Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is an act of stagecraft in which a ventriloquist changes his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered “dummy”.
Originally, ventriloquism was a religious practice. The name comes from the Latin for ‘to speak from the stomach’. The noises produced by the stomach were thought to be the voices of the unliving, who took up residence in the stomach of the ventriloquist. The ventriloquist would then interpret the sounds, as they were thought to be able to speak to the dead, as well as foretell the future. Uh…
The shift from ventriloquism as manifestation of spiritual forces toward ventriloquism as entertainment happened in the eighteenth century at the travelling funfairs and market towns. The earliest recorded ventriloquists date back to as early as 1753 in England, where Sir John Parnell is depicted in an engraving of William Hogarth as speaking via his hand.
Fast forward about 240 years and I had the opportunity to see one of the modern masters. My friend owned a recording studio in North Hollywood, California and he called me one day and asked if I wanted to come down and watch him record a session with Shari Lewis.
AP Photo by Nick Ut
Shari Lewis was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children’s entertainer and television show host, most popular during the 1960s and 1990s and was best known as the original puppeteer of sock puppet Lamb Chop. She was considered one of the best and most popular of all time. Sadly, Shari Lewis died a year later and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be basically a private audience to her.
Fast forward another 20 years and my friend Little Woo writes the blog post “How A Puppet Dog Came To Life – a 30 minute journey that took 35 years” which you can read on LittleWoo.org. In the article she talks about her journey and interest in ventriloquism. She writes that when she was around 11, she borrowed a book on ventriloquism from the library. Fast forward a few years later and she finds herself following her fetish and practicing ventriloquism with her newly acquired little white dog puppet. (This is just one of many fetishes she follows which you can read about in her Follow Your Fetish series.)
After 10 minutes of “ventriloquism lessons” on YouTube and 20 minutes of practice, this is what happened. You must watch her video. She is amazingly good.
I leave you with the same question Little Woo posed on her blog – “What fascinations did you have growing up that still contain a spark for you now?” Share your thoughts in the comments. Would love to hear from you.
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Check out The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ventriloquism
today on Amazon.
