TIPS AND TRICKS
GARETH OLIVER says ventriloquism is “not as difficult as people think”. “Not to undermine the amount of effort I’ve put into it over the years... If you were brought up knowing it was illegal to move your lips when you spoke in public, then you would learn how to talk without moving your lips. I taught myself and it was just a matter of trial and error.”
A thesaurus, he says, is a
could become an act together.
Gareth initially incorporated Alice, now 29, into his comedy and ventriloquist routine. As she got to grips with ventriloquism, they revised the performance to become a double act, creating new voiceswapping routines. “No one did that,” Gareth says. “There’s two of us so we thought why don’t we utilise that and do something that no single ventriloquist can do...After tweaking. we knew we had something special.”
Following their marriage in 2013, they became one of the busiest acts in the entertainment industry, performing on over 70 cruises a ventriloquist’s best friend. If a particular word is proving tricky to say, swap it for another with the same meaning. “With ventriloquism you have to be one step ahead so your tongue knows where it’s got to be for certain words. Eventually, when you’ve done it for so long, it becomes second nature.”
Gareth Oliver is scheduled to perform at Nidd Hall on October 23.
year, as well as at hotel resorts. Now living in Devon with young son Sorrento and another child on the way any day, joint performances are fewer than they were. But after many show cancellations due to the coronavirus, Gareth has a busy diary ahead for the rest of the year, including a performance at Nidd Hall in Harrogate.
He’s looking forward to returning to his home county. “It’s always great to be back. My family are still in Yorkshire so whenever I come up it’s always a big event and we normally ensure everyone gets together,” he said.
“I hold Yorkshire dear in my heart.”