A very draining week.

I have been spending most of my time with my father. He lost his soul mate and he is lost now himself. They say grieving is something that takes time. I want to make sure he knows someone cares about him so this month, I won't be working in my shop. I have several projects I will finish up. One is a stage figure for Trenon, another is a stage head for Actor/magician/ventriloquist Dean Atkinson of Australia and a figure I am working on for Dan Willinger, the creator of http://www.ventriloquistcentral.com/

I have alot of conversion figures that are ready so i will be selling them on ebay, but most of my time will be spent with my family. It is sobering moments, like the loss of a loved one, that makes you realize how precious little time we have on this earth. Thank you all who have contacted me with your prayers. They mean alot to us. My father, my wife and myself all thank you. It is wonderful to know that we have been blessed with good friends. Attached are some pictures of the stage figure heads I am working on. The one with the big ears is for Dean, the one in the middle is for Dan, the one on the end is the resukts of my first casting. As i said in earlier blogs, I prefer to do each one by hand and not continually make the same figure. Thanks again. Please keep in touch. You can email me at gepettosworkshop@yahoo.com

Grieving

My apologies for not adding to my blog these past two weeks. My stepmother passed last Saturday and I have been spending all my time with my father who is grieving and having a hard time of it. I ask that all of you who believe in God, in whatever name or form, say a prayer for him and his wife when you have time. To help her cross over and to help my father recover from his loss. Thank you sincerely.

TOO BUSY!!!!!!

I took a few days off from the newspaper to catch up in my shop. (work for work!)

I got alot done but not as much as I wanted to. I think I saw daylight about 6 hours in the last 5 days!

I am finishing up some more orders and in between, I am making several stage figures. I have never made a casting. I always take a wooden hat rack head, cover it with tinfoil or saran wrap and make the initial head shape. After it dries, I start sculpting the face onto it.

I then cut the mouth, eyes and back of the head out so I can start assembling the inards.

It is a slow process. One of the reasons I don't make alot of them. I have started to sculpt out three faces which I can alter (my specialty) so I can cast them and make building them alot faster. Hey, everyone does it now. So much for uniqueness. Thats why i want to make them stck faces so I can do my magic and make them all unique.

Heres a couple of pictures of the slow process, and Mrs. Gepetto sculpting out a pixie.

Great Turnout!

I want to thank everyone who sent in their fears of performing in front of an audience. I have posted several of them for everyone to enjoy. We can all relate to these can't we!

Trenon's reply. "Once I was afraid when I did a church vent service of 200 or more people, but once I landed my first line, It was great!!!!!!

Rebecca's reply. " My first audience was a group of students. I was doing an anti-drug routine in front of some "tweens" which is usually a very volatile age. They got right into it and made me feel comfortable and it turned out great!"

Lisa's reply. " I was doing my first birthday party and my figure was a clown. I had him laughing so hard that I pushed a little too far on the head post and his head fell out!

I panicked! But when I looked around, everyone was laughing hysterically and I just made it look like part of the act and said "Look! He laughed himself to pieces!" At the end of the show, the parents were all telling me what a great act it was, especially when the head fell off!" (:

Larry's reply. "I was really nervous in front of my class. It was the first time I did it in front of a group. After they heard the first couple of jokes and they all laughed, I felt better and got a big round of applause when I finished."

Mark's reply. " Hi Steve, you know as well as I do that the feeling never really leaves you. The butterflies are always there when you get there and work themselves out after you get them warmed up. My biggest fear has always been, and always will be not being able to warm them up!"

So there you have it Charlie, No one can really say that they have never been afraid. Some ventriloquists who have been performing for years still get scared. I have a secret for you that might help. The next time you go out to perform in front of people and you feel scared, look for the biggest smile in the audience and concentrate on that one person while your doing your act. It makes the group feel smaller. and the biggest smiler is always the biggest laugher too! There's nothing like a good belly laugh at your jokes to give you the confidence you need to help you get through your act successfully!