Hi All: It is a blast to be able to do Gospel magic every Sunday morning for kids at my church, but one's supply of good Gospel magic material runs out fast (when you can't really repeat yourself for years). So I decided to give Gospel ventriloquism a try.

One challenge I faced was the inability to spend hours and hours 100% completely memorizing a set routine when faced with the issue of doing a routine only once, then doing a completely different one a week later.

What worked out well is I first show the kids a "Speed Sketch" on the tv monitor- these are very short drawn Bible stories where the kids watch an artist draw the Bible story extremely fast (about 5 minutes) while a announcer tells the story. They are extremely well done and available from Wesleyan Publishing House.

Then I come out with my vent figure "Willie" (who I got from Axtell Expressions) and do a rehash of the same story just shown on video using one of the wonderful routines from the three volumes of "Encyclopedia of Comedy Gospel Vent & Puppet Routines" from Friends Puppet Company. What I really like is each routine is spiral bound and is entirely on two pages which you can view with the book open.

The last issue for me was how could I have the routine book available to do the ole' Johnny Carson "glance down" (Johnny started out as a vent/magician) to look briefly at the script (typed up in big letters too in these volumes) if I got lost/forgot my next line.

The solution was terrific for me- I am sitting on a folding chair, Willie is sitting on a bar stool type chair right next to me. Directly in front of me, about knee high, is an adjustable stand tilted back towards me with the script right on it. On the front of the stand is a sign "Lighthouse Kids" so it kinda looks like a prop/sign. The stand itself is fantastic, as it is perfectly the size of the open script book mentioned above.

The stand is amazingly only $16.88 from Walmart- available in the stores or online from their web site. Is is called a "Mainstays Multi-Functional Adjustable Table". It could also double for a magic table- but only if your props are very tall as this particular table is not very high. But for holding an open two page vent script right in front of you, it is absolutely perfect.

Just another post-script: There are quite a few "learn ventriloquism" DVDs out there (and I have at least five). So I first watched a shew of them. Oddly enough, the one I found the most encouraging was the very brief personally produced $5.95 "5 Easy Steps to Ventriloauism" DVD put out by FCMer Tricky Ricky Henson. It basically has one doing vent after just a few minutes- and his simple instructions seemed to work just fine for my purposes.

Whoops, spelled "ventriloquism" wrong in the above post, too late to edit it.

Also, another aside for the beginner, the "hamburger head" full sized vent puppets from Creative Ministries are well made, not scary to kids, and less expensive than "regular" moving jaw/eyes/eyebrows wooden head figures (which can cost in the thousands of dollars for the top of the line special order ones).

Another followup to the above: I have gotten many excellent Gospel vent routine books. I am very appreciative to Ed Jarvis (former FCM President) who sent me some wonderful routines he had collected from back into the 1970's, just fantastic. But my favorite so far as a resource has been the "Encyclopedia of Comedy Gospel Vent & Puppet Routines" by Friends Puppet Company, 1995, 1999. 50 well written clever and funny routines on 100 spiral bound pages.

Roger - great stuff.
I use vent about once a month in our Children's Ministry.
I see that the Friends Puppet Company has 3 volumes of the "Encyclopedia..." books. Great resource!

Thanks Jamie: Much appreciate your kind words- I can't personally wait to do one of the above routines this Sunday.

Each of the three "Encyclopedia of Comedy Gospel Vent & Puppet Routines" has 50 or 51 routines. Some (very few) in the three spiral bound books have different routines on the same story such as "The Rich Young Man" (Luke 18). So you can chose which routine you like best on the same Bible story if you have all three books. Book Two was apparently written in 2001, Book Three in 2004. All still very relevant.

I find these printed two page routines to have great content- extremely clever. Many of the puppet lines are laugh out loud funny. The vent "Sidney" figure in these printed encyclopedias takes on the role of a comic wisecracking kid, without being disrespectful or mean spirited toward the ventriloquist "Jim". I really like these routines, I cannot recommend them to the beginning Gospel vent highly enough. A+++++. You can use them as is if you like, not much editing needed even. I like too how the routine contents seem to flow together logically- which is much easier to memorize (e.g.- the vent tells a sentence of the Bible story in order, then the figure reacts to each statement made). Reminds me of a David Mitchell type routine (Dave always completely cracks me up).

