Voice: No, it isn’t, my young tippler. I’m COMING! coming!! coming!!!
From this illustration the student may proceed to try the second voice.
No. II.
Voice No. 2.—This is the more easy to be acquired. It is the voice by which all ventriloquists make a supposed person speak from a long distance, or from, or through the ceiling. In the first place, with your back to the audience, direct their attention to the ceiling by pointing to it or by looking intently at it. Call loudly, and ask some question, as though you believed some person to be concealed there. Make your own voice very distinct, and as near the lips as possible, inasmuch as that will help the illusion. Then in exactly the same tone and pitch answer; but, in order that the same voice may seem to proceed from the point indicated, the words must be formed at the back part of the roof of the mouth. To do this the lower jaw must be drawn back and held there, the mouth open, which will cause the palate to be elevated and drawn nearer to the pharynx, and the sound will be reflected in that cavity, and appear to come from the roof. Too much attention cannot be paid to the manner in which the breath is used in this voice. When speaking to the supposed person, expel the words with a deep, quick breath.
When answering in the imitative manner, the breath must be held back and expelled very slowly and the voice will come in a subdued and muffled manner, little above a whisper, but so as to be well distinguished. To cause the supposed voice to come nearer by degrees, call loudly, and say, “I want you down here,” or words to that effect. At the same time make a motion downwards with your hand. Hold some conversation with the voice and cause it to say, “I am coming,” or, “Here I am,” each time indicating the descent with the hand (see examples). When the voice is supposed to approach nearer, the sound must alter, to denote the progress of the movement. Therefore let the voice at every supposed step, roll, as it were, by degrees, from the pharynx more into the cavity of the mouth, and at each supposed step, contracting the opening of the mouth, until the lips are drawn up as if you were whistling. By so doing the cavity of the mouth will be very much enlarged. This will cause the voice to be obscured, and so appear to come nearer by degrees. At the same time, care must be taken not to articulate the consonant sounds plainly, as that would cause the disarrangement of the lips and cavity of the mouth; and in all imitation voices the consonants must scarcely be articulated at all, especially if the ventriloquist faces the audience. For example; suppose the imitative voice is made to say, “Mind what you are doing, you bad boy,” it must be spoken as if it were written “’ind ’ot you’re doing, you ’ad whoy.”[2] This kind of articulation may be practised, by forming the words in the pharynx, and then sending them out of the mouth by sudden expulsions of the breath clean from the lungs at every word. This is most useful in ventriloquism, and to illustrate it we will take the man on the roof as an illustration. This is an example almost invariably successful, and is constantly used by skilled professors of the art. As we have before repeatedly intimated, the eyes and attention of the audience must be directed to the supposed spot from whence the illusive voice is supposed to proceed.
[2] It is very rarely that a ventriloquist shows a full face to his audience: it is only done when he is at a great distance from them, and is pronouncing the labial sounds, in the manner given, for any movement of the jaws would help to destroy the illusion.
Student: Are you up there, Jem?
Voice: Hallo! who’s that?
Student: It’s I! Are you nearly finished?
Voice: Only three more slates to put on, master.