Dear reader,
with the olympic games, just like with the world series, a corporate feeling comes up again, even if it's only the corporate wish for the team your own country to win. Not "a team" needs to win, but "we" need to win. I didn't even watch the opening ceremony of the olympic games and didn't see any of the games at all. Simply because I'm not interested. But I couldn't help but notice that the german's weren't doing that good so far. (I wonder how the bad games so far will have a negative effect on those, who still have to go for it.)
The other day on the news the reporter commented on the men fencing. He said something along the lines of, "We need to get better for the women fencing." I looked at my dad, who was watching the news with me and said, "We need to be better at fencing? I cannot do fencing at all. Can you?" He said nothing to that. It wasn't necessary anyway.
Who are they speaking of, especially politicians and other people in power, when they say "the germans" or "the americans", "the..."?
When my dad is ranting about the americans, I keep telling him, "One of your best friends is an american!" But that's something else entirely. Or is it?
Until next blog,
sarah
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Monday, 16 July 2012
My motivation room
Dear reader,
I'm currently still living with my parents. So I can't make the whole flat the way I would, if it was my own. I'm not sure what I would change if it was my own. Anyway, today I want to write about my room.
You know, I was quite happy when in 2008 "The Dark Knight" came out. I didn't rush into the cinema, like probably many others did, to see one of the last movies with Heath Ledger. I had seen the first Christopher Nolan Batman movie, "Batman Begins" already and liked that. So it was quite natural for me to go and see the second and yes, I'm going to see the third and last one, too! What made me so happy about "The Dark Knight"? The Joker posters. Not because of Heath Ledger, but because of what it read on them: "Why So Serious?" I got a poster where the Joker is on it and wrote that line in blood. I had the poster on my door for a while. Now the poster is replaced by some other lines, I'm going to describe to you in a bit. "Why so serious?" helped me a lot for some time. It served as a reminder to smile. Even if it was a forced smile for the moment. The question seemed appropriate. Why walk around looking miserable so much? I forgot who it was and actually forgot the exact words of the quote, but it's something to the extend of: "Whether you smile or look sad, time keeps ticking anyway. So you may as well smile." The Joker's line was shorter though.
Now the only thing that reminds me or anybody of TDK are the three mini-posters on my wardrobe walls. I have three doors and it seemed fitting to put one poster up on each. The one furthest on the left has Harvey Dent's face with his right hand up holding one of his "I believe in Harvey Dent" badges hiding the right side of his face. The door in the middle has Batman's face with his right hand up holding one of his bat-boomerangs, whatever you call them, those bat things he throws sometimes. That, too, covers the right side of his face. On the right side has the Joker's face with his right hand up holding a Joker playing card hiding his right side of the face. I like those posters. Harvey is my favourite, because he's the character I like best in the movie. I have one of those badges now, by the way.
So then there's my desk. It stays in such a way that I sit right across from a wall. And I have one small bookshelf right on my desk and another on the wall a bit further up. The one on the wall has several postit's notes stuck to it. One reads "It's not over until it's over. Yogi Berra", another reads: "Like my mother used to tell me - if you're good at something, never do it for free. The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos: it's fair." Those three sentences are said by the Joker in the movie. I think the Joker's mom had a good advice. The other two lines are... debatable, I guess. Here's another sticker: "Who knows Master Wayne? You start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident." That's a great line from "Batman Begins". Bruce Wayne's butler says it to him. Wayne is covered with bruises, because of his fights as Batman and the butler, rightly, says that Wayne would need some cover, some excuse for them. The butler suggests polo. Wayne doesn't like the idea at all. So that's when the butler says that line. He's so right. Sometimes we just need to do things, get started and it's not so bad after all.
