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Ventriloquists
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JAY JOHNSON
Ventriloquist
Jay Johnson got side-tracked on his way up the corporate ladder. If not for a little wooden friend of his, Johnson would probably be a successful securities dealer like his father and brother.
That was the idea when Jay Johnson was growing up, and even after he got his degree in Marketing from North Texas University. It was the family degree. His father, his uncle, his aunt, his brother and his sister all received BBA's in Marketing. Jay Johnson was raised to be a business man, but he was born to be a ventriloquist. What was a loss to the investment banking world was a gain to audiences everywhere.
The myth that ventriloquists are possessed with a dual personality could be true about Jay Johnson. He has the rare ability to combine entertainment with a business sense. He sees his audience as the cus-tomer and his act as the product, and he adapts the product to meet the needs of the market. He never fails to make a sale, and has one of the highest laughter quotas in the field. He knows why they call it "Show Business". Johnson understands business and the business man's audience.
Johnson's interest in the unusual art form of ventriloquism started at the age of five. His mother discovered him talking on a disconnected telephone. She was shocked to find that there was a distant voice coming from the receiver. She was the first person fooled by what was Jay's natural talent for ventriloquism.
Jay Johnson was encouraged by his family to perfect his talents, and as school became a problem for him, his special abilities be-came even more important. Not until college did he learn he was dyslexic. By the age of 11 Johnson had an act, and after borrowing a cousin's Jerry Mahoney doll, performed his first professional engagement.
While at Richardson High School Jay Johnson began writing and performing television commercials for a local car dealership with his precocious wooden partner. The success of the commercials led the car dealership to sponsor a local television show starring Jay Johnson and his stable of puppet characters.
After years of entertaining for theme parks and dinner theaters around the country Jay Johnson and his wife moved to California to try for careers in television. Johnson began working at a showcase club called the "Horn" in Santa Monica known for giving performers a place to be seen by agents and producers. This was the time of the daily variety talk show on television. People like Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore, John Davidson, Jim Nabors and Merv Griffin all had daily talk shows. Jay Johnson became a regular guest on all of these shows, and one year made more than 30 television guest appearances while still performing nightly at the "Horn.
One night at the Horn he was seen by ABC television casting and hired to play the part of Chuck and Bob Campbell (the dual role of a crazy ventriloquist) on the controversial show "Soap". The part gained him national fame not only as a ventriloquist but also as an actor.
Jay Johnson has toured the country performing and is an entertaining favorite in Miami, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno and Lake Tahoe. He has shared the stage with: Julie Andrews, Harry Anderson, Tony Bennett, Andy Griffith, Jay Leno, David Letterman, The Pointer Sisters, Larry Gatlin, Neil Sadaka, Melissa Manchester, Anne Murray, The Osmonds, Dick Clark, Juliet Prowse, Leo Sayer, Suzanne Sommers, Tommy Smothers and Gary Shandling.
Although known mostly for his television performances on "Soap", Jay Johnson has been in-volved in other television shows as well. Johnson has been the guest star on many situation comedies both as a ventriloquist and guest actor. Jay Johnson has produced and written several network and cable variety shows; hosted two syndicated television series as well as a five year series of comedy specials for a hardware company.
Currently Jay Johnson is a regular guest on the "Tonight Show" and has finished a limited series for Cannell Films and CBS. Johnson is developing and writing two series and a movie of the week, as well as his dream project of producing a "one man" ventriloquial stage show.
Jay Johnson can be seen in the company of some of his other unique characters besides the precocious Bob. They include: Darwin (The Jazz monkey), Amigo (the South American Boa-constrictor), Phil ODendren (A talking house plant), Gonzales (a talk-ing Guitar), Mickey (a talking wristwatch). Zingo (a man with a digital computer for a brain.., he is very stupid) Grampa Geezer (a home spun red neck), Nethernore (a vulture) Log Chainey (a psychopathic wooden killer), Long John La Feat (a decapitated pirate), Von Pork (a devilish razorback pig) and many others both seen, not seen and those currently on the drawing board.
Jay Johnson is considered to be technically one of the best ventriloquists ever. The illusion of life that he creates on stage has to be seen live to be believed.
However, he is much more than just an inventive ventriloquist, comedian, performing artist, writer and producer. Jay Johnson is a very good salesman, and his product is imagination.
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