Ventriloquist Central – A Tribute To Ventriloquism

Before I became involved with collecting of Ventriloquist figures I was deeply involved with collecting antique magic. I am a member of NEMCA (New England Magic Collectors Association) and have enjoyed that end of collecting for many years. I decided to back away from magic collecting because my son, who is a full time walk around magician in restaurants, was getting older and making waves in the magic community and I didn’t want to take anything away from his development.

I decided that the ventriloquist figures, a related art to be sure, would not impact Jason in any way and I was right about that. He has no interest in the ventriloquist figures except to once in a while pick one up and play with it.

At one of the NEMCA conventions I was chatting with John Gaughn and he was the first person to tell me about McElroy figures. He owns the Johnny figure which originally belonged to Dell O’Dell. So my involvement with the antique magic really helped.

Recently I was in contact with a fellow magic collector who informed me he had an old ventriloquist figure that he thought I may like. He sent me photos and it was a really nice Ken Spencer figure. He decided that money would not take the figure so I had to find magic that would twist his arm. I knew just the right item. I had purchased, about 15 years ago, an item which is called a Glass Spirit Clock. It is a 12″ glass clock dial with a chrome hand which spins on a pin on the dial. The effect is you ask a spectator to call out a time, place the hand on the pin, and spin the hand and the hand stops on the exact time called out.

When I offered this to the magic collector it made him say yes and we made our deal. The Ken Spencer is now here in the Ventriloquist Central Collection and I thought you would all like to see him. He has slot jaw, side to side moving eyes, his left eye winks and his eyebrows raise. All his paint is original too. He is full size standing 40″ tall and I think he has a great face.

When I dressed him in the vintage cloths and put the propeller beanie on his head the name Scooter just popped into my head so I am calling him that, SCOOTER.

Click here to see Ken Spencer figure, Scooter

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. He created the Ventriloquist Central Collection. It now has over 100 ventriloquist figures and over 50 of them are Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2010 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to: webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Bernier was kind enough to allow me to share this great routine with all of you who read my blog. If you ever wanted to incorporate a bit of mental magic into your vent routine then you are going to love this. I think it sounds really stupendous. Dan has also said he will be doing a video of this routine and will share it with us as well so be on the lookout for that in the near future.

I just got my hands on Technique by Matthew Mello sold on PaperCrane Magic.

I have been working all day on putting a routine together for Buddy my puppet.

I will being using Matthew’s method along with another method.

Here’s a quick run down of my routine.

Buddy will ask for a volunteer. The volunteer will write down any 3 digit number they desire onto a note pad while Buddy is either blindfolded or looking away.

Once the volunteer has written down their numbers, Buddy’s blindfold will be removed. He will stare at the volunteer with deep concentration. After about 10-15 seconds, Buddy will begin to gag. I, worried Buddy is choking, give him a pat on the back of his head. I ask him if he is alright. He opens his mouth to reveal a piece of paper. I ask what the heck is that. He responds it’s a prediction he wrote down earlier in the day. I ask why it’s in his mouth. He says he swallowed it for safe keeping. He asks the volunteer to reveal the three digit number they wrote down, then buddy asks me to open up the piece of paper to reveal his prediction is the exact same three digits the volunteer had written.

No stooges are used. It can be performed again right away if I wanted to, but won’t be. The volunteer can write any 3 digit number they wish. No prompting at all.
I am still working on the presentation part to add the humour and dialogue, but that’s pretty much the trick he will be performing.

Hopefully once Dan has his routine done and on tape he will share the secret with the ventriloquist community.

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. He created the Ventriloquist Central Collection. It now has over 100 ventriloquist figures and over 50 of them are Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2010 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to: webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

One of my favorite things to do is to go to a live auction. There is nothing like the excitement of bidding in person against real people and actually being the wining bidder. Ebay just can’t give you that feeling. That being said I am very fortunate because just 30 minutes away from where I live is a city named Watertown. In this city is a remarkable store called “The Magic Art Studio”

This is a very special place because my son Jason at a very early age of 9 decided he wanted to be a professional magician, which today at the age of 28 he is, and he got a job working behind the counter at this great magic shop. He worked there from the age of 10 to the age of 18 when he left to go to California to take the Chavez Course in Magic.

For me the Magic Art Studio opened my eyes to the world of collectible magic and the owner, Mr Ray Goulet, actually introduced me to Ventriloquist Figure Makers George and Glen McElroy. Well not literally, he showed me pictures of Female magician Dell O’Dell who owned a McElroy Johnnie figure which is now in the collection of magician historian John Gaughn.

I have gotten off subject so I will redirect my thoughts. Four times a year Mr Goulet holds a magic auction at his Magic Art Studio where you can purchase some great magic and yes I have even purchased Vent figures there. The crowd usually numbers around 45 and the sprit and fun of a big time auction gallery is there. This past auction Jason came with me and he shot a few seconds of this great venue for you all to see.

It might be hard for any of you to ever catch one of the auctions but if you are in the Boston area ,if you don’t visit with me I will be disappointed, make sure you go visit The Magic Art Studio. It is a wondrous place and is a true magic shop no tricks and jokes here.

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Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. His collection of ventriloquist figures now numbers over 100 figures of which there are over 50 Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2008 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to:
webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ventriloquism, like Magic, is about deception because of the great illusion that is presented by the ventriloquist. When the illusion is perfect the figure is alive and that is without question as good an illusion as any women that has been cut in half. This brings me to talk about the use of magic tricks in ventriloquism. Many performers incorporate magic. Bill Boley was one and today Steve Taylor uses magic throughout his show as well as many others.

Ray Goulet, the owner of the Magic Art Studio in Watertown MA (http://www.magicartstudio.com/), and also the owner of the Mini Museum of Magic, actually it is one of the world’s largest collections of antique magic, produced a number of magical items over the years and among them were a few ventriloquial items. He produced a talking cane, a Toby Jug and also a Mandarin Head in a box. All were made in limited edition numbers of only 12.

The Mandarin head is great for a ventriloquist because not only is it a head in a box but you can actually perform a real card trick with him. Just picture this: You have a spectator select a card and remember it, Then you take the deck and put the selected card back in the deck and place the deck inside the box with the head. Close the door and ask the Mandarin if he has found the card. After a bit of ventriloquism banter you open the door and the selected card is in the mandarins mouth. The card is removed and shown to everyone to be the selected card. This is great visual magic and you incorporate the ventriloquism as well. Two illusions packed together.

We are fortunate to have one of these rare items for sale on the Marketplace. Take a look!!

Click here to see the Mandarin Head

Dan
www.ventriloquistcentral.com

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Dan Willinger is a ventriloquism enthusiast and ventriloquist figure collector. He has been collecting for over 25 years. His collection of ventriloquist figures now numbers over 100 figures of which there are over 50 Frank Marshall figures. Because of his love for the art of ventriloquism, Mr. Willinger created the website Ventriloquist Central. For more information about the website, go to: http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com

Copyright 2008 by Dan Willinger

NOTE: You may use this blog article provided you run it with the bio box intact. Please email a copy of your publication with the blog article in it to:
webmaster@ventriloquistcentral.com

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!