wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (07/30/85)
The serial "Soap" is now being re-run in the St. Louis area (6:30 PM weekdays on KPLR-TV, Ch. 11), and I have been trying to follow it this time around, having missed large chunks of it in its earlier runs. I have a question that perhaps one of the network media experts can answer: One of the main characters is Jay Johnson, who plays "Chuck" -- the ventriloquist son who engages in constant dialog and bickering with the dummy "Bob". (Interestingly, he is listed in the credits as playing "Chuck and Bob".) If he is really ventriloquizing (that's a real word, folk), he is excellent at it. However I do not recall ever seeing him on any variety show or other program where you sometimes see ventriloquists and this causes me to wonder if he is really doing the Bob" voice in real-time, or if the "Bob" voice was dubbed-in later. So, is Jay Johnson a for-real ventriloquist, doing the dialog for both Chuck and Bob as the show is being taped, or was the "Bob" voice dubbed-in afterwards? Was he in any other shows, or is he doing a stage ventriloquist act somewhere? Or did somethng happen to him? Regards, Will Martin UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA
ables@mcc-db.UUCP (King Ables) (07/30/85)
> So, is Jay Johnson a for-real ventriloquist, doing the dialog for both > Chuck and Bob as the show is being taped, or was the "Bob" voice > dubbed-in afterwards? Was he in any other shows, or is he doing a stage > ventriloquist act somewhere? Or did somethng happen to him? Yes, Jay is for real. He's been on a few talk shows but I don't know if he's made the "big time" ones (Carson or Letterman). I saw him on something a month or two ago and now I wish I knew what. He had the most original act I've seen a ventriloquist have in years. He and Bob are talking (yes, he still has Bob) and I forget the explanation, but their voices switch. Now this is very disconcerting for the audience to see "Chuck's" mouth move and hear Bob's voice and visa versa. And as awkward as it is for us, just imagine how hard it is for Jay, who's been keeping his mouth still whenever he uses Bob's voice. Now he talks with that high voice and keeps his mouth still when he uses his natural voice. Then to get it back to normal, they did some thing with Bob raising his voice slightly and Jay lowering his and eventually they cross and things are back to normal. It was really clever. Jay doesn't show up a lot, but then, not very many ventriloquists do these days, unless they've got a *really* unusual act. -King ARPA: ables@mcc UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!mcc-db!ables "I have this friend named Henry. He spells his name H-E-N-3-R-Y.... the 3 is silent." -Tom Lehrer
kbb@faron.UUCP (Kenneth B. Bass) (07/31/85)
In article <287@brl-tgr.ARPA> wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) writes: > >So, is Jay Johnson a for-real ventriloquist, doing the dialog for both >Chuck and Bob as the show is being taped, or was the "Bob" voice >dubbed-in afterwards? Was he in any other shows, or is he doing a stage >ventriloquist act somewhere? Or did somethng happen to him? > >Regards, >Will Martin > >UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA Yes, he is a for-real ventriloquist. I remember seeing them host some low budget game show about two years ago. As to his (Jay's) expertise, the camera was actually focused on both of them (Jay and Bob), so that you could try to see his (Jay's, not Bob's) lips move. I compare this to Waylan and Madame, where you never get to see Waylan's face while Madame is talking.... "It ain't necessarily so" ken bass linus!faron!kbb
bccarty@whuts.UUCP (Brian C. Carty) (07/31/85)
> > So, is Jay Johnson a for-real ventriloquist, doing the dialog for both > Chuck and Bob as the show is being taped, or was the "Bob" voice > dubbed-in afterwards? Was he in any other shows, or is he doing a stage > ventriloquist act somewhere? Or did somethng happen to him? Jay Johnson is in fact a real ventriloquist. He and Bob had a game show a while back, but I don't recall its name. Bob was just as obnoxious on the game show as he was on Soap. -- Brian C. Carty AT&T Bell Laboratories - Piscataway, NJ ..!{ihnp4|allegra}!whuts!bccarty
howard@sfmag.UUCP (H.M.Moskovitz) (07/31/85)
> > So, is Jay Johnson a for-real ventriloquist, doing the dialog for both > Chuck and Bob as the show is being taped, or was the "Bob" voice > dubbed-in afterwards? Was he in any other shows, or is he doing a stage > ventriloquist act somewhere? Or did somethng happen to him? > Yes! Chuck is Bob! I've seen Jay Johnson and Bob on Merv and Carson several years back and they even hosted their own game show recently! I hear he does a great adult act in Vegas/Atlantic City. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Howard Moskovitz AT&T Info. Systems attunix!howard
ck@ima.UUCP (08/01/85)
He also did a game show a while back, with a dummy other than Bob, I think. ck.
ron@wjvax.UUCP (Ron Christian) (08/02/85)
> ...As to his (Jay's) expertise, the >camera was actually focused on both of them (Jay and Bob), so that you >could try to see his (Jay's, not Bob's) lips move. I compare this to >Waylan and Madame, where you never get to see Waylan's face while >Madame is talking.... > ken bass > linus!faron!kbb *** You don't see Waylan's face because he makes no attempt to keep his lips from moving. He's good at characterization, (at least with that one character) but he's not, strictly speaking, a ventriloquist. (*) More like a puppeteer. Saw him on, I think, Hollywood Squares a long time ago. (Brain, forgive me for watching such pap. Buh-buh-buh. Oh No! It's too late!) Ron (*) I make a stab at the spelling. Would you believe the word wasn't in the Unix dictionary? -- __ Ron Christian (Watkins-Johnson Co. San Jose, Calif.) {pesnta,twg,ios,qubix,turtlevax,tymix,vecpyr,certes,isi}!wjvax!ron