Ventriloquist dummies

In My Humble Opinion
1

Has anyone ever gotten a ventriloquist dummy for their child? That is all my daughter wants for her birthday coming up. I’m looking around, of course, but I’m torn between buying something that is too cheaply made so she doesn’t have fun with it, and too expensive if she gives it up after a month.

I’d like some opinions of anyone who has actually had one, especially considering that she is only 9. We don’t need some fancy professional thing, but if she does like it, we’d like one that works well enough.

2

I had one as a kid–about the same age–and, as much as I liked ventriloquism, I lost interest in it after about a year and not because the dummy was “beginner.”

Make her a deal: give her 2-3 years of working with it–making up solid routines, getting better with patter, honing her “chops,” if she still has interest and has shown real improvement (you’ll both know) then invest in the upper-shelf dummy. An extra bonus–when the “pro” dummy stage is reached, you/her won’t believe the quantum leap in performance. That’s how I got better guitars–I started the first 2 years on a Godawful Monkey Ward guitar; when you get good at playing one of those and a nice Yamaha arrives for Xmas, things take off.

Good luck to you both. (I hope she’ll be better than Sofia V. on that Modern Family episode. :smiley: )

3

I think the real challenge would be finding a ventriloquist dummy that is age appropriate for a 9 year old.

Most of the ones I’ve seen are always telling rather crass and bawdy jokes.

Perhaps a muppet of some sort would be a good choice?

4

^ Piling on: A. A., the muppet is actually a very good idea (here, have a cookie). Kermit has a very expressive “face” and the dummy I had as a kid just had a hinged mouth and was not really fun at all.

5

Be careful. You don’t want her to get caught up in the East Coast vs. West Coast ventriloquist feud. (NSFW language)

6

As a recovering ventriloquist myself, I second the idea of steering her towards more usual puppets, rather than a full vent “figure”. Sherry Lewis did quite well with Lambchop who was essentially a sock puppet - heck, Senior Wences entertained with just his hand.

Work with her making sock puppets, something she can give life to with motion and her own creativity. I had a typical “smart alec” figure, and I never liked it. I was technically excellent, but I had no rapport with it.

His reputation took a hit, but the documentary Being Elmo is still the best one about the art of puppetry. His master class with the people who were going to do a French version of Sesame Street is amazing, and they were all just using their bare hands.

7

I barely remember Shari & Lambchop, but I just went and watched a couple of old videos on YouTube from performances on some old variety shows back in the 1960s.

That was a very cute act, and I think it would be a something a 9 year old girl would probably go for.

Heck, you could just take your kid to an arts & craft store and buy her enough supplies to make a whole ensemble of puppets.

Maybe show her a few Lambchop videos and see if she takes to the idea.

I just mentioned this in another thread yesterday, when my boys were toddlers, I had a sock puppet and would talk to them in an English butler voice based on Hobson from the movie, Arthur.

It was hilarious, I actually used it as a parenting tactic to teach them all kinds of stuff, from vocabulary words to good manners.

They almost always looked directly at the puppet and hardly ever at me, what a blast! I really miss them being that little.

Anyway, your 9 year old could easily practice her craft performing for smaller children if you have any in the family.

When she gets a little older, I bet she could use the puppet routine on baby sitting gigs.

She could have a lot of fun developing different characters, and then building her own sock puppets.

If she is having trouble with ideas for what to make her puppets say, suggest that she read children’s books in the puppet voice or act out the plot of the book.

Dr Seuss books are great for that, and I do believe that is how I got started doing the Hobson routine for my kids, reading them Green Eggs & Ham in a snooty English butler voice.

I think the puppet part is easy to get her started; if you can help her develop the first couple of characters, and get her a book on how to do different dialects that might be the key to having her run wild with the idea.

Good Luck!

It sounds like a lot of fun. :slight_smile:

8

<Hobson voice> I shall alert the media <Hobson voice>

(Still makes me laugh)

9

[quote=“Accidental_Martyr, post:5, topic:692408”]

Be careful. You don’t want her to get caught up in the East Coast vs. West Coast ventriloquist feud. (NSFW language)

[/QUOTE]

Wasn’t there a How-To video that came out a few years back on how to make a ventriloquist dummy?

I think it was called “Dead Silence”… :smiley:
(The “drinking soup trick” was classic)

10

***Thank you for a memorable afternoon, usually one must go to a bowling alley to meet a woman of your stature. ***

Hobson had some great lines in that movie. :slight_smile:

I still do the Hobson voice from time to time, and I’m always thrilled whenever I come up with an Hobson-esque zinger.

