While we have nothing against FaceBook, Twitter and all the other possible sites, we have had to make some hard and fast decisions that we will not be participating in any of these at this time due to time constraints.

The process of creating new and different puppet designs is more than a full time job, and when you add to that the number of hours spent on answering Email from around the world, (many of which take time to run language interpreters) we have a full plate.

The reason that we are addressing this topic here is that we don’t want any of our friends to think that we are being snooty or are being rude in any way. That would not be the case at all. We love hearing from each of you and totally enjoy each opportunity to conspire with you in the creation of your new puppet design. The only problem is that if we get sidetracked by all the social media outlets, we will not be able to honor our time commitments to complete each of your projects as promised.

We hope that each of you will understand this. When we commit to a schedule, we don’t own our time at that point. You do. And if we don’t stay focused on the task at hand, we will be taking time that we don’t own for other less productive things.

Thanks for your understanding and we will talk again real soon.

Steve and JET

Our reader was in his early 40′s when he started out to be a Vent. He loved little kids and wanted to do a lot of birthday parties, but was not sure that he was good enough to get bookings and did not want to disappoint folks by not giving a good enough show. He also realized that in order to get better, he needed exposure time with his target audience. So after much thought he decided to go with this novel new idea.

In his town there was a restaurant that he described as being like a “Chuck E. Cheese” type place. On a Friday night, he took just his wife and a small puppet that would fit in a small bag and went to the restaurant. Once there he and his wife got their food and sat down. As luck (or good planning) would have it, there were several groups of kids who showed up that night for birthday parties.

After each small group would come in and get seated, he waited for his opportunity, figured out who the birthday child was and went to work. First he walked up to the parent and asked permission to have a little good clean fun with their child. The he walked up to the birthday child and had his puppet start a conversation with the child, wishing them a happy birthday, asking how old they were and so on.

He was initially concerned that the restaurant would throw him out, but the restaurant thought that he was entertainment brought in by the parents, and the parents thought he was entertainment provided by the restaurant. After about 5 minutes with the small group just having fun, he gave the parent his business card and went and sat down. The small group loved what he did and wanted to see more. After two more appearances with that group, he took his seat.

His wife meanwhile had spotted the next “victim” at their party. He pulled the same routine with that group with the same results. After he finished the fourth group and sat down, the restaurant manager came over to him and began asking questions. He explained what he was doing and ended up being hired for two nights a week to come in and do just what he was doing as a guest entertainer of the restaurant.

The manager later told him that if he had not had his wife with him that they would have thrown him out thinking that he was some kind of kid predator, but the presence of his wife gave him “normal” legitimacy. Over several months, he began getting calls in his town from parents wanting him to come and do private bookings for other children and he now has a thriving birthday business.

Pretty cool stuff and it only cost him the price of business cards, and the price of the first meal with his wife. It is just another example of letting your creativity get you going.

He said to remind everyone that it is critical that you get the parents permission before starting in on the child. Since he was not yet working for the restaurant, he could have created real problems for himself if he had not obtained permission from the parent. (Good thinking in this day and age.)

Thats all for now folks,

Steve and JET

The problem is that there is always a time delay between when something is ordered and when we can have it done and ready to ship. In the case of the book, the release date of the book was just days away and the puppet was needed for some upcoming publicity opportunities and for several book signings. Many times we will get a request around Thanksgiving for a Christmas type of puppet.

As much as we wish we were good (and fast) enough to just hiccup and have the puppet done, life just does not work that way. One reason is that when we do commit to a puppet, we give you a hard date to expect your puppet by. At that point, we have sold a piece of our time, and as much as we would like to accommodate your instant needs, we don’t “own” the time it would take to do the task. It belongs to whoever we have committed to for that time slot.

I’ve said all that to say this. Please, help us help you. We want to do each puppet for which we get a request. BUT we are human and can only do what is humanly possible. If you are going to need something in six or seven months, please be in touch with us now. Lets get the details worked out while we still have a chance of getting your project on the board and getting your project done in a timely fashion.

In the early days, we prided ourselves in having a 30-45 day turn-a-round. Fortunately for us (maybe not for you) we can no longer do that. When you have a back log of 35-40 puppets, you must be realistic on schedule. Right now we are into the second week of November on Production Schedule. Yes, we still have some time available for your Christmas projects, but not if you wait until Thanksgiving.

