Thread: My new friend!

Aah yes, that's the one. I naively assumed there would only be one ventroliquist on there :lol:

Originally Posted by tempest devyne

Are you going to be at Scarlet Fever's show on Dec 13th supporting a certain young lady? If you are I could put some stuff together and let you have it there.

I would say the most important thing is your material even more than your technical skill. I've seen some really boring acts where people didn't move their lips at all...they didn't hold the audience at all. And I seen some fantastically funny acts where the ventriloquism was really bad - there was a guy called Wayland Flowers who had a puppet called Madame who didn't even try to disguise his lips moving, but Madame was so rude and funny (think a mix of Bette Midler and Dame Edna) that he got away with it and even got his on tv show. Provided you're not planning to go straight on telly you can get away with slightly more lip and neck movement on a stage behind a mic....but this is where you also need to work on the movement of Swiggy, as a distraction technique but also for added comedy - doubletakes from a puppet can be so funny if done with good comic timing.

You also need to build Swiggy's character and your rapport with him - this is very important and is great fun, just as you had fun developing your on stage persona. Personally I think Swiggy is fab, but he looks all cute and cuddly, but you can see he's got a naughty glint in his eye....

You can also make people think you are a much better ventriloquist than you actually are by thinking about what you're going to say. Don't saying anything that includes the letter W for a start or make jokes about letters you can say without moving your lips - see a clip of Paul Zerdin I've put later.

Most people can pronounce about half the alphabet with out moving their lips at all. A, E, I, O, U are about the easiest. You have to work hard on relaxing your jaw, which is difficult when tense on stage. Letters like P, B, W, M, V and F are harder sounds usually pronounced using the lips so are more difficult, but to start you can substitute slightly different sounds and roll your tongue. If you say a T in place of a P and roll your tongue or TH for V similarly you can get the effect you want pretty well....and you'll get so much better with practice. There are loads of tricks you can use.....and practising keeping the puppet/dummy moving to distract the audience whilst you're talking is the most profitable.

Also try and research great performers - and learn from them. You might want to look up Shari Lewis (I think Swiggy could have some Lambchop in him), Ray Alan, Jeff Dunham is very interesting (he's a current performer and does some very edgy stuff...I love Achmed the Dead Terrorist), Paul Zerdin (who isn't the most perfect ventriloquist but is a fantastic comedian so gets away with it) and an American Kevin Johnson (who is technically perfect and does some absolutely amazing voice throwing) and the first person that ever got me interested in ventriloquism - Senor Wences, just fantastic, s'alright!

Here try these:

Jeff Dunham and Achmed the Dead Terrorist - very naughty and ever so un-PC if anyone gets offended easily

Paul Zerdin on the Jerry Springer Show

Ray Alan and Lord Charles

Lord Charles's mind reading act - just fab, so clever and very funny

You've probably seen this already - Kevin Johnson on America's Got Talent and Godzilla theatre pt 2

Sorry that's a lot...but I hope it's helpful. I can bore people silly on siffleurism too!

I will indeed be at Scarlet's night on the 13th, may even bring the little fella along to meet his aunty Tempest! :lol:

Jeff Dunham is actually the guy that inspired me to follow this route, after a friend of mine introduced me first to Achmed (via youtube), then he found his two DVD's and copied them for me (which include a quality documentary showing the birth of one of Jeff's other creations - Melvin the superhero). I love the fact that his characters are so larger-than-life that you dont really notice that Jeff is controlling them. Personal favourite is actually Peanut, although Achmed is a superb reoutine as well.

I am working on a few gags and stuff with my co-writer (well, a good friend with a similar sense of humour), and hoepfully will have a routine up and running fairly soon. Then i just gotta practice the :censored: out of it, and also ventriloquism in general, but i am VERY determined to get this up and running so all being well it won't take long for Swiggy's glorious debut!

Thanks so much for all the encouragement! And that goes out to everyone on here who's taken the time to post!

But keep it coming guys! Cuz the more you demand it, the quicker i'll get the act together!