I'm Shanthakumar, a Chennai based Ventriloquist. I thank Miss Raiza for inviting me to conduct a workshop on Ventriloquism during SAARANG 2010 at IIT, Chennai for the students. (For my overseas friends: IIT--Indian Institute of Technology is a premier institution in Engineering and SAARANG 2010, a cultural event is organized only by the students of IIT, Chennai once a year. It is well attended by students of the entire country and even from abroad)
I started the workshop by 1.15 p.m. on 22.1.2010. The hall was not full. But the students saw my 20 puppets kept on the side table for practice of the students and 6 charts fixed on the board over the stage. I heard a student telling over mobile "It seems this workshop must be very interesting. Please come at once."
In due course, the hall became full.
I performed a condensed show for 25 minutes with the doll, Johnny, then with white Talking Board (which I purchased from USA) and finally with two puppets simultaneously, i.e. a girl and a monkey. I changed my voice for each figure.
For many of my jokes, the students bursted out with laughter and sometimes showed their appreciation by joining their hands. The entire show was in English.
When I was holding the white Talking Board, I asked a question whether anybody can draw a rectangle with three lines. IITians proved again that they are of the best stuff in the world. Yes... A student came forward and drew an ordinary rectangle and also three lines out of the rectangle. He has drawn a rectangle with three lines.
When I started teaching the art of ventriloquism along with the doll, Johnny by using the charts. The students evinced keen interest in learning this art.
At the end of the workshop, the students tried their hands on the puppets. Even a girl student came forward and threw her voice through the puppet.
Roughly 10 students came to the stage with the puppets and began to converse with the puppets by cutting jokes. One student referred his mobile for sms jokes and used them in his conversation with his puppet.
Then I invited students to raise their doubts and questions. I answered all of them.
I am publishing a few of the photos taken on the occasion.
Then a student leader honored me with a momento. The co-ordinators, Miss Raiza and Miss Kamya came and congratulated me for the success of the workshop.
On the whole, the workshop was well received and the students showed their appreciation by clapping their hands on several occasions. They evinced keen interest throughout the workshop. At one point of the workshop, there was no space in the hall to sit. Some of them were standing at the back of the hall.
Today, I saw a review by a student in the blog: thegremlinkiddo.blogspot.com wherein the student wrote: "A ventriloquism workshop where the guy was good at what was supposed to be taught, but used a lot of stale sms jokes to do it."
Let me thank him for his appreciation about the workshop. But I never used any joke from sms. I read a lot of books, magazines and also used internet to select the best jokes.
I will also upload a few videos taken during SAARANG 2010 in due course.
Once again thanking the student leaders
Ventriloquist Shanthakumar
http://binocularonshanthakumar.webs.com/ (to see the stories covered about my art)
http://ventshanthakumar.webs.com/ (to go through humorous experiences)
http://shanthakumar.webs.com/ (to know about financial planning)
