Voice Illusion – Ventriloquism by Ikkokudou
By Keiko Kai
Human beings can express themselves through various styles of theater including musical, opera, dance and drama by singing, dancing and acting. However, a recent trend has developed in which puppets have replaced human roles, as seen in the current Broadway shows ’Avenue Q’ and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. Although they cannot communicate and express emotions on their own, puppets manage to attract and amuse people of all ages without fail. In ventriloquism, a ventriloquist disguises his lip movements, making it appear as though the doll in hand is actually speaking. Although I had some stereotypical images of ventriloquist shows from my childhood memories, I was astounded by the show of Ikkokudo in the voice illusion tour of 2004 and rediscovered the possibilities of ventriloquism as a performing art.
Ventriloquism has an amazingly long history. It began in ancient times before Christianity, in Egypt, Greece, China and various countries around the world. Originally ventriloquism was not a form of entertainment; instead it was supposedly a method of
communicating the words of the Gods and the deceased to the general public. It was believed that the sprits of the deceased and the Gods entered the prophets, projecting their voice through their stomachs enabling the prophets to predict the future. The name
‘Ventriloquist’ itself originates from Latin, literally meaning, "belly speaker". Needless to say, it was actually the prophets who trained themselves in the art of ventriloquism so they could trick the public and take advantage of the superstitions of ignorant
people.
At the end of the 19th century, a comedian came up with the new idea of ventriloquism as type of entertainment with the addition of a doll. He installed
a moving mouth to the doll and synchronized his lip movements with his voice, so the audience could see the doll as if it were alive and talking spontaneously. By making the doll speak, even if the words were too strong, naive and arrogant, people found it amusing and sentimental, and somehow more effective and irresistible than the words spoken by actors. It was quite a different approach. This performance was a big hit, and continued to be successful until the arrival of television and film, which took away the focus on ventriloquism, and moreover lessened the value of theatrical performing
arts.
In Japan ventriloquism has also lost its prosperity and popularity. Many are no longer attracted to the art as a form of entertainment, and consider it a dying art form. However, Ikkokuduo, the ventriloquial group in Japan lead by Ikkdu Tamaki, have reinvented ventriloquism, presenting it as a successful form of entertainment with their highly skilled technique with lovely dolls.
In the opening scene of the show, Ikkdu Tamaki performed with a doll named Kan-chan, who had a double personality: one side was a merry child, the other dark and sarcastic. As the story proceeded Kan-chan changed his character and voice, although his physical appearance remained the same. The childlike appearance highlighted the strangeness and funniness of Kan-chan. Some actors claim that they can change their personality and voice from time to time, but it would be difficult for them to achieve the same level of bizarreness and humor. Ikkoku Tamaki not only has perfect lip-control, but he also has a variety of choices of natural voices including female, male, husky, thick, high and low, dissociated and distant. His flexible voice enables him to extend his ventriloquism show from a conventional style with two or three dolls, to innovative theatrical entertainment without having any dolls.
In the other scene of his show, he was in the middle of the stage and acting and pantomiming. Audiences could imagine a stage full of actors, although in fact he was the only one on stage. The various voices gave the impression that another person, machine or even object was in the room, thereby creating voice illusion. Although what he showed for this performance was relatively short, I am sure that he could develop this voice illusion as one of the theatrical performing arts.
He said, "Ventriloquism has a lot of possibilities based on the effect of dolls and voices. By making the dolls speak, the serious story and difficult problems are softened, creating a warm atmosphere. People are more willing to accept the words rather than the words of actors. On the other hand, ventriloquism is not only a show with dolls in hand, but could also be other forms like a voice illusion theater art, carrying a lot of messages with stage aesthetics".
