Pseudopod 433: 20 Simple Steps To Ventriloquismby
Jon Padgett“20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism” first appeared in the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award winning anthology,
THE GRIMSCRIBE PUPPETS. “When I was a child, my first ventriloquist dummy came with a pamphlet entitled “7 SIMPLE STEPS TO VENTRILOQUISM.” Though the following ventriloquist story went through a tremendous number of transmutations from its inception two decades ago (when it was first conceived), that pamphlet from my past proved to be the key to what “20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism” would finally become. Practice the first seven steps enough, and you may one day be able to throw your voice with the best of the showbiz ventriloquists out there. Practice the rest of the steps at your own risk.”
JON PADGETT – your author AND reader – is the creator and long time administrator of the
Thomas Ligotti Online website, and — as such — has been the first publisher for a number of Ligotti’s prose works over the years, including
MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE and
CRAMPTON. He has work forthcoming in “
Lovecraft eZine” and “
XNOYBIS“. Padgett’s chapbook,
THE INFUSORIUM & his first short story collection,
THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM are forthcoming from
Dunhams Manor Press. Padgett is a professional — though lapsed — ventriloquist who lives in New Orleans with his spouse, daughter, two cats, and dog. Padgett is also a professional voice-over artist with over thirty-seven years of theater and twenty years of audio narration experience who recently produced
Occult .45: Four Tales of Gunrunning in the Weird West by
Nick Carcano and is in the midst of producing an audiobook version of
A.R. Morlan‘s novel,
Dark Journey: A Novel of Horror. Padgett also has produced some notable amateur audio performance efforts, such as “
The Bungalow House” by
Thomas Ligotti and “
Silent Snow, Secret Snow” by
Conrad Aiken.
All needle drops and run-out grooves in this audio production are derived from the carefully curated sample collection of ye olde editor
Shawn M. Garrett… who always knew they would come in handy someday
This is the link for the
Faculty of Horror podcast.
Steven Saus’ Pseudopod Story
The Burning Servant is at the link under the name (natch) and his
twitter account is as well.
JR Blackwell’s Author Portrait Kickstarter can be found
here and his twitter feed is
here.
“Being a ventriloquist is a lot of fun. Anyone from eight to eighty can learn the basic techniques of this craft with a little practice. If you really want to know about ventriloquism and what it can do for you, just follow these 20 easy steps, and one day you’ll find out just how much fun a ventriloquist can have.
STEP 1
“How to hold your mouth”
Always practice in front of a mirror. Close your mouth in a natural, relaxed way and part your lips slightly. Stare at your mouth closely in this position until you can see nothing else, as if your mouth were hovering in the midst of nothingness.”
Listen to this week's Pseudopod.