First, we went to our Ventriloquism co-op and the man who was teaching pulls me aside and says, "Last time you were here there was a problem in the bathroom. One of the kids peed on the floor, soaped up the mirror and threw a whole roll of toilet paper in one of the toilets. So we need to make sure the parents are with the kids in the bathroom."
To say I was embarrassed is an understatement. I immediately went to the moms and asked them to go to the bathroom with their children. I just wanted to go home right away and skip the co-op. I stayed but quickly left afterwards.
I got some more bad news about the Girl Scout troop. When I asked my girls about continuing next year, they admitted they are finished with Girl Scouts. So now that I spent yesterday getting a bunch of girls excited about next year, it looks like I may be giving up the troop.
The Ventriloquism co-op was pretty good.
We saw a couple videos about some older ventriloquists and talked about what makes them good.
- the illusion of a separate life (puppet and person)
- technique such as lip control, facial expressions, tricks (rapid voice, distant voice)
- character - voice, personality and physical puppet
- entertainment - comedy, variety in the act (singing, dancing, music, impressions) and creativtiy
- puppetry - manipulations, effect,
- mastery of smoothness, ease
- splitting
- acting/reacting
- the act as a whole
- finally, - the ventriloquist himself - his charisma and likeability
Finally, we got down to the technique of how to learn to be a ventriloquist. He talked about breathing, nasal, types of voices and tongue placement. We also talked about saying the alphabet and how some letters are easier to say then others - try to say the alphabet without moving your lips. You can do it except for 6 letters. Go ahead try it.
Then he taught us some tricks about saying certain letters and gave us some homework. The kids tried to talk without moving their lips all the way home. They had a good time.
I don't know what else we did today - it felt like we got nothing done - just a slow day with lots of unwelcome news for me.
Tomorrow will hopefully be a better day for me.
