Saturday, November 26, 2011

Lip Control Part 2

We talk about ventriloquism and the basics and I can't help but wonder what people are thinking that call themselves ventriloquists and you can tell they haven't even tried to learn to talk without moving their lips. It amazes me when I go to a convention, whether it be venthaven or one of the other conventions where ventriloquists gather you find the same amount of people walking around with puppets doing a horrible job with lip control. They don't just slip up once in a while, they haven't even practiced. If you've ever been to a convention you know the people I'm talking about. The sad thing is if you ask someone off the street what a ventriloquist is they would say, "Someone who talks without moving their lips." But these people think it's ok to call themselves ventriloquists and not even practice the basic fundamentals of ventriloquism.

I am sure this is a pet peeve of anyone that has put in the hours of practice trying to perfect the skill of talking without moving their lips. The ultimate frustration is the person who's puppet sounds the same as them, they have jerky movements and deadsticking and they move their lips. I mean honestly, what are you doing at a ventriloquist convention with a puppet? If your a collector for the love of Pete just quit trying to talk your puppet and say your a collector. Shame on you if your booking shows calling yourself a ventriloquist and ruining it for the rest of us.

There comes a time, after many practices and performances that you might be able to get away with some lip movement and be forgiven. Once you make the characters look real and believable people will be watching the puppets when they talk, not you. But until that point you should be as good as possible. I know there are always going to be quivering lips, clenching and words that are hard to pronounce. I can forgive all of that. But until you've at least practiced and done the best that you can to talk without moving your lips do us all a favor. Put the business cards on the shelf, take down your webpage, take yourself off of gig masters or gig salad and go buy yourself the Maher course or one of the other great programs out there that teaches ventriloquism and learn to do it correctly.

Up next, where do you get your promotional material?


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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Lip Control in the Ventriloquist's Performance

I know, I know I'm beating a dead horse here but I was just thinking, exactly how much weight should we put on lip control? The thing that brought this to my attention was that my wife and I were watching the BIO special on Jeff Dunham, "Birth of a Dummy" and, at one point in the show my wife said, "You could see his lips moving quite a bit there" To which I replied, "So?!!"

Here's my question, at what point do we give a ventriloquist a free pass on their lip control when it's less than perfect? My answer, when all other aspects of their performance outweighs the quality of lip control. Jeff's lip control is great in most parts of his performance so it doesn't bother me if every once in a while it's not perfect. Besides, his comedy, manipulation, character development and voices far outweigh a minor lip movement every once in a while.

On the other hand, if your show stinks and you use the excuse, "Jeff's lips move once in a while so I don't need to practice it all that much." Shame on you! The first part of becoming a ventriloquist is learning how to talk without moving your lips. Let me repeat that, THE FIRST PART OF BECOMING A VENTRILOQUIST IS LEARNING HOW TO TALK WITHOUT MOVING YOUR LIPS! Not manipulation, not comedy, not character development, not different voices. First and foremost you have to be able to talk without moving your lips. Listen folks, if you haven't got this down yet, you're a puppeteer not a ventriloquist. Shot, I learned that when I was seven off of Jimmy Nelson's Instant Ventriloquism.

As a matter of fact, once I got my first booking at the age of 12 I thought to myself, "Gee, If people are going to be paying me for this I'm going to have to get better at not moving my lips." Now there are many people out there that call themselves ventriloquists that move their lips horribly. I remember going to VentHaven one year and meeting a fellow that I had met online that was very active on the Yahoo Ventlist and he was walking around with his puppet and talking to people with it and he might as well of been talking himself without the puppet. Lip control? It's like he never heard of it. This gentleman thought that if he carried a puppet and changed his voice slightly that made him a ventriloquist. I'm here to tell you folks that you are not a ventriloquist until you at least get the basics down.

No one can argue the fact that Jeff has the basics down. As a matter of fact, all of the popular ventriloquists of today have the basics down. Terry Fator, Ronn Lucas, Dan Horn and Mark Wade all have the basics down. OK I hear you old timers out there, "What about Edgar Bergen?" Well, first of all where did Bergen and McCarthy get famous? Oh that's right, on the radio. Second, from what I've heard, during vaudeville Bergen had awesome lip control but when he starting doing radio he thought it was more important that all the people at home listening understood what Charlie was saying than it was that the people in the studio didn't see his lips moving. He kept that attitude throughout the rest of his career.

End of Part One.....

God Bless,

Daniel Jay

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Monday, April 11, 2011

Variance of Voice

Does it really matter if the voice of your puppet is that much different than your voice. I say it all depends on your presentation. If you really break it down, nobody's puppet really sounds that much different than themselves. Let's just compare some of our favorites, Paul Winchell for example. Now did Jerry or Knucklehead sound that much different than Winch? I mean, there was a difference but not that much.

