The little girl referred to in a previous chapter usually adds much to the effectiveness of a per­formance, and is made to do duty in a variety of ways. An English ventriloquist, Robert Ganthony, to whom I am indebted for many valuable hints concerning the subject, has a little girl figure which stands at the piano and sings to his accompaniment, the mouth being moved by the ventriloquist’s foot. It also plays the violin, the sound being a vocal imitation, while the bow arm is worked by means of a second pedal. Whether the girl stands, sits on the knee or on a stool, sings, plays or recites, depends of course upon the inclination and talent of the performer. Ventriloquial Coloredes have a variety of ac­complishments, ranging from dancing to smok­ing. Some even play the banjo, which is made to hook on the shoulders and is readily detach­able. In this case the arm is worked by means of a wire running from the hand on the inside of the sleeve and through the clothing at the back, where it is held by the exhibitor

 (Fig. 3)

. But the principal use .of the Colored figure is to utter an idiotic laugh whenever an interruption is wanted, an awkward pause takes place, or the proceedings generally want some little enlivenment. If laughter is to be his sole office, the top half of the head should hinge on the lower, and be so balanced that a tug at the string behind causes him to throw his head back in a fit of unre­strained merriment, which of course the ventrilo­quist supplies.

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To this movable floor is then glued a strip of sheepskin or flexible leather, completely covering the cavity from the lower lip to the chin below. Before putting in the lower jaw ” for keeps ” as the boys say, a small screw ring should be in­serted in its underside, to which is fastened a piece of gut string or flexible picture-wire, long enough to reach down through the neck and well into the interior of the body which has yet to be made ; and another screw-ring is inserted on the upper side near the back edge, to which is hooked a spiral spring strong enough to pull the mouth shut smartly after being opened by a tug on the picture wire below. This arrangement is shown at ” D,” Figure 2.

With the exception of the eyes, which may be obtained from a taxidermist at a cost of fifteen or twenty cents, and the hair, the head is then complete except for painting, which of course should be in flesh color with the cheeks well tinted in red. The teeth are merely suggested by alternate red and white stripes on the ridges back of the lips, and the eyebrows are painted in dark red or mahogany color.

The body, the length of which is determined by the size of the head, is simply a box, like that shown at ” E,” the hole in the top being for the neck. When the head is completed, the neck should be cut off at the right length and the opening in its lower end blocked with a round stick, hollow for half its length from the top. Through this extends the picture wire, termi­nating in a ring, which controls, when pulled down by the thumb, the movement of the lower jaw, as shown at ” D.”

After the head is placed in the body, a wire is driven through the neck stick close up to the top of the box to prevent the head from pulling out when in use. This may be fitted loosely enough to allow of being drawn out, making the head readily removable for packing.

For more on ventriloquist dummies construction visit http://www.ventriloquistsecretsrevealed.com

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If you should have occasion to imitate a French­man don’t fail to remember that the Parisian lacks in aspirates what he makes up in r’s; gives a sex to everything, and introduces a little Punch quality into the terminations ending in ” n.”

The German puts a ” b ” where he should use a”p” and vice versa, and a”v” for a ” w.”

Among the characters which you may care to imitate, either for figure working or for Natural ventriloquism are fleshy people, who never have deep or big voices. Use a little voice with mod­erate pitch for a fat man, and a falsetto voice for a fat old lady.

The voice of a jocular young man is hard, loud and thin, and is produced explosively against the front of the palate, immediately above the upper row of teeth.

The loafer or tramp whose voice has been destroyed by chronic hoarseness and drink speaks in a sort of harsh whisper. The only hint that can be given for its production is the statement that it is the Grunt voice without the grunt. On account of its character it is hardly suitable for figures, but with a little appropriate dialogue it may be used at a partly opened door to suggest to the people in a room that there is such a per­son outside who is trying to beg a ” handout” or cast off clothing. Of course the door must be partly opened, not shut, as otherwise the sound would not, in the nature of things, be heard, for it is quite impossible to ventriloquize a whisper.

This voice is usually the product of large cities and does not belong to a countryman. A fair imitation of this voice is often given by so-called” tramp comedians ” of the variety stage.

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Here is another great clip of Paul Zerdin, with a vounteer from the audience to act as his dummy. This is a funny act and the volunteer really helps to make it even funnier. I hope you enjoy it too.

