Do you ever watch some Ventriloquists and think that they must be in pain when their puppet is talking?
What we are referring to is the look on the face that looks like the Vent is grimacing in pain when they are simply trying to avoid moving their lips. In so doing the Vent plasters a “frozen” look on their mouth by locking a fake smile on their face and gritting their teeth to avoid the moving lip syndrome.
Leave a small gap between your teeth that has the appearance of being relaxed rather then the look of pain that comes from locking your teeth together. You can move your head from side to side and up and down to disguise any “small” lip movement that might occur, but at least your lips will not appear to move and your teeth will not be locked in the fake smile appearance.
We know that it is hard to put into words the way that you should not be doing this, but if you get in front of a mirror and work on it, we know that you will see the fake smile look and figure out how to avoid it. It looks awful when you do it. Relax your face and let things just appear to be natural when your puppet is talking.
Practice, Practice, Practice.
Best of success to you as you improve your skills.
Steve and JET