Paul Zerdin interview

Paul Zerdin is one of only a few full-time professional British ventriloquists. He's about to set off on a new UK tour, so we thought it a good time to catch-up for a chat.

Hi Paul. How did you first get into ventriloquism? It's not a standard hobby.

I was a bit weird as a child. I used to dress up in my mum and dad's clothes and pretend to be the milkman. I was always putting on a show, and then - when I was about 9 or 10 - I got a box of magic tricks and decided from then on I was going to be the next Paul Daniels or David Copperfield.

When I was about 15, for my birthday present I got a book on how to become a ventriloquist. That really captivated my imagination. I'd always been a massive fan of The Muppets and Sesame Street and knew I wanted to do something that involved puppet characters. I also loved comedy, and thus ventriloquism appeared to be the obvious answer.

So I spent a couple of years learning how to do it. When I left school I got virtually no GCSE results, I was already doing magic in my spare time, earning pretty good money doing close-up magic in restaurants and at kids' parties and that kind of thing. I went to try and get an agent and the only person that was interested in me was this woman who said "I've got loads of magicians, but you've definitely got a talent; what else can you do? What have you got that's different?" So I said "I'm working on a ventriloquist act..." and she said "Well, come back when you know what you're doing". So that made me get my arse into gear and put an act together properly, and it sort of went on from there really. And that was probably the best advice and help I could have had at time. There's so many more magicians, so I think I've chosen the right career path.

Out of interest, what was that book you got as a 15 year-old?

It's called Gottle o' Geer and it's written by Ray Alan, who is sadly no longer with us but was a very famous ventriloquist. Whenever I get asked by kids how to become a ventriloquist I still always refer them back to this book, because it's the best book ever written. I used to work in a magic shop for a while when I left school and we used to sell all sorts of old books, and they were all so complicated... but this is just a simple children's book that told you how to do it.

It's not something you can do instantly and you have to practice a long time but if you're prepared to put the hours in I think it's the best technique ever. It takes about two years to get the basics and considering I've been doing it for, what, 22 years now - something like that - and I'm still getting better... I don't think you can ever get to the point where you can think 'right, this is as good as it gets!'. You're always trying to improve, I think.

Ventriloquism involves lots of vocal cord work, as does impressionism. If you're a good vent does that also, kind of automatically, make you a good impressionist?

I can't really do impressions, although there's a piece in this new show where Sam [one of Paul's puppets] is doing an impression of the front row, and then he starts doing an impression of me. I say 'two can play at that game', and then I start doing an impression of him, the two of us trying to out-do each other... so that's kind of weird, because when you think about it, it's actually me doing both. But that's fun, and I love stuff like that because it plays with people's heads a bit and gets them thinking.

I was always mimicking - which is different to impersonating - teachers with funny mannerisms at school. I'm no Alistair McGowan though.

Having intricate, fast-paced dialogue between you and your puppet sounds hard. How do you stop yourself using the wrong voice at the wrong time?

I just keep practicing. I've been rehearsing the new show every day, over-and-over again. I just literally pace around the house, talking to myself. I don't talk to the puppets when I'm off-stage normally but when I'm learning new material I have to practice over and over again to make sure I get it right. I want to make sure it's nice and slick. I'm sure I'll cock something up somewhere, and the audience love it when you mess up or something goes wrong, it shows that you're human. But, I liked to be as polished as possible.

Being able to throw your voice seems such a useful skill to have in everyday life. Have you ever used your voice off-stage?

I was at Terminal 5 recently and walking along the big long travelator. As you get to the end of that there's an automated voice coming out that says 'Watch Your Step... Watch Your Step', on a loop. You can't miss it. You're coming to the end of the travelator and there's a big voice telling you to watch out, and yet the bloke in front of me tripped and went flying. So, I couldn't help but, in the same type of voice, say 'Enjoy Your Trip'. He looked around and I looked like I had nothing to do with it. That was just for my own amusement.

I did this hidden camera show a few years ago where I was making it look like a kid was trapped inside a bottle bank. And, in another stunt, I was reading a letter out loud, but not moving my lips. I'd sit down next to somebody in a bar or café - imagine you were watching a film, the actor is reading the letter but you can hear the words - so I'm doing that in real life but not moving my lips. We'd film the different reactions of people, and it's all about the reaction on those kind of shows. It got me thinking...

One of the things I did was take Albert, my old man puppet, into a Pizza Express and I ordered my food and he ordered his food, just to see if the waiter would talk to the puppet... and he did! I ordered a pizza and Albert ordered a Salad Niçoise, and he started complaining it didn't have the anchovies in it. The puppet had a dialogue with the waiter.

Ha ha. Madness. It's such a fun art form, yet there are so few ventriloquists in the UK. Why is that?

It's just an odd thing to want to do really. You've got to be a little bit nuts to do it. Also, it does take a long time to practice, whereas if you wanted to take up magic as a hobby - I'm not saying it's easier - but you could go into a magic shop and you could buy a trick and you could learn it and practice it and have an end product you could then show off. Obviously the entertaining aspect is something you have to work on. Whereas with ventriloquism you have to learn how to talk without moving your lips first of all before you can go anywhere near a performance, and it is really hard and there is no kind of shortcut. You have to put in the hours. And then, once you've got that, you then have to make it funny. Because, technically you could be the most fantastic ventriloquist, but if it's not funny, what's the point? It's got to be about the comedy. Then, if you're using puppets, you've got to learn puppetry and learn to manipulate the mouth or the moments too!

So you've got all these different skills which you've got to learn on the way, so I think it's something people would go 'oh, I'd love to do that', but when you get down to it there's a bit of work involved, and I think it'd put most sane people off.

The YouTube clip of you on Comedy Rocks has been seen nearly four million times now. This suggests there's a big demand for ventriloquism on TV that's not being met?

Having headlined at The Comedy Store for the last 10 years, I think it is absolutely no different from anything else apart from the fact it's entertainment in a different way. People haven't seen many ventriloquists, but when they do see it, they are often blown away by it because they've not seen anything like it for a long time. Obviously getting to tour the country you get to see that audience and I'm lucky that people want to come and see the show. Obviously you need more television exposure but thanks to the internet, as a direct result of that Comedy Rocks clip being shown all over the world, I've got to perform in lots of interesting places.

I am actually in development with a production company for my own TV show, which I'm doing a pilot for this September. That's a show I've written with my writing partner and it's me and all the characters. It's a sitcom. It's basically Seinfeld meets The Muppet Show. It's like 'the mad world of Paul Zerdin', really. You see when I'm off stage and what goes on at home with me and the puppet characters.

We look forward to it! To finish, perhaps you could tell us a bit more about what people can expect when they come to see you on tour?

It's a brand new show. The last couple of years I've toured a show called Spongefest, and this show is called Puppet Master. It's got all my regular characters in it, plus there's a new character called Alasdair Rimmer. He's an out-of-work gameshow host and he's constantly trying to muscle in on the show. He wants to be the show's MC and introduce people and interview them, but he's got no business to be in the show because I don't want him there, he's just decided to give himself that job.

With the title - Pupper Master - there's a lot of me controlling not just the puppets but also the audience. The audience are a bigger factor in this year's show, so there's a routine where I get someone out of the audience, a bit like I did on the Comedy Rocks show - but this time I get a man and a woman and turn them both into human dummies. They end up being part of the big production number.

Sounds great! Thanks for chatting to us, Paul.

Paul Zerdin can be found at PaulZerdin.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter: @paulzerdin