Here is lesson number seven from our good friend and regular contributor ventriloquist/puppeteer, Bob Abdou aka Mr. Puppet with his video he calls “Tidbit in a Minute.”
Today’s video is “Comedy Writing.”
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Tim Cowles “Nosey” Style Wood Carved Figure
As you all know Timothy Cowles has been producing ventriloquist figures for a long time and recently went into the carving of wood figures and has come up with a few very fine characters including a very special fellow for the Ventriloquist Central Collection. I of course will share that with you when he arrives here.
Recently Tim decided he wanted to carve a figure in the Frank Marshall Nosey style and it is finally completed. What a great design Tim has come up with based on Frank’s original design.
You can clearly see this when you look at the pictures of Tim’s character and the Marshall Nosey side by side. I take my hat off to Tim and give him true accolades. His carving talent is right up there with the best of them and his mechanics are also top notch.
Ventriloquist Central Collection Video Series – 1950’s Frank Marshall Nosey Figure
Here’s a video of another example of a Nosey style figure from Frank Marshall. This fellow was carved in 1952 and is a wonderful example of Marshall’s work.
He has a lot of functions: Side to side self centering eyes, right eye winks, raising eyebrows and upper lip smile.
Charlie McCarthy From The Movies
I was contacted very recently and asked if I had ever seen this picture of a young Edgar Bergen and his partner Charlie McCarthy. I had to tell him that in fact it was the first time I had ever seen the picture.
It is a great one because it appears this is the Charlie that Bergen used in the movie Charlie McCarthy Detective, which showed him with moving eyes. We all know Mr Bergen only used mouth movement in his regular club engagements but clearly you can see the controls on the head stick showing the controls for both the mouth and the eyes.
Books on Ventriloquism Available from W.S. Berger
On many occasions I say I wish I could turn back the hands of time. Just take a look at this great list of books and a couple of vent figures that were available for sale and the prices were postpaid by my idol W. S. Berger (click picture for larger view). I guess I will buy them all.
