Ventriloquists good - non-ventriloquists evil

Dear reader,

granted, there are some strange ventriloquists out there. Edgar Bergen for example in his later years gave Charlie McCarthy his own room. Candice Bergen, the daughter of Edgar Bergen, was certainly frustrated when she was younger and Charlie McCarthy was called to be her big brother. Al Steven writes in his book „Ventriloquism: Art, Craft, Profession“, that Paul Winchell had massive problems with his mother. That went so far that he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital at one point. He ran away from there one night to go to the graveyard to hallucinate both his figures Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff at his mother's grave. (Stevens takes that from Paul Winchell's autobiography „Winch“, which I haven't read though. So all I can do is repeat what Stevens wrote.)

Al Stevens also writes, rightly so, I think, that there is surely a certain percentage more or less crazy vents out there. But this percentage of crazy also exists in other professions. The thought that vents are crazy therefore is not more often or less than with other people. The media, especially films, however like to spread the image of this crazy vent or the murderous vent figure. It's similar to that image of hypnotists. Many people fear hypnotists, though for other reasons. The thing with hypnotists though is that people believe the hypnotists totally take away their own free will.

More common than the truly crazy vent you find them in films. Be it portrayed by Jay Johnson as “Chuck Campbell” in “Soap”, for whom Bob is as real as a real human. “Soap” isn't quite normal anyway. The series is about two sisters, Mary Campbell and Jessica Tate and their families. Both families are not normal. A vent truly seeing his figure as just that would not have fit in there. Billy Chrystal for example played another brother of the family and was gay. Today this is hardly a drama at all, but around 1980, when the series was shot, it was quite a big thing. One of my favourite scenes is the one with Chuck, Bob and the fridge.

Chuck and Bob's first meeting with both families is also something worth watching for sure. And the scene with Bob as mindreader shows in a very beautiful way that Chuck is not alone in accepting Bob as an independent person. I just love the look Mary gives her husband Burt.


There's no video of it online, but in “Night Court, the episode “The Next Voice You Hear” (season 4, episode 1) Ronn Lucas plays a vent, who talks all right, but without moving his lips and without a figure. He refuses to talk in his normal voice. A successful act, he says, depends on the personality of the figure and the rapport between he and the ventriloquist. He has honed his skills, but he hasn't yet found the perfect other character. Until he does, he refuses to speak as himself.

He's also in the „L.A. Law“ episode „Dummy Dearest“ (season 3, episode 6). As Kenny Petersen, who was kept in a trunk of a car for a couple of days when he was 3 years old, he doesn't speak himself. But he does have a figure, who speaks for him instead. It's not more patient with him than the rest of the people around Kenny, who think him crazy for walking around with a puppet all the time. Again there are no scenes of that episode on the internet to show you here.

I only mention this film here now, because even with the clichee of the crazy ventriloquist, I still think they're quite witty and not the typical “murderous insane”, like many others.

As a vent you're more than just an actor. You're audience, when the figure is active, and yet at the same time you're actor, because you're playing the figure. That's something other actors don't get to do. Either they're in the role or not. Only vents can be actor and audience at the same time.

I'm very fascinated with Ronn Lucas' role in „L.A. Law“ because of that. It goes a bit further than the „usual“ 2 roles of a vent, because on one hand (no pun intended) he has to play a depressed, intimidated vent and at the same time his figure is totally raging against almost everybody he comes across... including Kenny Petersen himself. One especially touching scene is at the end of that episode as Kenny is crouched with his figure in the corner of a room full of records and the figure is totally hitting on him how it makes no sense anymore to speak for him and that he's a lost case. The scene is even more beautiful (as much as such a scene can be beautiful that is) to watch, if you keep in mind that Ronn Lucas doesn't just have no text, but the very angry figure is speaking and that's without twitching lips on Lucas' part or otherwise showing that he's at the same time speaking for a very emotional figure. Scenes like that seem simple. Someone talks and someone else does not. In fact however they're much more complicated as they seem, similar to a magic trick. The art of ventriloquism is that the text of the figure are there right away. It's not something that's added later on by someone speaking the lines. That's the true art. I miss good ventriloquists. The films today are all animated and the actors just speak the lines. Or you help yourself with letting the actor speak the lines “off camera”, invisible for the camera.

As a ventriloquist you can be creative and you have a unbelievably complex task in being two persons at the same time. Also it gives the ventriloquist the possibility to say things which are impossible to say otherwise (because society doesn't like them) or things you don't dare saying (because you're shy). The figures give you the freedom to come out, really say anything and still be shy and withdrawn themselves. Ventriloquism is the safest way to let oneself go and “let out some steam”. Ventriloquists aren't crazy or evil. Crazy are only the people, who just take it all in all the time and don't let it out. Something like that makes people ill and crazy in the long run, I think.

Until next blog,

sarah

Ventriloquial comeback

Dear reader,

I went back to work again on thursday a while back. Gaston stayed home. But the two therapy puppets Lucy and Fritzchen were still back at work, of course. When most of our guests (that's how we call those we take care of) were gone, I took Fritzchen actually. One man and his wife were still with us. The woman was excited how well I worked Fritzchen. She said to me, "How do you do that? All with hand manipulation?" Fritzchen shook his head very much. "No, no, no", he said. "Face manipulation!" At the end, before the two went, Fritzchen stuck out his tongue at the woman. Before that, when we were talking, she had asked, if he could do it once again and done that several times as we talked. So it seemed like a good way to end the day.

