2011 Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention part 7

Friday July 15th continued..

After Dinner break was part 2 of the Jimmy Nelson tribute. We were there as early as we could to try to get a better seat for the presentation. The presentation was opened with a special film called “70 minutes of laughter” which was made by Tom Ladshaw and was a wonderful snapshot tribute to Jimmy. We laughed at the videos of Jimmy and the gang, which are timeless. After the film Mark Wade introduced Jimmy to a Standing ovation.

Mark then introduced the mayor of Fort Mitchell Kentucky who proclaimed July 15th 2011 Jimmy Nelson Day in Fort Mitchell.

Terry Fator then read a letter from, I believe it was Nestles in appreciation of all the years of service with the Nestle company.

Next up Albert Alfero presented Jimmy with a bronze bust that Al sculpted and had cast of Jimmy.

Kelly Asbury read a letter from the Kentucky House of Representatives, apparently their spell check doesn’t know the difference between utmost and almost, but it was a good laugh and a nice gesture anyway.

Now it was Jay Johnsons turn to present a letter to Jimmy. This letter was from the ..(drum roll) the White house. It was a nice letter however it made it sound as if Jimmy was retired, which we hope isn’t the case for a very long time.

Jeff Dionise is the art director for USA today and the artist who created the great tribute poster for this special event. Jeff presented Jimmy with a one of kind poster to commemorate this special tribute to Jimmy.

Mark Wade presented Jimmy with a special award for his years in entertainment and his unending contributions to the art of Ventriloquism and contributions to the ConVention year after year.

Brook Brooking, President Vent Haven Museum, was up next. He presented Jimmy with a special plaque proclaiming Jimmy the “Dean” of ventriloquism, which is a tribute he greatly deserved with all of his contributions to the art of ventriloquism as well as his continued dedication to the museum on the board of advisors and his inspiration to SO many ventriloquists.

Jeff Dunham, who was and is inspired to be a ventriloquist by Jimmy’s record “instant Ventriloquism’ now joined them on the stage. Jeff shared his appreciation for Jimmys inspiration and then presented Jimmy with a true mark of appreciation as agreed upon by the vent Haven Board of Directors and advisors. The special display building is now officially, The Jimmy Nelson Building. Jimmy, you earned this!

What a great Tribute to an even greater man and his family. Jimmy and Betty Nelson are two of the sweetest people you could ever meet. We are blessed to have had the opportunity to meet him and share in this special tribute.
With the tribute wrapped up the convention continued on with the vent haven Raffle. The raffle is always a fun event with advisors running around for about 10-15 minutes selling tickets in a frenzy. There are always nice figures raffled as well as numerous other vent (and some non vent) related items. Unfortunately Tamara nor I were lucky enough to win but that’s ok as the raffle ticket sales go directly to help Vent Haven.

With all of the excitement we now made way to the dealers’ rooms again for one more pass then back to the hospitality suite for laughs and camaraderie.

2011 Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention part 5

The room was buzzing with excitement. It was Thursday July 14th and this was sure to be a special night at the 35th annual Vent Haven ventriloquist ConVention.

On Wednesday the attendees were treated to an hour with Jimmy and Betty Nelson as guests of honor. Tonight is when part 1 of the two night tribute began. Along with Jimmy and Betty were their sons, daughters, and one of their grand children. The tribute opened with Bob Isaacson and "Donny O'Day", Danny's twin brother/stunt double (well maybe) and presenting Jimmy with a gift pocket watch from the Nestle company.

(sorry for the photo was trying not to use the flash)

After Bobs' presentation Tom Ladshaw brought Jimmy and Betty onto the stage.
Next came a presentation by Tom Ladshaw to Jimmy of the original Texaco hat he wore back during his days doing commercials for the texaco hour. Jimmy said the hat didn't fit him as it once did but said Danny's hat still fit him just fine, go figure.

Tom then introduced their children who were in the audience and asked them to share any stories they had of growing up in the Nelson household. The stories were great and we found out Jimmy makes some of the best pancakes ever!

After a great presentation and brief history of Jimmys career in entertainment were were treated to a visit from our old friends Danny O'Day and Farfel.

The smile on everyones face was fantastic but more so the smile on Jimmy's face when he was talking to his life long partners. Priceless.

After part 1 of this tribute it was time to relax and enjoy the company of the hospitality suite once more..LOVE it!

More to come....

2011 Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention part 4

Thursday July 14th. Day 2 of the 35th Annual Ventriloquist ConVention.

The schedule for these events is jam packed with lectures and events for every type of performer or hobbyist. The first lecture we attended was "Generating Great Ideas for vents" with Mark wade (who is a great man, more on this later) and Ken Groves. They covered tips and advice to make your shows and presentations better and different from the norm, if there is a norm when it comes to ventriloquists.