That quote ties neatly into the movie "Love Happens". I know, it's a cheesy title, but it's really a nice movie. Not one of those stupid love-romance-flics you'd imagine it to be. And it has Aaron Eckhart in it, who played Harvey Dent in TDK. Anyway, the movie is about Burke Ryan, who lost his wife in a car accident a couple of years back. He got over his loss, or so he makes everyone believe anyway. He wrote a book about it and now does seminars to help others overcome their loss. Sometimes we hear Aaron Eckhart from the off citing lines from his book. One is this: "Devote five minutes a day to smiling, just smiling, and after a while it'll come naturally." (Funny enough at that moment we see him alone in his hotel room, sitting on the bed, staring blankly, looking very miserable.) I won't tell you what's up with him. You've got to see for yourself. There's no line from "Love Happens" at the shelf, but I love his advice and it just fits with the butler's quote. There are a couple of other quotes on those stickers, but they keep falling off on to the table. Also I'd advice you not to take my choices like that, but look for what fits for you. I picked those and some other lines, because they're special and mean something to me. I only write those for you to give you ideas of what may be working.
I wrote that my door doesn't have the Joker poster any longer. It has a couple of self-made papers. One has the first line Dracula said to Jonathan Harker as he enters the castle, although I took the liberty and changed one word for obvious reasons, here's the original line: "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free will and leave some of the happiness you bring." Essentially it says that the person, who comes into my room, should bring and leave happiness. I like that idea. Sadness out, happiness in. Another paper has Charlie Chaplin sitting in front of a house on the steps, looking sad with only a dog next to him, like he's the only friend left for Charlie. I added a speech bubble with a quote from Charlie Chaplin, namely: "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles." I think that's very important to keep in mind. We sometimes think that our troubles and problems have no end, but they do. Very important reminder. I wanted Charlie Chaplin to look sad on the picture though. Add a little bit of humor to the quote like that. (Much like Burk Ryan telling us to smile and sitting alone and sad in his hotel room.)
I have another late addition on the door. It's a german line, supposedly what a person suffering from dementia may ask. It reads: "Is it Monday or May today?" It's written in one of those old fonts, too. I just love it.
I also made a compilation of five of my favourite magicians one in each corner (among them Derren Brown and Harry Houdini, if you care to know) and the duo Penn & Teller in the middle. The line above them reads: "Hour youth income ache sad if stow watch oath ink." I think Milton Erickson would have liked that one. Hint: Read it aloud and listen to the sound of the words. If you catch me in a good mood, I may answer your message about that quote and tell you what it really means. That one's on my wall next to the bookshelves actually framed, too.
If you want some of my self-made posters, like the Charlie Chaplin one, drop me a message and I'll send it to you. I also made a compilation of lines of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight". I just don't know where to put it. It's several lines, among them those mentioned above, in different colours.
Go ahead, play with lines, stick some up at your place! I'd be happy to read your ideas and what you came up with, too! Drop me a message.
Until next blog,
sarah
I'm currently still living with my parents. So I can't make the whole flat the way I would, if it was my own. I'm not sure what I would change if it was my own. Anyway, today I want to write about my room.
You know, I was quite happy when in 2008 "The Dark Knight" came out. I didn't rush into the cinema, like probably many others did, to see one of the last movies with Heath Ledger. I had seen the first Christopher Nolan Batman movie, "Batman Begins" already and liked that. So it was quite natural for me to go and see the second and yes, I'm going to see the third and last one, too! What made me so happy about "The Dark Knight"? The Joker posters. Not because of Heath Ledger, but because of what it read on them: "Why So Serious?" I got a poster where the Joker is on it and wrote that line in blood. I had the poster on my door for a while. Now the poster is replaced by some other lines, I'm going to describe to you in a bit. "Why so serious?" helped me a lot for some time. It served as a reminder to smile. Even if it was a forced smile for the moment. The question seemed appropriate. Why walk around looking miserable so much? I forgot who it was and actually forgot the exact words of the quote, but it's something to the extend of: "Whether you smile or look sad, time keeps ticking anyway. So you may as well smile." The Joker's line was shorter though.
Now the only thing that reminds me or anybody of TDK are the three mini-posters on my wardrobe walls. I have three doors and it seemed fitting to put one poster up on each. The one furthest on the left has Harvey Dent's face with his right hand up holding one of his "I believe in Harvey Dent" badges hiding the right side of his face. The door in the middle has Batman's face with his right hand up holding one of his bat-boomerangs, whatever you call them, those bat things he throws sometimes. That, too, covers the right side of his face. On the right side has the Joker's face with his right hand up holding a Joker playing card hiding his right side of the face. I like those posters. Harvey is my favourite, because he's the character I like best in the movie. I have one of those badges now, by the way.
