Emma McAlpine talks to top comedy ventriloquist Nina Conti about new characters, puppet festivals and her most cringe-worthy gig, ahead of her Edinburgh 2010 show.
"Oh my god there's a cat wandering round with a dying bird in its mouth. It’s still fluttering – urgh!" I'm talking to Nina Conti on the phone so fortunately can’t see the bird murder in question but it’s always nice to hear what’s going on at the other end of the line.
Conti is one of the best ventriloquist acts in the UK and the only female one on the comedy circuit. Every time I’ve seen her perform with ‘Monkey’ (her cynical Monkey puppet), she’s brought the house down, mocking the schizophrenia of her act and cleverly swapping their voices around to hilarious and startling effect. Recently she shared a bill with Lembit Opik who tried to recreate her talents using his own shoe, with rather embarrassing results.
“Do you think he’s got a future in ventriloquism?” I have to ask.
“Perhaps not ventriloquism but he’s definitely a good raconteur! I’ve asked him to be a guest on my show in Edinburgh actually.” As well as special guests, Conti’s 2010 show will be full of new characters with large sections improvised. When her mentor (theatre legend Ken Campbell) died last year, he left her all his puppets which she then took to Vent Haven Convention – the world’s largest ventriloquism gathering in America. There she got talking to the ‘other vents’ and realised she could explore her stagecraft even more:
“I went last year to make a film about it and completely fell in love with it again. I ended up getting into a discussion about improv with someone and realised there was so much more to just doing a learned set. The other vents are so encouraging and friendly, they’re like family!”
Helped by Bill Dare, a BBC producer and former member of the Spitting Image team, she started practising audience banter with her new puppets: “Bill had the notion of making me a chat show host with these puppets so he came to gigs to make sure I would talk to the audience. It took so much guts but it also took him being there to force me to do it. It’s terrifying but then it actually turns out you get more laughs that way.”
The daughter of actor Tom Conti, she also followed his lead into acting, spending two years at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2000-2001. On the theatre circuit, she met Ken Campbell who convinced her to star in his one-man ventriloquist farce Let Me Out:
“Ken was writing a one-man show for the National at the time and gave out ‘teach yourself ventriloquism’ tips to about 50 actors with the intention to kick-start the genre. I don’t know how many are still going but it really stuck with me. It took about four months doing a couple of hours a day. I set up a camera on a tripod and would talk to it. There’s so much vintage footage of me having weird conversations with myself! It’s funny looking back on those tapes and thinking ‘God – that girl actually managed to make a career out of it!’”
Conti took the play to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2001 but it was some time before she had the courage to perform her own material on the comedy circuit: “I was quite insecure about writing in the beginning so I just did the play that Ken wrote for me but I knew I was hiding a bit. Ventriloquism should be done as stand-up.” In January 2002, Arthur Smith encouraged her to enter the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Awards: “It was my first gig and night I was petrified. I did a five minute set and came second!” That year Conti went on to win several competitions, including the BBC New Comedy Awards which launched her into the limelight. As well as being a regular circuit headliner, she has had several sell-out seasons in Edinburgh since then and won a BARRY Award at the 2008 Melbourne Festival.
I ask her if she’s ever had a bad gig, as I’ve never been witness to one. “Once I was booked for a private dinner party for about 11 people. I was under the impression it would be a big party with a show in it but there were no lights, ceremony or professionalism. I hated it!”
Unlike the brilliant Armando Iannucci pilot One Free Hand she starred in, where she plays herself and Monkey, stuck in an awkward date, she has never used ventriloquism outside of her routine. “At Vent Haven I had the puppets with me but it’s probably the only place in the world where you can walk around with one! And I often get people who come up to me after the gig and ask to meet Monkey. I can’t say no, so I get him out and he says ‘Hello, nice to meet you etc’ and I think ‘God this is weird!’”
Conti will be performing her new show Talk to the Hand in the Edinburgh Pleasance Dome from 6th-30th August. I ask her if she still enjoys performing there.
“I love Edinburgh it’s like getting in the pool, once you’re in, it’s fine.”
Nina Conti: Talk to the Hand will be at the Pleasance Dome from 6th-30th August at 8:30pm
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