David Wahl 10 March 2010 Stories and Appreciations 639 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

While reading through old books on ventriloquism, I came across some interesting information that made me reassess the place of ventriloquists in history. They may be far more important than we think. In fact, large portions of our society may have originated with them.

Today, ventriloquism is at the bottom rung of the showbiz ladder — slightly above wearing a pizza costume and waving at cars but below being a clown at a child’s birthday party. The clichéd view of ventriloquism is that it’s practiced by nerds so that they have someone to talk to while they hang out alone in their rooms. Audiences do not clamor for ventriloquism in great numbers, but you can succeed at it. There is only room in the world for one or two successful ventriloquists at a time. The rest exist in near poverty, unable to perform their act if the airline loses their luggage.

It hasn’t always been this way. It’s only been the case in relatively recent times that the act of speaking without moving your mouth was acknowledged as a skill by audiences. With an hour’s worth of practice, and by avoiding words containing large numbers of p’s and b’s, anyone in the world can commit the act of ventriloquism. In modern times, it’s not the trick itself that makes an act; it’s used as an excuse for one person to be a one-man comedy team interacting with puppets. It’s a testament to the acting ability and comic timing of the performer. But thousands of years ago, ventriloqusim was no trick; it was the key to deep religious belief.

The Greeks had a term for it, gastromancy. This is not a word that spell check will recognize, but it was the magical art of spirit voices that came from the stomach. Don’t confuse it with borborygmus — it is actual speech generated inside the stomach, as if someone or something were trapped there. The Greeks looked at this stomach-talking nerd and thought they had found religious truth. You could not only get prophecy from these voices, but also talk to dead relatives that, for a short time, had become lodged in this person’s large intestine and decided that they would stay there to shout things up through his/her mouth.

It didn’t stop, or start, there. History is littered with religious occurrences that could be attributed to a rogue ventriloquist abusing his power to speak without moving his lips. Ghostly voices made to come from cabinets or under tables defined the spiritualist seances of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Of course, it was simply part of a bag tricks they used to trick people into believing they could talk to the dead, but it was an important part.

It’s difficult to prove that ventriloquism was used in these circumstances. The people involved went to their graves denying it. The only sure argument in its favor is that actual ventriloquists have tricked large groups of people into thinking they were talking to ghosts and spirits and then revealed that it was a joke.

This story appeared in Harper’s Magazine in 1852: “One M. St. Oille, a ventriloquist of France, had once occasion to shelter himself from a sudden storm in a monastery in the neighborhood of Avranche. The monks were at the time in deep sorrow for the loss of an esteemed member of their fraternity, whom they had recently buried. While lamenting over the tomb of their departed brother the slight honors which had been paid to his memory, a mysterious voice was heard to issue from the vaults of the church, bewailing the condition of the deceased in purgatory, and reproving the monks in melancholy tones for their want of zeal and reverence for departed worth. Tidings of the event flew abroad; and quickly brought the inhabitants to the spot. The miraculous speaker still renewed his lamentations and reproaches; whereupon the monks fell on their faces, and vowed to repair their neglect. They then chanted a De profundis, and at intervals the ghostly voice of the deceased friar expressed his satisfaction.”

I repeat that story because it was one of the few that I have found where the perpetrator of the trick later came forward and admitted the fraud. These were monks in grief manipulated by someone who attempting to recharge their passions, but he could have made the voices say anything. It is only because he chose not to that these monks didn’t break off and form their own sect, with its own religious rules dictated by him.

In fact, many religious beliefs come from circumstances that could be explained by the presence of a talented ventriloquist. I have nothing against the Jeff Dunhams and Terry Fators of the world; they seem like decent enough guys. But I wouldn’t use anything they say as the foundation of my personal spiritual beliefs.

So, the next time you are reading wisdom that purports to come from a disembodied voice or talking copy machine, take a moment to reflect on it. Is this wisdom from another realm? Or is this a lonely nerd who grew up playing with puppets taking his revenge on the world?

One thing’s for sure, if you are talking to a dead relative through a ventriloquist, they will probably know a heck of a lot more knock-knock jokes than they did when they were alive.

- David Wahl