So then there's my desk. It stays in such a way that I sit right across from a wall. And I have one small bookshelf right on my desk and another on the wall a bit further up. The one on the wall has several postit's notes stuck to it. One reads "It's not over until it's over. Yogi Berra", another reads: "Like my mother used to tell me - if you're good at something, never do it for free. The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos: it's fair." Those three sentences are said by the Joker in the movie. I think the Joker's mom had a good advice. The other two lines are... debatable, I guess. Here's another sticker: "Who knows Master Wayne? You start pretending to have fun, you might even have a little by accident." That's a great line from "Batman Begins". Bruce Wayne's butler says it to him. Wayne is covered with bruises, because of his fights as Batman and the butler, rightly, says that Wayne would need some cover, some excuse for them. The butler suggests polo. Wayne doesn't like the idea at all. So that's when the butler says that line. He's so right. Sometimes we just need to do things, get started and it's not so bad after all.
That quote ties neatly into the movie "Love Happens". I know, it's a cheesy title, but it's really a nice movie. Not one of those stupid love-romance-flics you'd imagine it to be. And it has Aaron Eckhart in it, who played Harvey Dent in TDK. Anyway, the movie is about Burke Ryan, who lost his wife in a car accident a couple of years back. He got over his loss, or so he makes everyone believe anyway. He wrote a book about it and now does seminars to help others overcome their loss. Sometimes we hear Aaron Eckhart from the off citing lines from his book. One is this: "Devote five minutes a day to smiling, just smiling, and after a while it'll come naturally." (Funny enough at that moment we see him alone in his hotel room, sitting on the bed, staring blankly, looking very miserable.) I won't tell you what's up with him. You've got to see for yourself. There's no line from "Love Happens" at the shelf, but I love his advice and it just fits with the butler's quote. There are a couple of other quotes on those stickers, but they keep falling off on to the table. Also I'd advice you not to take my choices like that, but look for what fits for you. I picked those and some other lines, because they're special and mean something to me. I only write those for you to give you ideas of what may be working.
I wrote that my door doesn't have the Joker poster any longer. It has a couple of self-made papers. One has the first line Dracula said to Jonathan Harker as he enters the castle, although I took the liberty and changed one word for obvious reasons, here's the original line: "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free will and leave some of the happiness you bring." Essentially it says that the person, who comes into my room, should bring and leave happiness. I like that idea. Sadness out, happiness in. Another paper has Charlie Chaplin sitting in front of a house on the steps, looking sad with only a dog next to him, like he's the only friend left for Charlie. I added a speech bubble with a quote from Charlie Chaplin, namely: "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles." I think that's very important to keep in mind. We sometimes think that our troubles and problems have no end, but they do. Very important reminder. I wanted Charlie Chaplin to look sad on the picture though. Add a little bit of humor to the quote like that. (Much like Burk Ryan telling us to smile and sitting alone and sad in his hotel room.)
I have another late addition on the door. It's a german line, supposedly what a person suffering from dementia may ask. It reads: "Is it Monday or May today?" It's written in one of those old fonts, too. I just love it.
I also made a compilation of five of my favourite magicians one in each corner (among them Derren Brown and Harry Houdini, if you care to know) and the duo Penn & Teller in the middle. The line above them reads: "Hour youth income ache sad if stow watch oath ink." I think Milton Erickson would have liked that one. Hint: Read it aloud and listen to the sound of the words. If you catch me in a good mood, I may answer your message about that quote and tell you what it really means. That one's on my wall next to the bookshelves actually framed, too.
If you want some of my self-made posters, like the Charlie Chaplin one, drop me a message and I'll send it to you. I also made a compilation of lines of "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight". I just don't know where to put it. It's several lines, among them those mentioned above, in different colours.
Go ahead, play with lines, stick some up at your place! I'd be happy to read your ideas and what you came up with, too! Drop me a message.
Until next blog,
sarah
Saturday, 7 July 2012
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
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
Sunday, 1 July 2012
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
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
Thursday, 28 June 2012
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
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
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
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
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
Sunday, 24 June 2012
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
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
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