Lots of laughs at ventriloquist show

A crowd of fair-goers roared with laughter on Wednesday night as ventriloquist Greg Claassen poked fun at everything from audience footwear to local law enforcement.

Claassen, who's touring Nebraska this summer on the fair circuit, grew up on a farm outside Wichita and was involved in 4-H himself as a kid. His introduction to ventriloquism occurred at a national pork producer's convention when he was in junior high school. A performer at the convention drew customers into his booth with his act.

"I saw the ventriloquist and that's all I did for the rest of the convention," Claassen said.

After that, Claassen was determined. He taught himself ventriloquism through a correspondence course using a plastic dummy purchased from the Sears catalogue. He performed his first show at a high school talent assembly with his first dummy christened Luther Martin.

"I picked on the school principal and the kids loved it, of course," Claassen said.

Going forward, Claassen performed at nursing homes and birthday parties. He worked his way through college at Kansas State University performing shows on the side while attaining his degree in agricultural economics. He went on to win a national talent competition sponsored by Bob Hope. After performing for a summer, Claassen decided it was time to return to farming.

"I thought I was going to farm the rest of my life," he said.

Claassen continued to perform shows on the side while working in agriculture. In the late 1980s he was featured in national farm magazine, which re-launched his career. He began doing shows all across the country and decided to give the business a chance. He's been working as a full-time performer ever since.

Out of all the groups for which Claassen does his act, he enjoys the agriculture and rural crowds the most.

"I really get tremendous enjoyment just meeting the people, I mean that's what keeps me going is the the people and the friendliness," he said.

Claassen loves performing, but doesn't enjoy the travel. He estimates that he's on the road 200 days a year. Performing the shows makes up for the travel, in Classeen's opinion.

"Probably more so even than the money is the gratification you get from making people laugh and enjoying themselves, taking them away from their cares for just a little bit and just having a fun time," Claassen said.

He learned early on that there's a certain kind of freedom in ventriloquism.

"What's interesting to me is, my characters, my little friends can say things that I would never say, and get away with it, and people take it in the good spirit that it's intended," Claassen said.

The performer gets inspiration for his material from many sources, the best of which comes from conversations with audience members after the show.

"Just being up in front of a crowd you have an opportunity to ad-lib, you find out what works, what doesn't work," Claassen said.

Claassen usually uses about two or three characters in his act, but has a collection of about 30 dummies in all, including some vintage pieces dating back to the early 1800s that he restored.

Travel for a ventriloquist comes with its own set of issues. Claassen always packs one dummy in his carry-on luggage. About once a year he arrives at his destination without his bags, inside which are his dummies.

Although he performs for mostly agriculture companies at corporate events, Claassen has no plans to return to farming.

"None of this feels like work to me, not a job," he said.

Claassen has known the famous ventriloquist, Jeff Dunham since they were both teenagers and credits Dunham with mainstreaming the art.

When Claassen isn't working, he likes to stay at home.

"That's always a point of contention with my wife because she wants to travel, I want to stay home," he said.

He enjoys working outside and building dummies in his free time.