How the imagination can be led astray even without motions at all may be instanced in the case of the imitations of Saville Carey, who often blew through a narrow chink in the corner of a coffee-room with an east-wind like whistle, whereupon the company began to shiver with cold, and some one was sure to rise and examine the windows to see if they were air-tight!
Starting, then, with these peculiarities of Nature on his side (that the direction and distance of sound are difficult to fix, and that the imagination is easily played upon), the ventriloquist, by tricks of manner, with subtle movements and actions, governs the imagination of his audience, and directs their attention to some given spot from which he desires they should think the voice proceeds, while simultaneously imitating it as closely as possible.
The ventriloquial power any one with a fair range of voice and patient practice may acquire. The rarer gift is that of mimicry, by which the illusions of change of tone, pitch, etc., are so greatly assisted. Unless endowed with this in some degree one would find the pursuit of the art a vain and profitless task, but a little will sometimes go a long way, and a careful noting of the modes of some good professors of ventriloquism will give many useful hints to the neophyte, after he has got ‘by heart’ all that has been written upon the subject.
He will notice that the jaws need never be moved, and that though the lips must be in action at times, the effect is neutralised by dexterously turning the side face to the spectators on those occasions. This standing in profile has another advantage also, as the lips can be drawn down on the hidden side, and a considerable alteration in the tone can thus be produced where required.
The vowel sounds, in various tones, may be obtained without movement by nearly closing the mouth, and resting the upper teeth on the inner part of the upper lips. Consonants are much more difficult, and are seldom or never used while facing the audience. When there is no excuse for turning the face sideways the expedient is adopted of dropping the consonants, which would make such a sentence as, ‘Mind what you are doing, you bad boy!’ sound like ‘Ind ‘ot you’re doing, you ‘ad whoy!’
The greater the compass of voice, of course the greater will be the pitch, while practice will produce elasticity in the organs. One word of advice is necessary as to practice—that is, you should never strain the voice. Let the power be developed naturally, or you will inevitably defeat your own object and lead to hoarseness, if no worse.
Study before a mirror. Any illusions you can there produce will be greater in effect when distance lends enchantment to the view, for the ventriloquist’s art cannot be practised with full effect in a very limited area.
An accurate ear will soon enable its possessor to imitate sounds, such as the barking of dogs, sawing wood, etc., but his difficulties will commence when he comes to attempt complete and rapid changes of voice, locality, and distance. From youth to age, from the infant in its nurse’s arms to the ‘lean and slippered pantaloon,’ the transition must be like a flash of lightning in rapidity. Dialects should also be acquired, and varieties of age and sex carefully studied.
It is after the human voice has been imitated without any apparent motion of the lips, and conversations with imaginary individuals have been carefully studied, that the higher power of the ventriloquist comes into play, and the performer has to lead the imagination of his audience from the real to the supposed source of the sounds. This is what, in acoustic illusions, is as necessary as glib speech (‘patter’) to the conjurer, who, by thus calling attention from his hands, is enabled to perform many tricks successfully which he might otherwise fail in. We have said that our judgments are very fallible in the matter of sound, and the performer’s efforts towards indicating their supposed direction is, to a great extent, the measure of his capacity as a ventriloquist.