A community with 'dummies' - VentFest comes to Tivoli stage for fourth year

When Steve Withem pitched the idea of VentFest in 2019 at a Spencer Main Street meeting, the room fell silent.

"I said, 'I want to do a ventriloquist festival in Spencer, Indiana.' Dead silence. Finally, one of the board members spoke up and said, 'Are you serious?' And I said yes. More silence. Finally another board member spoke up and said, 'Well, you know, if Steve's willing to really put this together and run with it, and make sure Spencer Main Street, Inc. doesn't take a terrible bath on it, well, maybe we should give him an opportunity,'" Withem recalled, adding that he had the idea for it five to six years prior.

And run with it he did.

He attended the annual Vent Haven Ventriloquist Convention in Cincinnati later that year and put together the inaugural festival for June of 2020. Except the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it.

He tried again for 2021, but pandemic-era travel restrictions prevented international ventriloquists from joining the show. This left the festival delayed until 2022.

Jay Johnson, the only ventriloquist to be nominated for and win a Tony Award, headlined the inaugural festival.

"That gave us credibility," Withem said. "And now, I've got performers wanting to come here."

The festival has brought world-renowned ventriloquists to the stage of the Tivoli Theatre, including Ronn Lucas, Willie Tyler and Steve O. Schuling, to name a few. In fact, Lucas, who performed for six U.S. presidents and was the first ventriloquist to headline his own act in Las Vegas, has been called the best ventriloquist in the world by The New York Times.

As word has spread, those who perform recruit their friends within the ventriloquism community, and past performers come back to help out from year to year. For example, Schuling performed in 2023 and has come back each year to volunteer for the festival.

"We're building a real family of ventriloquists, something special here. The international ventriloquism world is taking notice of Spencer, Indiana," Withem said. "We've already got some legendary talent lined up for next year."

He said that it becomes easier to get ventriloquists to say 'yes,' making his job as festival director easier year after year.

"The word's out among the vent community. I'm tickled pink about that, you know that they want to come to Spencer, Indiana. To be down there at the convention and hear how people who have been here talk so lovingly and glowingly about Spencer and the Tivoli Theatre and what we're creating here, it does my little heart good," Withem said.

And Withem has discovered up-and-coming talent along the way, like Melissa Graham, who started her ventriloquism journey in 2018.

Graham is from Panama and worked in a clinic.

"We get a lot of children that come in for treatment, and they get shots every day. I used to watch these kids come in and be very nervous because they knew they were going to get shots," Graham said.

She wanted to find a way to make children feel more comfortable. And then one day, she saw a performance by Darcie Lynne on America's Got Talent, which Lynne won in 2017. Graham had the idea to use puppetry and ventriloquism to help put the children entering the clinic at ease.

Graham pursued learning the art form on her own, and she is the only ventriloquist in Panama.

"It's great in the sense to know that I am kind of pioneering ventriloquism in Panama, and it's such an honor to be able to bring this art form to people around me in my country," Graham said. "It's also a little isolating in the sense that there's no one else who I can get support from. But that's what's so amazing about this community that I've been able to find here in the U.S., because I've been able to learn so much from them."

Australian ventriloquist Glenn Pearce was also at the table while Graham was being interviewed.

"Puppets are therapy," he said.

Graham's performance is called The Alpacachino Show.

"It all kind of started because I just really love puns. My puppet is an alpaca," she said.

His name is Alpacachino after Al Pacino, adding to the pun of him being an alpaca.

"Alpacachino is just kind of a naughty little alpaca. He's just silly," Graham said.

She also has a jaguar puppet that she calls Jaguar Yoo in Spanish or Howard Yoo in English.

"Which is kind of a pun in Spanish because it sounds kind of like, 'How are you,'" Graham said, describing Jaguar as sleepy and grumpy. "He's just not taking anything from anyone."

Her final puppet is a pig named Saucy, which is a pun in both languages, and is fitting because Saucy has a "pageant queen" personality.

Graham described writing material in English separate from her usual content in Spanish, as not all jokes can be easily translated, whether it be because of the difference in timing, cadence, meanings or whether or not it is culturally relevant.

She was excited to perform at VentFest this year.