Ventriloquist Goes to the Dogs With Clean, Family-Friendly Humor
by Randall Murphree
November 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Ventriloquist Todd Oliver and his talking dogs are riding high on the waves of Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri. Oliver does two shows a day, six days a week on the Showboat Branson Belle, a dinner cruise ship with a first-rate Broadway-style show at 4:00 and 8:00 pm. The Belle, along with Silver Dollar City, is among 20 properties operated by Herschend Family Entertaiment in eight states. With his talking dogs -- Irving, Lucy and Elvis -- Oliver has earned wide national acclaim. He is a frequent late-night TV guest, having been on the Late Show With David Letterman, The Tonight Show, and the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. In this exclusive interview, he reveals his strong family foundation and his Christian faith.
Interview begins below
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Comedian/ventriloquist Todd Oliver with his 'talking dogs' |
AgapePress: Give us a little background. Why ventriloquism?
Todd Oliver: I was growing up in the 1960s and there was a lot of variety television, and you would see a ventriloquist and clean comedians. I saw many of these fellows on the Ed Sullivan Show and I wanted one of those little smart aleck dummies. So, my 10th Christmas, in 1968, I received my first dummy, a Charlie McCarthy doll. I still have it.
It wasn't too long after that I was doing my first show. I wasn't real effective. I mean, I was so bad I had the dummy in one hand and the joke book in the other. But something about a 10-year-old kid doing mother-in-law jokes just doesn't really go over. But ventriloquism is something that, like many other things, you have to bad at before you can be good at it.
I was in the work program in high school as an entertainer, so I got high school credit for going out and working at the career of my choice -- show business. I'd go three times a week to schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as a volunteer. [Eventually, as a professional,] I went on the school assembly circuit playing four schools a day, five days a week. Now, that was work, serious work.
My program consisted of using time wisely, developing good daily habits at home and at school, using the library. We touched on the drug problem. You get a youngster interested in something that's really good and they spend a lot of time in it and it certainly can change their life for the better, as it did for me.
AP: Who are your entertainment heroes?
TO: Edgar Bergen was wonderful. His characterizations were brilliant; Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, I must say, had more depth and character than some of the real people I meet today. I loved the Mike Douglas Show. I liked the way he treated his guests. So many talk show hosts today want to interrupt and top whatever the guest is saying with a joke or a punch line without letting the person speak.
AP: When did you make show business your career goal?
TO: Well, look at my SAT exams. I thought I'd better do something! I was never good in sports. I did OK in school, but -- probably starting at 13 or 14 -- I realized I communicate well with audiences. I think I was born a great straight man. The dummy's always the funny one, or, in my case, the dog. I think I'm funnier through them than I am standing alone with a microphone.
AP: How does your Christian faith play a role in your work on-stage?
TO: I'll give you an example. I was doing the Oak Ridge Boys Live in Las Vegas, a variety TV show. I had just come out of a stage show and my voice was shot. I prayed, "God, help me get through this show. My voice is shot." Well, I prayed all morning and I went out and did the show and I didn't cough once. By the grace of God, I was able to do my act. The Lord really plays a big role in what I do.
AP: When did you come to personal faith in Christ?
TO: When I found my dad on his knees praying. That's when it started. My father died when I was 10 years old. He had had three strokes and cancer. He was in the hospital in a coma. He died three days after Christmas, so he never did see me [perform]. He never lost his faith. Never once. He studied the Bible and he was on his knees all the time. He had tremendous faith. After he died, it was pretty rough on me and my brother and my mother. For a time, I felt cheated.
I remember feeling awful and missing my dad and then seeing Red Skelton and laughing until my stomach hurt. So comedy was a wonderful escape from depression and sadness. As long as you're reading your Bible and you have a sense of humor as you walk through life, you can make it in this world.
AP: Do you live the typical celebrity lifestyle?
TO: No. I try to spend as much quality time with my family [wife Melissa and daughter Isabelle] as I can. We have a little ranch about half an hour out of town with horses and the dogs. Doing two shows a night six days a week -- that's kind of a demanding schedule. But that's show biz. My wife is a stay-at-home mom, so we have a lot of time together during the day.
There are some show business people who are "on" all the time, as we say in the business. That's not the way it is with me. I go to work and I'm a ventriloquist and comedian. But when I'm home, you can see me out back in my jeans shoveling manure in the barn. Political correctness is not part of our vocabulary. We're conservative people. Being a conservative and being a comedian -- some people in Hollywood might think that's an oxymoron. They can't relate to that, but it's worked for me.
AP: How long have you been in Branson?
TO: Nine years. A lot of people think it's just a country music town. Well, there's some country music here, there's big band, there's jazz, there's rock. But it's still a variety act town. And all the comedy is clean, as far as I've seen. And I know that there've been a few comedians who have come to town and tried the off-color stuff and they're flops. The blue, off-color garbage hasn't worked for this town.
That doesn't mean that the clean comedy is cornball or old-fashioned. Hardly the case. For a clean comedian to be successful today, we have to be hip, we have to be timely, we have to be clever. But we have to be able to relate to all ages. On the showboat, in the summertime the average audience has kids, teenagers, parents and grandparents.
AP: Any parting thoughts?
TO: Ventriloquism is interesting. It's kind of a small investment with a nice big return. It's been very good to me. God has blessed me tremendously. I think I'll retire as a volunteer. I'll just go to schools with the dummies in a suitcase and let youngsters think, "Gosh, look how fortunate he's been," and [realize] the same can happen to them if they use their time wisely. I think that's the key. I think with prayer and a keen eye on the future, the future looks great.
Randall Murphree, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is editor of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. He visited Silver Dollar City near Branson, Missouri, over Labor Day weekend. For more information on events, schedules and days of operation during the theme park's Christmas festival and other special events, call 800-831-4FUN or visit SilverDollarCity.com.
