ventriloquism for dummies : How to be a Ventriloquist

The first thing most people think about when they think about ventriloquism is a guy sitting on a stool on stage with a puppet on his lap joking back and forth together. While this sounds very basic, it can be highly entertaining when done with skill, especially if the ventriloquist is a good actor and can really make the character "come to life".

Obviously, apart from acting ability and being able to pull off a good comedy routine, a big part of becoming a great ventriloquist is being able to talk without moving your lips.

This can be a little tricky until you know how, as usually the mouth moves for good reason, it allows you to pronounce certain things!.

You will have to replace the usual mouth moving method with another method, this is the secret to being a good ventriliquist.

When practising, it helps if you hold a finger over your lips, almost as if telling someone to be quiet. This is a good way, at first, to prevent your lips from moving.

Now its time to go through the alphabet, as you do so, you'll notice its very hard to say certain words without moving your lips, for example, "b," "f," "m," "p," "q," "v," and "w".

These must be substituted with something else that sounds very similar. For "b," say "d" or "geh." For "f," try "th." For "m," try "n," "nah," or "neh." For "p," try "kl." For "q," try "koo." For "v," try "th." And for "w," try "ooh".

This might sound silly n theory, but in practice, if you emphasises the other syllables, it can sound convincing with practice.

To have your little friend sound convincing, his voice should be a lot different than yours.Experiment with different pitches and speeds and accents.

To bring the character to life, it really helps if the personality is a lot different than yours, maybe somewhat mischevious for example , think of different character traits and experiment with them.

Animate your little friend properly and he'll appear a lot more lifelike, its good if he appears to be " alive" from the moment his case is opened until he goes back in again, Puppety is an art form unto itself but with ventriloquism it's very important in keeping your character seem as alive as possible.

Hopefully these ventriloquism tips well help you get started!