Appearance At "Street Party For Jesus"

Last February Pleasant View Baptist church burned down. But that didn't stop them. They are in the process of building a new church on the same lot and yesterday they had their 2nd annual "Street Party For Jesus."

Once again this year I had the opportunity to minister as a ventriloquist. Since this would be the 3rd time I was performing at the request of this church, I would need to show them something new and different. I decided I would use my new vent figure, Ruben, for the first time in front of this audience.

I also chose 2 songs for my act. One of the songs I would sing with Ruben and the 2nd song I would have Ruben and Cecil the turtle sing. The songs were “Bread Upon The Water”, a song about obedient giving and having faith that God will come through on his promises, and “Excuses”, a comical song about the many reasons people give for not attending church. The conclusion of my presentation would be the “Cross trick”, a visually effective object lesson that demonstrates the effects of the cross on sin.

Since this performance would be a challenge for me I rehearsed more than I had for any other. The words to the songs were hard for me to memorize; especially the 2nd verse of “Excuses”. I worked on it for over a week and was finally convinced that I had it down. I would later find out differently. In addition to memorizing words, I had to make sure I could use 2 puppets at the same time convincingly. My rehearsals went very well and I felt I was really ready for this performance.

Having said that I must tell initially everything on stage went well. Ruben and I sang the “bread” song and I got a couple of laughs with some standard vent jokes as well as a joke I wrote myself about Reynolds Wrap. I even segued well into the duet with Cecil the turtle on one hand and Ruben on the other (see the above photo). I was pleased with my performance until I got to the last verse of the song “Excuses.” I lost my focus and I forgot the words.

That had never happened to me before while doing ventriloquism. I totally panicked. I forgot the correct voices for my puppets and got so embarrassed that I couldn’t improvise lyrics (which I’m usually pretty good with). Instead I tried to catch up with the song and that didn’t work either. Luckily, I was able to sing the chorus to end the song. I apologized but was told later by my wife that it only brought attention to a mistake that most people didn’t notice.

I finished with the cross trick as planned. It always impresses both kids and adults who see it for the first time. It ended my time with a good message.

Quite a few people told me they enjoyed the act and I appreciated their compliments. My next door neighbor, who is a member of the Mt. Pleasant church, told me that I should be on TV.

Now normally I would have focused on my mistake and ended up criticizing myself for the rest of the day because the act wasn’t perfect. But this time God gave me a different perspective about my performance.

This was a big step for me in my ventriloquism career. I used a new and different style puppet. Ruben is your typical ventriloquist figure with controls on a stick operated by your fingers and not just by moving your hands. Plus I used 2 puppets at the same time for the first time. Also it was the longest ministry performance I’ve done so far. That’s another step toward what I see myself doing in the future. I’ve always seen myself doing a longer program that’s more of a variety show than just a “vent” act.

Overall my time at the 2009 “Street Party for Jesus” was a very successful performance. I’m sure they’ll ask me back next year. Also, it has made me even more determined to practice on a regular basis so I can make sure I know my act like the back of my hand.

One final note: Paula came with me to the event and I asked her to take some pictures. In the past she hasn’t gotten very good results when using my digital camera. Even though I asked her to take pictures I only expected her to take a few with one or two of them being in focus. Much to my surprise she took over 71 shots. Only a couple of them were out of focus so I guess she’s caught the shutter bug. How she will do with her new camera now only the future will tell.