But some of his friends are
Wayne Francis doesn’t just pay lip service to the art of ventriloquism.
Honing the craft takes years of practice, not just learning to talk without moving your lips, he said.
“When you’re looking at a good ventriloquist, you’re watching somebody who has perfected his timing,” Francis told the Register in a recent telephone interview.
The ventriloquist must have “a back-and-forth conversation as two different people, with constant interruptions. Then you have to work on the different accents; and of course you have to manipulate the puppet at the same time.”
Francis, who has been a ventriloquist for 25 of his 50 years, will bring his “Wayne and Wingnut” performance to Farm-City Days Friday evening on the courthouse square. Francis will perform from 6 to 7 p.m. A free-will hamburger dinner will be served at the same time.
He’ll also appear at local nursing homes beforehand.
On Friday, he’ll bring six of his characters to life. The headliner, of course, is Wingnut, whom he describes as an airplane pilot. The performance also features Serena, a mermaid, Chico the Chihuahua, a floppy, red-headed bird he calls “Wild Thing” and an 8-foot genie.
Francis will also perform a musical routine using a washboard. Audience participation will be central to the show.
The performance is geared toward the entire family.
“If I focused it solely for kids, then the parents wouldn’t want to stick around,” he said. “I have something for them, too.”
FRANCIS BEGAN his career as a ventriloquist more out of necessity than anything.
“I couldn’t get hired as a standup comedian,” he joked. “I had to do something.”
He drew upon his lifelong interest in ventriloquism.
“I’d bought one of those books on how to be a ventriloquist when I was a kid,” he recalled.
The trick, he noted, is using stomach and throat muscles.
Francis works out of Denver, “where I can get pretty much anywhere in the country by driving.”
He is in the midst of a tour across the country, including several shows this month in Grinnell, Iowa. He’s also performed aboard cruise ships, college campuses, fairs, festivals and at venues such as Branson, Mo.
While he’s made a healthy living, Francis credits two other ventriloquists for increasing demand of the art.
The first, Jeff Dunham, became a featured performer on Comedy Network. The second, Terry Fator, won NBC Television’s “America’s Got Talent” show in 2007.
“They really made ventriloquism popular to the point that there’s more work available than there are ventriloquists, which is great for people like me,” he said. “I’m loving it.”
FRANCIS SAID he makes a point to never watch other ventriloquists in action.
“I don’t want to compare myself to them, and I don’t want to let them affect how I perform,” he said.
Most of Francis’ routines come about from brain-storming while driving.
“I have a lot of alone time behind the wheel,” he said. “It gives me time to think about what I want to do.”
While his current characters have gained a popular foothold with audiences, he’s also dreaming up others, such as a guru and a jack-in-the-box. And he’s constantly coming up with routines that he files away “in my joke morgue” until he figures out a way to integrate them into his act.
“I try to work it so that I’ll have a different show if I’m at the same location more than once,” he said. “That way people who see me a second time will get to see something different.”
As for Friday, Francis promises an evening filled with music and laughs.
“Come take a ride with us in our imagination,” he said. “We’ll barnstorm our way into your hearts.”
