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The absurdity of the belief that ventriloquist’s are born is shown by the fact that persons who practice ventriloquism in mature years show no indications in infancy of possessing abnormal vocal powers. If they were born ventriloquists they would undoubtedly cry and talk ventriloquially in childhood, but this they naturally decline to do. When a pin pricks them or they feel the pangs of hunger they indi­cate that fact in the unmistakable manner of all infants—that is, by cries which clearly emanate from their own small persons—and not by throw­ing their infantile voices into different parts of the house to the consternation of the family and the wonder of the neighborhood. A born poet babbles in verse, crude though it may be, from babyhood; but ventriloquism is not bred in the bone and its practice made inevitable by a peculiar structure of the child’s throat.

Ventriloquism does require, however, the pos­session of certain qualities of voice, such as strength, clearness, flexibility and ready ability to change at will; ordinary strength in the cartilaginous membrane of the throat and the muscles of the abdominal regions, and some apti­tude for mimicry, which of course is dependent upon a combination of qualities connected with the ear and the voice. A person having a defect­ive ear can neither sing in tune nor imitate sounds correctly, simply because not being able to hear correctly he has nothing to guide him in his own efforts. He may be endowed with every other requisite for the musical or the mimetic art, but through his inability to accurately sense the niceties of tone or pitch he neither sings cor­rectly nor deceives by his attempted imitations.

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UNLIKE the poet the ventriloquist is not born, but is evolved by persistent practice. This is contrary to the notion held by many persons even in these enlightened days, who believe that the ventriloquist comes into the world with a vocal apparatus differing from that possessed by humanity in general—in fact, with a ” double throat” by which he is enabled to project his voice into space and have it explode anywhere at will, much as a dynamite bomb explodes away from the source from which it is hurled. In other words, a large part of the otherwise intelli¬gent public still labor under the delusion that the ventriloquist is endowed by nature with the power of throwing his voice wherever and when¬ever he pleases and causing it mysteriously to return to him; and that it is as easy to ventrilo¬quize in the midst of a crowd or in the street as it is from a theatre stage or in a large hall where the audience is some distance from the performer.

If the commonly accepted theory of the vocal bomb were correct, it would undoubtedly be as easy to ventriloquize in one place as in another; but, as a matter of fact, there is nothing peculiar about the formation of the throats of the pro¬fessors of this art, even of the most adept, to dis¬tinguish them from the rest of humanity, and as for actual voice throwing— unfortunately there is no such thing.

It does take practice, but most people can become a ventriloquist. 

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Undoubtedly in ages past the art was practiced secretly by a corrupt priesthood to strengthen its power over ignorant and superstitious peoples, and only in modern times has ventriloquism emerged from the veil of mystery which enshrouded it. But even in these latter days, pro-fessional ventriloquists have taken care to carefully foster the idea that only to a favored few is vouchsafed the so-called power of ” throwing the voice.” With rare exceptions they have zealously guarded the methods used by them in the production of ventriloquial effects, and have usually tried to discourage eager inquirers with the assertion that “one must be born that way.”

Therefore, in presenting a reliable and comprehensive treatise on ventriloquism and its allied art polyphony, I feel that I am meeting a genuine need. Handbooks on ventriloquism have been published before, but few of those published in this country have attempted anything more than a superficial treatment of the subject, and are therefore of little use to the general public.
For many years I have studied and practiced ventriloquism, and   from   the experience thus gained, have endeavored to write a genuine work¬ing manual, not only for the beginner, but for the professional performer as well. If those inter¬ested at all in ventriloquism will give to this book the amount of thought and attention which I myself have devoted to its preparation, I shall feel repaid for my attempt to shed illumination upon a subject about which little of practical value has hitherto been published.

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Although the particular cause and char¬acter of the sounds have never been satisfactorily explained, the state of expectancy with which the silent and probably awe-struck worshipers awaited the sunrise, and their sublime faith in the reality of the phenomenon, were distinctly favor¬able to the production of a ventriloquial illusion by an attendant priest.
Mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles (16 : 16), of a young1 woman with a familiar spirit meeting the Apostles in the city of Philippi in Macedonia. Such divination is also referred to by St. Chrysostom and other early Christian fathers; and in the East, where it has been practiced for upward of three thousand years, it is still not uncommon.

If there is any doubt as to the part ventrilo¬quism played in this divination by a familiar spirit, there can be none in the method employed by the Greeks, which was termed gastromancy. In this the voice of the “spirit ” made its oracular replies apparently from the priest’s belly, the diviner himself standing in the meanwhile with impassive countenance and immovable lips.
Coming down to modern times, we find that Louis Brabant, valet de chambre of Francis I, won for himself a rich and beautiful heiress by aid of his wonderful talent as a ventriloquist; and the works of M. L’Abbe La Chappelle, published in 1772, contain references to the astonishing ventriloquist achievements of Baron Menge at Vienna, and those of M. St. Gille, a grocer living near Paris.
Another famous ventriloquist performer, M. Alexandre, was also so great an adept at changing his coun¬tenance, that at one time he completely deceived a sculptor, before whom he sat five times in the borrowed character of a famous clergyman of Abbotsford, with whom the sculptor war well acquainted.

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Ventriloquism is almost as old as the world, or at least as old as intelligible spoken language, but just when and where in the dim and misty ages of the past it had its origin will forever re­main unknown. Unlike other arts it was not brought to perfection through the slow develop­ment and accretion of years. From its very nature it must have sprung into existence full grown, like Venus from the sea. Under various guises its practice may be traced by the student in those venerable chronicles which faintly echo the long-vanished life of antiquity.

Although proof positive is wanting of the fact, it is fair to assume that many of the occurrences involving the assistance of an apparently super­natural voice, by which many of the old supersti­tions were fostered among the early races, were feats of ventriloquism. Such marvels are inex­plicable, if they are not pure fiction, except as the work of deception through the aid of ventriloquism.

So common indeed at one time was this belief in a ” second voice,” or ” familiar spirit,” as it was often called, that it took the form of divination by which the supposed spirit was evoked and con­sulted as to the right course of conduct on impor­tant occasions; and this divination, which was practiced in a variety of ways among the differ­ent semi-barbaric races of the ancient world, can be traced through a long period of time.

From the book Ventriloquist Secrets Revealed – a book that experienced ventriloquists have kept to themselves – until now.

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This is a quick introduction to the wonderful skills of Paul Zerdin. He performed at The Royal Variety Perfomance Show in 2009. He has also performed for Her Majesty in 1997 and 2002.

The Royal Variety Performance is currently available above

Its not that long but heck! Thanks Guys, Over 500,000 Views!

Duration : 0:2:27

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