Yesterday night I bought me Charlie McCarthy. If any one of you would like to check him out, type the number 370676756284 on eBay. Even sales that have ended show up that way. At least for a little while. He's looking good, although he's used. On his right eyebrow he has a mark. But who knows how that looks like for real. 145 $ are quite expensive, but for a real vent figure like Charlie that's really cheap, especially since it's shipping included and he will be imported from america.

I like soft figures like Gaston and the therapy puppets, because you have your hand in their head and with the soft material, you can make more with the face. On the other hand I'm very happy not to finally have Charlie McCarthy here soon and with that really one of the classic vent figures of all, not just from the way it is made, a hard figure with headstick, but also because even among the famous figures, well it's Charlie McCarthy, Edgar Bergen's main figure! Yay!

Yay? I will have to buy children's clothings and don't even know where there are shops for that here. Maybe the women at work can sew him some clothings. I'm sure they'll be happy to do that. At the risk of sounding totally stupid and silly: I feel a little bit like someone, who's getting a child and has to prepare for it. Charlie won't stay in my bed though! Since he's a hard figure this may not be that fitting. Gaston is more of a cuddly toy and okay. Although Charlie will be somewhat like a child, he won't be screaming in the middle of the night asking for food or something to drink and I'd have to fix some for him. I won't need to change his pants either. But buying clothings! Horror! The one question I can't avoid any longer: how to test the clothings on Charlie? I can hardly take a "doll" into the changing room. But I also don't want for everyone to see how I take off cloths of Charlie to see how new ones look on him?! What did I do buying a figure on eBay?! Man!!!

Until next blog,

sarah

Ventriloquism helps (part 2)

Dear reader,

we visited my mom yesterday. It was the first time for my sister and me. A friend of my parents', who also was with them on the tour, drove us. He and my dad had seen her before already in the hospital in france. I didn't say to her yet what I described in my last post, that I wanted to tel her. Although I thought about what and how to say it, in case other people would listen, too, and I wouldn't be able to say it directly the way I would if we had been alone. During the visiting hours in the hospital the doctors take some time off and go through the rooms talking to the relatives. The doctor didn't say much. We already knew the next steps and for now there's not much more we can do than just wait. When the doctor was there, she told us my mom is biting quite a bit when they're doing the oral hygiene. Understandably so. Who would like someone else "fumbling around" in our mouth and the tube to breathe certainly isn't comfortable for her. As the doctor went away, I would have liked to tell my mom what I want to tell her. Especially since the doctor had talked about biting. Not that my mom would take it as an order to bite. I didn't feel all too comfortable about it though that such words were used in her presence. I don't believe that people need to be that strict and have to watch there every word thinking three times about which ones to use, before actually saying them in her presence. After all she's still very far away and they sedated her, that's giving her tranquilizer, for the transportation to germany and the other day too, to change the tubes as well. A part of me is mean and wondering how the heck she's supposed to wake up from the coma if they sedate her again. On the other hand, of course, I see the point of doing that and that its necessary to do. We'll see. I wonder if it's possible to wake someone up by first picking up on the breathing rhythm of the other person and then taking over so to speak and leading to breathe together in such a way that would wake her up. Adjusting the breathing and then leading to breathe together in a different way is very indirect and often the other person doesn't notice, but it can be very effective and create change. That's especially important in hypnosis and relaxation and an inconspicuous, but very important thing. When we like other people in our daily life, this often happens, too. We adjust our breathing to match theirs, the tempo of how fast or slow we talk adjusts to one another and other aspects attune as well. I don't know what's possible in that aspect for my mom and me. My knowledge about hypnosis is mostly theory and otherwise limited to a little playing around with myself. apart from the two already mentioned friends where what I wanted to do didn't go too well. The situation with my mom will indeed be a test, just like the headline of my last entry read. Writing it this way has a morbid taste to it, or at least one may read it that way. Test. Like my mom is a test subject, someone to play around with. We'll see what comes out. (So much for: not giving continued details...)

I believe it was the beginning of this week when I brought my bat Gaston from Bochum back to my parents here. I wanted to have him to practise ventriloquism better with a real figure. Besides he's soft and warm and a pretty good substitute for my guinea pigs, which I often take out in the eve in front of my tv to have them on my lap. Up until two days ago my dad had some stomach problems. I gave him a big heart cushion, but he said it didn't fit that well. The other day we sat together watching tv. I had Gaston on my belly, because mine wasn't doing all too good either. My dad didn't want to have Gaston for himself. But then I wanted to get something from the kitchen. Normally I gave the guinea pigs away to my parents if I wanted something from the kitchen in the past so I wouldn't need to take them with me when I had them out on my lap. And now I did the same with Gaston somewhat casually giving him to my dad. He spread the wings, like I did and placed him on his belly. Some time later he said that the bat was really good. The wings would keep it all nice and warm. Up until the day before yesterday we took turns taking Gaston. When he had him, I took the heart. The day before yesterday he didn't want Gaston anymore. Only yesterday again I casually left him with my dad and as I walked out I saw my dad about to stick his hand into Gaston. When I was back from the kitchen with a yoghurt, Gaston said to me, "Hello. Getting hungry, aye?" I saw that my dad's lips were, quite "professionally" slightly parted, but they didn't move. We both had to grin.

