Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ, Final Installment

Here’s the last and final installment as told by RJ about ventriloquist figure maker, Ken Spencer.

Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ, Final Installment

The final chapter in my personal Ken Spencer story;

Well, I left Ken’s house after that first visit knowing that I would never again be satisfied with a ‘toy’ ventriloquist’s figure. Since I worked summers and holidays and some evenings on my father’s construction crew, I IMMEDIATELY began saving-up money for a Ken Spencer figure, although it seemed like a million dollars back then. Over the next 4 years or so, I visited Ken more and more often, and he began teaching me more and more of his techniques and secrets. Here is a small one; Ken never used a pallette when painting; He would dab the wet paints on the web between his forefinger and thumb, then mix the colors in the middle. He especially did this with his flesh colors. which always were a mystery to me. When he gave me the key, it was so simple as to be embarrassing, since I had never been able to get it right. Flesh color, according to Spencer; on the affore-mentioned pallette, put down dabs of red, yellow, white,and brown; Start with white, mix in small amounts of red and yellow, with tiny amounts of brown to adjust;And minute amounts of black; He said that these colors would be all you would ever need to do ANY type of flesh color; try it; it works.

Well, long story short, I DID get that Spencer figure, but not by my labors; My parents got it for me, the following Christmas. Only in retrospect did I realize that Ken was grooming me as his successor; I was, simply, too young to ‘get’ it; And when I entered college and my world expanded exponentially, the years of ventriloquism and everything about it seemed to me to be part of my ”old” life, which I was trying to leave behind-which I did. I lost track of Ken, to my great loss. Roads taken, and not taken…. RjL

I hope you have enjoyed these as much as I have. If you’ve missed the previous versions, click below:

Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ

Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ, Part 2

Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ, Part 3

Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ, Part 4

Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ, Part 5

Ventriloquist Figure Maker, Ken Spencer as Told by RJ, Part 6

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

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