Polaroid Photo

Tue
22
Jul '08

Todd Oliver and Irving

I’ve been a professional puppeteer for almost twenty years now and I’ve never seen anything quite as disconcerting as ventriloquist, Todd Oliver and his dog Irving.

That’s right. A ventriloquist with a real dog.

14 Comments »

  • http://www.tchansen.org Chris Hansen

    Oh. My.

    That is soooo COOL!

    Seriously, this is the only reason so far to go to Branson.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Cool. Terrifying. Same thing.

  • Kris

    um. it’s a fake mouth, right? and the dog’s real mouth is what…taped shut?
    thanks in advance for tonight’s upcoming nightmare.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Yes, it’s a fake mouth. Happy to supply the nightmares!

  • Julia

    Perhaps he ought to spend less time engineering that crazy mouth and more time on NOT using his eyebrows when he’s speaking for the dog. The straighter of a face you can keep, the better you look, and no one will notice that your lips are wobbling a little bit.

    (Yes, I AM rather in a bad mood.) Still, I do wonder who trained that dog so well and will they train my rabbit to be less of an utter brat…:D

  • Ellen Datlow

    I was wondering how he did the dog’s mouth…wow! Pretty amazing. I thought the guy’s lips were good although you could see his throat moving.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      True. But to be fair, ventriloquism is not designed for television.

  • http://www.puppetkaos.com Kelvin Kao

    I feel bad for the dog that had to have his mouth taped shut. There are plenty of movies about animals where they just have a shot of the animal with his mouth open and then just dub whatever lines they want as if they are actually talking (but they obviously are not). I kinda wish the ventriloquist just did that, and improvise based on whatever the dog ends up doing.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      I don’t think the dog’s mouth is actually taped shut. According to Mr. Oliver’s website, he developed it in association with a vet and he’s been approved by the USDA.

      • http://www.puppetkaos.com Kelvin Kao

        Okay then. (Hm, I didn’t know USDA is the department for this kind of stuff.)

  • http://everythingsun.blogspot.com Mike F

    That was a little weird. I’m afraid to go to sleep with my dog around me now. I did like how the tag line underneath read: “Talking Dog?” Like it just might be real.

    That is one mellow dog, though. I wish mine was a little more like that, but he’s 6 months old. I have a way to go.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      I wonder how young the dogs were when he started training them.

  • http://anaedream.com Kate Baker

    I don’t know what was more terrifying… the fake mouth or KLG. ;)

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      KLG, definitely.

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