Ventriloquism helps. Even if it's just by turning a figure into a hot bag for the belly. Another aspect of it is that for ventriloquism the jaws have to be relaxed. Otherwise you'll feel it in your jaws after a while. Many people when they're stressed are literally clenching their teeth so their jaws are all tense. I realised now that I'm getting more playful again and started practising ventriloquism again. It seems that I don't watch my jaws when I'm stressed. In theory ventriloquism could help against stress, since you've got to have relaxed jaws to do it. Now that my mom is closer to us again, the situation is more relaxed again for all of us. It was nice to see my dad getting a bit more playful again and seeing him play a bit with Gaston. Given that he knows nothing and only has seen some short videos with ventriloquists that I showed him, I was pleasantly surprised. Then again "Hello. Getting hungry, aye?" doesn't have difficult letters in it, for which you'd usually need to move your lips. ;-)

Until next blog,

sarah

Home, sweet home?

Dear reader,

that's it now: I've got my own flat. The contract is signed, I've got the keys. The moving can begin.

At the moment there's no happiness yet. Too much to organise for now.

But I will buy a rocking chair soon. I wanted that when I get my own flat and now I have it.

And something else I'll get, too: a Charlie McCarthy. Sadly most of those which are sold on eBay are with a string to pull on the neck to open and close the mouth. The easy version. I at least would like the next version. That's like all professional figures of that kind with a stick to control the moving head, which goes to the back and is controlled there with just one hand. With the string you pull on the string with one hand and hold the figure with the other hand to keep it from falling from the pulling. I don't remember the seller right now, but there is one on eBay, who sells another kind of figures, too. Those are with headstick, and also control to move the eyes of the figure from left to right and with wig for hair. I hope I get one of the second version or maybe I can talk to the seller to get me a mix of the 2nd and 3rd. Because Edgar Bergen's Charlie McCarthy didn't have moving eyes and the hair with the seller is dark brown. What it should be is red. I don't care about the moving eyes or not. But I insist on the red hair - or no hair at all, like with most figures which are sold for play for kids and such. With those the hair is made out of the same material like the rest of the head. So it's version 2. Would be fine with me for my first real figure. Although hair would be nice. Wait and see what the seller has to say. For now I would need my laptop back to begin with!

Until next blog,

sarah

The missing link

Dear reader,

my laptop is away for repair. I am writing a few thoughts on paper for the blog for later and limit my time on my parents' computer to the necessary: reading mails, checking Jay Johnson's blog for new entries (great, I just read that he, too, had a computer problem. After 4 hours of talking on the service phone his problem was solved. My laptop will be back in 3-4 weeks the sales woman said.) Then I also check Bob's Vlog, if there's anything new there. That's it.

Of course I could do more. But I don't want to do that on another computer, even though my parents would let me. I could, for example, typewriting the blog entries and publish them. Would be too much time on another computer for me though. But I don't mind that really. I can write on paper as well.

What I really miss above all else is listening to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarhty on their radio show. That's right. I don't miss chatting the most, not even the internet in whichever form, but an old radio show. I do have the files on my external hard drive and I could plug it to my t.v. That should work. Wouldn't be as nice as with my laptop though. I've got a few short pieces on my ipod, too. But that's getting boring with just 6 tracks of each about 5 minutes length. The shows are 30-60 minutes and I hadn't listened to half of them when I gave away my laptop for repair.

So my "missing link" is an old radio show.

Until next blog,

sarah

Ventriloquism helps

Dear reader,

I knew for a while that the ventriloquist Paul Winchell is dead. I didn't knew it just when I wrote that post where I wrote about some known ventriloquists. But at the beginning of this week I got an idea of what those things he had written in the last chapter of his book "Ventriloquism For Fun & Profit" could mean. This entry today couldn't come close to a letter or e-mail to him. But I fear it's the only thing left to do for me now. Because as much as I would have liked to write to him, I cannot do that anymore. So all that's left for me is this blog entry here.

In the last chapter Paul Winchell argues especially for 2 things: one is bringing ventriloquism into schools to teach in classes, the other thing is using ventriloquism as a sort of speech therapy for people who stutter or lisp. His points are sharp as they are simple and logical:

We probably all were mad a lot about the seemingly meaningless topics in higher classes in school. Above all in mathematics in higher classes, which has things that are so far beyond anything we need in our daily life like nothing else. They are not totally meaningless as such, but the percentage of students who take on a job in a field that needs these kinds of math is very very low. Most people feel more like this is torture.

