Pink Dog

Nina Conti: ace ventriloquist

It is now a few years since I first stumbled across Nina Conti’s ventriloquism act on Radio 4. Even though I know that ventriloquism has a long history of entertaining on the radio, I still find the idea of such a thing working baffling – and surprisingly entertaining when I discarded my bafflement and gave the performer a chance.

As is often the way with performers who have success, she seems to have mostly migrated from radio to TV. Good for her, but a little bit of me misses the bizarre past of doing ventriloquism on the radio.

Here’s some of her brilliance to enjoy. Close your eyes to recreate the radio experience, sort-of.

The radio show I heard was a pilot. Alas, I don’t think the show ever got a full commission.

2 responses to “Nina Conti: ace ventriloquist”

  1. I remember hearing that radio show too – bonkers and brilliant. Then a year or two ago I saw her live at Latitude. I laughed so hard I thought I’d die. Absolutely top class. Thanks for the reminder!

  2. Actually, my favourite part (though what she does with her live puppets is cruelly wonderful) was when she brought out Monkey and “they” decided to do a song:
    “Do we have to?”
    “Yes, Monkey, we do.”
    “Oh, all right.”
    “What’s the song called, Monkey?”
    “It’s called, ‘When You Play Guitar, It Hurts My Mouth’.”

    Poor old Monkey.

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