Q: You'll want to create original material for your scene, rather than choosing jokes that people may have already heard. Work on creating an original scene with convincing back-and-forth dialogue between you and your puppet. Pick a topic that people can relate to, like family vacations, relationships and romance, or traffic jams. Study the way people speak to each other so you know where to incorporate sighs, pauses, and words like, "um" or "er." " What makes ventriloquy work is the fact that people will associate the sound they hear, which is your voice, with the movement they see, which should be the puppet's mouth, rather than your own. So, when the puppet is speaking, move the mouth and make gestures to grab the audience's attention. For instance, raise your puppet's arm when it is saying "Me, me, me!" or have it slump over when you deliver bad news. Once you've come up with dialogue for a scene, practice it in the mirror or record yourself and watch the video afterwards. Take note of which words or sentences look and sound believable, and which don't. Pay attention to the way your puppet looks while you're moving it and try to make it seem as life-like as possible. Keep practicing until the routine is flawless. If you are having fun on stage, chances are the audience will be enjoying themselves as well. Let your passion for ventriloquism shine through. Speak as loudly and clearly as you can, and don't forget to use facial expressions and gestures for both yourself and your puppet. Make eye contact with audience members or even include them in your skit!
A: Create dialogue for a scene. Direct the audience's eye toward the puppet when it is "speaking. Practice in the mirror or record yourself. Play to the audience.

Q: Adobe Illustrator is a professional image creation program, and is the easiest way to create vector images from JPG files. If you don't have access to Illustrator, see the next section for instructions on using the free GIMP and Inkscape utilities. You can do this by clicking the menu in the upper-right corner and selecting "Tracing." You'll see the "Image Trace" panel appear. You can do this from the File menu or by dragging and dropping the file. The tracing options in the Image Trace panel will become active. This will allow you to see what the different settings will do before applying them, but it will increase the time between making changes. There are five preset buttons along the top of the panel, and more presets available in the drop-down menu. The top row of buttons include the following presets: Auto Color - Creates a stylized set of colors based on the original colors. High Color - Attempts to recreate all of the original colors. Low Color - Creates a simplified version of the original colors. Grayscale - Replaces colors with shades of gray. Black and White - Reduces colors to black and white. Images converted to vectors don't usually show well with all of their natural colors, so you'll get a better result by reducing the number of colors used. This will lead to a "flatter" look for the image. This will reveal more detailed controls for the trace. Moving the slider to the left makes the paths looser, while sliding it to the right makes the paths tighter. A looser path will lead to smoother edges. Moving the slider to the left will make the corners rounder, which will lead to a smoother image. The Noise slider determines what groupings of pixels are considered "noise" and not included in the trace. This can help straighten lines and smooth out rough spots. Illustrator will then perform the tracing action, which may take a few moments to complete. This will convert your tracing object into actual vector paths, and will replace your JPG image with the vector. Once you're finished with the tracing, you can export the finished image as a vector file. Click the File or Illustrator menu and select "Save As." Save a copy as an .ai file. This will let you easily re-open the file in Illustrator and make more edits. Select a vector format from the "Save As Type" menu. These include SVG (webpage) and PDF (print). Do not save the file as PNG or JPG, as these are not vector formats.
A: Open Adobe Illustrator. Switch to the "Tracing" workspace. Add the JPG image that you want to convert to your artboard. Select the image on your artboard. Check the "Preview" box in the Image Trace panel. Try one of the presets in the Image Trace panel. Use the color slider to adjust color complexity. Expand the "Advanced" section of the Image Trace panel. Use the "Paths" slider to adjust how close the path follows the pixels. Use the "Corners" slider to adjust how rounded your corners will be. Use the "Noise" slider to reduce bleeds. Click "Trace" when you're satisfied. Click the "Expand" button. Export the image as a vector file.

Q: To directly address an employee's absenteeism, set up a meeting between yourself, the employee, and any other relevant individuals (such as another supervisor or human resources representative, if applicable) to discuss the situation. Be proactive. Schedule a meeting as soon as you notice the problem, or it is brought to your attention. Let the employee know the purpose of the meeting. The point is not to blindside the employee, but to let both sides communicate, determine the facts, and decide on a course of action. Don't assume that there is an inexcusable reason for the employee's absences. Instead, offer to set up a meeting so that everyone can be clear with each other and understand the situation. Before deciding how to deal with the absenteeism, let the employee explain if there were any legitimate reasons for missing work. If the absences were due to a misuse of leave time or a violation of workplace policies, let the employee discuss any plans he or she has for improving in the future. You can use the employee's explanation, if any, when determining what to do about the excessive absenteeism. As an employer or manager, you can ask an employee to explain absenteeism, and ask for documentation (such as a doctor's note) if necessary. After hearing from the employee, explain any policies or expectations your workplace has regarding absenteeism. If your workplace has an explicit policy regarding absenteeism, and the employee is in violation of that policy, then you will have to act in accordance with that policy. Otherwise, your decision will be based on the facts or explanation presented by the employee, your management style, and your own sense of judgment. Whatever your decision, make a written statement of it; deliver it to the employee and human resources office (if applicable), and keep a copy for your records. Some options include: You may issue a formal warning to the employee, explaining that future absenteeism will result in more severe consequences. You may require the employee to have special permission for any future absences. You may decide to remove certain privileges from the employee, such as the opportunity to choose shifts. Termination is a severe consequence, even for excessive absenteeism. If you are thinking of terminating an employee due to excessive absenteeism, make sure it is necessaryfor example, the employee has no legitimate explanation for the absences, and/or continues the behavior even after you meet to discuss the problem. In addition, you must make sure that termination is permissible according to any relevant employment contracts, workplace policies, and laws. If you plan to terminate an employee, consider sending him or her a written notice and explanation beforehand. Usually, you cannot terminate an employee on grounds of absenteeism if you only expect that the employee will miss excessive amounts of work; instead, there must be an actual record of absenteeism.
A:
Set up a meeting. Give the employee a chance to explain. Make a decision and get it in writing. Terminate the employee, if necessary.