Hi friends, my name is Jeeves, you're listening to Blitz and I'm talking the probably the world’s most charming ventriloquist and most gifted of creatives the hilarious, multi-award winning, belly speaker, Nina Conti. Thank you for joining me, Nina!
Hello, thank you! Nice to be here in a room in England in my own house on the phone!
Well, this could be a bit of a loungeroom chat.
Yeah, how’s it going?
Oh, wonderful, I’m excited, I wanted to ask you would Monkey be joining us today as well?
On the phone? I mean he’s always there if you want him! I don’t normally do that cause it makes me feel like an idiot.
You’ve made me feel very special, thank you for that.
Monkey is sort of virtually present usually, but no, he’s not here. I don't know where he is, I think he’s in a suitcase wrapped up with the masks I put on people.
So Nina, I usually wait until the end of an interview to ask about the show but I have way too many questions for you so I'm a bit fearful of missing out on asking you about the show at all, so let’s start there shall we, what can we expect to see from your upcoming show at the Opera House?
Wow, I don’t know how to explain what to expect, because I never know myself. I do know that I’m going to bring ventriloquist masks and I will involve some people in the audience to come up on stage and we’ll put them on and create a show from whoever they become. A little part of me and a little part of them mixes into some character that just gets the momentum and takes it somewhere. It’s really fun for me cause it’s different every time and I really like working with the people in the audiences, it’s great to have community on stage, not just me and a bunch of fluff trying to pretend.
So, not a lot of people might realise this but your shows require quite a lot of improvisation, so you’re quite a gifted improvisational comedian - is that something you've always grown up with?
No, it’s something I've always loathed! There's something about the word ‘improv’ that always makes me go ‘uh oh’. It’s unscripted, that’s for sure. Sometimes what I do feels more like narration, I mean, obviously I improvise the words as I go along, but it’s not me just trying to be funny and whirl off the bat, it feels like I created a situation that needs funny narration and there’s a character there that wants to talk. There's somebody with their eyes showing and feelings that I need to narrate as much as possible, but it feels different from improv, but it is, I suppose, it’s all made up in the moment.
That’s absolutely wonderful and it’s such a joy to watch as well. The first thing I wanted to clear up was, this is definitely a ventriloquist show. The reason I ask is because I recently saw a wonderful documentary that you directed: Her Master’s Voice.
Oh, thank you for watching that.
It’s absolutely wonderful and I urge my listeners to go and see it for themselves, but you explore the idea of letting go of ventriloquism, is that an idea you’re still throwing around?
Well, I feel a little bit as if I have already let go of it although I'm still doing it. The kind of ventriloquism that you learn when you first start is, you know, not to move your mouth but it’s been such as long time since I thought of those, and I sometimes forget if I’ve even done the ventriloquism. I think, good lord, I hope my mouth isn’t moving, I completely forget that’s what the show is about! Because I’m controlling five people on the stage and I’m doing it all without moving my lips, I hope, but it’s not the main part to me anymore so I wonder if it gets left behind. But in terms of more traditional talking to dummies and stuff, I would maybe return to it but it's not what I find exciting right now.
I went to a ventriloquist convention and I went to a place where ventriloquists leave their puppets when they die. All of that history and the craziness of walking through a kind of graveyard of puppets, it felt really profound to me at the time.
I agree, so you’re talking about vent-haven I assume. Actually could you, for our listeners, would you be able to tell us in your own words what the documentary was about?
Well, the guy who got me started in ventriloquism died and left me his puppets in his will. He wasn’t much of a ventriloquist but he had a bunch of puppets and they were his. They were all in my house after he died and they were just sitting there and I thought ‘what do I do?’ This is an unusual gift, do you put them in a cupboard or can you give them a last adventure, do you give them their voice again or try and find new voices? So, I made this commitment - I’m going to talk to all these as if they’re real for a whole week, I’m going to go to the place where you leave puppets when owners die. The whole thing was a love lesson to Ken, really, who started me off and I had a relationship with, so there was a lot to talk to about him and processing that. I had a puppet of him as well, just after he died, he had this puppet of him that looked exactly like him and where it was in the room.
I can imagine the whole process of making that documentary would’ve been quite an emotional journey for yourself and you can really see it in the documentary as well.
Thank you, well, I didn’t know it was a documentary when I made it, I guess, I did it with my own money. I didn’t have producers, I just thought I’ll just go out and make this little film. It was worth doing, it was something I needed to do and very happily it got a lot of success having done it on the shoestring.
One of my favorite quotes from the film was 'the ventriloquated doll is the device that allows us access to the insanity of the ventriloquator'. I love that.
Yeah, I like that too. It’s like a gate keeper in the mind stops us from seeming mad or seeming creative and the puppet can get around the back door of that into the uncensored parts of our head. And I've always tried to do that with Monkey, always try to make him unguarded and uncensored and if I say awful things – God, I apologise – and I hate if I ever say anything awful but it’s more an exercise of speech, I suppose, that things have no accountability. He's never cruel or anything but he’s in the room saying the thing that you probably shouldn't have said in a normal social situation.
