And, as a shy boy, he appreciated the fact that ventriloquism offered a way for him to be more outgoing. The skill fascinated him, so he was willing to commit to intense practice that other kids his age balked at. But Dunham stood out in how he threw himself into learning ventriloquism. Dunham spent hours in front of his bathroom mirror studying his facial expressions and trying to keep his mouth still.Īt the time ventriloquist dummies for children were widely available, and many of Dunham's contemporaries owned them. It’s like learning to play a musical instrument." With his Snerd figure, he began the learning process, which included tackling issues such as how to mask the fact that certain letters are impossible to sound out without moving your lips. The final step was straightforward but required a great deal of discipline for a young boy: hours and hours of practice.ĭunham has said of ventriloquism, "There’s a skill to it, but anybody can learn to do it. Dunham would repeatedly listen to Nelson's recorded instructions. On another visit to the toy store, he acquired an instructional record called Jimmy Nelson’s Instant Ventriloquism (Nelson was a ventriloquist who'd appeared on TV in the 1950s, most memorably in ads for Nestlé's Quik). Soon after Christmas, he visited a bookmobile run by the Dallas Public Library to get materials about ventriloquism. The dummy had come with some how-to instructions about ventriloquism, but that wasn't enough for Dunham. Next, he needed to learn how to keep his mouth shut and talk as Snerd, all while opening and closing Snerd's mouth - to maintain the illusion that Snerd was the one speaking - by manipulating a string in the back of the doll's neck. Getting the Mortimer Snerd dummy was only a first step on Dunham's road to becoming a ventriloquist. Jeff Dunham on 'The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson' in 1990 Photo: Julie Gorecki/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty ImagesĮven as a child, Dunham was determined to master ventriloquism What if I hadn't made that turn in the toy store and seen the ventriloquist dummy? What if my mom had thought it was a feather-brained idea and that boys shouldn’t play with dolls? What would I be doing today?" As he noted in All By My Selves, "Life is a series of 'what if's. Fortunately, his mother had been paying attention, and everything else fell into place for Dunham to get this present. Yet he hadn't exactly been pining for Snerd since the toy store visit - in his memoir, he admitted he'd completely forgotten about the doll. When Dunham opened his presents on December 25, he discovered Snerd among them.ĭunham was delighted by the gift. Though he didn't receive the doll that day, his mother had been on the lookout for Christmas gift ideas. Intrigued, he asked his mother to buy it. In his memoir, All By My Selves, Dunham recounts that though he'd seen ventriloquists on TV, this was first ventriloquist's dummy he'd encountered in real life. Thanks to television and film appearances, Bergen and his dummy sidekicks - in addition to an intellectually inept Snerd, Bergen worked with the debonair Charlie McCarthy - remained well-known in the 1960s and '70s. Though ventriloquism had declined in popularity since the days of vaudeville in the early part of the 20th century, Bergen had become very successful via radio. Snerd was a figure used by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. On a visit to a Dallas toy store with his mother before Christmas in 1970, an 8-year-old Dunham happened to spot a kid-friendly version of a ventriloquist's doll known as Mortimer Snerd. Dunham got his first ventriloquist's dummy for Christmas And, as it turned out, he ended up with his dream career. The gift interested him so much that he soon immersed himself in ventriloquism, studying the technique and practicing intensely. Before he found fame, Dunham's involvement with ventriloquism began when he received a ventriloquist's doll for Christmas in 1970. Famed ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has mastered this skill, and his appearances with characters like Peanut, Walter and Achmed the Dead Terrorist have earned him legions of fans. A ventriloquist has the ability to keep his mouth closed and "throw" his voice to make it seem like a dummy or puppet is actually talking.
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