Test Your Ventril-Ability No. 14 Answer Page

This test is found in Lesson Twenty-Nine of the
Maher Course Of Ventriloquism – Detweiler Version.

It is a “self-check” test for your benefit.

True. Create the idea of expectancy and the listener will be drawn into the illusion. You must act your part to sell any effect of distant voice throwing.

This subject and the following one are dealt with in the final lesson, so this is a preview. Showmanship is primarily visual. The gift of dramatization. It can be the difference between a mediocre act and an outstanding performance. You can write a wonderfully creative dialogue in private, but it takes showmanship to make the most of it on stage.

Showmanship and stage presence are closely related. How you walk and talk while on stage. Your confident manner and enthusiastic delivery. Smooth meaningful gestures. Clear, expressive diction. Lack of mistakes. Showmanship displays grace and confidence visually. Stage presence gives this visual confidence a voice.

You may or may not chose to demonstrate ventriloquism upon demand. It is up to you to pick the time and place. Often a simple greeting in your ventriloquist voice using your hand as a puppet will satisfy the spontaneous request for a voice throwing demonstration. There is no need to present a show!

If you do not want the listener to watch your lips when you are speaking ventriloquially, the solution is quite simple – give them something else to watch. Generally this “something else” will be a puppet or figure.

False. Degree of skill (or lack of it) does not in itself determine professional status. Many amateurs are very skilled.

We’ve met ventriloquists who do travel full time, some pulling a fifth wheeler, but we have yet to meet someone with so much equipment they need an eighteen wheeler! (Although Jeff Dunham sometimes travels with two buses – which act as sleeping quarters for him and his road crew.) It has been our observation that the ventriloquists who travel the most tend to tote the least. There are travel advantages for a compact show.

True.

False. The goal of any ventriloquist, amateur or professional, should be to continually improve their skills.

False. Only you can decide what your goal will be as a ventriloquist. There is no preset formula, no right or wrong, no better or best when compared to the rest. You set your goal, avoid distractions, persevere with purpose and success is yours!

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