The greater the distance from which a sound has apparently to come, the nearer must the tip of the tongue be brought to the front of the mouth, the greater must be the contraction of the muscles, and the articulation must be made in the upper part of the throat.
The natural voice may be easily disguised by wearing a pair of pince-nez spectacles, with a very strong spring. The spring pressing on the air-passages of the nose will considerably alter the tone of the voice.
To make the sound of a voice appear as coming from the other side of a partition, or through a door, it is only necessary to open the mouth slightly, to fix the jaws fast, to draw back and roll the tongue, and then to speak; the sound then, instead of being formed in the mouth, will be formed in the pharynx, and appear to come from beyond such material as may be indicated by the action or natural speech of the performer.
To imitate the sound of the same voice after the door has been opened, or the partition removed, requires somewhat different management. The voice must not, of course, be altered from the original pitch, but must be made in another part of the mouth. To do this, the lips should now be tightly closed, one corner of the mouth (that away from the audience) should be drawn downwards towards the ear, the lips opened at that corner only, and the words to be spoken breathed out of the opening so formed.
To make a sound seem as coming from a distance is accomplished in a similar manner to that in which a sound is made to appear as coming from the other side of a door or wall, except that according to the distance from which the sound is represented as coming, must the palate of the mouth be thrown more or less back towards the pharynx, when the sound will be reflected in the cavity so formed, and appear to come from above or below, or according to the direction in which the ventriloquist holds his mouth and face. The voice, of course, may be made to come nearer or to recede, according to the varying size of the cavity described.
A ventriloquist should always have in his mind the knowledge that distant or muffled sounds are more or less indistinct, and as certain consonant sounds are ventriloquially difficult to utter, they may safely be slurred over, rather than risk the success of the illusion by moving the lips. For example: if the imitated voice is to be made say, "See what you are doing there, you bad boy," it should be spoken as if the labial consonants were omitted, and as if it were written "See 'ot you're doing there, you' ad whoy." A little careful preparation will soon enable the performer to dispense with such consonant sounds as those mentioned, except for his own natural voice.
As a general rule, it may be said that insect-sounds are produced more by the lips than the throat; but most sounds that are not phonetic may be produced in various ways, and the discovery of them must be left to the imitative powers of the reader.
It has already been observed that ventriloquism will be found of great service in making entertainments of parlour magic, clairvoyance, and the like more lively. It is related of Comte, the celebrated French conjurer, that ventriloquism added a great charm to his performances, but that he made the chief use of his powers in that direction when on his travels, as he found that they served as puffs for his public entertainments, and were a great help in attracting crowds. At Tours, for instance, it is stated he induced the people to break in four doors, to rescue a man supposed to be dying of hunger. At another place he renewed the miracle of the prophet Balaam's ass, by making a donkey, carrying an exceedingly stout man, complain of his excessive weight. Upon another occasion, at a fair, Comte saw a countryman driving a pig in order to offer it for sale. The pig was so fat that it could hardly move, and the following dialogue took place:—
Comte: "What's the price of your pig, my good man?"
Man: "A hundred francs, sir, at your service."