Canadian ventriloquist Neale Bacon talks about his television appearance on a children’s game show.

Video Transcript:

And you also did a kids’ show—a television show with Clarice, right?

I did. We have a show in Canada on our kids’ network called YTV. The show is called Zoink!. It’s sort of a reverse game show in that the judges are kids, four of them.

What’s really tough is you only get 60 seconds to come out and do your thing. Most ventriloquists know it takes time to establish who you are, who the character is, and what’s happening. But here, they just throw you to the wolves.

The downside is, if the judges don’t like you, they pull these big knobs on the end of a pole. If you get “zoinked” once, you get hit with things like ping pong balls that blow out from the side. If you get it a second time, you get hit again with either more ping pong balls or feathers. But if you get zoinked three times—you get slimed. Oh no! From overhead, totally drenched.

We managed to get through. If you make it and you’re the best, you win a thousand bucks, which is nice. But for me, the big deal was the national exposure, exactly to the market I wanted to reach. So we went for it. We didn’t win the money, but we also didn’t get covered in blue slime either, so I think we came out ahead.

I think so too. That would’ve been a mess.

It would. I actually asked for a “no slime” clause in my contract. I told them, “I don’t care what you dump on me, but you can’t ruin the puppet. I’m walking out there with an expensive puppet and you cannot dump slime on it.” So I’m one of the few people who actually got a no slime clause. Instead, they would just dump another load of feathers on me.

That’s great.

Yeah, the feathers could have been great for Clarice. She said, “My God—they’re my relatives!” Exactly—she exploded on that one.

So did that television appearance create any interest in your show? Were you getting calls about it?

I haven’t gotten calls yet, but the interesting thing is, I volunteer at a local place here called Burnaby Village Museum. It’s a setup like a small town from the 1920s where we all play characters in the village.

This family came through, and one little kid kept tugging on his mom’s sleeve and pointing at me, saying: “Mom, that’s the guy with the chicken.” So I’ve gotten some recognition from the show. We’re waiting to see how that pans out.

They also told me the show repeats a lot, so it wasn’t just a one-shot deal. I’ll probably be seen 10 to 12 times on the network, and that always helps.

Well, congratulations on that exposure.

Thank you.

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