None of the “good” makers can just drop everything and do a quick project. In fairness, if Jeff wants a puppet, he will have to go to the back of the line just like everyone else. It would not be fair to you if we let anyone butt in line while you wait patiently. So please understand, it is not that we don’t want to help each of you at the very minute you need us, it is just the desire to be fair to everyone.

Thats all for now folks,

Steve & JET

Here is a suggestion that won’t cost more than about 5 cents. Watch this short video of one of our characters. Pay attention to the head movement and the corresponding movement of the characters hands.

This is quite simply clear mono-filament fishing line doing all the movement of the characters hands. As the head moves, bobs, jerks or whatever, the hands also move.

It is very easy to do. Start with about 30″ of thin clear fishing line. Most of us don’t have to buy any, just cut off about that much from your fishing pole. (Make sure that you leave the hook with the pole.) Make a loop at one end of the line that is big enough to slide easily over the puppets hand. This way if you don’t want to use the movement for some reason, you can very quickly disconnect the line from the hand. When you slide the loop over the hand, let it rest as close as practical to the hand, but have it on the puppets wrist.

Then position the puppets hand in the middle of the range you want the hand to travel and hold it in that position. Have someone hold the puppets head straight up and with your other hand take the line and hold it up next to the puppets ear. This way you will be able to tell the approximate length you need. Now tie a loop on the other end of the line and loop it over the puppets ear. (You can sew it into the puppets earlobe if you wish, but for now we recommend that you just hang it off the ear).

With the line looped over both the wrist and the ear, put your hand in the puppet and have a little conversation with the puppet. You will see that as you move the head from side to side that the puppets hand will also move with the head. Since your audience cannot see the line, they just assume that the hand is moving by itself.

If, for instance you are using a left armrod, then only put the line on the right wrist/ear so that you can continue to use the left armrod for more specific movements. If you are not using an armrod, put the line on both wrists/ears. Play around with the concept. You may just find that we have given you an effective new tool for animation.

Until next time,

Steve & JET

What you don’t want is something happening while you perform that takes the audiences attention away from the very things that you have practiced so hard to perfect and makes the audience concentrate on something that just looks goofy instead of being entertained by your act.

What we suggest is that you get about 18-24″ of very small clear monofilament fishing line. Most of you have it around the house already, so it would not take anything to come up with it. For those of you who may not have it, you can find it in the Sporting Goods Dept. of any Walmart or Kmart for just a couple of dollars.

Take the fishing line and tie it around the toes of one foot of your puppet. You can approximate how much distance you need between the two feet and then tie the other foot
in the same fashion. Doing it this way is not a permanent change to your puppet, so you can experiment with the distance between feet and get the effect just the way you want it. Yes, you can see the line if you are in the first few rows of the audience, but you will have to decide what you find to be the most ridiculous. A little, almost invisible bit of fishing line or feet that are running all over the place.

Anyway, its a suggestion that did not cost you anything so take it for what its worth.

That’s all for now, so keep on venting.

Until Next time,

Steve and JET

These are three possible definitions of the word Imagination. I did not even look the word up, because I know what it means to me. It really is the world that you must be attempting to create for your audience every time you go on stage. Everybody knows what reality is. For a lot of people it is a place that really stinks. It is a place to get away from. The usual. The humdrum. The everyday.

Whether or not your audience realizes in so many words, it is the world of make-believe that made them come to see you and your characters. It is a break from the nasty now and now (until we can get to the sweet by and by).

Take your characters and go into a room without windows. Preferably a room with no furniture, and only a chair for you to sit on. Now without any distractions from the real world, use your imagination to talk to your puppets. Both you and they can discuss the way the world really should be. Find some humor in the way things would be if only. .
. .

Make fun of little things without fearing that someone will be offended. This may seem like its a little far out, but by creating this make believe world (even if it is merely the way things were in a slower, more simple time – back on the farm so to speak) you can use your characters and humor to give your audience a whimsical break from all that may be troubling them today.

Let your imagination build a safe place for your audience to get lost in, even if it is only for the 20 or 30 minutes that you are on stage. When you do, your audience will have had a good time. Have you ever listened to the radio show “Prairie Home Companion”? From the time that Mr. Keeler begins to tell the story of the week, you are absolutely lost to your problems of the day. And you can hardly wait for the next “chapter” in the story next week.

