I-Fest Gives Me Fellowship, Direction, & Focus

I was going to take a couple of posts to give you the details about I-fest but I believe I can sum it all up in one.

As I mentioned in my initial post about I-Fest it was held on the campus of Olivet Nazarene College. It's the same place the Chicago Bears hold their training camp each year. The festival serves mostly as a week long training opportunity for church puppetry groups and their leaders. The place was over flowing with teenagers for whom the festival served as a version of summer camp. I would say that both creatively and educationally the events and classes were focused at a 75/25 ratio toward puppetry vs ventriloquism. However that ratio did not in anyway take away from the quality of the ventrilquism educational opportunities.

Fortunately for me mostly all the ventriloquism classes and events were held in the building that normally serves as the college's school of nursing. This made it easy for me to stay in one place most of the day and attend a variety of classes. Also convenient for me was the fact that the athletic building where the main events of the festival took place (morning and evening programs and vendor exhibits) was only about 150-200 yards away from the nursing school building. This made getting around very easy.

I chose to attend the classes that focused on developing your ventriloquist character. The most memorable ones were taught by Andy Holmes, the puppeteer behind the popular children's character Gerbert; Ella Havell, a ventriloquist from England who at one time auditioned for the show Britain's Got Talent; and Liz Von Segen, a very talented ventriloquist.

I also attended the Senior and Novice ventriloquist competition performances. These really weren't competitions but evaluation sessions. Each performer was evaluated and critiqued by a panel of 4 or 5 ventriloquists with a lot of experience.

I must say that after attending one of her classes, seeing her perform at one of the evening sessions, and watching her MC a ventriloquist competition, Liz Von Segan is now one of my most favorite people in the world. She is classy, smart, charming, and very good at what she does. I can only hope to be close to her level in all areas of my performance some day.

I also met a ventriloquist named Doug Nearpass and his wife. They live in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Doug emceed the Senior Vent completion and was one of the facilitators of my favorite class of the whole festival; an improvisation class.

While I felt like a stranger when I first got there by the time Saturday afternoon came around I realized that the people at I-Fest are "my people." They are people who love puppetry and ventriloquism as much as I do. I hadn't been around anyone like that since I first met the members of the Down Home Friends puppet ministry group at my church a couple of years ago.

The improv class was the one class I knew I was going to be part of at the festival. I looked forward to it from the time I signed up for it months ago. While the class didn't involve hardly any puppetry or ventriloquism it was a good 2 hours of improvising with props and situations. It was as good as I thought it was going to be but I did enjoy it.

The last thing I want to say about I-fest is that it helped me to realize and focus on just exactly what God has called me to do. I picked up some great jokes and lines to use with my characters. I realized that I need to develop those characters to be more believeable. I also learned some new tools to use in my overall ministry to children. Throughout the entire time I was there God impressed on my heart that I should always keep in mind that I am not called to be just a "ventriloquist." I am a "gospel ventriloquist."

One of the teachers in a class that I attended about creativity in puppet presentations handed out a model to use as a guide when trying to come up with a new presentation or act. The model was a series of circles with different elements named in it. At the center of the model were the words "gospel message." The instructor explained and stressed that as a performers we should never lose sight of the fact that in the center of anything we do in our ministry should always be God's gospel message. That is our main purpose for our ministry.

That point really put a solid period at the end of the sentence I had been hearing from God all during the festival. It defines in my head and heart what my focus from here on should be. While it's true I am a ventriloquist what I really am in my heart and soul is a messenger of the gospel.

If nothing else that's the one thing I want to always remember about I-fest and take with me as I walk down the road God has for me.