Here's my Christmas gift to you call. A free lesson in lip control, a vital part if not, thee, key part of being a good ventriloquist.

Merry Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nnSYvdXfs

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Nice video. Look forward to the next one.

The newest video has been uploaded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt-XBAE5xwQ

The distant/drone voice.

I don't want to downplay the importance of lip control in vent or take away from your video because lip control is important. However, if I had to say what you refer to as THEE key part of being a good ventriloquist, I would say humor. You can get away with bad lip control, but you can't get away with boring humor. I'm not recommending sloppy lips. I'm just saying I would much rather watch a funny vent with sloppy lip control than a boring vent with great lip control.

What does everyone else think?

I agree. Depending how how sloppy their lip control is, as I can't help but stare. But that's a personal thing.

I tend to agree with you on some levels, Karen.
The main problem is that if the lip control is bad, then the comedy would need to be something VERY special and brilliant, since the_ first thing_ that the general public will judge a vent by is their technical skill.
If a vent is going to try to skate by with bad technique, I'd say that the first two minutes of the act had better be chock full of some _real_ belly laugh humor.

Speaking of crappy lip control, even though he was THE most successful vent in history (prior to the success of Jeff Dunham), Edgar Bergen was by and large by most standards a downright sloppy ventriloquist from a technical standpoint. Although he was already a popular stage performer before his big break on radio as well as having made a handful of short films, it was national exposure on radio that made people familiar familiar with his characters and embrace his sharp sense of humor. When people saw him in his subsequent feature films, many were shocked at just how _bad_ his technique was. It's for him that his material, the characters (which were now familiar via the radio show), his professional and elegant demeanor, his decent acting skills, and his great puppetry skills combined to help his audiences suspend the rather obvious lack of lip control. I can't begin to tell you how many times I was doing shows as a kid that someone would say that they liked Bergen but "he was sure a lousy ventriloquist".

Lousy material is bad enough when vents in the amateur, semi-pro, and even journeyman professional categories are "in the trenches" doing shows. But make no mistake...lip control is the _very first thing_ that a vent will be judged by.
And most of the time, that's what the audience will remember too.
Today's audiences are by and large more demanding and more critical, after all.

When we put the Ventriloquist Script Writing course together Ken Groves made a strong point: Lip Control is easy, comedy is hard. You can find Ken's rant 2:44 into the video at: http://www.learn-ventriloquism.com/ventr......r-class/

I've also added a second video with Terry Fator, who will be hosting a script writing lecture with one of his script writers at the 2013 conVENTion.

Tom

I agree with, TheDummyDoctor, if I watch a ventriloquist and his or her lip control is poor, I shut off straight away.

Great video series. Thanks!

A viewer asked for the harder letter to be talked about in more detail. So I did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjBiYl4LU-U

If you ask for it, I'll talk about it. As long as I feel that I've got enough knowledge to talk to about confidently.
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Being a comedian is one thing, being a ventriloquist is another and with sloppy lip control you're just a funny puppeteer.

Exactly, that's why I've done these tutorials. You better have some bloody good material to distract the audience from your lips lol .

Great post Alan!
One thing I have never understood in all my years is how anyone can play down the importance of lip control as part of the art of ventriloquism, and we have all seen it all to frequently. They use Bergen as their example, but Bergen's situation was different, circumstances that made him the exception to the rule, circumstances that no one is ever going to be in again, and I seriously doubt that he would want his contribution to the art to be the excuse for others to not practice it properly.
And of course those that want to downplay lip control always also use as their battle cry, it's more important to be funny than have good lip control. No one ever says good lip control is more important than being funny, but they always twist it into that, and it doesn't matter how many times you say both aspects are equally important IF you want to be a ventriloquist.

Imagine a juggler who keeps dropping his balls... Imagine a dancer danced to the wrong rhythm... Imagine an escape artist cannot pick his own lock...

Same with a ventriloquist...

And, there is only ONE Edgar Bergen, that shouldn't give us an excuse to say, "Since Edgar is sloppy in his lips control, I can do that too". We call ourselves a ventriloquist, not a comedian, so let's do the basics first.