I was on a Stuart Gilligan Griffin kick recently, and I got hooked on trying to sing pop songs as Stewie after watching YouTube star, Mikey Bolts, do a few.

If you like Family Guy, you’ll love Mikey Bolts.

11

I had one as a child that was pretty good, and not terribly expensive, I’m guessing, or my parents wouldn’t have invested in it. Unfortunately, learning ventriloquism from books was not easy, and this was before VCRs.

I don’t know how crafty you are, but making one might be an option. It really depends on what your daughter has her eye on. It would probably be good to sit down and ask her. If she has her heart set on something with a real professional look, then a sock puppet won’t make her happy.

However, whatever you do, I would get her a really good instructional DVD (there has to be one for kids), or online class, or something, because what will make her lose interest isn’t the quality of the dummy, but how hard it is to get started performing. There are probably samples on youtube, and if you like them, you can buy the whole class.

12

I will always remember my tenth Christmas. It was the first Christmas that I can recall actually having a Christmas list. I wanted a telescope. I got it. My twin sister wanted a ventriloquist doll. And she got it. We were the two happiest little girls in the entire state of Georgia, I tell you. (We also got a Polaroid camera that year. We really racked up!)

It was the poor man’s version of this doll. It didn’t have a moveable mouth, which means it really wasn’t a real ventriloquist doll. But we didn’t care. We loved that thing to death.

13

I’ve got to agree with you on this to a certain extent; I think the heart of ventriloquism is the ability to do entertaining voices and come up with compelling and witty banter.

It’s not about the dummy so much, or even not moving your lips. There have been plenty of good acts that the performers didn’t even care about concealing their lip movement.

It all depends on the style of act one wants to develop; if you asked me to boil ventriloquism down to its essence I would say it is comedic acting.

I also think that making a traditional ventriloquist dummy from scratch wouldn’t be that difficult. A paper mâché head with a movable jaw can’t be that difficult to construct, and the traditional dummies are purposefully crudely made facsimiles. That’s part of what makes them funny.

I’m kind of thinking that a 9 year old girl would like making her own sock puppets. She could probably make cutesy Hello Kitty looking puppets very easily out of a 100 USD worth of supplies from a craft store.

The kid would probably love it more if you built it with her.

14

You can buy parts to make dolls for a lot less than that at a craft store, and if you can sew, you can make a soft body and limbs, which could move with wires harvested from coathangers, but you’d need a sewing maching, and to know how to use it.

You can probably order a dummy head online, and that might be cheaper than buying the whole dummy. You can buy doll wigs in craft stores as well.

15

This thread is making me miss playing with kids so much!

I had boys, so we set up a work bench in the garage and made all kinds of stuff, from kites, model rockets, cars, boats, and some damned fine pinewood derby cars.

We even made a potato cannon once and so much fun with that damned thing, until the sheriff’s department wrote me a court summons for firing potatoes into the Chesapeake Bay.

I always wondered how I would bond with a daughter, but I could easily see myself making dolls, puppets, and sewing costumes with a little girl.

It sounds like a lot of fun. :slight_smile:

16

The main reason I had a kid was so I had an excuse to play with toys.

17

The primary tool any aspiring ventriloquist needs is a mirror. Watch your self pronouncing words, trying to bend D into B, N into M and T into P. And talk while moving your hand at the same time, watching how your lips move and doing that with your hand. Eventually you will find you have developed the ability to perfectly copy the movement of your mouth with your hand

It’s been 35 years since I last touched a puppet, but I still have the skills.

18

Thanks so much for all the replies. I do believe she would be disappointed in something like a puppet, because she has her heart set on a dummy (a combination of Goosebumps and the ventriloquist at church VBS this summer). I think we will go with a cheaper dummy and then a really good DVD on how to start using it. If she really gets into it, we can buy her a more expensive one later on, if she just plays with it a little while and moves on, well, it’s not like most houses aren’t littered with toys the kids just HAD to have…

19

Does she understand how often those things turn evil? Seriously, set her down in front of a Twilight Zone marathon or some such, so she knows what she’s in for when that dummy is sitting at the foot of her bed, staring at her while she sleeps. :eek:

20

That is a problem, but the main one is that ventriloquism is a mental illness being presented as a form of entertainment.

I used to be a ventriloquist. I’m well now.