Kevin Johnson (ventriloquist)

Last updated November 29, 2023

Kevin Johnson (born June 7, 1970) is a professional ventriloquist, comedian, and magician.^[1]

Biography

Born in Colorado, Kevin has been a ventriloquist nearly all his life. Kevin started ventriloquism when he was nine years old, after his parents gave him a pull-string dummy for Christmas. Having no formal training, he taught himself the art of ventriloquism over a 4-year period. He developed his technique from parrots. It intrigued him that parrots could speak so clearly without the use of lips. Kevin later re-learned how to speak all together with the use of his tongue and his throat. Kevin was introduced to the stage by his grandfather Harley Noles, who performed magic shows throughout Colorado. He told Kevin, “If you get good enough, you can open for my show.” At the age of 13, he performed in his grandfather's show with a 5 minute act with a wooden puppet (Raymond), that his grandfather made for him.

During his college days, Johnson taught and entertained youth at a local church where he found a receptive audience for his humor. Upon graduation from college in El Cajon, California, Johnson started performing at the San Diego Zoo in 1994. He then auditioned at Legoland California to pursue his art full-time, and in February 1999, Johnson got the spot and was performing three to four 20-minute shows each day at the Legoland Playtown Theater. Legoland California nominated him for the Big E Awards through IAAPA and won the honor of “Best Male Performer” in 2004 and 2006. Kevin is the only known performer to be recognized twice. IAAPA is the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, and includes attractions from over 90 countries.

Kevin is mostly recognized from his 2006 appearance on NBC’s primetime show America's Got Talent . He performed his signature "Godzilla Theater" performance, during which his voice and the voices of his puppets are out of synchronization with their mouth movements. He had developed a different version of his performance specifically for the semi-finals, in which he also exchanges voices with his puppets and simulates echos, but didn't get enough audience votes to advance to the finals.

In February 2007, Kevin appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman for the show's second "Ventriloquist Week". Starting in 2008, Johnson has started doing shows on board the Disney Cruise Line ship, "The Disney Magic." These shows last about 45 minutes and feature Clyde and Matilda, along with another puppet that is much more human like, whose name is Harley. He has recently finished a nine-year run at San Diego’s Legoland California Theme Park where he performed 8,824 shows. He is currently performing during the Summer Nights at Busch Gardens Tampa. Kevin also performs every Tuesday at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido, California, performing a 40 minute show alongside magician Anthony the Magic in a show entitled "The Comedy and Magic Show".

Clyde and Matilda

Clyde and Matilda are his signature puppets. In 1983, Johnson was introduced to Clyde the Buzzard in his native state of Colorado, and performed his first "real" show with his grandfather. Nearly 10 years later, in 1991, Kevin was introduced to Matilda the Cockatoo. After adding Matilda to Clyde he performed as a trio.

Family

Johnson is married and lives in nearby Temecula with his wife Cherie and their five children.

Related Research Articles

Ventriloquism or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually through a puppet known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ventriloquizing, and the ability to do so is commonly called in English the ability to "throw" one's voice.

Raymond Alan Whyberd was an English ventriloquist, television entertainer, and writer. His career spanned over half a century, though he was most popular from the 1950s until the 1980s. He was associated primarily with the dummies Lord Charles and Ali Kat and later with the puppets Tich and Quackers. Lord Charles was the first ventriloquist's dummy to have his own personal microphone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Señor Wences</span> Spanish ventriloquist (1896–1999)

Wenceslao Moreno Centeno, known professionally as Señor Wences, was a Spanish ventriloquist and comedian. His popularity grew with his frequent television appearances on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show during the 1950s and 1960s. Later, he became popular with another generation of fans on The Muppet Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ventriloquist (character)</span> Comics character

The Ventriloquist is the name of multiple supervillains appearing in American comic books and other media published by DC Comics. All of the Ventriloquist's versions are enemies of Batman, belonging to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery.

Dumbo's Circus is a live action/puppet television series that aired on The Disney Channel beginning on May 6, 1985 to May 25, 1986. and featured the character of Dumbo from the original film. Reruns continued to air until February 28, 1997.

