This is a terrible post, if you are easily offended don't read it, I know there is a family behind the scenes and its probably shedloads of personal grief somewhere for which I am sorry and I apologise.
By jeez, I am so glad that e***** duck is dead.
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You're not totally safe... it's Keith Harris that died not Orville.
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>> it's Keith Harris that died not Orville.
Yes, but I heard the duck has been left speechless at hearing the news ;)
RIP Keith Harris. I remember you from the 80's when I was growing up and enjoyed a lot of your performances even if the grumpy one who started this thread didn't.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32495447
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 28 Apr 15 at 13:37
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>> enjoyed a lot of your performances even if the grumpy one who started this thread
>> didn't.
I don't ever remember a time when I didn't want to stuff that duck in the blender.
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>> want to stuff that duck in the blender.
MMM! Pale turquoise duck slurry, the must-have starter for the Surrey/Sussex badlands.
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I'm with Zero. The only thing that I've ever detested more than that damned duck is Barney the b****** Dinosaur.
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I think you forget Mr Blobby.
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. The only two things that I've ever detested more than that damned duck is Barney the b****** Dinosaur and Mr. Blobby.
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>> I think you forget Mr Blobby.
And Cuddles, Keith's other puppet.
nb, I know Mr B wasn't anything to do with Keith. You can blame Edmonds for that creation.
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I was far too old to find the hideous Orville anything but intensely irritating, seen once for five minutes then avoided. One of the worst things I've ever seen on TV, and there's a lot of competition.
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I understand Orville has just released a statement... the news came as a "golt out of the glue" he said.
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Ghastly squeaking little gugger...
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I always wanted to punch him in the mouth and set fire to the duck. The only reason Rod Hull and Emu were marginally better was because they duffed Michael Parkinson up on his live show.
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I heard Orville was left speechless after he heard the news...
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Tue 28 Apr 15 at 16:23
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He was a family entertainer, and by all accounts not only pretty good at what he did but a well-liked and decent bloke. But I won't miss the duck either.
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Clearly Fursty and VF frequent the same Jokes About Ventriloquism to Pass Off as Your Own site.
The best ventriloquist acts - Nina Conti is a fine contemporary example - are mordant, not mawkish like the ghastly Orville. Belongs in the same bin as St Winifred's School Choir. Now you can hum 'Grandma' all evening as penance.
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"I wish I could fly, right up to the sky, but I can't"
Can now!
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BBC News:
In the 2000s, he reinvented himself as an X-rated ventriloquist, touring student unions with his adult show, Duck Off.
Now that's more like it!
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I beg to differ. I just don't get Nina Conti, but used to really like Nookie Bear.
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There's something inherently cringeworthy about ventriloquial acts.
Perhaps that's why Educating Archie was so popular on the wireless. I don't remember it myself, but it had 15 million listeners for a while.
I used to go to an annual event with evening ents, and saw a good few 'alternative' acts 'before they were famous'. The top of the bill was always a name, and invariably a let down after the supporting acts. One of these unfunny acts was Roger de Courcey and Nookie Bear with an 'adult' act.
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>> There's something inherently cringeworthy about ventriloquial acts.
creepy is better
io9.com/the-10-creepiest-ventriloquist-dummies-of-all-time-458555695
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>>>just don't get Nina Conti, but used to really like Nookie Bear.
She's really good...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSNAi2jB490
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>> I understand Orville has just released a statement... the news came as a "golt out of the glue" he said.
I heard he was not on hand to comment.
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Plenty of Orville jokes on Sickipedia
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Anyone remember Bob Carolgees and Spit the dog?! My favorite ventriloquist :-)
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Funny thing humour, I thought Spit the Dog was no better than Orville. They were with Cilla usually, weren't they?
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Tiswas I thought? A cult Saturday morning show, watched by students. Those that were up. Passed me by, as I went straight from skool to wurk, which included four hours on a Saturday morning.
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>> I went straight from skool to wurk
I went straight from Friday night to Saturday afternoon. I didn't start paying much attention to Saturday mornings until I had kids.
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>> They were with Cilla usually, weren't they?
>> Tiswas I thought?
IIRC, started off at Tiswas, and later teamed up with Cilla.
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Carolgees wasn't a ventriloquist, any more than Rod Hull was. Both just used the puppets as a prop, they were mute.
If you want a quality ventriloquist who's also good adult entertainment and reasonably topical and subversive, try Jeff Dunham.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=neTsQng-70o
Contains mild language.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Thu 30 Apr 15 at 00:15
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>> Carolgees wasn't a ventriloquist, any more than Rod Hull was. Both just used the puppets
>> as a prop, they were mute.
Not sure Emu was a very good prop,
On 17th March 1999, Hull climbed onto the roof of his house in Winchelsea, near Rye, to adjust his television aerial during the second leg of the Champions League quarter final football match between Internazionale and Manchester United at the San Siro. In his attempt to improve reception, he slipped from the roof and fell through an adjoining greenhouse. The 63-year-old entertainer suffered a severe skull fracture and chest injuries. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Conquest Hospital in Hastings.
