I'm still doing my homework from my first stand up lesson which is to learn the composition formula. Now at Vent Haven two years ago they had a fabulous comic as the M.C. for the wrap up,Saturday night show. This was the guy who taught us how to use airline barf bags as vent figures as a way to freak out the person in the seat ahead of you who pushes their seat too far back. So much for the preamble.
Now I know I shall be taught this fall by talented comics but both do not do vent.
Tony, you are a gifted writer. Do you see a vent duo as the same as the old vaudeville comedy teams? My question is do you think the..(i.e. Gracie and George Allen)scripts have to be modified for vent?
Right off the top I try to omit letters which I find difficult to say(23 at present!)
Not a crucial thing but just wondering.Thanks, Ron

I don't know about Tony, but I think there is a similarity between todays vent "teams" and the old vaudeville and radio teams. The only difference is the vent is the straight man and the the figure the comic -- and he isn't the brunt of the jokes -- the vent is.
I work it so I have some funny lines, but Scotty or Vinny top me every time.

There is a vast difference between vaudeville and radio comedy. Vaudeville couples (where George Burns got his start) were much like the vent and figure duo of today. A straight man and a "character". Once they hit radio, then television) the storyline became king. Nobody wanted to hear a dialogue between two people. They had to have a storyline to carry the day. I once saw an I Love Lucy episode on TV, and then heard a copy of the radio show. They were essentially identical. The script was the same.

Stand-up or ventriloquists don't have the luxury of a storyline. They CAN get by with multiple storylines, which is why you see them constantly going over to get a drink of water and to look at the next topic on their outline. Ventriloquists can change short storylines by changing characters.

Thanks John and Tony. My vague question was not as well crafted as your answers.Ron

Teams like Abbott and Costello Abbott being the vent and Costello the figure, a good example that many vents use is "Who's On First" or Burns the Str8 man to Gracies silly replys Like Bob and Marty Hamill, picture it, even a Martin and Lewis where Martin could be the singer (str8 man) and Lewis the comic impersonator, How about Terry Fator and a few different vent pieces... How about Laurel and Hardy Dan Horn and Orson picture it...How about Bill Damar with his frog Feldon, doing Pantomime..the list can go on and on Tony I seldom disagree with what you have to offer except at this time I very much agree that the teams of the vaudeville days,radio and early television were the forerunners of what a ventriloquist and his figure are today and if you look at the team of Jay Johnson and Bob that makes for a great example. Can you picture the teams, a vent with many characters can do either a marx Brothers routine, or maybe the three stooges using slap stick (its not dead, dorment maybe)any good vent can do a Weber and Fields or Olsen and Johnson, So very much yes Vaudeville is todays ventriloquism's grand daddy, you can't escape it, but you can make it better...So single handedly ventriloquism can bring back the variety show...work on it, make something from Vaude your very own.

Ventriloquially Yours
N Jay
Remember No Person Stands So Tall That
They can Not Stoop Too Help Any Child
http//www.ventriloquiallyyours.blogspot.com

Depends on the length of your story...If you go more with the European style of dialogue, you cn stretch a story and even carry it over from character to character -- Jeff Dunham has a great technique of doing that which involved two or three characters in the same story line.

This past April I was on tour with the Montana Storytelling Roundup (as a magician/ventriloquist). Since I went last -- at the request of the other performers since the children couldn't stop commenting on my act and pay attention to theirs -- I would often pick up on something they said or did and the figure and I would pick up the running gag and go with it.

To be honest, a lot of my interaction is based on watching the pattern Fred and Gracie and Abbott and Costello used. Laurel and Hardy don't work as well. they were much more physicl than verbal.

And the only usable thing I get from the Three Stooges (whom I adore) is some of the outrageous puns they used.

But that's just me.

You hit the nail on the head, Montana Santa, when you said it depends on the time. I LOVE George and Gracie and think their style (new jokes, please) would work, BUT if you listen to the radio shows they had extra characters and the stories took a half hour.

John, I also have other entertainers asking me to go last. They hate to follow my act. They say I'm the best magician they know. I can make over half the audience disappear before the show is finished!