As a vent, it is your job to use your imagination to create a safe place that your audience will want to travel to with you. When you are successful at this, the folks in your audience will hardly be able to wait to get to see you again. You will increase your market value in your area.

Think about this. Then let some of the ideas that you have drift into your act.

If you would like to share some of your ideas below in the comments section, please do. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Steve and JET

We at The Dummy Shoppe are already deep in planning of the types of new characters we want to have at ConVENTion. However, we want to get some feedback from you.

We want to hear from you about the types of new characters you would like to see this year. Is there a type of a puppet that you have in the back of your mind that you have never seen before but would like to see? Something that you have always said “If I ever see a ____________ puppet, I would buy it in a heartbeat”?

Well, here is your opportunity.

Tell us what you want to see. You may not be a maker, but God still gave you an imagination. Email us at thedummyshoppe@gmail.com and tell us what you would like to see. If there is any way that we can come up with the creation you have in mind, we will give it a shot.

Admit it, we are all just a little bit crazy, so put your crazy side together and let us hear from you. Maybe we can use your idea and come up with the next new thing to make the world of vent just a little more appealing to the big audience.

Looking forward to hearing from all of our imaginative friends,

Steve and JET

Our friend did due diligence as far as you can on the big site. The seller had a long history of selling with apparent good ratings. Our friend shipped the trade-in puppet, emailed the tracking information and then as he had agreed, he sent the balance of $1,000.00 via PayPal. So far so good.

The Seller had promised to ship the puppet as soon as he received payment and the tracking information. However, when our friend had completely honored his word and sent both the trade-in puppet and payment, no tracking information was forthcoming from the Seller. It should be noted that the Seller was in the USA and our friend was in Australia. After a reasonable amount of time went by, our friend began sending inquiring emails to the Seller wanting some tracking information. As you can imagine, the more time that went by, the more concerned our friend became and the more emails he sent the Seller.

Finally the Seller began responding with the most base and vulgar emails. I have read some of what he sent, where he questioned our friends orientation among other things that we will not reprint here. Suffice it to say that it was totally unprofessional and nothing that you can think would come from a mature adult.

Fortunately, our friend had the presence of mind to quickly contact PayPal and put a stop to the payment. I assume that he also forwarded copies of the emails that the Seller had sent him. PayPal did in fact side with our friend and he did get the $1,000.00 payment refunded to his account. However, as of the most recent information I have, our friend will be out the Axtell puppet that he had shipped to the Seller. It was a horrible experience for him.

I have said all this to make this point. Make sure that you do due diligence. I don’t think it is unreasonable to ask for references in advance. I might suggest that you also obtain your tracking information in advance and send the numbers to the other party. Then wait to actually receive tracking information from the other party, and verify with the tracking system that his/her number is active. Only then ship anything back to him/her.

Also, it is against the big sites policy to make off-line deals. Most of the time what our friend did would have worked out just fine, but this time it backfired on a really good guy.

The bottom line is this. Always be very careful in your dealings. In an art form where 99.9% of the folks are great people and very honorable, it only takes a few to ruin things for everyone.

Thats all for now folks,

Steve and JET

The same thing holds true with Ventriloquists. We, as a group, are basically stand up comedians – with puppets, figures or dummies.

It is very important that if you are using material where your character is making a funny comment about a news item or a politician that you keep the material up to date and current. Yes, almost all politicians are fair game and make funny blunders, but if you are going to take a humorous poke at a political figure, PLEASE don’t take a poke at Richard Nixon.

Ok that’s extreme, but you get the point. It is really very simple. Constantly review your script material and if the line is more than 3 months old, replace it. The general public memory does not function well beyond that.

Until next time,

Steve & JET

Our great friend Sylvia Fletcher (Sylvia’s Magic Trunk) recently had some new promotional pictures made of just “Portia”, a puppet we made for her a couple of years ago. Sylvia, exhibits her sense of humor in some of these shots. Portia apparently tips the bottle from time to time and it is reflected in one of her promotional shots.

This is a good example of getting some shots done, and a great reminder of the need to do it.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and don’t forget to put promotional photos on your to-do list in the very near future.

Thanks for sharing Sylvia. As always we appreciate seeing good pictures.

Thats all for now folks,

Steve and JET