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Assume an air of perfect self-possession, and having seated the audience as described, stand within a foot or two of the screen and make your first bow as a ventriloquist. Put your whole heart into your work and try to imagine that there is really an old lady behind the screen whose personality is wholly distinct from yours. Act as you naturally would if you were talking to such a person, and do not rush through the dialogue as if you were in a hurry to catch a train. Stand in an easy attitude with your face partly turned toward the audience, and let your eyes dwell upon the screen whenever the ficti­tious old lady is speaking.

Probably the first desire of the student of ” Near ” after he has begun to ventriloquize will be to possess a mechanical figure, for the use of such a puppet tends to give added interest to his practice and also a greater self-confidence in his early performances. With such a figure on his knee he can make his early essays in the art of entertaining with fewer misgivings than would otherwise be the case.

But all students perhaps cannot afford to pur­chase a figure at the outset, and to such I would recommend the ” talking hand,” one which can be arranged in a few moments’ time and at no expense whatever.

For a complete quide of how to ventriloquist secrets visit http://www.ventriloquistsecretsrevealed.com

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The student is now ready for actual work with the throat in the production of the different voices required in figure working.

First comes the ” Punch ” voice which, as its name indicates, is a close imitation of that used for the puppet Punch in ” Punch and Judy” shows. A Punch and Judy performer uses a little instrument (made by winding a narrow piece of cloth or tape over and between two curved pieces of tin) to produce this voice, but this is not allowable for a ventriloquist who stands in full view, and the voice must therefore be produced naturally.

To do this, recall just how the Punch voice sounds or take the first opportunity to listen to a good Punch and Judy performer; or think of the higher notes of a clarinet or the sound of a squeaking door. Then bring the teeth together and stretch the tongue until it touches the roof of the mouth near the back of the front upper teeth. Then say, ” Judy, Judy, where are you, Judy? “in as high a tone as you can command. The position of the tongue throws the sound into the cavity of the nose, thus imparting to the voice the strong nasal quality which is needed. It also has the sound of a high-pitched reed in­strument, and the more reedy and metallic you can make it the better.

If the student has difficulty in getting just the right tone, place the tongue as before and say ” Th-e-e-e-k,” prolonging the “e’s” and thinking of the punch voice or the sound made by a clarinet, as before.

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We will now consider the methods used for the production of some of the other voices employed in Near ventriloquism. In direct contrast to the Punch voice is that which is sometimes called the ” Grunt” voice. To produce this, the tongue should be allowed to lie fiat with its tip almost touching the back of the front lower teeth where they enter the flesh. In this position, and with the whole of the vocal cords relaxed, the words are simply grunted at the back of the mouth, with the lips still and only slightly apart, as when using the Punch voice. In other words, make less effort to speak than you would natu­rally, using only the back part of the tongue, so that the sound is made in the lower part of the throat.

This voice is a caricature of that used by old men who no longer have command over tongue and lips and speak with open mouths.    In figure working it is used to supply speech for the Old Man without whom no ventriloquial family is complete, in contrast to the sharp, reedy voice of the Old Woman who is usually his companion, and the less shrill tones of the Irish or the Colored figure. It may also be used for the same pur­pose when the couple are supposed to be behind a screen.

Given the Old Man, Old Woman, Irish and Colored figures, it naturally follows that there should be a little girl to make the family com­plete, and for this we revert to the Punch voice, only it should be made less reedy and more like a child’s. The young of all animals, including the human animal, uses a high key to speak or make the sound peculiar to itself.

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The other week at a collectibles show I bought a Charlie McCarthy toy puppet and actually confused him with Howdy Doody. The guy standing beside me thought Charlie McCarthy was Howdy Doody too.

Subsequent viewers of my puppet have also made the same mistake and I didn’t find out until I checked him out on EBay. Some newer viewers think Charlie is from a recent horror flick that was, as they say, so very scary. One went so far as to say he would not be able to sleep with Charlie McCarthy in the same room. What’s this bizarre world coming too? Go figure…

Charlie McCarthy was of course the puppet from ventriloquist comic Edgar Bergen; hence, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. I remember as a very young lad listening to Edgar and Charlie.Charlie was always a wise donkey and always saying the wrong thing. Edgar would call Charlie a dummy and Charlie wouldn’t like it and make a sarcastic reply. The audience would roar.

