Doing animation is closer to pretending than anything else you get to do. It's much more like when you're a kid putting on a character.
Bow to your sensei. Bow to your sensei!
Really voice-over is great. If it paid as much as on camera work it's all I'd ever do.
Working on a sitcom and improv improves your comedic chops. If you do it long enough the one thing you learn to do is listen to the other characters.
When you're in Hollywood you get sort of jaded about what you think the sense of humor of Hollywood is supposed to be so you can't think outside the box.