An Interview With Neale Bacon - Part 3

Part three of a seven part interview with Neale Bacon ventriloquist from Canada.

Video Transcript:

You know, people who know me know that we’re built around Neale Bacon and His Crazy Critters, because all of my puppets are animal characters.

I did that for a couple of reasons. When I first started working a lot with kids, I found that the traditional hard figures—those who know the term—really freaked kids out. They looked too much like them, they were the same size, and then at the end of the show you’d fold them up and put them in a suitcase. Kids found that kind of off-putting.

So I started going with animal characters. My thinking was kind of like, “What if these stuffed animals could talk?” And with the world of imagination, kids didn’t find that unusual. They’re used to the Muppets and other characters they’ve seen talk, so it fit right in.

My main character, Horton Hogg – that’s two g’s, he’s very emphatic about that – actually came to me by chance. A friend of mine, Sean, had bought him from Axtell on impulse but couldn’t quite find a personality that worked. He contacted me one day and said, “I found the perfect puppet for a guy named Bacon,” and he sent me a photo of this pig puppet. I took one look and said, “I’ve got to have him.”

So Horton came into the show. Then I added a couple more. I picked up a beaver, because for those who don’t know, the beaver is Canada’s national symbol. I also wanted a character who was more of a nerd—shy, kind of awkward—since most of my other characters were pretty gregarious. I figured it could either be a rabbit or a sheep. A lot of people were already doing rabbits, so I went with sheep.

I contacted Axtell and asked if they could customize one for me. I’d seen this nerdy-looking rabbit on their site that had pants and big horn-rimmed glasses, so I asked if they could put those features on a sheep instead. That’s how Stanley the Sheep was born. His big problem is that he’s allergic to wool, which causes him to talk kind of like this [nasal voice].

Along the way I also added a reindeer, an Axtell Vern I won in one of their contests, and then I was anonymously gifted a chicken puppet. I still don’t know who gave it to me.

That chicken became Horton’s girlfriend, Clara. Steve Axtell called me and said, “Somebody bought this puppet for you and it’s on the way.” She’s turned into a huge hit. She’s the diva of the group—very much the Miss Piggy type. Her personality came out right away.

Here’s a funny story about Clara. We were performing up in northern BC, in Prince George, at their fair for about a week. There was a 4H group there—you have them in the States too—and the kids had their animals, showing them and winning prizes.

I was doing walk-around with Clara through the barns, and she noticed all these chickens had ribbons and she didn’t. So on stage she made a huge fuss about it. For days, it became a running gag that she didn’t have a ribbon and wasn’t going to perform anymore until she got one.

On about the third or fourth day, in the middle of our show, this gentleman just walked out on stage and presented Clara with a huge ribbon for “Best in Show,” so she’d stop complaining.

We proudly have her ribbon hanging in the office to this day.