Charlie would bicker constantly with Edgar and the dialogue was a bit edgy for back then but somehow Edgar could pull it off by blaming it on the misbehaving puppet. And we believed him. Edgar would act upset and embarrassed by Charlie and we all felt badly for poor Edgar. The dialogue was zippy and even my mother laughed.

A few years later my attention changed focus and I fell in love with Candace, Edgar’s movie actress daughter, but then again so did every other male adolescent at that time so the competition was pretty stiff…

Howdy Doody was partners with Buffalo Bob. They had a kiddy show with Howdy doing most of the antics as if he were all wired up on speed…a nervous kind of guy, always jumping around since of course Howdy was a marionette. Buffalo Bob, a real person, would dress in a buckskin frontier suit…sort of like Daniel Boone without the hat.

Buffalo Bob would always tell the kids in the studio audience ‘No comments from the peanut gallery’ when they would laugh or heckle. It’s a term I still use today and I wonder how many in my age bracket use the same expression. And how many younger folks wonder what the heck we mean. And just what is a peanut gallery?

The Howdy Doody show was nonsense and we bright American kids knew it was nonsense but we loved it anyway. Which was good, because not too many years later we would be faced with life’s cold realities where many of us would wish we were back in the peanut gallery with our old pals Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob.

Through the years Howdy and Charlie have come and gone. As time passes we even confuse the two. But somehow we came away with a cultural legacy by growing up with these guys. They were our heroes, our friends and for some of us our first introductions to the outside world.

When Buffalo Bob died sometime back they ran clips of the shows on TV and pictures in the newspaper and somehow I could still identify with it after all those years. No one can live forever, not even Buffalo Bob or Howdy, but their legacy as culture goes on through all us kiddy fans from years past.

But of course that’s how culture works. It comes and it goes. It is the partnering of the ego with society. And maybe at some point in the future when folks are a lot smarter than we are and can figure things out a lot better, they will analyze what effect Howdy and Charlie had on the development of Modern America. And kids will catalogue Howdy and Charlie in their cultural icon database. And watch video clips and write reports on what it might have been like to be sitting in the peanut gallery, no comments and all.

We all need a sense of belonging; of having a cultural home. When I saw the clips of Howdy I said ‘yep, that’s my culture all right.’ That’s me. With Buffalo Bob and the participatory peanut gallery who needs kings and epics and revolutions and all that sort of heavy traditional baggage?

Howdy and Charlie give me a cultural place to hang my hat…and in some strange way I take comfort in being able to do that. It gives me a sense of who I am, even though I was just an adoring fan of a couple of wooden dummies…

And really, how can any snob dare say America has produced no culture when we have such cultural mega icons as Howdy Doody and Charlie McCarthy? What else do we need?

And please, no comments from all you out there in the peanut gallery.

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Having progressed thus far, the student will no doubt begin to consider seriously the desira­bility of burdening himself with a family—a ven-triloquial family—with the idea of either pur­chasing outright what he needs or of making such figures for himself.

At the outset, however, I would state em­phatically that unless you are a natural mechanic and also something of an adept at wood carving you would better wait until you can either pur­chase the figures required or can pay for having the heads made by a professional wood carver. Such work usually costs from three to four dollars per head, according to the size, and two or three dollars more must be added for the painting, hair, etc. Then the body must be made and dressed—but this you can easily do yourself at little cost.

The small knee figures can be obtained, head, body and all, from dealers in magical goods for from about seven to ten dollars, and larger ones from the latter amount to thirty or thirty-five dollars, according to the size and movements re­quired; so very little is saved by having the heads made to order, and the result is not usually so satisfactory, unless a carver can be found to whom this work is familiar.

Of course if you are handy enough with tools to make your own heads, the saving is worthwhile, and I will now give you a few hints as to how the work may be done.

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With Ray Alan recently passing away I thought it would be great to post some more videos highlighting his skills as a ventriloquist. I have found three more:-

1. Don’t blink on this one or you might miss him. It is quick but shows his easy relaxed style with Lord Charles

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2. The next video has Ray Alan has some great archive footage of him performing with Lord Charles. It also includes him talking working on the Laurel & Hardy Show. He reveals how he came up with Lord Charles’ character and who he based his appearance on. Let me know what you think about this revelation.

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Finally here is a tribute from Keith Harris and Orville shown recently on TV

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