Pastor Scott Bryte’s Latest Ventriloquist Figure

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Pastor Scott Bryte took me up on a challenge which I proposed to him quite some time ago. That was to create a hand carved wooden figure into which you placed your hand inside its head to control the movements. Well to my surprise he has done just what I had said and created Raz.

Raz (Professor Erasmus Q. Hornswoggl, Knower of Things).

Raz has carved basswood head and hands, slot jaw, raising eyebrows (Marshall style) and side-side self centering eyes (the centering mechanism is again, Marshall style), He has a solid foam body and cloth legs that are glued directly to his shoes.

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Raz has the same range of motion in body and neck as any cloth puppet would have, but, as you can see, his face has the character and detail of a hard figure.

This is great because you can have the fluidity of movement that is found in a soft puppet yet the figure is a carved wooden head.

Check out this video of “Raz” in action…..

Scott is a very talented wood carver and if you like this I suggest you contact him soon because I believe the orders are going to come fast.

 

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 2011 by Dan Willinger

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4 Responses to Pastor Scott Bryte’s Latest Ventriloquist Figure

  1. Wanlu says:

    Very interesting!

    How are the animations controlled? I have a soft puppet with raising/lowering eyebrows and self centering eyes and the controlls are extremely difficult to use in conjunction with the mouth movement ala hard figure with a headstick.

  2. Wanlu says:

    Using a hard figure with a headstick, you basicalky control the mouth with just one finger so the other fingers can be used to simultanously control the eyes, eyebrows and winkers in conjunction with the mouth movement.

    For a soft puppet, I basically use all fingers to open and close the mouth, giving me a hard time to control the eyes and brows while the puppet is talking. I tried using just the thumb and 3 fingers for the mouth leaving the index finger to operate the eyes and brows but it is so difficult.

    I’m hoping Pastor Scott has a better system. :)

    • Scott Bryte says:

      The truth about Raz is that he does indeed have a headstick, but it is located inside the head. There is very little room in there, and the control arrrangement is a little unusual. There are no strings or pulleys, so you work the different features with the finger that is closest to that feature. Your forfinger works the side-to-side eyes. The eyebrow control is worked by your thumb. The most unusal aspect of the whole thing is that your little finger is used to move the mouth. That leaves your two strongest fingers to hold on to the stick. The whole thing takes some getting used to, but once you spend a little time with it, it’s really quite easy.

  3. Wanlu says:

    Thanks Pastor Scott :)

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