How to Become a Ventriloquist - Step by Step Guide to Ventriloquism, from Vocal Exercises to Making the Doll

Anon

• Publisher: Sullivan Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781446524749
• eBook ISBN: 9781447491453
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

This vintage book contains a step-by-step guide to ventriloquism, and includes instructions on topics ranging from vocal exercises, to designing and constructing a doll. This detailed handbook contains a wealth of information that will be of considerable utility to the novice ventriloquist, and it would make for a great addition to collections of allied literature. The chapters include: "Ventriloquism", "So you Want to be a Ventriloquist", "How to Build a Dummy – Part I", "How to Build a Dummy – Part II", "Routines and Sketches" etcetera. Many antiquarian books such as this are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on ventriloquism.

Routines
and Sketches

After the ancients got through using ventriloquism to scare people, the dummy made its appearance and ventriloquism became a comedy act. There, with some refinements, it remains today. When you are performing in front of an audience, your dummy has to be funny; he has to make the audience laugh. He can do that by certain movements which I’ve already mentioned, but primarily he’ll get his laughs by what he says.

You have to be sure, therefore, that the dummy has a lot of amusing lines to speak. These lines are not necessarily funny in themselves, but they become funny when they are spoken in answer to something you the ventriloquist has said. Suppose I’m wearing a new suit. I turn to Jerry and say, “Hey, Jerry, how do you like the suit?”

“I like it,” Jerry says. “It makes you look real doggy.”

“Do you really think so?” I say.

“Yes indeed,” says Jerry, “your face looks just like a Cocker Spaniel!”

Good or bad, that’s a joke, son! In performing before an audience you’ll need a long series of jokes to keep the audience constantly entertained. In the chapter on building the dummy, I told you I couldn’t go into detail about how you should sculpture the face because that would require another whole book. The same holds true with the jokes. To tell you fully how to create material you’ll need would require a book on “Comedy Writing.”

Briefly, however, I’ll set down some of the terminology and a few of the facts you’ll come upon in this phase of ventriloquism. Go back to that “cocker-spaniel” joke. The line spoken by me as the ventriloquist is known as the “straight line” or the “feed line.” The line spoken by the dummy which completes the joke is called the “punch line” or the “gag line.” Any movement or gestures made by you or the dummy is called a “piece of business.”

When you go out on the stage to entertain an audience, you can’t just tell one joke and walk off. You have to say and do enough funny things to last anywhere from five or six minutes up to a half hour. So you use what comedians call “routines.” A routine is simply a series of jokes on the same or related subjects. For instance, you might do a three or four minute comedy routine all about school, or camp, or football, or dogs, or anything.

The routines themselves can be roughly placed into two categories. The “stand-up” routine and the “sketch.” The stand-up routine is just what it implies. The ventriloquist and the dummy just stand in one spot and do a routine of jokes and comedy songs. The sketch is more like a little one-act play. The ventriloquist and the dummy are involved in a situation or plot. As an illustration, a sketch might be about the ventriloquist trying to get the dummy to go to bed on Christmas Eve, and the dummy is doing everything he can to stay a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• So You Want to Be a Ventriloquist
• How to Build a Dummy
• How to Build a Dummy Part 2
• Near Ventriloquism
• Routines and Sketches