Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Shamelessly thieving from Donahue
This Donahue.
I have a new Major League Crush (sorry, Cintra — but check Nina out. You’ll love her, too):
Nina Conti, ventriloquist and BRILLIANT stand-up comic. Here’s a YouTube sample from her website.
Maybe some of you are familiar with her work, but she was news to me. In Jim’s post, he emphasizes her naturalness, the way she responds to Monk as if he were an independent entity. I agree; she does this better than any ventriloquist I’ve seen. But I’m impressed with her ability to turn ventriloquism on its head, reversing conventions left and right. While ventriloquism is traditionally family entertainment (think Shari Lewis), Nina Conti can be filthy; and while most ventriloquists do their best to sustain the illusion of the dummy’s reality, Nina Conti revels in trashing that illusion.
Yes, she’s a sort of meta-ventriloquist. That YouTube clip demonstrates this well: she toggles between convincing actress and renegade deconstructionist. Wow. You try walking a tightrope like that.
That’s it for tonight . . . I’d like to get started on my Thirteen, and it ain’t writing itself!
D.
my my my . . . for the last 15 minutes, I’ve been watching other ventriloquists on YouTube. Nina truly is one of a kind.
There are a few meta puppeteers out there. Agro, the “animated bathmat” (that’s what he was made from and it showed) from “Agros Cartoon Connection”, played by a never-seen Jamie Dunn made no secret that a large fat, bald man had a hand up his clacker.
Here’s some stuff they couldn’t show the kids.
I liked the bit – very meta.
I’ve seen other “dirty” ventriloquists, though. And, darling, no one replaces Wayland and Madame.
microsoar: thanks. I’ll check those links once I’m back in the land of high speed (home).
DN: I’d forgotten W&M! I’ll have to search YouTube . . . again, when I’m back in hi speed territory.
Hilarious. She has a 3 part show on YouTube that is really funny too.
I’d forgotten about Wayland Flowers, too. Anyone who went to his shows based on his appearances on talk shows in the ’70s must have gotten a shock!