Years of hard work goes into building stunt ventriloquist act

By Mo Cranker on July 28, 2017.

Stunt Ventriloquist Tim Holland juggles three prop apples during a show with his bird Crackers Thursday afternoon at the annual Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede. --NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

Though he is now able to entertain a crowd of nearly any size and any age group, it wasn’t always that easy for stunt ventriloquist Tim Holland.

Holland started out as just a street performer, before picking up ventriloquism almost two decades ago, where he added his ability to ride on tall unicycles while juggling to the act of ventriloquism.

“I learned how to do ventriloquism in 2000 because I wanted something new,” he said. “I like the idea of juggling things, and doing something kind of dangerous while talking to something. I eventually picked up my parrot who has become one of the main pieces to the show.”

Now 42, Holland tours around Western Canada doing school shows where he does his usual act, and even some education pieces. Holland says the added colour ventriloquism adds to his shows is why he has continued with it.

“I really enjoyed the acts with a lot of character in them,” he said. “For me, I felt like puppetry really allowed me to entertain the way I wanted to entertain. Writing the script and the jokes is one of my favourite parts of doing ventriloquism.”

Holland says there are many key skills a ventriloquist needs to be successful.

“One of the big, most obvious keys to ventriloquism is your lip movement,” he said. “Other than that, I think the biggest key is making your puppet characters larger than yourself and really letting them be the star of the show.”

While he is performing at different venues, Holland says he loves sharing a laugh with a crowd, and seeing his hard work pay off.

“Taking my show from just juggling, to doing everything on a unicycle, then adding harmonica, it’s taken me years and years of practicing consistently for hours on end,” he said. “This isn’t something I just started to do, I had to really practice for it — seeing a crowd of people laughing is really fun for me.”

To see Holland perform, head down to the Stampede at 12:30, 3 and 5:30 p.m. at one of the stages set up around the exhibition.