Ven - tril - O - quist!

June 22, 2011

Tonight we went to see Sandi Sylver, storyteller, ventriloquist, and songstress, for “A Whirl Around the World” at the South Valleys Library. Sandi had a pretty big audience of kids and adults. She is from Chicago and travels to different places, mainly libraries, to perform with her puppets. Sandi started the show with an audience-participation story about a tailor in Poland who made himself a long, beautiful coat with his most favorite fabric. Over time the coat wore out and “just as he was about to throw it on the rag pile, he had an idea.” He put the coat on the table and “he measured and he cut and he sewed (repeat 3 times)” until he made himself a jacket. This went on for several rounds...jacket to vest, vest to tie, tie to button cover, then the button cover got lost so he created this story, which lasts forever.

Next she played guitar and sang a song about an alien that came to visit and she sang part of the song in alien-speak which made the kids laugh hysterically. She promised it would be the craziest song we’d ever heard, and she definitely kept her promise.

After she taught the kids the word ventriloquist -- “ven - tril - O - quist” (repeat 3 times), she then, one-by-one, introduced us to her four puppets and each of them told a story.  There was a crocodile puppet, a book puppet, the teenage puppet with the New York accent, and Toodles (the only name I can remember). The kids enjoyed it and all got to meet Toodles and take their picture with her and Sandi after the show.

 After the library, we had dinner at Heidi’s, dessert at Yogurt Beach, and then it was time to call it an evening.

Until our next adventure . . .