Customer Reviews

Dialect Monologues [With CD]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you are serious about learning dialects, do NOT buy this CD. If you think it would be fun to learn some different dialects to try and want to have a remote chance of fooling anyone, do NOT buy this CD. A high school drama student would have done a superior job. You would be better off learning dialects from the Simpsons or Saturday Night Live. This is not an exaggeration, this is a flat out warning. Don't waste your money.

I have to agree with the other review. I bought this at a bookstore, hoping to brush up on some accents. I can do a better southern accent than this guy, and I've never even lived in the south! His NY accent is hilariously bad. I'd rather rent "Shrek" than listen to his Irish monologue. The whole thing is dopey and phoney-sounding.

I checked this book/tape set out at my local library and OH MY GOSH! The accents are AWFUL! I would be disapointed if I heard accents this bad in a Jr. High Drama production. Purchasing this will hurt more than help! I promise. I am leary of all accent books and recordings now just because of how bad this set is. If someone had relabled the cassette "a documentation of a variety of speach impediments" and given it to me, I would have beleaved it. It really is that bad!

This dialect monologue cd and booklet is a great idea. Unfortunately it is not all that useful. All the monologues are written by one person. The rhythms and the world of each monologue lack cultural authenticity only ever realising a general flavour at best. This is particularly so for the Uk dialects. The other big minus is that all the monologues are spoken by one actor in dialect with varying degrees of success rather than native speakers of each dialect. Again authenticity is compromised. This cd and booklet does not provide good written or spoken samples of the dialects that are contained in it for anyone to study them in any kind of depth. I returned it to Amazon as soon as I listened to a couple of tracks.

I don't know what bug got up the other reviewers' tooshies, but I love this title and refer to it all the time. Is it the definitive reference on a particular accent? Probably not. But it's a great starter resource for a voice actor as well as a brilliant concept for a book.

Seems some people wanted a quick fix to learning accents. This is a reference tool that is meant to help you leaner an accent that is believable for stage, not to learn the actual intricacies of every dialect. That is why its priced so low. For community theater, these dialects can help you create a believable dialect for characters. That's all it's for.

This book/CD is a good reference for the actual technical sound of many of the vowels and tonals of many of the dialects. The monologues are pretty good to learn and read. However, without the explanation or knowledge of how to change between the dialects, which is not presented in this particular product, this is a pretty useless tool. If you know a little of what to look for, perhaps you can use this product

However, I am from Chicago and I know many persons who have the dialects and accents of nearly all the presented dialects. The CD is pretty bad on the accents and doesn't even comply with the author's own opening statements in the insert manual where he suggests that the learner not only learn the dialect, but create a character without falling to stereotypes. While I think the one star reviews are a little harsh, I think four and even three stars may be too high. I am sure there are better products available for listening and practice, but the monologues themselves are good.