Talent Overview

About Joe Gandelman Comic Ventriloquist & Friends

Comic ventriloquist Joe Gandelman and his big cast of dummy and puppet characters have done thousands of shows for all ages all over the country. He has opened for national music groups, entertained on Navy ships, appeared in stage variety shows and performed at Camp Pendleton before former President Ronald Reagan. Joe and his dummy, John Raven, appeared on NBC's hidden camera show "SPY TV." He also taught comedian Margaret Cho how to do ventriloquism in a segment on her VH1 reality show. He does many fairs, festivals, corporate shows, schools, camps, scout events, malls plus adult and kids private parties and civic group shows. He does stage shows and also zany "walk around" ventriloquism.

Biography:

(NOTE ON ABOVE DEMO: The demo here shows a few bits from Joe's family shows where there are kids or kids and adults in the audience. Adult audience shows are NOT completely the same since all shows are geared for EACH specific audience mix. Kid and teen shows are adjusted for each age group. The SPY TV bit was a special TV stunt.)

Joe Gandelman went fulltime in 1990 at the encouragement of legendary ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson and now he performs for all ages all over the country. In the summer of 2008 he did his show for 8 fairs in 7 weeks in three states and has some fairs already booked for summer 2009 in New Mexico and Idaho. He always liked show business but has noted: "I got sidetracked for several decades..."

He spent nearly 20 years in the newspaper business before he decided to dash it all and become a full-time ventriloquist. Gandelman tried ventriloquism as a child in Connecticut. He studied classic comedians such as Lou Costello, Jackie Gleason, Jack Benny and others, watching and rewatching them, and analyzing their humor and timing. He has been fascinated with comedy and continues to study DVDs of Larry David, Benny Hill, Bill Murray. Jerry Seinfeld and other comedians and comic actors.

He attended Colgate University where final semester senior year he interned as a reporter on The Hindustan Times in New Delhi, India. After getting his B.A. from Colgate he got his Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and began a newspaper career that included freelance work in India, Spain, Cypress and Bangladesh. He wrote for papers such as the Chicago Daily News, contributed to Newsweek and National Public Radio and was the Christian Science Monitor's Madrid Special Correspondent.

He returned to home to become a staff writer on the Wichita Eagle-Beacon and, later, the San Diego Union. In the 1980s, he did ventriloquism again to relieve stress -- perfecting his technique by carefully studying and constantly practicing a mail-order ventriloquism course's materials.

He eventually settled on a quick-witted character he named "John Raven," and used authentic, hand-carved $2,000 wooden dummy created by Chuck Jackson. Raven is a living cartoon with wiggling ears, a stick out tongue and other features.

Gandelman went full-time due to the encouragement of Nelson, star of the classic 1950s-1960s Nestles commercials and early TV variety shows (Gleason, Berle and Ed Sullivan). In November 1990 he left his job as a San Diego Union staff newspaper reporter to do ventriloquism full-time. He had few bookings lined up and received little help from agents. To fine-tune his performances, he had private sessions and studied with Hollywood comedy coach Greg Dean.

Gandelman has since become a highly booked and rebooked family entertainer. He opened for national musical groups, performed at Camp Pendleton before a speech by former Pres. Ronald Reagan and was seen on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. He has performed in countless venues before audiences of all age groups from coast-to-coast -- in living rooms, on big stages, and even in a pig barn arena in Texas.

He and his wooden dummies and cartoon-like latex puppets have also appeared in family variety shows at California big stage venues such as San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, San Jose's Civic Auditorium, Oakland's Paramount Theater, and the Anaheim Convention Center.

His act features comedy, music and lots of audience interaction. Gandelman has a large cast of state-of-the-art wooden and "soft" figures. Some shows contain as many as 11 different segments. Many of the "soft" puppets are by Steve Axtell -- including an elephant who squirts kids in the front row, a dragon who has fire come out of his nose and a drawing board that comes alive. At the end of every adult show Gandelman becomes a comedian, doing some topical standup and customized comedy material without his characters.

A highlight of all shows (kids, family and adult): he gets five volunteers from the audience who put on wigs and "throws" his voice into them as they lip sync a moldy oldie...

His school assemblies at all grade levels have been acclaimed for their "Learning Through Laughter" technique that uses laughs to communicate and help students retain serious information on themes such as anti-drug, anti-tobacco, character, respect, no teasing/no bullying, diversity and pro-reading. Besides his set themes, Gandelman routinely customizes school programs with themes or key concepts of their choice -- at no additional cost. He has performed his school assemblies all over the country. One consistent comment: teachers enjoy the assemblies as much as the students.

In October 2008, he appeared on a segment of comedian Margaret Cho's VH1 reality show, "The Cho Show" in which he was seen visiting her house and teaching her ventriloquism, which she later used in the episode in a talent show. (The segment showed about two minutes of Joe but Cho was having fun and the lesson ran some 30 minutes...)

Adult corporate show clients are given a basic customization form so Joe can add some inside jokes. Puppets include the wisecracking dummy Raven, a genie head in a box, three dogs, a drawing board that comes alive, a crying baby -- and many MORE.

Meanwhile, he has another identity -- as a writer on the Internet. In 2003 he started a centrist blog The Moderate Voice, which has grew into one of the Internet's leading moderate group political weblogs. The award-winning TMV's posts appeared on Newsweek's website during campaign 2008.

Joe Gandelman has also appeared on MSNBC and CNN as a "talking head" in segments in his incarnation as a serious centrist blogger and former journalist. He is available as a motivational and political speaker as well as an entertainer.

His most recent out-of-state event was a rebooking in early March at BorderFest, an award winning four day festival in Hidalgo, Texas. His summer-fall 2009 bookings include shows at fairs in New Mexico, Arizona and Idaho. (CHECK CALENDER WHICH IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING UPDATED. Once it is completed, it will be updated constantly).

More Information:

Gig Salad Address: GigSalad.com/joegandelman

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Joe Gandelman Comic Ventriloquist & Friends is listed in the following categories:

Ventriloquist in San Diego

Branson Style Entertainment in San Diego

Cabaret Entertainment in San Diego

Children's Party Entertainment in San Diego

Comedian in San Diego

Comedy Show in San Diego

Corporate Comedian in San Diego

Educational Entertainment in San Diego

Emcee in San Diego

Holiday Entertainment in San Diego

Interactive Performer in San Diego

Jewish Entertainment in San Diego

Motivational Speaker in San Diego

Political Speaker in San Diego

Puppet Show in San Diego

Theme Party in San Diego

Variety Entertainer in San Diego

Variety Show in San Diego

Voice Actor in San Diego