Starting today and coming out every Wednesday – the new Ask Tom video series. Each week I will feature a guest’s question and will share my thoughts to help!
In the very first episode of Ask Tom, I answer questions about Paul Zerdin, winner of America’s Got Talent.
(At one point – I accidentally say David when I meant Paul. Duh – but I did not take the time to re-shoot the video because I want these to be spontaneous.)
Want to ask a question? I use SpeakPipe to allow you to record your question right here on the web site. You can click here to go to Ask Tom.
If you are viewing on a phone, you will need to download the app – which doesn’t seem to work with the web browser. To solve that, simply record a message and send it to: info@learn-ventriloquism.com
Come on – send me a question. You know you want to!!!
Feel free to leave a note about this episode in the comment section below. One thing I ask – do not slander or insult anyone. All conversations should be conducted with class – just like the person was standing face to face with you. Thanks.
Tom once again Well done, This is going to prove to be a good thing for the members of your site. You have taken the old style blog one more step in to the future and I personally think its great. Once again you are leading the way in this wonderful art. Thank you.
Thanks Chuck! Look for your question on a future episode!
Great job, Tom! I’m glad to see another way to connect to the vent community. Thanks!
Hi Tom. Thanks for the new version of the blog. I will be very interested to hear your thoughts on various ventriloquial matters 🙂 I’ve been following Paul’s AGT run via youtube as we don’t get the show here in Australia. I was really surprised when I saw him do the bit where he and Sam argue and he leaves him alone on stage. I saw Strassman do this in a show in Australia years ago and had never seen anything like it! It jolted me to see Paul, who I very much admire, seemingly copy someone else’s material so blatantly. It is such a funny routine, though, and perfect for a show like AGT. I assumed he must have had permission as it is so clearly something Strassman developed. As you say, we can’t really know the full story when this kind of thing happens, and I congratulate you on not taking sides, and I hope for the sake of the great community we share as vents that it can be sorted out between those involved. Let’s not let the media divide us, but let’s continue to support each other. At the same time I think the lesson for all of us is be inspired by and learn from the greats, but keep pushing the envelope and developing new material as well.
Andrew – sorry for the slow response. I don’t dispute anyone’s claims to the walk-off segment because I don’t know. But the community and the public tend to assume the first person they see do a routine is the originator. That isn’t always the case. For example, when Jeff Dunham did “The Night Before Christmas”, suddenly every vent who did that was stealing an idea from Dunham, when Bergen had done the poem years earlier. So my advice to others is to strive to be as original as you can. Stay out of the mud slinging and let the people involved handle things. We don’t need the name calling or accusations in this community. One day, you could come face to face with that person. It is a small “world” we live in…
In Dunham’s book, he too described doing a bit with one of his characters where he walks away from the stage and then the puppet “comes alive.”
More than one vent does some variation of the “switched voices” bit. And those who have the drawing board do the “no way the drawing just talked” skit. I don’t THINK that Lucas was implying that no one else can use a face mask, was he?
Johnny
At one time he tried to stop anyone else from using a mask Johnny.
Wow, I didn’t know that. That is really interesting.