Last night my ukulele band, The Ukedelics, played a show at a senior center, and for our second number my new little partner, Huey Ukulele, made his debut. We did about a minute routine before launching into song. I've gotten very at ease playing and singing in front of an audience, but I was pretty nervous with Huey - a decidedly different experience. I forgot a few jokes, but the song went smoothly, so I was happy for my first vent outing (since I was a kid). It was a big plus having extra players around me since I'm still mastering playing Huey as a ukulele AND making him talk AND sing...it's as hard as you might think.
After the show people came up to say hi and thanks, etc. A little boy asked to meet Huey. He was interested to see how he worked. I thought it was great that he not only saw a character that he liked, but he registered that it was a thing that I was controlling and he wanted to figure out how it worked. That's the sort of thing that got me hooked into ventriloquism. Ah well, you never know where that curiosity can lead.
Very good work Ned Tunes.
ReplyDeleteSorry I meant, very excellent work Ted Nunes.
ReplyDeleteThat's a Wow thing!! How exactly does this little guy work, anyway!!
ReplyDeleteChristine Campbell
Awe shucks...Thanks! Mr. D posted some photos of how Huey was constructed (and a peek at the mechanics) in some older posts. Just put "Huey Ukulele" in the search at the top of the page.
ReplyDeleteBasically, the mouth is pulled open by a string that feeds through a hole in the head stock and goes down the back of the neck. (it's knotted in several places so I can pull it with my thumb while I'm also fingering chords.) The eyes are on a rectangle that slides side to side in a track, pulled by strings that connect to a simple lever up on the back of the neck.
After working with this setup for a while, I'm finding that I need an improvement. The string for the mouth gets out from under my thumb too easily in the heat of things and I have to wait until my hand is close to the top to be able to move his eyes. I have some ideas. I'll be sure to share with Mr. D as that progresses.
Great idea Ted. Christine, Ted showed the works on this blog back on 8/10/10, if you check the older blogs you can see how it works. Quite impressive.
ReplyDelete