Paul Winchell says that it makes much more sense to teach and learn ventriloquism instead. This is because you have to use both hands at any time: one hand to bring the figure to life and the other hand for yourself at least to gesture a bit. Because you use both hands, both brain hemispheres are active, get connected and are used at the same time. It's one thing to argue that to write essays teaches you to structure and make good points. It's a totally different thing, I think, not only to entertain, but also to be creative and bring together both brain hemispheres at the same time. What really makes sense in the long run and is a true argument here?

Stuttering, according to Paul Winchell, happens with a kid, who thinks faster than he or she is able to speak their thoughts. Their thoughts come faster than the words can come out. Thus they stutter. As a ventriloquist you need to bring the figure to life for starters and also you have to think for two people at the same time: talk for yourself and at the same time think about what the figure can say in reply and when the figure is talking you need to think about what you can say to that in reply yourself. The kid has to think about many things. That slows down the many thoughts, thus the stuttering stops.

Lisping, Paul Winchell says, is a certain way of saying s-sounds in a different way than people, who don't lisp.  For lisping s-sounds are substituted for th. Ventriloquism is similar. About a hand full of sounds are made with the lips. F for example is such a letter. But when you say f-sounds with a th instead, you get a pretty decent substitution. You get rid of the lisping the similar way. If a lisping child understands the sound substitution for ventriloquism and is able to do that, the child should have no problem at all using the same principle for the s-sounds and the lisping is history, as they say.

At the beginning of this week now I thought about my own handicap. When I was born my upper jaw, my upper palate and my upper lip where split in two. (Hence this handicap is called double cleft-palate.) Well, that's not the case anymore. I had surgery of course. Before the surgeries the upper palate was open and the upper lip couldn't close properly. Which means, that kids with this handicap, at least until they had surgery, couldn't use their upper lip the right way. With ventriloquism you don't need your lips at all.

I wish I had known about ventriloquism, sound substitution and sound making earlier. I think ventriloquism is also a chance for people with the handicap like mine. We make some sounds different from other people and hear ourselves making the sounds a different way than they actually sound for other people. That's why people with a handicap like mine often need to go to a speech therapist. With the sound substitution used for ventriloquism people without a handicap at least speak inarticulate or worse than usual. Unless they all learn to make perfect sound substitutions.

Paul Winchell also was the person, who wrote in his book that the tip of the tongue is at the same place on the roof of the mouth for the sounds D, N and T. I didn't read that in any other book so far and my sound making can't be taken as criteria with my handicap. So T is one of the letters that may be difficult for someone with my handicap. Paul Winchell's note was a really good one for me to know where to be with the tip of my tongue for the T.

A couple of weeks ago I recorded my voice. Just to hear what I sound like now. I had only the memory of recordings of my voice from when I was a child.  I wanted to know how I sound. I needed several attempts to press the record button. I forced myself to record my voice on my computer. The first time was a failure. I had connected the plugs for the mic and the headphones the wrong way. The second time the display showed me green for sound recording. After I had spoken the 2 lines to set up the mic and recorded it, I was curious to listen to my voice right away. I deleted the recording right after I heard myself. I know many people hate their own voice. But I think I should record myself speaking a couple of lines with sound substitution. At least all people sound equally terrible that way. Ventriloquism gives the same rights for all.

As I write this post here the sadness from the beginning of this week comes back. This entry seems so meaningless to me. But what I really want, to write to Paul Winchell, is not possible anymore. I'm about 7 years too late. Paul Winchell was 82 years old when he died of natural causes in 2005 (according to wikipedia). What's left is this blog entry.

Until next blog,

sarah

Dehumanise your pets

Dear reader,

I never said this blog will be about ventriloquism only. More "on a gut level". So today I want to write something "non-ventriloquial". Although it's not that far away from ventriloquism.  But more on that connection to ventriloquism later.

The other day I watched a live program "Dog - German, German - Dog" with the german "dog whisperer" Martin Rütter. He's quite well known over here. This week a magazine had him on the title page even. He's the guy you call, if you need help with your dogs.

In his live program he mentions a phenomena: we talk to our dogs as we would with other humans: in full sentences. I don't know how you talk to your pets in english, because I'm used to hear it in german all the time. So I can't exactly give you examples here. Also the english way of talking to pets may be different than german as a whole just from the language itself. But what Rütter says certainly is true for german speaking people talking with pets.

I never had dogs myself. But just the other day I realised I sat with my guinea pigs and realised I said something to them - yes, in full sentences - as if they were able to understand me. Then I thought of the humanisation and said nothing.

One of the guinea pigs has cysts on her ovaries. It means hormonal fluctuation and especial: jumping on the other female guinea pig! Of course the best time to do it is in the middle of the night... At first Nelly was quite shy. By now she became braver. Sadly so, I almost dare writing. Because the first couple of times she was quiet after I banged my hand on the frame of the bed. Shoutings like "Be quiet now!" or something like that I don't say anymore. I noticed the other day that this again would be humanisation... and it wouldn't help with her anyway. First off it's not her fault she has those hormonal fluctuations, secondly she's brave enough now that my shoutings, no matter what I'd shout, wouldn't keep her away from the other one. Parts of this wrongdoing we all do with dogs, we also do with other animals. And maybe even with animals, which couldn't react to what we say the way a dog could act to what we tell him to do. What worked quite effectively for me lately was to go to the cage and maybe nudge Nelly with one finger or at least get my hand near her. Not in a threatening way, just sticking my hand in the cage. She's not that brave to be close to Bibi then. This helps at least for a moment. (The hormone injections help, too.)

