "beeg" and "leetle."
So, for instance, we would say a sentence like "Things like this aren't a big deal,"
and Jester would say "Theengs like thees aren't a beeg deal."
Also you want to flip your R's, which is almost like rolling your R's, but not quite
So like, if you were gonna roll your R you might say "rrrreally!"
That's too much, that's extreme.
So when I say R, my mouth is open
"Arrr."
All of the sound is able to just go through my mouth unobstructed.
When you flip your R, your tongue touches the roof of your mouth.
A good test of whether you're flipping an R is if you can hold the R out.
So if you're saying the word Jester, when I say it in my regular accent, I could hold
it for a long time.
I could say "Jesterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" forever.
But if you flip your R, then it stops the sound, so you can't hold it out
"Jester."
With words like "really," it's easy to roll it, so be careful not to roll it
"Really."
Not "rrrrrreally."
So instead of "Jester," "Jester."
Instead of "really," "really."
Instead of "Traveler," "Traveler."
So, where we might say "I'm Jester, and I'm really into the Traveler," she would say
"I'm Jester, and I'm really into the Traveler."
Okay, so this one seems to be more of a Jester thing than necessarily an Eastern European thing
Instead of saying "oo," Jester says "ew," like when you're grossed out.
Ew.
This one really makes an impact with making the accent sound like Jester, because there
are a lot of words that you can use this on that just come up in regular speech
So instead of "to," say "tyoo."
Instead of "do," say "dyoo."
And then, "you" already kind of sounds like an "ew" sound, but if you can emphasize that,
that'll help too
Instead of "what should I do," "what should I dyoo?"
Instead of "I really like to paint," "I really like tyoo paint."
This also helps a lot with the cadence of her speech, because in regular speech, we
usually skip right past words like "to."
We just do 'em really quickly, like "I really like to paint."
See, there's barely even a vowel there.
But if you're gonna say "tyoo," you really have to kind of dig into that word and give
it a second
It affects the way that you say whole sentences
One of the keys to this is just enunciate and really take your time with each word
When I do this accent, I really wrap my mouth around every syllable
We tend to shorten and compress things in casual speech
For instance, "I'm gonna bring all my things to the mountains.
"I'm going to bring all my things to the mountains"
The difference between "I'm 'unna" and "I'm going to" is just very pronounced.
Of course, it isn't just pronunciation that makes Jester's voice unique
She also has some speech patterns that will really help sell a Jester impression
First of all, her voice is fairly high, and goes through a lot of pitch variation
So instead of talking down here and staying in one place, you want to talk up here and
use a lot of pitch changes
And sometimes, to put emphasis on something, she will suddenly talk super low and throaty
She also likes to repeat some specific words, like "technically" and "basically."
So instead of saying "technically there's no comma," she would say "technically there's
no comma technically."
And she likes to end sentences with the word though, like "I don't think that's really
a good idea though."
For me, learning the accent was kind of clumsy at first, and the main thing that helped me
develop it and just get more comfortable using it was practice
A good place to start is by listening to clips of Jester talking and repeating them
I like to pull up clips of really Jester-heavy scenes, like when she reunites with her mom,
or when she talks to the innkeeper Claudia under the door, or when she uses Speak with
Dead outside of the smugglers hideout, and just repeat everything that she says
Once you feel a little more comfortable with the accent, the most beneficial thing you
can do is just talk to yourself in it
It might be helpful to record yourself talking so you can listen back and try and pinpoint
sounds or words that you struggled with
So sometimes I'll be, like, doing dishes or something, and I'll just be chattering to
myself as Jester, like "the worst part about doing dishes is when you are rinsing something
that's curved and the water splashes back at you and suddenly your shirt is all wet!"
And of course, Laura herself has said that she gets into accent as Jester by singing
"Popular" from Wicked, so that can be a fun exercise to play with, too
"Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I, and let's face it... who isn't?
Less fortunate than I!
My tender heart tends to start to bleed... and when someone needs a makeover I simply
have to take over, I know— I know!
Exactly what they need."
That's all I've got for you!
Like I said, I'm no expert, this is just what I've been using to do my own Jester accent.
Good luck, and I hope this was helpful!
May the Traveler be with you, and your donuts never be too stale!
And don't forget to subscribe if you love Critical Role and Jester, because I have a
ton more videos and music on the way!
You're an evil little creature who drinks blood!
♪ Right now, she's probably sweet-talking with that green-skinned hunk
and I'll bet she thinks she's real slick ♪
♪ Jesters, Jesters, which is the illusion can you guess her? ♪