Etched deep into my memory is the first day I watched a ventriloquist performance. I was 9 years old, and I was amazed by how the performer could sit there, without moving his lips and no expression on his face.. yet the dummy sitting on his knee was talking away, cracking joke after joke. After that performance, at a schoolmate’s birthday party, I knew that someday I would want to learn to be a ventriloquist.

My folks didn’t believe that I could get into doing it professionally, but they humored me anyway, by getting me a cheap ventriloquist dummy that Christmas. After that, I practiced and practiced for the next two years, but I couldn’t get the hang of talking without my lips moving just a bit. I even performed a show for my little sister, who shouted, “Your mouth moved!” every time I tried to talk for the dummy. After a short while, I was frustrated and I eventually gave up my dream.

About fourteen years later, I watched my next ventriloquist act. It was in a local comedy club, with a very funny, yet very vulgar puppet. It reminded me of how I would used to sit in front of the mirror and my family on so many nights, trying to achieve my dream. At that point, I decided I was going to get back into the hobby, and this time I would make sure it worked.

I bet that there are many people who are in the same boat as I am. You watched the performance and were immediately drawn to it. Well, don’t just dream about it, why not get involved and learn how to be a ventriloquist? There are a few things to learn, but you must be disciplined about it.

You have to practice and commit to your schedule. Becoming a good ventriloquist will not happen overnight, so you must be willing to keep going until you have got it all down. Use the mirror, your family or friends as your audience and set up a schedule, and be disciplined about it, so that you can stay on top of your dialogues.

Some letters of the alphabet cannot be pronounced without moving your mouth, so you must learn ways to pronounce certain words differently, so that it can’t be detected by your audience. Therefore, you must vary the sound (eg. by changing one letter to a letter with a close sound) to where it still sounds like same word, and you are not moving your lips. Then you have created the illusion of ventriloquism.

Make sure you master the skill of “throwing your voice” before you try practicing together with a puppet. Using a dummy will take some of your attention away from your voice manipulation. If you have already learned how to throw your voice properly, then you can afford to lose some of your attention from your voice, to handle the puppet. Trying to learn everything at a go might be too much and just leave you frustrated.

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