Comedy: Paul Zerdin – Puppet Master

YouTube phenomenon, chatted with the Queen, sold out Edinburgh show – ventriloquist Zerdin has it all

When did you first realise you wanted to use ventriloquism as your medium?
“I don’t think I ever realised it, I just fell into it. When I left school I was doing magic and I’d been given a book on how to be a ventriloquist. I’d been interested in it but I’d never thought of it as a career choice.
I was trying to get an agent and the only person that was interested in me was this lady called Jenny and she said ‘I love what you do but I’ve got loads of people that do magic, you need something that’s different, what can you do that’s different?’. I said, ‘Well, I’ve got this ventriloquist act that I’m working on’, and she said, ‘well, carry on working on it and when it’s ready come back and see me’. And so that kind of decided it really for me in a way. I had quite a bit of success early on and I got a bit of telly when I’d just started literally doing the ventriloquist act, and so then I became a kids’ presenter for a couple of years doing ventriloquism and presenting. I thought I might as well carry on doing this really and see where it takes me.”

Ventriloquists seem to get quiet a bit of prejudice against them.
Why do you think that is?
“I think it’s because people think they’re weird, and I suppose there is something a bit weird about it. I think people have seen those films – ventriloquists have been depicted as a bit mental, as you know, murdering psychopaths, and I don’t think that particularly helps the image, if I’m completely honest!”

What’s the oddest reaction you’ve had from an audience member to just the idea of ventriloquism?
“I was in Denmark doing a TV chat show and I’d been over there and guested for it five times now, and I remember I’d taken the puppet out in one of the shows and the woman just screamed. Absolutely screaming, as if it was some sort of devil doll and she’d never seen anything like it before and it was just a little cheeky looking muppet really. I wouldn’t say it was particularly frightening, maybe if you’re a four year old then you might be frightened, but this was a grown woman and it was just funny, she was just screaming.”

What do you plan to do next?
“I’m doing a pilot for a sitcom. It’s my own show, which I’m recording in September. I’m doing a festival in South Africa and then I start my autumn tour. It’s kind of like Seinfeld meets The Muppets, so it’s a show based around a world that’s all about learning really, me and the characters at home and what you’d see if I was mad.”

Paul Zerdin – Puppet Master, Pavilion Theatre, Worthing, Thursday 9 August, 7.45pm, £15/13.50, www.worthingtheatres.co.uk