And getting one puppets voice different from another is also a challenge. Many people don't realize this but did you know that on Sesame Street Ernie was never on the same time that Kermit was on. Why was that? Because Jim Henson used the same voice for both of them.

So how do you make your puppet sound different than you or each other? I'll never forget back at the ventriloquist conVENTion in 1980 I entered the Senior Ventriloquist Competition and, after my show I asked Alan Semok what he thought about my performance and he said, "Have you tried an accent with Ziff?" That was a nice way to say, "He sounds too much like you." So accents are one way to make them sound different. Other ways are speech impediments.

Most of all, record yourself, listen to how you sound, and adjust accordingly. Make the most of practicing to make your puppets voice unique from your own. Have fun with it and get constructive criticism.


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Sunday, April 10, 2011

New Axtell Canadian Goose


If I wouldn't get shot for buying one more puppet this would be the one for me. Living in Ohio I think this puppet would be perfect. The funny thing is, we have Canadian Geese all over Ohio all year round! I think the Ohio geese fly south and the Canadian geese think that Ohio is south. Anyway, love the new puppet Steve, keep up the good work! You can view all new Axtell puppets at http://www.axtell.com/new/


Sunday, March 13, 2011

The I'ds of March

I love the krokus' (I think that right, plural of the flower krokus is krokus' right? Or is it krokus and a single flower is a kroki?) and the daffodils of spring. I love the fact that it's getting warmer outside and the robins are visible once again. I even am reminded of summer by the smell of a dead skunk in March! Yes, there are many reasons to love March but there are a few "I'ds" that I put together that I think you all may agree with.

  1. I'd rather not have all the rain/snow/rain. I have four dogs and my back yard looks like a big mud pie. Every time I let the dogs out we have to wipe of their feet because they are traipsing around in a bunch of mud. Now there's nothing wrong with mud, if you didn't have mud women couldn't get mud packs to make themselves feel better. Still don't understand how that works. Do they look at the mirror with all that mud on their face and then, when the mud's all cleaned off do they say, "WOW, I'm really am a lot more beautiful without all the mud on my face!" Another good thing about mud is female mud wrestling. Now I've never been to one of these events but I've heard that they're a lot of fun. No, there's nothing wrong with mud, I would just rather not be wiping it off of my dogs feet every couple hours.
  2. I'd like to keep the clocks on one time all throughout the year. We all love the "fall back" thing. We get an extra hours sleep! But boy do we regret that "fall back" when we have to "spring ahead". We loose a hours sleep, ahhh!! By the way, contrary to common understandings, Ben Franklin did not start daylight savings time, although, when he was in France he suggested that people get up early and go to bed early to save on candles. The daylight savings was started by George Vernon Hudson to reduce the amount of electric lighting used at night. Oh yeah, and many people thought it was for the farmers but actually, some reports say that this hinders farmers more than helps them. I say let's keep the clocks on one time and use up that electricity! We need more global warming anyway, at least here in Ohio!
  3. I'd prefer to start a diet and exercise program once in the new year and not get to March and hear these words on radio and TV, "Now at McDonalds, for a limited time, Shamrock Shakes". And it's not bad enough that they come out with the Shamrock Shake in March but now they put whipped topping and a cherry on top as well. Great way to break a diet. But we can't blame it all on McDonalds because guess what opens in March after being closed for a long winter. THE DAIRY QUEEN! Now every blizzard known to man can be purchased and don't forget the banana split! But McDonalds and Dairy Queen both take a back seat to the most evil thing to ever come about to ruin a diet. You seen them every year in March but the order start way before that. They are evil, they are relentless and they hate everything about diets. They are, THE GIRL SCOUTS. With their thin mints and peanut butter sandwiches they will ruin all that you've worked for. I swear, they want to keep the nation nice and plump. Because then they will be the only thin ones. The young girls with all the metabolism to burn the calories from those girl scout cookies.


Well so much for the "I'ds" of March and I know you all feel the same way I do. At least all of you that have a few pounds to loose like me!


Friday, January 21, 2011

Could your rates be to low?

Is it possible to not charge enough for your service and not get as many bookings? What is your show worth? What are others charging in your area? All good questions, let me just tell you my story. Last year I didn't get to many bookings. Now, to put everything into perspective, I wasn't promoting that much last year but, all in all, I really haven't done that much promoting this year either. I will tell you this much, I had listened to friend of mine who is a magician and he owns a magic shop. His rate is really low, when I mentioned that I thought his rate was low he said, "Well, nobody pays much more than that for entertainment in this area." Then I talked to another acquaintance of mine who is also a magician working in the same area that is getting triple and even four times (is that quadruple?) of what the other guy is getting. He is also getting booked more. So what I decided to do towards the end of last year was to raise my prices considerably from what I had been charging. Guess what. I'm getting more bookings now! How about that. So here's what I say to you, sit down and figure what is a good price for the type of entertainment you provide. Make it a price that is not the lowest and stick to it. You might be surprised at what happens next.