Script writing seems to be the bain of most ventriloquists.

Do you have trouble writing scripts?

“I don’t know what to write.”

“I never have any good ideas.”

“I’m not funny.”

“Can’t I just use some jokes out of joke books?”

Chances are, at some point you may have sat down and tried to bang out a script.

Was it easy?

If so, good for you. Next week I’ll be discussing the Top Things Every Ventriloquist Should Know.

If it wasn’t, this article may help.

Coming up with ideas is a problem a lot of vents have.

Why?

Because they have a puppet – not a character.

Sure your puppet has a name. Maybe even a one or two sentence background. But if you can’t write for it, you don’t have a character.

You know a character. It has a developed personality.

When you have trouble writing, you aren’t sure what to do with the puppet.

But a character, that is another story.

Imagine you and your crazy friend walk into a restaurant and everything goes wrong. You know how your friend would respond.

You can almost hear his voice as he complains to the waitress, then the manager, then the police when they throw him out.

You know how he would tell that story.

Why? Because you KNOW him.

So if you are having trouble writing, you may not KNOW your puppet/character as well as you think.

When you know someone, you understand how they think. What they do. Where they go. Who they hang out with.

And what kinds of things happen to them.

When you have a character onstage, you don’t have to switch from puppet to puppet.

People want to know more about him, her or it.

Don’t use the excuse of a limited attention span.

It just is not true.

So develop your character and you will have plenty of material.

Then the hard part will be making it funny.

But that is a whole other article.

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