I often wonder actually - because when I see you perform, there are times in your show when you laugh because of something Monkey said or Granny said and I often wonder if it's because you’re an amazing actress and you wrote that yourself or you actually made yourself laugh.
Well, sometimes I am laughing because I'm in a bit of a panic about what I've just said, it’s like social embarrassment laughter – like ‘ha-ha-ha...shit, how can I get away with that?’ And I guess it’s in the moment sometimes. I watch myself laugh on videos when I see myself on stage and I absolutely hate that I do that. Can you imagine what the audience must think – stop laughing, you idiot, we don’t need this – and there I am, seeming like I’m having a great time at my own show. It’s not easy for me to watch so it’s something I’m not in control of which happens when I’m on stage, it’s nervous laughter.
Nina, I’ll be completely honest with you, it is one of the most delightful moments – because a person telling jokes to themselves won't make themselves laugh, like a comedian doesn’t make themself laugh on stage but I actually believe you are talking to another person on stage, and it's just magical.
That’s very nice, well it’s maybe because I don't know what he’s going to say, and I’ve overinvested in this monkey – I've been talking to him for twenty years and when something funny comes out of his mouth, I'm just as surprised as anyone.
It’s absolutely fantastic to watch. It seems like you have a wonderful chemistry with your characters, knowing full well they are still you but it’s so strange to see that dynamic.
Thank you! Well, you can be a crafty ventriloquist that shows they’re very proficient at the tricks but you don’t really feel like there's a relationship there, but I have definitely built a relationship over this period of time. It really feels like Monkey is a second person in a way now and isn’t me, it’s a thing with its own legs.
I wanna say you perform together, but it’s really just you, isn’t it! One of the things that broke my heart when I saw the documentary was that you retired Granny!
Yeah, I know. Well, and there's spoilers.
Okay, if we were to do a spoiler alert, can we expect a little bit of Granny in the next show?
No, she’s not in the show but there's plenty of Monkey.
Not a problem. Nina, you are no stranger to Australia, you’ve performed at many Melbourne Comedy Festivals and Sydney Comedy Festivals, I believe?
Love the Melbourne Comedy Festival, it's my favourite festival in the world.
And speaking of Granny, you actually debuted Granny in Melbourne in 2010, wasn’t it?
I definitely did bring Granny. I haven't been using her very much recently, it’s funny I've become much more involved in the unscripted show cause I love when the narrative creates and everyone goes home with something special, but that night – it was their night that they came. I'm addicted to stuff like that, so I haven't used Granny in a long time, but I did bring her out the other day, I think. And she was certainly improvising for the best of it - like, Gran you’ve gotten good at doing improv over the last 10 years. She was in the suitcase then comes out with new skills, it’s funny.
Oh, that’s wonderful. I can't wait to see Granny again, hopefully you’ll bring her out at another Melbourne Festival. So, you did win the Barry award in 2008, you tied with Kristen Schaal.
That was nice!
That's an amazing achievement, what was that like as an experience, do you know Kristen Schaal, do you still keep in touch?
I do! I know her well, and I thought they’re great. No, it was nice to get the Barry. And neither of us have the actual award, I met them recently, no one actually took it, I don’t know what happened, the plan was to cut it in half but it went astray!
And so, do you have plans to do another Melbourne Comedy Festival or Sydney Comedy Festival in the future?
I am dying to come back to the Melbourne Comedy Festival, absolutely, really want to. I will try. I think maybe the program is already made for this year but if I can muscle it, I will.
I don’t know if you remember Nina - nah, you don’t but I actually met you at the 30th Gala anniversary ball.
Ah right! Yeah, that was nice, we had a good chat.
We did have a lovely chat and we took a lovely photo so thanks for doing that as well.
Lovely! Post it so I can see it!
I will, I will do! I'll post it with the interview. I’d like to wrap up with some quick-fire questions if that's okay.Who of your characters do you love the most?
Monkey.
Aw well done. Can you do impersonations?
No, I'm dreadful, I had a Trump puppet and I couldn’t get it to talk, it just wanted to scream.
I’m pretty sure that’s an accurate impersonation anyway. Is there any particular accent you love or hate to do when you’re ventriloquising?
Accents - I try and give them all a go and they often come out the same as each other but I gotta give them all a go.
What is the most nefarious way you’ve used ventriloquism? Have you used it for anything other than entertainment?
I have certainly used it to entertain my kids on long car journeys.
Ladies and gentlemen, you need to catch Nina Conti, she’ll be at the Studio at the Sydney Opera House for the Just for Laughs Festival 28-30 October. Nina, thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you, I hope you have a good day.
You too, and I hope to see you at your show. //
THE STUDIO AT SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE – JUST FOR LAUGHS 28 – 30 OCTOBER
Book at SOH Box Office 9250 7777 www.sydneyoperahouse.com or Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au
