There has been a recent resurgence in the popularity of ventriloquists, what with Terry Fator winning America’s Got Talent. Paul Zerdin certainly is a talented individual when it comes to this particular art form, and he has three characters- Sam a young boy, an older man; Albert and Baby.
Like most performers using the convention of a puppet or dummy, it can be a great excuse to be rude, mocking and generally picking on audience members, which is done to great effect- all the particular people chosen as proxys are great sports about the situation and actually end up receiving the biggest cheers of the evening. Paul opens with some jokes and introduces us to Sam- by far his strongest character (indeed he could entertain us in the show for an hour in its entirety with just him.) Lots of cheeky banter ensues and the use of voice throwing and an impressive three-way conversation ensues with quick-fire rapidity.
Many of the jokes are familiar and classic ventriloquist jokes along with the now accepted post-modern recognition of the ventriloquist talking to himself with his hand shoved up inside a puppet (or, er, small boy in this case.) None of this seems to matter however as the audience are quickly in stitches with laughter at Paul’s delivery. No stone is un-turned as both puppeteer, dummy and audience members are mocked and rebuked in equal amounts.
One curious sour note comes in a sketch that involves Paul trying to tell a joke without offending anyone on the grounds of political correctness, however openly uses the term “gay” (and a more offense slang term for this) as a put-down at several points in his act. Not cool. Placing this aside however, it’s brilliant entertainment.
4/5 
Catriona Ruth Paterson
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