What's all of this got to do with ventriloquism now? Sometimes I have Gaston, my bat, with me in our groups at work. Just the other day I had Gaston on my hand when I opened the door for a daughter, who came to take her mother back home. As she saw Gaston she reacted with, "Oh what a cutie he is!" Others went further asking, as if it really was an animal, "What's his name?" Maybe even followed by a quick, "It's a 'he', isn't it?" No! It's an "it" and a hand puppet!  Of course I never said that to any of those, who asked me. The questions about his name are more difficult. The catalogue sold him as "Gaston", my colleague at work called him "Gomes" from the start and most of the time he's not addressed by name at all. So basically he's a kind of half nameless Gaston.

This humanisation and personification also with (hand) puppets is what vents use. It's this fact that helps creating the illusion... and the misdirection of the vent, should his or her lips move a bit although the figure is "speaking". I don't quite remember where I read it, I think it was in Edgar Bergen's book, but others certainly point it out as well: if a vent is not very good at saying a certain letter or a word without moving his or her lips, you can let the figure make a distinct movement of some sorts. If the audience isn't looking at the figure already, the distinct movement of the figure will bring the whole attention away from you and to the figure.

There's an interview with Rasheda Ali and Ronn Lucas on youtube. At first he's alone, but when he has brought Buffalo Billy out of the trunk, asking questions is suddenly more difficult. Should she ask Billy directly or talk with Ronn Lucas about Billy? "Who am I talking to?", she asks at one moment.  Ronn Lucas, who is used to that, takes it with humour, "That's the problem with ventriloquists."

Jay Johnson as well as Paul Winchell can tell stories about being part of a tv production acting as a ventriloquist and the sound of the puppet talking didn't record well, although the sound of the other actors recorded well. For both of them it was pure luck that they eventually found out the guy holding the mic to record the sound of the dialogue turned the mic to the puppet any time it had a line to say, instead of pointing the mic to Jay Johnson respectively Paul Winchell. This is how real an illusion can get and a vent can not hope for more, after all this illusion of bringing a inanimate figure to life is what makes a good vent. Maybe the vent should talk to the "mic guy" before filming, where he should keep his mic when the figure is "speaking". but that's what the anecdotes of Paul Winchell and Jay Johnson are for, to warn budding film and tv ventriloquist stars about possible "sound problems"... ;-)

Our pets however may be better off if we dehumanised them more. Aren't you, Nelly? Bibi?

Until next blog,

sarah

Muffed opportunity

Dear reader,

the dvds haven't arrived this evening. Just to let you know...

Today one of our bosses told me she'd have a task for me. Before she could show me what I had to do, we needed  to wait for another colleague to give me some additional papers I'd need. As we waited my boss asked me if I on what terms I was with that colleague. Now, in english there's just "you" and that's for everyone, strangers as well as close friends and family. In german we have a formal "you" (Sie), usually used by kids to address adults or generally to talk to strangers or people you're not that close with.  There's another "you" (du) for friends and family or people you're more close to. So what she asked me was if I was on "du" terms with her with first names or not. I told her we were on "du" terms. I used that opportunity to ask my boss how we should keep it between each other and suggested that maybe we could make it "du" and first names. (I didn't tell her, but  I'm working there now for over a year and we both like each other.) She said she'd like to do that.

I thought about asking her for some time now, although I never really knew exactly how to ask her. In retrospect I thought the way I actually did it now was rather clumsy. But that's how I did it now anyway.

I didn't yet talk about Gaston, my bat "hand puppet"! I bought it in april since Lucy and Fritzchen, like I've told you before, aren't that good to work with for ventriloquism. More on Gaston in another post... In a flash of "comfort shopping" I had bought 4 books on ventriloquism: Edgar Bergen's "How To Become A Ventriloquist", which I forgot to mention in my blog post yesterday, Paul Winchell's book and 2 books by Ronn Lucas and Chris Clober, which I also forgot to include in yesterday's blog post. I'll tell you more about the books another time. Inspired by one of Ronn Lucas and Chris Clober's books, I got this idea that I could offer my boss the "du" through Gaston. My plan was this: My boss up until now always addressed me with "Miss Grabke", which would kind of be Gaston's "cue". He would have said, "She doesn't dare telling you directly that she would like to be called Sarah." At that moment I would have used my free hand to hold Gaston's mouth shut and say something like, "He's cheeky, but he's right. Do we want to change over to "du"?

My plan was to write to Ronn Lucas after that and proudly tell him about it. Especially more so, since the words I would have put in Gaston's mouth work nicely without moving lips. (Not so much my english translation for this blog here, but even that is not that difficult to say without moving your lips really.) In the book that inspired me to this situation, Ronn Lucas writes that he would like to see readers actually doing some of the situations he suggests. I surely couldn't have recorded it. But I wanted to be able to tell him about it in an e-mail. On tuesday already I have had the opportunity to suggest the "du" to her in a harmless situation, but very consciously didn't do it. Now I muffed the opportunity. Darn.