Stand up comedy assignment: Pick a vent figure. Now look at yourself and the figure in the mirror.
What would a stranger ASSUME about each of you just by looking? What are some obvious physical characteristics? Do you look like Santa?

Figure: Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Santa?
Vent: I've been told that all my life.
Figure: You mean you were born that way?
Vent: No, of course not. But I've looked like Santa for a long time. People stop me on the street and say, "Hello, Santa!"
Figure: Must be all those Ho-ho's.
Vent: You mean, ho, ho, ho's!
Figure: I'm talking about all those Hostess Ho-ho's you eat!
Vent: I have a sweet tooth.

-the following is just a rambling start-

Vent: What a great looking crowd!
Figure: I've seen better.
Vent: That's a terrible thing to say.
Figure: It's a terrible thing to see, I'll tell you that!
Vent: Folks, I'd like to apologize for my little friend.
Figure: (loudly) SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!
Vent: What has gotten into you tonight?
Figure: Oh, sure! Act surpised!
Vent: I am surprised!
Figure: I don't know why! You've been practicing those lines all afternoon!
Vent: We are here to entertain these fine folks.
Figure: That's a laugh!
Vent: Be nice.
Figure: I can do some magic.
Vent: Really? I do a little magic myself.
Figure: I can make things disappear! You see that guy in the second row?
Vent: The one in the dark shirt?
Figure: The one with the food stains on his clothes. I can make him disappear.
Vent: Do you want me to call him up?
Figure: No need. I can do it from here.
Vent: You can make him disappear from here? Don't you need to put him in a box or something?
Figure: (stares at you) What is it with you and putting others in a box! (to audience) He's always doing that to me! NO! NO! Not the box again!
Vent: I'd like to see this trick. How do you make him disappear without a box?
Figure: I know the magic words.
Vent: There are magic words to make him disappear?
Figure: Sure.
Vent: What are they?
Figure: GO HOME! Hey, that didn't work. How about... Oh, look! It's America's Most Wanted TV crew!
Vent: Can you make anything else disappear?
Figure: Sure. See that guy in the third row?
Vent: Yes.
Figure: He had hair when he came in.
Vent: You are a good magician.
Figure: Look in your pocket. I'm going to make something else disappear.
Vent: (Put free hand in your pocket.) What are you going to make disappear?
Figure: Your hand!
Vent: I don't think the audience wants to see your kind of magic.
Figure: I can read minds, too!
Vent: Oh, really? What am I thinking?
Figure: You're thinking... Why didn't I go to art school instead?
Vent: (pause) Actually, that's right!

Tony - GREAT STUFF ....I'm stealing it....

Hi all Too late I already did Santa!!! Thanks Tony hehehe!!!

Ron, you made me do a lot of thinking about this stand-up vs. radio concept. I think the main difference is the wall that existed between the act and the audience is no longer there. The audience wants to feel a part of the show, especially with stand up. They don't want to see two people (characters) talking to each other. They want to be spoken to! The audience doesn't get any lines per se, but they respond with laughter and applause and we need to give them their parts.

Picture any of the old acts and you see two guys talking to each other and the audience allowed to watch them. Jack Benny changed that a bit when he spoke to the audience and Bob Hope changed it forever.

I remember one show where Jack Benny had Al Jolsen as a guest. He said, "Al, you were on Edgar Bergen's show on Monday, and the Burns and Allen show on Tuesday, and today you're on my show. Wouldn't you like to have your own show?"

The audience cheered and applauded so loudly that Al Jolsen couldn't get his line out. He had to laugh and tell them to quiet down. "I've got a line!" Jack Benny repeated his request and Al Jolsen said, "What? And only be on one day a week?" The audience cheered again.

The main thing for comedy today is to get rid of the wall between the performers and the audience.

I saw a play a few weeks ago called "Mary, Mary". SUPERB old play. But the actors made it a point to look over the audience. It was a small room and it felt very odd. We didn't feel as free to laugh and we never applauded for fear of stopping the show.

Remember! PAUSE for APPLAUSE!

