Learn
Learn ventriloquism
If you're looking for resources to learn ventriloquism or puppeteering, here are the ones worth your time: free and paid, courses and communities.
-
How To Make Your Sock Talk
A Beginner's Guide To Ventriloquism. Grab a sock and let's make it talk. In these pages you'll discover how to create a sock puppet partner of your very own and make it talk without moving your lips, in just ten simple steps.
-
Maher Studios
A respected name in the ventriloquism community since 1934, still serving ventriloquists around the globe under Tom Crowl.
-
Learn-Ventriloquism.com
A virtual private-instruction online video course, hailed by many as the next generation's Maher Course. Tom Crowl's course is a powerful way to learn how to become a real live belly talker.
-
Ventriloquist Academy
Lee Cornell created the "Ventriloquism 101 Video Course" in 1997. He received his first ventriloquist figure at nine, in 1966, along with an instructional LP by Jimmy Nelson; he was performing by ten and completed the Maher Course in 1979. The DVD course is now an online academy, and one of the best-selling vent video courses on the internet.
-
Mark Wade
Forty years working full time with a figure on his arm, International Ventriloquist of the Year in 1980, and twenty-three years running the Vent Haven ConVENTion. His two books on kidshow ventriloquism are used by performers in twenty-six countries. He now coaches individually, and his own argument for it is blunt: most ventriloquists are self-taught, and that is exactly the problem. He is also a director of the Ventriloquism Institute, which publishes this site.
-
Gary Owen
Gary Owen has worldwide recognition as the coach who helped Darci Lynne win season 12 of America's Got Talent. He has been her personal vent coach since 2014 and continues as producer-director of her national road tours.
-
Puppeteers of America
Sharing knowledge and inspiration with the puppetry community since 1937, through National and Regional Puppetry Festivals and the quarterly magazine The Puppetry Journal.
-
Ventriloquism.org’s Ventriloquist Workshop
Our own group. Ventriloquists and figure builders sharing their projects, puppets and skills, a thriving community of more than seven thousand performers, builders and enthusiasts.
-
World Vents
The oldest ventriloquism group on the internet. Once an email list, now a busy Facebook community led by legendary figure carver Conrad Hartz. A friendly place to learn and visit.
Know something that belongs on this list? Tell us. Or if you teach, send us your story.