VentriloquismTip Of The Day

You HAVE to keep telling yourself it's only about the laughs. You just have to KEEP telling yourself that and all the rest will fall into place.

One of the first pieces of advice that Darren Carr gave me when I started to pester him about all this stuff was. "If you're not funny, you might as well forget it"

So whether it's a kids show or an adult gig you have to make them laugh.

It's just stand up comedy with a puppet and you have to keep telling yourself that. If your worried about a gag going over make the delivery itself funny. This is easy to do with characters.

Puppetry?

I just watched some clips of a US puppet company called Avenue Q on you tube. I have to say that after spending so many months now in trying to perfect ventriloquism that watching straighfoward puppetry just doesn't cut the grade for me. This is actually testimont to how important lip control REALLY is in vent. I CANNOT make the leap when I am watching someone's mouth moving. It doesn't do it for me. I just see a person. Look, I love the muppets and I love Sesame Street and whenever you see one of those characters interviewed on TV or something the camera always zooms right in so you can't see the actor anymore. It doesn't work for me when I can see the puppeteer. Not after seeing so many venrtiloquists.

What have I learned from this. Not that there is no place for puppetry, far from it. The hysterics of the Aneue Q audience is testimont to this and they look like they do a great job. What I have learned from it is that lip control IS very important if you are going to call yourself a ventriloquist. I don't care what anyone says.

On a similar note more often than not you can also see the persons hand indide the puppet. What I mean is that most puupeteers (even when they walk on stage with them) use dolls that have bottom entry....(Ohhh Errrr) . Ventriloquists seem to favour puppets that enter at the back or neck and also have legs. It really helps sell the illusion.