Meet Shari Lewis:
Ventriloquist, Actress and Teacher
Show Biz

Brigid: How did you figure out how to throw your voice?

Shari: There's a story about a father who says to his son, "I want you to pick up that rock and move it to the front of the house." The son says, "I can't lift that rock." The father says, "Use all your strength." So the boy tries and tries, and he can't do it. He says, "I can't do this!" The father says, "I told you to use all your strength. " The boy says, "I did." And the father says, "No, you didn't. You didn't ask me to help you." That story is what my father said to me when I was about fifteen and having trouble getting auditions. He told me that story and then picked up the phone. He called an uncle who had a friend who was the sister of a cousin of Sid Caesar's manager. This guy got me an introduction to Sid Caesar's manager, who brought me on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Club show, and everything came out of that.

Brigid: Wow. You were on TV when you were only fifteen years old! What was that like?

Shari: Well, I had been performing for years, and so it was a little harrowing but it wasn't bad. From that moment on I've been working as a ventriloquist.

Brigid: Do you ever feel nervous or scared when you perform and what do you do about it?

Shari: I'm really not, because my mother has always said to me, "The audience doesn't know what you're going to do. And so, don't worry about it." And so I just do my stuff.

Brigid: How did you discover Lamb Chop?

Shari: My father said, "If Mary had a little lamb, why shouldn't Shari have a little lamb?" And I thought that was super. But the next person who said to me, "I want to make you a puppet. What would you like?" I said, "How about a lamb?" It was the last thing in my ear. So Lamb Chop came in full born. It was amazing!

Brigid: How do you make Lamb Chop talk without moving your lips?

Shari: Well, the truth is, and this is going to sound like a really silly answer, Lamb Chop talks for herself. That is, I've been talking to Lamb Chop for so long that I don't even think about it.

But if you would like to practice being a ventriloquist, here's how you do it. You take a puppet and you sit in front of a mirror. You have your puppet recite the alphabet first. Then you sing nursery rhymes with your puppet. And you just keep trying to move your lips less and less. Not everybody can do it. But it's worth trying.

Brigid: Where do you get your ideas for your shows, games, and books?

Shari: The truth is a great deal of these games, stunts, magic tricks, betcha's, challenges -- I would say all of those come from my father's collection that I inherited. He had vast files, and I didn't inherit any money, I inherited wonderful files. All that background and all that experience. And then, ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes they come from kids in the audience, sometimes they come from teachers who write in. Sometimes they come from other performers, from my writers, my husband, everybody.

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