These three books can be purchased directly at www.friendspuppets.org or might be in stock at some other magic store retailers.

When I ordered the last two books directly from Friends Puppets above out of Vancouver, Washington (I bought the first book off the rack in the Abbott Magic showroom in Colon), they sent out these routines volumes to me extremely quickly via Priority Mail. So I was very pleased by their (Friends Puppets) fast immediate email/mail order service in getting the other two books to me.

I have some more routine books coming in from Creative Ministry tomorrow, will see in those if the figure is more "serious" so I can use my hamburger head "prophet" puppet(looks like an old man in a bathroom). The smart-alarky "Sidney" routines above will not work for an older prophet/Elijah looking figure obviously. I will keep you posted what I find out tomorrow.

By the way, anyone out there know of good Gospel vent books (e.g. a vent and the figure only) out there where the figure/puppet is an old farmer man or a talking animal or a more serious "prophet"? I would love to find those too so I will not be limited to using only my young comic "Willie" figure (unless I write my own routines especially for my older hamburger head gents).

From a technical standpoint, on my "Willie" molded figure, it has no "cut out" movable lower jaw line/lower mouth movement like an old fashioned wooden figure does. So the vent is somewhat limited on moving the stiff set lower jaw downward very much (using your right thumb) which is how people normally talk. So when my Willie figure talks, his upper lip/teeth go way up more than a normal person when speaking but that is the only way to get Willie's mouth open wide. That being said, this is a very small picky picky issue with this particular "Willie" figure from Axtell- and is not really all that noticeable. This drawback with this unique molded head is easily offset by Willie's extremely low purchase price (cheapest I could find for a full sized modern looking modern figure) combined with his really cartoony great look/sparkly "personality". So very pleased- can't really go wrong with any Axtell figure- great place to start when shopping for an initial vent figure.

Would love to see some of your vent routines someday Jamie!

Looking for inexpensive kids clothes for your size 6 vent figure? I bought a bunch of "George" suits on clearance at Walmart right after Easter- for under $7.00 you got pants, shirt, tie and vest.

Last night (9-27-16), I was at my local Walmart in Kalamazoo- they had a size 6 red kids t-shirt with black longsleeves built in (to cover the vent arms even!) for $6.97. And the cool thing about this kids shirt is it has on the front of it printed in huge letters "Prepare To Be Amazed"- I couldn't believe it. "Willie" looks great now in his new t-shirt.

I did receive four more vent routine books today from Creative Ministry Solutions, all very usable. However, they all too come from the premise of the figure/dummy being the wise-cracking funny one liner type- as opposed to a "Jonah"/prophet hamburger older man head figure discussing what happened in to him in the Bible story in the first person.

Those type of printed vent routines (written from the viewpoint of the figure being the one featured in the Bible story itself) probably do not exist as far as I know- maybe one of us will have to write some up.

Another beginner's vent tip: If you are looking for a lower cost bird type puppet figure, FAB Magic out of Colon, Michigan has begun selling a nasty rabbit, woodpecker, chicken, etc.- these figures per Rick are made right there locally in Colon. I am hoping my kids buy me one for Christmas this year

I learned Vent around 1945 from a book called 'fun for boys' it included a Vent alphabet- which I'll share-the following-- A-Thee-C-D-E-Eth- G-H-I-J-K-L-N-N-O-T (or Thee)-Q-R-S-T-U-Thee-Duggel U -X-Y-Z-- a couple answers "Y?" because I ASKED YOU-- How old are you?--9-- How Old??-'9'-How Old "NINE" -'oh I thought you were saying NO in German //L-O-L-- also don't worry about moving lips-keep figure moving - I knew Edger Bergin and Alibi Terhune and their lips MOVED-- Please don't have a STIFF JAW/CHIN - just relax @ have Fun. If he doesn't mind- "Harris"(Dr.Laugh) has a good bunch of Gospel Vent Scripts..(:->) Ralph(russo)Rousseau

I learned vent from three different sources - book by Alexander Van Renselaer (it was the only book on vent at the library when I was a kid) then graduated to Instant Ventriloquism with Jimmy Nelson and third book which to this day I consider the BEST is Paul Stadleman's Ventriloquism of Today - been doing vent as long as I have magic -- 50 years --- and I enjoy it as much as magic so when we had the opportunity to put out our own puppet line I was ecstatic.