Do Your Lips Move?

Shawn e-mailed to ask: Do you do "lips closed" real ventriloquism or the open mouth with a distinct puppet voice thing? Just curious as I am adding puppets in to my act.


I do some of both. It depends on the puppet. With Axtell's Magic Drawing Board, I think the illusion is much better if I can keep from moving my lips too much, so I try my best to do good ventriloquism. One puppet I have is a "whisperer" so that I don't have to worry about it at all. And my other performing puppets fall somewhere in between.

All things being equal I think it is best if your lips don't move, but each of my puppets has a distinct look and I want them to all have a distinct sound. In otherwords, all things are never equal. I'm not talented enough I guess to make the range of voices I want when my teeth are clenched, so for some of them, I don't even try. I think that not moving my lips would be nice, but getting the character I want and having him be able to say the things I want in the way that I want is much more important. To me anyway.

If the puppets are animated, interesting, and engaging, and you look at them when they speak, then the audience will all be looking at them when they speak. If your show is entertaining, they will forgive you on the rare times when they do catch you.

And there is something strange that happens when you stop caring if they see your lips move: THEY stop caring if your lips move. Instead they realize that since you aren't trying to hide it, they don't have to try and catch you. So they focus more on the storyline and forget about whose lips are moving anyway.