Until next blog,

sarah

I've Got A Pain In My Sawdust

Dear Reader,

the title of todays blog post is the title of an old song. It was written and published in the early 20th century in america and tells the painful story of a bisque doll. I came across that song recently. I had looked up Jeff Dunham at the famous internet website imdb.com to see what other movies he had been in. I found the documentary "I'm No Dummy". Through that I came to know first Jay Johnson and now I'm waiting, yes, with pain in my sawdust, for 2 dvds with Ronn Lucas.

I want to take the opportunity today to tell you a bit about some known ventriloquist... Oh yes, the song! In 2007 Jay Johnson had a role in a CSI episode ("Living Dolls"). He played a ventriloquist (no, he doesn't always play a ventriloquist in every single role he has in a movie) and lets his puppet sing the last verse of the song in a performance he gives. If you ask me that's the best way to perform that song. True, the suffering puppet isn't a ventriloquist figure, but which other puppet could sing for itself and a puppet should in fact do the singing herself, don't you think?

Now, famous vents. What follows is a small, personal, totally incomplete selection, in no particular order:

Edgar Bergen (1903-1978): he's best known with Charlie McCarthy. Bergen's lip control was hopeless. Probably because he did a lot of radio show work where of course the lip control didn't matter. But with Charlie McCarthy he created a boy, who seemed to have his own independent small personality. That was quite something. Most people may know Charlie with his suit, top hat and monocle. But don't be fooled by his appearance! This boy didn't mince matters. apart from the radio shows Bergen and Charlie McCarthy also played parts in movies, where they often portraid themselves. Even Charlie McCarthy often got credited with "as himself" or playing "Charlie McCarthy". Although Charlie McCarthy was the main character for Edgar Bergen, he wasn't the only one he had. There's also the slow thinking, often stupid country boy Mortimer Snerd.

Some Edgar Bergen bits can be found on youtube. Short movies like "Nut Guilty" for example or "The Eyes Have It" and (at least for now) the complete movie "Letter of Introduction" in full length and one piece! I'm still checking him out myself and finding things I haven't seen yet. One other movie I can recommend to you already is "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man" in which Bergen and Charlie work in a circus. The director is a miser ripping off everyone he can, including his own staff. Charlie wanted to leave him for a long time already. But when the director's daughter once visits the circus and Bergen gets a crush on her, he himself could stay for a bit longer...

Paul Winchell (1922-2005): Not only was he a vent, but also an inventor! The first construction of an artificial heart is his invention, complete with patent even! As a kid he got polio and had to spent lots of time in bed. Instead of being depressed about it, he took the opportunity and bought info on ventriloquism after reading an add in a magazine. Reminds me a bit of Milton Erickson, who too got polio when he was young and also was forced to be in bed for a long time. Paul Winchell also did the voice of Tigger for the Disney Winnie Pooh movies.  As a vent he was most famous with his figures Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff.  Over time he got to be a vent for kids mostly and did tv shows for and with kids. If you want to become a vent yourself and are creative and are reasonably good with handcrafts, you should get Paul Winchell's book "Ventriloquism for Fun and Profit". It's informative for beginners, entertaining to read lots of anecdotes of Paul Winchell's own life and also has a very detailed step by step description of how to build your own figure, as you wish either out of papier-mâché or wood! There are many clips with him on youtube for you to watch, too.

Jimmy Nelson: inspired and still supports young people, who want to learn ventriloquism. He got famous for his Nestle ads with Danny O'Day and the dog Farfel. He also published 2 lps showing people how they can learn ventriloquism themselves.

Jay Johnson (b. 1949): I already mentioned Jay Johnson before. Like many other vents, he started to learn this art when he was young. He's a dyslexic, which made school not very fun for him. To have a hobby where he suddenly didn't have many people to compete with him, certainly was a positive experience for him. Like I said in my previous blog post, Jay Johnson got most famous playing the role of the vent Chuck Campbell in "Soap". As a result of that Bob got famous, too, and continues to be his most famous partner. Before Bob also was Squeaky, but like Jay Johnson tells in his one-man-show "Jay Johnson: The Two And Only" (for which he won a Tony, by the way!), Squeaky was too sweet for the producers to play the part of the big mouth Bob.  Edgar Bergen was always with Charlie McCarthy and Paul Winchell was always with Jerry Mahoney. Now Jay Johnson couldn't be with Squeaky anymore.  At first he thought, after he finished "Soap", he could go back working with Squeaky. But Bob was the figure he got famous with in "Soap". Many clips with Chuck and Bob in Soap as well as Jay Johnson with other of his partners (Darwin!!!) can be found with the corresponding key words on youtube.  Because Jay Johnson will be performing his Broadway show again in september to film it for the release of the dvd, I'd like to mention a couple of pages: "Jay Johnson: The Two And Only" auf youtube, where Bob will also vlog about the preparations to the show. Jay's "normal homepage" and the "Jay Johnson: The Two And Only" page.