Following an inquest, the East Sussex Coroner, Alan Craze, recorded a verdict of accidental death
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Ray Alan and Lord Charles were the best I can remember.
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Thu 30 Apr 15 at 10:02
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This guy is good too ....... but did he take Nina Conti's act with the human stooge or vice versa??
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3NINTQC0dQ
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>> the East Sussex Coroner, Alan Craze, recorded a verdict of accidental death
Not suicide perhaps, but pretty close to it.
Rod Hull was quite violent. Emu attacking Michael Parkinson was funny, but the victim didn't like it at all I seem to remember.
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>>Emu attacking Michael Parkinson was funny,
Did you think so? If I'd have been Parkinson I'd have slapped Rod Hull.
I'd certainly have used any influence I'd got to make sure he never appeared anywhere near me again.
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Although his talk show (the very little I saw) was so awful, perhaps it was some sort of justice.
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Do you think so? I seem to remember some rather good interviews. He did an awful lot though so inevitably some were better than others. Who would you rate as a better chat show host?
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Yes in my opinion. None, all as bad as one another, a 'chat show' isn't my sort of thing at all to sit and watch. In the slightest.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Thu 30 Apr 15 at 18:53
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>> If I'd have been Parkinson I'd have slapped Rod Hull.
Big strong guy. He'd have done you over unless you had karate or kung fu skills.
(I didn't remember he'd done a talk show, don't think I ever saw it).
Real emus are a bit frightening and very aggressive. We saw some in Oz and they tried to peck us through the wire mesh.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 30 Apr 15 at 18:12
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>>He'd have done you over unless you had karate or kung fu skills.
I seem to recall hearing that Hull wasn't so persistent when Billy Connolly told him that he'd get his arm broken if he got any closer. Maybe Hull was just tough and aggressive with people unable or unwilling to fight back.
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>> I seem to recall hearing that Hull wasn't so persistent when Billy Connolly told him that he'd get his arm broken if he got any closer. Maybe Hull was just tough and aggressive with people unable or unwilling to fight back.
Maybe. "Always stand up to a bully, they're cowards when it comes down to it."
Not, actually, in my experience. Bullies are practised in violence and have the habit of it. They are best avoided.
When you're cornered and violence is unavoidable, hit first without warning and use a knuckleduster or equivalent, that thuggish but very good American writer Norman Mailer used to say. But I've never done it or thought I had to.
Bill Burroughs was a firm believer in coming down on the aggressor's instep with all your weight on a hard shoe-heel. He was always a formal dresser, and shattered metatarsals do slow an aggressor down.
I'd like to have heard what Burroughs, Mailer and Jean Genet were saying to each other when they were cowering in the same doorway during the famous 1968 Chicago police riot. There might have been a book in it. Tsk. Even moans of terror have commercial value if they come from the right source.
:o}
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>> >> Not, actually, in my experience. Bullies are practised in violence and have the habit of
>> it. They are best avoided.
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>> When you're cornered and violence is unavoidable, hit first without warning and use a knuckleduster
>> or equivalent, that thuggish but very good American writer Norman Mailer used to say. But
>> I've never done it or thought I had to.
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>>
I've known two types of bully, the real hard men as you've described and the wind and P merchants who back down if you look like you are going to fight. Best initial move is to spit firmly into someone's face, aiming for the eyes. The initial shock and surprise gives you enough time to follow up with a kick where it hurts or a finger in the eye - then leg it.
I avoided a mugging some years back by flinging a 50p coin into someone's mush - then legged it.
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>>Not, actually, in my experience. Bullies are practised in violence and have the habit of it
That would be my experience too.
However, one doesn't fight back because it will scare them, one fights back because either;
You're tough enough and can
Or
because the bully is typically looking for easy amusement. So you may well lose this one, but it probably won't happen again.
You don;t have to be really tough, just tough enough not to be easy amusement.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 30 Apr 15 at 19:29
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>> You don;t have to be really tough, just tough enough not to be easy amusement.
You don't have to be physically tough at all. If you know what you're doing you can scare people witless with words alone unless they are very thick. But those super-thickos (and real villains of course) are the problem.
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>> Emu attacking Michael Parkinson was funny, but the victim didn't like it at all I seem to remember.
Can't think of a puppet act I find more or less bearable. Emu was one of the best and he was ghastly.
There's been this woman with a monkey puppet more recently. They're annoying too although the woman is semi-personable.
You have to hand it to these people though, fooling about in front of everyone and sometimes getting away with it, sometimes not.
They are what actors used to call 'troupers', ready to face an unappreciative public time after time. I wouldn't dare try it even if I had some talent for something like that. It takes real bottle and must often be a harsh experience.
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As an skill, the very best ventriloquist was Shari Lewis, with Lamb Chop.
Although I admire her skill, personally I would take her hand out of the lamb, replace it with mint sauce, and stick the mofo in the oven.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVSF-wZWlf8
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Once out of the lamb, I know where I'd stick her hand.
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Orville - Fenlander