During the lecture Mark made an announcement with Steve Axtell about a great new product from Axtell Expressions called "Mic Mouth". This is a new take on having a mouth ON a volunteer instead of strapping a whole face onto the victim...I mean willing volunteer you simply hold a microphone in front of them. This will be a great seller for Axtell! I plan on ordering one as well. Great job Steve!!

Here is a youtube video of...Mic Mouth.


After lunch was the Junior Open Mic. We were impressed by the talent these young vents had and how creative the routines were. Great job Juniors!

After a short break the Senior open mic began. Now I know it's called senior open mic but it's not only for geriatric ventriloquists. Had to make sure you understaood ;) The senior open mic was hosted by Al Getler who did a great job of introducing the acts and a short interview after ward. Unfortunately we were not able to watch many of the Seniors as Tamara was asked to an interview..she can tell more about that but I must say I was proud of her for going to it and doing it, being a new vent and all..she did great.

After the Senior open mic was a round table discussion on "What makes a pro?" hosted by Al Getler with panelists Sammy King, Al Semok, Don Bryan, Dan Horn, Pete Micheals and Peggy Miller. The discussion was focused on what aspects of performing and ventriloquism are what defines a person as a "pro".

After the round table was dinner break. We were joined by Tom Lane for dinner at Sweet Basil a thai food place that is just awsome!

After dinner we hurried back for what was to be a beggining to the wonderful tribute to the one and only Jimmy Nelson.

Stay tuned...

2011 Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention part 3

With the first of many visits to the dealers room over we headed to the Hospitality Suite to meet up with old and new friends. The Hospitality suite is put on each year by Bob Hamill and Phillip Jones and along with the great hospitality staff which includes Chris and Mark Donahoe,and a group of great folks who help out in every capacity during the event. First things first we had to catch up with Bob Hamill who is one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. Unfortunately his lovely wife was unable to attend as she is working many shows in Pigeon Forge and was unable to get away. We missed you Marty!

With the first night over we made out way back to the hotel to rest up for what will certainly be a busy day tomorrow..

Stay tuned...

2011 Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention part 2

The first day of the ConVention was Wednesday July 13th. We hit the road about 11:00 am for the 4 1/2 hour drive. Roxie and Buster in the back seat and we no sooner pulled out of the drive way that Buster was causing trouble. The infamous phrase "stop touching me", "I'm not touching you" was all we heard for the first few miles..then the excitement must have worn off and they settled in for the drive.

Along the way we decided we needed to stop for lunch so we began to scan the area for a potential place to stop. There..off in the distance..is it a McDonalds? a Burger King? No..it's a Bob Evans..yeah..Bob Evans would be better then one of those quickie drive thrus right? well..maybe not in this case. We decided that the Angus Burger looked juicy and tasty.."lets try that!". When it arrived at our table it was the most listless..tasteless..dried out thing you have ever seen..we couldn't help but laugh. Medium typically means pink in the middle..but not there..to them it means burned thru and thru. LOL. Not being one to complain about things in fear f what will happen in the kitchen we struggled through it as best we could.

With the dried out burger escapade behind us we hit the road again..next stop..Fort Mitchell Kentucky.

we arrived in town around 4:30-5:00 and went to the hotel to drop off our luggage before going to register at the conVention.

Arriving at the Drawbridge Inn around 5:30 we made out way to Canterbury Hall and signed up for the 4 days of Ventrilquial goodness.

The schedule was sure to be a full one and we were there in time for the opening night show. The show is always started with a great introduction from mark Wade the ConVention Chairman. mark has Charied this ConVention for many years and he and his staff work endless hours to prepare the event and this year would be no exception. The show was Mc'd by Bob Hamill and Phillp Jones and they were hilarious. Between the great Mind reading act and the polyphoney by seargent sound the fun was mounting. The acts for the Wednesday night show were Mike Hemmelgarn with a juggling comedy and vent routine, Neale Bacon with his friends which included a little girl figure he is putting back into the act, and closing the show was pete Michaels who did a great routine with his little poveroti character. It was a great show to open the festivities.

After the opening show there was a panel discussion on "The Importance of Women in Ventriloquism". The panel was hosted by Lynn Trefzger and also featured, Sylvia Fletcher, Liz VonSeggen, Mary Kingly and Peggy MIller. It was interesting to hear the thoughts and experiences from the ladies perspective.

After the panel discussion the dealers rooms opened and boy were they jam packed with people clammoring to find the newest, neatest, coolest thing in all of ventriloquism. My first stop was the Gottle O geer table which is Tom Ladshaws table. Tom is a great guy and is always there along with his better half Leslye to provide us with the coolest collectibles. If I knew just a fraction of the ventriloquism history Tom knows I'd be a genius..Tom is a great historian of the ventriloquial art.

