Evening star., 1938-07-17

the acting OF team, It ntted our plans
to tee. Seated before q mirror
where we could detect the slightest
movement in my face, 1t was up to
me to learn to keep my mouth shut
while Charlie answered my questions
1t really wasn't 50 difficult. Parting
my lips about an eighth Of an inch
and keeping my jaw bones rigid,
pronounced the letter a." forcing the
sound against the front part of the
roof of my mouth and then back
against the palate. I was so pleased
with the result that~I went on with
a-a-a-a-aa.
Charlie adjusted his monocle and
looked at me questioningly. "1ll take
spinach" he said.
Lesson No. ).
DLEASED with the result Of yester-
terday's practice, suggested We
take up our post before the mirror
and see what we could do with the
vowel sounds.
Charlie climbed upon my knee. ad-
justed his monocle and watched in
tently for his cue as tried first A-E-
LOU, then prolonged each letter.
a-a-a-a-a, e-e-e-e-e-, ETC., enunciat-
ing clearly and keeping my facial
muscles immovable.
Knowing the danger Of straining the
voice. we decided half an hour a day
would be the time limit on practice
In my enthusiasm over our progress
/ forgot to set the stop watch.
Mr.. Bergen" Charlie said, you're
getting little hoarse-better give the
nag a drink"
Lesson No. 1.
WE FOUND the vowels were not .
stumbling block in ventrilo.
quism. Because Of their unobstructet
sound their pronunciation IN inwart
talk came easily. So today, as w
defied the mirror to show Us the tinies1
movement of my facial muscles. w
attacked some Of the consonants which
have little or no sound obstructions
These letters are C-D-G-J-K-L-Q-R.
S-T-X-Y-z. To each we devoted two
and half minutes.
'Mr. Bergen, do you like alphabe
soup?" Charlie asked. looking at m,
through his monocled eye.
why. Charlie?" I countered.
Because" he answered, 'it seem!
to me you are soaking in the letters.
Lesson No. s.
"CHARLIE, you think mastering
the alphabet in ventriloquy 8
cinch, don't you?" I asked the super.
cilious little fellow, as we settled our.
selves in an easy chair before tn,
mirror for our daily practice.
"Well, We haven't choked on it yet,
said he, with forced dignity.
Him." I said. maybe when WI
tackle H-N-M-F-V-W we'll thinl
we've got more than q mouthful."
With assiduous practice, however, ",
found H and N within our power. N
was impossible, but through clever
acting we got away with Eng" or 8
modification. For example, when
asked Charlie if he thought our daily
practice was fun, he piped up with
very 'ang yuzing', indeed"
We found by reinforcing the IN
with the ~" the sound very nearly
approached the correct one. To form
the letters "F'' and "V" we made thu
sound by forcing the breath against
the teeth. The best We could do with
wv" was "duggle you," for "B" w
had to be satisfied with "Vhee," anc
we found Fee" the nearest soune
possible to "P."
Charlie heaved sigh as We closed
our practice for the day.
well, Mr.. Bergen" he said, ''nov
that we've done our letters let's tone
this act up" So
Lesson No. s.
Up AT the crack of dawn, we put
on dressing gowns, walked over to
the mirror and did few setting
up" exercises with our letters-Char-
lie, always bright-eyed and quick
witted, passed the comment that while
this particular daily dozen" didn't
do much for the waist line it GER
tainly did lot in the way of sound
form for the ventriloquist.
With our duty done we decided to
devote the half-hour practice period
to tone pitch. Because it is one OF the
most useful and one Of the easiest to
accomplish, we tackled = high-pitched
nasal sound known to ventriloquista
Is the Punch" voice. This tone Il
used in the speech Of quarrelsome old
women, the chatter Of young children,
the cooling or crying Of babies and for
certain animal calls, such as the
Growing Of = rooster or the meowine
Of . cat. In slightly lower pitch II
can be used in the speech OF dunn
mics when the artist is using figures
speaking with q dialect.
BY experimenting we found that II
We closed the teeth, placed the tongue
against the roof of the mouth just
back OF the upper set Of teeth our
voices were thrown into the nasal
cavity. This We worked on until We
fairly squeaked, which I knew wa
what We had s7t out to do, but poor
Charlie, nervy little fellow that he L.
became uneasy.
"Mr. Bergen, let's call 1t day" he
said. II sound exactly like . mouse
that has had it, tail caught in Z
trap"
tcopyrishA ie3s, ~ Charlie Mccarthy