I have just found this interesting article about Jeff Dunham. In the article it discusses how Jeff Dunham approaches ventriloquism, how involved he is in characters from making them to writing their dialogue.

I think it gives an insight in to how Jeff Dunham has become so popular as a ventriloquist and entertainer. He is a professional and doesn’t leave anything to chance.

The article  starts as follows:

Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, who will perform Wednesday at James Brown Arena, believes that his take on the tight-lipped style of puppetry is effective because he always approaches it as a tool rather than his primary performance purpose.

Responding to a series of e-mail questions (Dunham was on voice rest) he wrote that although ventriloquism is his methodology, he’s a comic first.

“I realized early on that ventriloquism needed to be just a vehicle for comedy,” he wrote. “It couldn’t be the focus of the act.”

Let me know what you think about the article and Jeff Dunham.

“The ventriloquism just happened to be my instrument.”…..

You can read the rest of the article here: http://chronicle.augusta.com/things-do/applause/2010-07-07/dunham-aims-revive-ventiloquism

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At this point act as if strongly exasperated and apparently push and struggle against an opposing force with all your might. Finally by seemingly a greater effort you cause the door to fly back suddenly and at the same time give ut­terance to a loud ” ha, ha, ha,” in the ventriloquial voice, as if some one were laughing at you in the room or hallway beyond.

Always bear in mind that the eye helps to de­ceive the ear, and make the action of pushing the door, etc., as natural as possible. The more realistic the ventriloquist makes his part the more effect his performance will have upon the public. As far as voice alone goes, there are ventrilo­quists who can manipulate ventriloquism per­fectly, but who, on account of lack of necessary actions, do not succeed in impressing their hearers very strongly. As a rule, between a good actor who is a poor ventriloquist and a good ventriloquist who is a poor actor, the former will be more successful. This topic will be more fully gone into in the paragraphs about ventriloquial acting and entertaining further on.

The foregoing dialogue is merely suggested and intended for preliminary rehearsals rather than for use in public, although of course if the performer is unable to write a better one there can be no objection to such use. The chances are however, that he can obtain suitable material of a more witty and amusing character from other sources and make it ventriloquially effective. One month’s daily practice should be sufficient to enable him, by proper emphasis on a tone or syllable, to illustrate and bring out the salient points of any dialogues he may use, and to sur­prise and astonish those among his friends not familiar with the capabilities of the art, with the strange voices within him. There should be no straining after effect, but the student will find that what he has practiced much he can do well, and by perseverance alone can perfection be obtained.

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Then again some wiseacre who thinks “he knows all about it” and discourses learnedly of the “double throat,” will walk confidently up to the performer and ask him to throw his voice to the back part of the room over the heads of the audience or to some other utterly impossible place. I have never yet heard of a ventriloquist being requested to throw his voice into the next county, but undoubtedly there are persons who think that he might do so if he wished, though just how it could be made to return to him from so long a distance they might be rather hard put to it to say.    Apropos of this:

” Did you know,” asks Jerry, the Irish boy, in one of my dialogues, ” that I was down to a party the other night? “

Vent.      ” No, were you? “

Jerry.     ” Yes, and there was a ventrisquealer there.”

Vent.    ” No, no, Jerry, you mean a ventrilo­quist, a man who throws his voice.”

Jerry.     ” Yes, that’s it, but this feller threw his voice so far it didn’t get back again.”

Vent.    “Is it possible?”

Jerry.    ” I dunno, but he did it all th’ same.”

This is probably the attitude which would be taken by the knowing ones who, while they might not believe that the voice could be heard from such a distance, might still maintain that it could be sent there and allowed to go off ac­cording to schedule, even if no one heard

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