Tom has such a great collection of publications and collectibles for sale that I can spend hours scanning through them. While I was looking through old Oracles and IBV publications Tamara spotted Sammy King and of course had to get her picture with Sammy. Sammy is a great Ventriloquist who in 2009 retired his act with Fransisco and donated his life long pal to the Vent Haven Museum.

More to come...

2011 Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention part 1

Last weekend was the 35th Annual Vent Haven Ventriloquist ConVention held in Fort Mitchell Kentucky. Yes, I did say Kentucky. Fort Mitchell is the home of the Worlds biggest and best collection of Ventriloquiana. Founded by William Shakespear Burger and now maintained by a board of advisors it continues to provide a wonderful history of our art of Ventriloquism.

Tamara and I were able to attend and enjoy the festivities along with..get this..536 total in attendance. This was a record for attendance and the reason is simple..The theme of the ConVention was 70 years of entertainment by non other then Jimmy Nelson. As mentioned in the previous post Jimmy Nelson is responsible for many ventriloquists of today getting into vent.

As I have mentioned, the focus of this years event was a celebration of Jimmy Nelsons 70 years in entertainment and it was titled "70 Years of laughter". Unlike other years where the focus is tips and techniques to improve as a vent the focus this time was all about Jimmy. Of course there were lectures and shows as always but the primary theme was Jimmy and Betty Nelson. Tom Ladshaw put together a video presentation called "70 minutes of laughter" as a highlight reel and it was fantastic to watch! Along with that there were a boatload of great items given to registrants who joined in to celebrate. There was a shoulder bag, a 4 pinback set depicting Danny O'Day, Farfal, Humphrey Higsby, and Fatatateta, a huge book with a biography of Jimmy as well as a treasure trove of photographs, a poster(not shown in photo as it is safely rolled and stored awaiting framing in the coming week. All of these things were organized and Coordinated by Tom Ladshaw who deserves tremendous kudos for all his hard work and effort.

In upcoming posts over the week I will share the highlights of the cenvention from my perspective along with additional photos taken at the event.

Stay tuned....

2011 Vent Haven ConVention

Well here it is, Saturday July 16th and it's the last day of what has been a Great ConVention here in Fort Mitchell kentucky. The theme of the Convention has is a tribute to Jimmy Nelson. A great Ventriloquist but more over a great human being. Jimmy has influenced SO many people young and old alike. He has touched the hearts and created laughter for 70 years as an entertainer.

Through his course "Instant ventriloquism" he has inspired some of the great vents of today. Jeff Dunham, Jay Johnson, Terry fator, Tom Ladshaw, Dan Horn and the list goes on and on.

We have taken lots of pictures and met lots of great Vents this year....

Off to the final day of fun..more to come..

Three Stooges Movie

Well its in production The Three Stooges Movie and I, much like many I assume, do not know how to feel about this. Is it possible to recreate something that is so iconic in our culture as the comedy teams of old? The Three Stooges are a classic to many, young and old and being nostalgic as I am I fear it might not be doing the franchise much help. However, having said that it may also help to bring new fans aboard..did you see what just happened right there? I waffled and began to rethink my original point. Not really. As a Stooges Fan I think anything that will put our favorite knuckleheads in the spot light is a good thing. I hope it creates a resurgance like no other and we see those laughable, lovable, nut jobs everywhere...and the Stooges too! ;)

Lets give it a chance and hope it makes everyone a Three Stooges fan!

Have a Great Weekend!

Happy Independance Day to everyone from CJ and the Gang

As we celebrate the Independance of our Great Country lets also celebrate those who help to keep it free. Starting with the Soldiers who protect our land with their very lives. This is a great country and we need to keep that in mind before we complain about our rights and freedoms. If we are not happy with something then we have to stand up and make our voices heard. Our founding fathers who put it all on the line to establish this country as a free country would have worked in vein if we just sit by and do not take a part in our own governing.

Enough soap boxing for me..lets make today a GREAT day and enjpy the freedom we have and spend time with those we love.

HAPPY 4th of July!!

Ventriloquist Ronn Lucas

Ronn Lucas, straight man to such comedy genius' as Buffalo Billy, Scorch the teenage dragon, and Chuck the punk rocker. Ronn is truely entertaining with tremendous "Ventriloquial mechanical skills" (hehe bet ya never heard that one before eh? ) Ronn is also a geniune guy. I had the chance to meet him a couple times at his show in las Vegas and he took time at the end of the show to chat "Vent" and talk about the show. He was Honored in 2005 with the Askins award from the International Ventriloquist Association. Check out his youtube page for some great clips.



Check out Ronn's web site too.

Ronn with Buster and I at his show in Vegas.

Willie Tyler and Lester Goodness

Willie Tyler is a talented Ventriloquist and a joy to see perform. Year ago I was able to see a show he did in the Detroit area and his show was great. He can sing wonderfully and Lester is always fun.

Here is a video of some of his stuff as he did on the David Letterman show. His Hambone is very cool and I can't imagine doing that.