From: BiersBlackwood-AT-aol.com
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 09:23:44 EDT
Subject: Re: PUPT: Ventriloquism....


What made Edgar Bergen so successful, in large part, was his ability to make 
his puppet, the ventriloquist's dummy Charlie McCarthy, seem so real and 
alive. Bergen's lips flapped away throughout his act, as he himself mentioned.  (In 
the WC Fields/Charlie MCarthy vehicle, "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man," 
Bergen is asked how a ventriloquist keeps his lips from moving when doing his 
"partner's" voice.  Bergen responds, "you're asking the wrong man," adding that 
even Charlie has noticed the failing!)

But like the best puppeteers, Bergen is focused totally on Charlie and 
Mortimer (or Zeffie), and, even though it is often remarked that the dummies are 
made of wood, they are well (if simply) animated, and one feels as if their 
brains are working away behind those wooden masks.  The comedy is as much about 
their characters as it is about the "jokes."  Also,  Bergen presented himself 
onstage as an average, even bland man, so that the personalities of the dummies 
(sublimated parts of his own personality?) came through even clearer.  

My late grandfather, Bill Riley, was a ventriloquist, but I never managed to 
learn too many secrets from him, and not for want of him trying to pass them 
on.  Eventually I hid myself behind a stage and let the puppet characters do 
ALL the talking.  Now, in fact, I usually write shows for other puppeteers to 
perform....

Sean


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