Tony ooops!!!! George Burns broke the wall when he went on TV and talked to the audience directly, they might have been the home audience but they were still the audience... another team that did the same on different occasions were Olson and Johnson...and those are just a few of the many others who broke the wall...to bring the audience into the act Many vents invited audience members up on the stage and made them part of the act Another funnyman who made the audience part of the act was the great Red Skelton and the great Carol Burnett... who always stopped the show to talk with there aud, horray for Carol and Red. As a former performer I was tauht to look over the heads of the audience members, but I always disagreed with that concept, how would you know their true feelings unless you looked into their eyes, which led to their soles. Make your Audiences part of your show, always recognize someone who just came into the room, even if they were late to the show, be kind say something like caught some lights, traffic must be heavy, you'll get a laugh but you won't hurt their feeling, if you have an audience member(s) off to the side turn your figures head towards them, bring them into your show, have some kind words of reconition for them. Remember they are who you work for, they pay the bills, ebjoy your show but enjoy your audiences as well.

I was waiting in a store for my wife and thought, what a great opportunity for stand up material!

"My wife and I have a date night every week. One week she gets to choose where to go, and the next I get to choose. We had a great time last week at the Monster Truck Rally. This week it was MY turn to choose. (insert laughter: Notice the statement/surprise combo)

I said, "Honey, I'd really like to go to the mall. I need a new shirt." We headed for Penney's. It used to be J.C. Penney's but it must be politically incorrect to say J.C. now (point upward).

I went to the Men's section... down in the basement... in the northeast corner... behind the drinking fountain. She said that she'd meet me in the Women's section. Which was the top two floors. I couldn't see something in my size that I liked so I headed upstairs. Wow! I couldn't believe all the colors and selections! It was just like the first time you watched "The Wizard of Oz" and the movie changed from black and white to technicolor! (exaggeration) I thought I was having a flashback! But I don't do drugs. I thought, while I'm here I might as well look for something in my size. But xxxl in women's doesn't mean the same as it does in men's. I finally did find a shirt I liked that fit perfectly. It was in the Maternity section.

I bought the shirt and started looking for my wife. She's about two inches shorter than the dress racks so I couldn't just look across the room! I had to look down every aisle! I couldn't see her anywhere! Finally someone from security came up to me. I could tell it was the security guard because of the moustache. No other retailers have moustaches! She said, "Can I help you find something?"

"I'm looking for my wife."
"What is she wearing?"
"Well, when we came in she was wearing some torn bluejeans and a WWF sweatshirt, but I don't know WHAT she's wearing NOW!"

I read this to my wife and she said that it's a story and not a stand up routine. True, true, true. It's more like a Dave Barry first draft. BUT the point is that life begets comedy. We try to think of jokes when we should describe life and then use exaggeration and surprise at the end.

Nice work Tony. You know in your next life I hope you land in Newfoundland where the monologue/skit is a fabulous art form.( CODCO was the best at doing it) You have comedy writing down to a tea.
My lecture notes for sometime this December read, *" a lot of good comedy comes from being able to stretch a situation and make it totally absurd"
At present I have selected about 20 medical situations for joke fodder. Then following the formula I picked one situation and then wrote 10 facts about it. Next an obvious explanation for each fact. Next I twisted the no brainer explanation and thus one is at the situation in sentence three of this missive *.
Next week I hope to be lucky enough to get to meet a skilled comedy writer because he is appearing at a resort near "you".
So I have about six completed "jokes" but I'm not laughing at them. So the next step according to the lecture notes is to take the punch line of my jokes and make them the setup sentence. I'll get back to you in a while to see how I'm doing with this strategy.
Ron(where I'm going they call me, "Ran".

I consider this high praise, coming from you, Ron. Thanks!

I ran into a couple of Mormon missionaries today. I thought I'd try a little stand up...

"So when you wake up in the morning do you go through your closet and say, "What tie should I wear today?"
"I knew two young men who spent two years biking through Asia and speaking to as many people as they could. When they came back they felt they had gained invaluable experience and opened a bike store."
"So do you think a Mormon missionary will eventually beat Lance Armstrong?"

Another thought:
Why are we always hearing about paternity tests? What happened to equality? How about maternity tests?

Tony That alone is funny you ran into a couple a morman missionaries and tried to do a little standup... you must have been running real fast when you ran into the missionaries for them to knock you down like that....build on it.