Think ventriloquism would be a fun skill? You took the words right out of our mouths! We gabbed with ventriloquist Jennifer Field, 11, of Buffalo Grove to see if she’d give up any secrets to success. (She recently won the 18-and-under division of the International Ventriloquist Convention in Ft. Mitchell, Ky.) Here’s the word, straight from Jennifer’s mouth…
“You have to practice,” she said.
Aw, c’mon, isn’t there some supersecret way to learn to say a tongue-tangler like “pick a peck of peppers” without moving your lips?
“I smile and it helps me not to move my lips,” Jennifer said.
So we smiled. We held our lips still. We tried to say, “Please.” It came out a pretty spitty “ffffleeeeeeze.” Oh, pulleeeeeze!
So Jennifer’s dad, Chuck, also a ventrilo-quist (and the guy who taught Jennifer), dished out a tip: “It’s the way you pronounce letters and substitute sounds.”
So we watched a tape of Jennifer when she appeared on “The Bozo Show” to see what those “p” sounds really were. And they sounded like perfectly pronounced p’s! So we said, aw, pretty please, one more tip.
So Chuck told us… “Practice in front of a mirror.”
OK, OK, we’ll do it — though the idea of seeing ourselves grinning and grimacing in front of a mirror isn’t particularly pretty. In fact, we’re sure it will be positively painful. While we’re making faces, here’s some more ventriloquism info from Jennifer:
-It’s OK to call the sidekick a dummy. Jennifer’s main dummy is Lizzie (above). “I have a dummy named Emily, I have one named Walter, and I have a dinosaur; that’s what I started off with.” And, like in the movies, she keeps her dummies in a suitcase.
-The dummy gets the funny lines. “Lizzie is the wise guy,” Jennifer said. “Everything is a joke to her.”
-Becoming a good ventriloquist can pay off. Jennifer has been on TV and has been flown to Bermuda to perform; she even charges money to perform at parties. And her friends are impressed. “They think it’s cool,” she said.
We do too. We’re still trying to say “pass the potatoes please” without moving our lips. Pathetic!