Jay Marshall (James Ward Marshall) (August 29, 1919 – May 10, 2005) was an American magician and ventriloquist.

Jeffrey Douglas Dunham is an American ventriloquist, stand-up comedian and actor who has also appeared on numerous television shows, including Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, The Tonight Show and Sonny With a Chance. He has six specials that run on Comedy Central: Arguing with Myself, Spark of Insanity, Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special, Controlled Chaos, Minding the Monsters, and All Over the Map. Dunham also starred in The Jeff Dunham Show, a series on the network in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Strassman</span> American entertainer

David Strassman is an American ventriloquist, stand-up comedian, actor, voice artist. He is best known for his ventriloquism act with Chuck Wood and Ted E. Bare.

Ronn Lucas is an American ventriloquist and stand-up comedian.

John Walcott Cooper, Jr. was an American ventriloquist, entertainer, and singer with the Southern Jubilee Singers. He was known as the "Black Napoleon of Ventriloquism" and also performed under the pseudonym Hezekiah Jones. Over the course of his lifetime Cooper was a member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, the Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association, and the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists.

Jay Johnson is an American ventriloquist and actor, best known for playing Chuck Campbell on Soap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slappy the Dummy</span> Villain in the Goosebumps book series

Slappy the Dummy is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the Goosebumps children's series by R. L. Stine. He is one of the series' most popular villains, the main antagonist of the Night of the Living Dummy saga and the mascot of the franchise. He is also the main antagonist of the Goosebumps film and its Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween sequel, where Stine describes him as a "ventriloquist's dummy with a serious Napoleonic complex". He comes alive by these words: "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molanu Karrano", and they can be found on a sheet of paper in Slappy's jacket pocket. After coming to life, Slappy will try to make the person who brought him to life serve him as a slave, to the point that he will frame that person for bad things that he does.

Terry Wayne Fator is an American ventriloquist, impressionist, stand-up comedian, and singer. Born in Dallas, Texas, he developed an interest in ventriloquism from a young age, developing both this and a talent for singing. After initially performing with two bands, Fator eventually conducted solo performances, combining ventriloquism and singing with comedy. He gained national recognition for his talent when he won the second season of America's Got Talent, which helped to boost his career.

Paul Zerdin is a British comedian and ventriloquist from London. He was the winner of the 10th season of America's Got Talent.

Yeshwant Keshav Padhye was the pioneering Indian Ventriloquist who started ventriloquism in India in the 1920s. He was also a puppeteer and maker.

James Edward Nelson was an American ventriloquist who appeared on television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is most famous for commercials for Nestlé chocolate featuring Farfel the Dog. He also hosted a children's show sponsored by Nestlé.

I'm No Dummy is a 2009 documentary film about ventriloquism directed by Bryan W. Simon and produced by Marjorie Engesser through Montivagus Productions. It premiered at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival before being released theatrically in the United States by Salient Media and NBCUniversal in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Gross</span> American actor

Andy Gross is an American former professional racquetball player, now a touring comedian, ventriloquist, magician and illusionist. He is known for his television and film appearances, and for his live touring show called Andy Gross' MindBoggling Variety Show.

Valentine Vox is a British born American ventriloquist and author known for his scholarly book on the history of ventriloquism, I Can See Your Lips Moving: the history and art of ventriloquism, which traces the practice back some three thousand years.

Satyajit Padhye is an Indian ventriloquist and puppeteer carrying on the legacy of his father Ramdas Padhye and grandfather Y. K. Padhye. He also trained Bollywood stars in the art of ventriloquism and how to use technology to create unique puppets for films. Satyajit also appeared on television reality shows and performed with Bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Satyajit along with his father Ramdas Padhye designed India's first 3D printed puppet of Aditya Roy Kapur, for film Ludo and also trained Aditya who played a ventriloquist role in the movie. Satyajit also represented India at Rainforest World Puppetry Carnival in Sarawak, Malaysia and 5th China Quanzhou International Puppetry Festival in China.

References

↑ "A New Star is Born". The Dummy Shoppe. 4 November 2016. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2018.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "A New Star is Born". The Dummy Shoppe. 4 November 2016. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2018.

[1]