A Peck of A Performance

This past Saturday night I got the best opportunity of my ventriloquist career. As part of the week of revival services our church held a concert at 7PM this past Saturday. The group singing was the 2008 Grammy nominated group: Karen Peck & New River. I had the opportunity to do a ventriloquist sketch as an introduction.

I used the increasingly popular puppet, Cecil the turtle, and an script with several original jokes. I used an Abbott & Costello like exchange between Cecil and me. Here's a sample of the script:

Cecil: What's a Karen Peck

Me: No, It's "Who's Karen Peck?"

Cecil: You mean you don't know either?

Me: I know who Karen Peck is. I met her before we came up here.

Cecil: How many?

Me: How many what?

Cecil: How many Karens does it take to make a Peck?

The 5 minute routine got several laughs including a joke I added right before I went on stage. It was about the pastor and his wife. In the middle of the performance Karen Peck thanked me for my performance and got everyone to give me a round of applause. She also mentioned that it was the first time she'd ever been introduced by a turtle.

Cecil has become the most popular character I use these days. He's also the easiest to write jokes for. As I look toward working other venues over the next couple of months I think he'll probably turn into my "headliner."