Ronn Lucas (b. 1954): I mentioned him before in my earlier post, too. It's difficult for me to really name one or two of his figures, because he has so many interesting ones I've seen already. Two of his most famous ones certainly are the cheeky cowboy Buffalo Billy and the fire-breathing dragon Scorch. Some clips with Billy and even more with Scorch can be found on youtube, including the 3 episodes of Scorch's own series (called "Scorch"). apart from Billy and Scorch Ronn Lucas also can turn a sock into a simple, but very effective sock puppet in full view of the audience. Ronn Lucas is so creative and broad as a vent that he is called "the man, who can make anything talk". That's including a microphone, which once pissed off by him, makes him speak out of sync. I personally find it refreshing that he did afternoon shows for kids in Las Vegas and still is entertaining for adults, too. I didn't yet find complete episodes of his "The Ronn Lucas Show", which he did in 1990, although youtube has bits and pieces of them. He also had guest appearances in several tv series. I personally enjoyed him most in "L.A. Law", although he was a vent with a rather sad history in that one. Watching him as his figure was raving in the court room and towards the end totally got himself down too while he is barely moving his lips at all, I can watch that again and again. Here's the link to his youtube channel with several clips and his homepage also includes an appearance with Scorch that made me get a total crush on Scorch, namely the MDA Telethon appearance. Also check out his eBay page, where he sells his toy Scorch and his two dvds. Yes, the shipping is also to europe and I got the movies I'm longing to get any day now from there.

Other vents you should have heard of:

Lynn Trefzger: on her homepage you'll find videos, among them one with the boy Noah, who had a brain tumor, who she went to see. I think it's a very nice of her to do that! Jeff Dunham made ventriloquism popular again recently for many people. Since many of you probably know him already, I won't write much about him here now. (his homepage) Another female vent I want to mention is Nina Conti, who began doing ventriloquism when she was almost 30. Of course she has her own homepage, too. Dan Horn is also known, although I don't know much about him other than his name and I've seen a few clips with him on youtube. In the documentary "Dumbstruck" they follow him and also Terry Fator, who got famous after his breakthrough through "America's Got Talent". Since there are rather few woman in this field, I'd also like to mention Carla Rhodes. I came to know her after watching her in the movie "Dummies!", which I stumbled upon on the internet the other day. Although then still a teenager, she came across as quite charming to me and judging from her homepage, she seemed to have made it actually and found her place in comedy, music and ventriloquism.

Okay, if you can make it and really keep your eyes on the lips of the vents I mentioned here, you'll probably see slightly quivering lips with all of them once or twice. Nobody is perfect, but all of the vents I mentioned in this post, I think, are all well worth watching. Like I said, Edgar Bergen is a lost case when it comes to lip control, but that doesn't make him less worth watching. All of them here are great artists, who have kept and keep this old art of ventriloquism alive. Time will tell how much I will be one of them...

Until next blog,

sarah

so ventriloquism – have you eliminated every other possibility of employment?

Dear reader,

the headline for today's blog is what a journalist asked the ventriloquist (or short "vent") Jeff Dunham about his job decision. I read an interview with Jeff Dunham on the internet today, in which he said, "When somebody who is 9 years old comes to me and says they want to be a ventriloquist, I think that's great because it's a great hobby. ... When somebody who's 28 years old comes to me and says they want to be a ventriloquist, I think, have you eliminated every other possibility of a hobby? And I just think that it's kind of sad because really, your life's gotten to the point that you're going to pick up a doll and make it talk for other people? That's really sad dude." Jeff Dunham, you're playing with dolls yourself. And you're wrong.

My interest in ventriloquism started with Jeff Dunham. In 2008 or so I saw something with him on youtube and thought it was quite entertaining. Back then I watched it purely for entertainment. What he did there or the question of "how" never came to my mind at that time.

In spring this year I found our two therapy puppets to work with and ventriloquism was interesting for me now. I watched Jeff Dunham again. This time not for entertainment. The therapy puppet girl was the one I worked with first. It became obvious to me very fast that those kind of puppets are not quite good for the use I had in mind. You can stick one of each of your hands in either of her arms and use her hands that way. And you can stick a hand in her head to move the mouth. You can even stick a finger in her tongue to make it work: for example stick out the tongue at someone. So you really need three hands to work the puppet. I borrowed Lucy for about a week to take her home with me. At least I'd have someone to work with. Every other hand puppet of sorts I found at home didn't have a moving mouth. Where's the fun in ventriloquism with a puppet with no moving mouth? Soon after that I took the boy, Fritzchen home with me. He was somewhat different, although he works the same way Lucy does. I used him even still at work with my colleague and the intern that worked with us at that time. Both reacted to him instantly. I thought to myself, "I almost don't need to learn to talk without moving my lips! They don't look at me, they look at him!" I thought of a word used in magic: misdirection. The magician makes you look somewhere, for example using one of his hands and with the other he secretly does whatever makes the trick work. Ventriloquism is nothing else. When you're not moving your lips and next to you is a puppet moving his or her lips, the whole attention goes to the puppet.

