VENTRILOQUISM WORKSHOP AT WAVES 2010

I'm Shanthakumar, ventriloquist from Chennai. I'm very glad that I could conduct 3 ventriloquism workshops during 2010, viz. SAARANG 2010 at IIT, Chennai, FESTEMBER 2010 at NIT, Tiruchirapalli and WAVES 2010 at Bits Pilani, Goa Campus. I wish to record here about my workshop at Waves 2010 in Bits Pilani Goa Campus.

Introduction:

Even before 3 months, Miss Apurva Mudgal contacted me through email to ascertain whether I can conduct a workshop in Bits Pilani Goa Campus. When I affirmed, she got all the other details and put up the proposal with her seniors.

The terms and conditions were agreed by me and the college. We entered into an agreement. As per the agreement, tickets were booked by the college.

Apurva was interested in distributing a puppet to each participant. I told her, it would cost between Rs.300 and Rs.1000 according to the size. But I told her that two years back, a very tiny puppet was available in Chennai only for Rs.15/-. It was China make but it was out of stock.

Apurva asked me several times to check up whether that puppet is available in the market again. So I went to the wholesale market and enquired. Fortunately, it was available. Immeditely I rang up to ascertain the number of puppets required. She ordered for 50 puppets. So I bought.

Other shows:

I went to Goa on 14th Oct., 2010. Mr Sreekanth came to the station to pick me up in a car. After dinner, to kill time, I went to the dance programme of the students with DJ rocking with music. As the dance was not that interesting, I came to my room in Visitors' Guest Hostel. The hostel has all the facilities including AC, TV, centralized Geiser, etc.

After my workshop also, I attended two other shows, viz. Mr and Miss and a famous Pakistani singer (classical). Mr and Miss was held in the main auditorium, which is the largest one in the entire Asia. Mr and Miss was good whereas I didn't like classical songs. In Mr and Miss, a girl danced for a background score with her hair going towards all the directions. If any shampoo or hair oil company knows this, they will catch hold of her for their advertisement.

My workshop:

Another organizer, Mr Bhawan took me to the auditorium. He arranged everything for me in the auditorium. Apurva introduced me to the participants.

I think, there were more than 50 registrations including a retired Lecturer. Each participant was given a tiny puppet.

I did performance for the first 15 to 20 minutes. It was well received.

Then I started the workshop. I used my pen drive for power presentation and background music for a song. All the participants practised the voice as per my direction. Some of them got good voice.

At the end of the workshop, I invited the participants to pick up any of the bigger puppets and try to produce some dialogue or comedy. Roughly 10 participants tried and they really performed well.

They have taken the first step in their ambition to become expert ventriloquists. I wish them all the best in their endeavours!

Conclusion:

I thank the organizers for having given me an opportunity to do this workshop. They were magnanimous in booking my train tickets in AC compartments for all my journey from Chennai to Goa via Mangalore and return journey.

The participants can contact me for any of their doubts. My mobile is 94441 48832 and email is georgesanth007@rediffmail.com

Ventriloquist George Shanthakumar