The more I thought about it, the more things I found in common for magic, hypnosis and ventriloquism. In hypnotherapy there's a method called "my friend John technique". This method is great when you don't know how the other person will react to what you want to say, but you want to say it anyway. You tell it as a story, like something that happened to your friend "John" or someone. You can use quotes that way, too. Mark Twain once said, "Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live." Even if you don't agree with what Mark Twain said, you won't be angry with me. I didn't say it, Mark Twain did. I directed the possible disagreement of this statement away from me. A ventriloquist figure (that's the professional term they use for the puppets, although most people don't know that term) works just that way. Jeff Dunham can let Achmed the dead terrorist say, "Silence! I keel you!" and the audience will cheer. Let a real terrorist do that once. The figures can be nasty like nothing else and get away with it. They can say things a normal human can't say that easily, if at all.

The vent Ronn Lucas remembers a situation where a heckler was really annoying. So he let his figure heckle him back. This got to a point where the heckler stood up and lifted his fist to beat... no, not Ronn. The guy went after the figure! After all the figure had heckled him! What a nice compliment to give the vent, isn't it? For the guy the figure was real and alive.

Jay Johnson is a vent, who became famous in america in the late 1970's with the tv series "Soap". As you may have guessed, he played a vent, with his figure, Bob. The thing with Chuck and Bob was treated as a real person by almost everybody, who had something to do with him. Just from the way Bob behaved there wasn't any other way of reacting.

Jay Johnson also was in an episode (A Riddle for Puppets) of the series "Mrs. Columbo". There, too, he played a vent. In that episode he went to a children hospital to entertain the kids. As we learn over the course of this episode he was a kid when he learned about ventriloquism. Back then he was a very sad kid and had heard noises from a building. So he went in to find a puppet maker at work. He taught the boy all he knew about ventriloquism and also made the boy his own figure. The boy naturally couldn't pay with money. The man told his student to find another kid, who was just as sad as he was back then and make the child happy. That would be his way of paying him back.

Surely, a fictional story. But a very beautiful motivation for your work, I think. P. T. Barnum was a guy, who created a circus with a little bit of everything. He wanted the visitors to have fun, because they'd find at least one thing they'd really enjoy. Barnum once said, "The noblest art is that of making others happy."

That's what I want to do. I don't want to do inclusive education. For many of us it means "repairing" or "fixing" and not respecting the people for who they are the way they are. There are already clowns going into children hospitals to entertain the kids. I also heard of a group of old people doing magic for old people. I think I want to learn ventriloquism really to make other people happy. That's my plan. When I use the my friend John technique, I don't even need a qualification in hypnotherapy to tell stories with my vent figures. The positive effect to help and heal will be like magic. :-)

Until next blog,

sarah

Hello world!

Dear reader,

I'm starting this blog today to share thoughts, point out interesting things I came across or just mention whatever else new discoveries.

In 1997 I started writing stories. Now I'm writing this blog here.  ;-)

In 2009 I became interested in magic. I had a magic box as a kid, but nothing serious came out of that. In my studies at the university (studied inclusive education, that's helping disabled people), they talked time and again about the need to be aware of our own body language and have an "open" body language. But how exactly do you do that? Or how do I know if clients hold back information? What does it mean when they're sitting in a certain position across from me or have a specific look? We never talked about that. So I began teaching myself. Lately if you read on body language sooner or later you come across three letters: NLP. Neuro-linguistic programming.  I wanted to know how others use it and what can be done with it. I don't quite remember what I typed in, because if you just type in "nlp" at youtube, you don't get what I found and which eventually lead me to magic again. Which was a video with the "psychological illusionist" (his own words) Derren Brown. The video description read this: "The heist was an experiment hosted by Derren Brown to see if he could get people to rob a bank." What the heck? To get normal people to rob a bank? Can this really be done? I had to see that! So I watched his program on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdkivIk1NiY (part 1 of 5)

What can I say? The program was interesting and I started to like Derren Brown. I saw more videos with him, and bought his book "Tricks of The Mind". In it he gives basic introductions to many of the techniques he uses for his tricks: from magic with cards and coins to tricks to remember things (mnemonic) and hypnosis.

Hypnosis. People who read on NLP will also learn about hypnosis and hypnotherapy. After all one of the people the founders of NLP studied was the psychotherapist Milton Erickson, who not only was incredibly creative, but also used hypnosis as part of his therapy. In the spring of 2011 I did a google search for online courses on hypnosis and found Stephen Brooks. On his website among other things, he also offers a free one year course in the theories and principles of Ericksonian hypnotherapy and NLP. Free sounds good, right? Can you trust it? Yes! Stephen Brooks is one of the leading experts and well known around the world. He didn't meet Erickson in person, but studied Erickson and his methods through and through.

Spring 2012. I'm working for an organisation offering day care for people suffering from dementia. They are brought there in the morning and go home in the late afternoon every day. I needed this whole year to realise that the 2 therapy puppets we had are never used. It became obvious for me that if they shouldn't sit around in a corner looking bored, I had to do something about it myself. Take the puppet, stick a hand in the head to operate the mouth and at the same time move your own mouth to talk for the puppets? It works. It's easy. Too easy. Why talk for the puppet, if you can let them talk for themselves? With ventriloquism. How I learned and learn it and my thoughts on that will topic of my next blog...

Until next blog,

sarah