Jay Johnson and his 'wooden Americans' bring new vigor to a nostalgic art form
The Dallas Morning News
Jay Johnson and his ‘wooden Americans’ bring new vigor to a nostalgic art form
by Michael Granberry
mgranberry@dallasnews.com
As a shy, dyslexic kid growing up in Abernathy, Texas, Jay Johnson had trouble fitting in. He didn’t like sports and was hardly the most outgoing kid in the vast, lonely expanse of West Texas.
So at age 6, when he found a broken Jerry Mahoney doll in his cousin’s closet and proved he could make it talk, it didn’t take long to figure out he had also found a career.
Now 57, Mr. Johnson is the star of The Two and Only!, his Broadway tour de force that earlier this year won a Tony Award. It opened Tuesday night at the Majestic Theatre.
It’s tempting to say it’s a one-person show, but that feels so wrong and so utterly unfair to the puppets that steal more than their share of moments during a 95-minute adventure. Who knew that even a disembodied wooden head (Long John La Feat) could draw belly laughs from humans?
What Mr. Johnson takes you on is nothing less than a spiritual journey. Surrounded by trunks and boxes, out of which appear his alter egos, he also indulges you in a Discovery Channel-like odyssey about the bizarre history of ventriloquism itself.
It’s an art form that means everything to this man, who moved to the Dallas area when he was 16 and who graduated from Richardson High School.
Ventriloquism even got him into trouble during his college years at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). There, he was confronted by representatives of the Campus Crusade for Christ, who told him to stop doing ventriloquism – or he would go to hell.
Thank goodness Mr. Johnson didn’t listen. Ventriloquism carried him to a regular role on the sitcom Soap during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It’s wild, years later, to watch him dazzle a crowd with the back-and-forth pingpong match between ventriloquist and “dummy” – a term he abhors, by the way. He prefers the politically correct “wooden Americans.”
Like fellow ventriloquist Terry Fator, Mr. Johnson can sing without moving his lips.
But more than anything, he’s a gifted storyteller capable of carrying a Broadway show alone (sorry, puppets). The most moving part of the evening is a story that unfolds like a singer’s heartbreak ballad. It’s about meeting Arthur Sieving, a ventriloquist 60 years his senior who became his mentor and friend. Mr. Sieving was a master carver of puppets and agreed to carve one more after his retirement – Squeaky, who became the centerpiece of Mr. Johnson’s act.
It would be heresy in a review to say what happened to Mr. Sieving and the role he played in Mr. Johnson’s life, even after their last meeting. That alone is reason enough to see The Two and Only!
Jay Johnson: The Two and Only! runs through Sunday at the Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St. Performances at 8 tonight, Thursday and Friday, and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $17 to $65. 214-631-2787, Ticketmaster.com.
The Two and Only is one-of-a-kind fun!
The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
‘The Two and Only’ is one-of-a-kind fun
by Mark Lowry
mlowry@star-telegram.comDALLAS — In this age of countless forms of electronic entertainment, Jay Johnson’s one-man, multidummy show The Two and Only! isn’t likely to persuade any youngsters to carry on the craft he has been doing for so long: ventriloquism. (Probably not even fellow ventriloquist Terry Fator, who reached millions more than Johnson has thanks to the reality show America’s Got Talent, can accomplish the feat of popularizing an antiquated art.)
But in exploring ventriloquism’s history and telling his own, with the help of several very animated friends, Johnson does convince us that the talent is rare and special. The show almost feels like his own way of convincing himself that he’s not crazy, as some have concluded about practitioners of this craft.
Johnson’s show, which won a Tony Award this year and is directed by Murphy Cross and Paul Kreppel, played its first of eight performances at Dallas’ Majestic Theatre on Tuesday. Big D kicks off its national tour, fitting for a West Texas guy who went to the University of North Texas and spent many years performing here.
On a striking set (by Beowulf Boritt) of stacked trunks, suitcases and baskets on the horizontal and a swooped-up vertical floor, Johnson spends time with several of his pals, including a tennis ball named Spaulding, a loud, wiry monkey named Darwin, Nethernore the vulture, Amigo the snake and the disembodied head of Long John La Feat. Their voices are thrown by Johnson, some with superfast repartee between human and creation, and each is amazing.
His most special “wooden Americans” are his first major dummy, Squeaky, handcrafted by ventriloquism legend Arthur Sieving, and Bob, who was his puppet when he played a ventriloquist in the TV series Soap. Squeaky’s response when Johnson tells him that he wasn’t cast in Soap because he’s too sweet-looking is one of the show’s many priceless moments.
Johnson gets that misty-eyed, shaky voice when speaking nostalgically of Sieving, and in these segments the show almost becomes overly sentimental. But at the same time, it’s a sweet love letter to the art form. And by the end of The Two and Only!, we are convinced that what Johnson does is exactly that.
Jay Johnson: The Two and Only!8 p.m. through Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and SundayMajestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St., Dallas$15-$67817-467-2787 or 214-631-2787www.dallassummermusicals.org
Be advised: Some strong languageRun time: One hour, 35 minutes with no intermissionBest reason to go: The one and only Johnson
Jay Johnson wins Tony Award for "Best Theatrical Experience"
6/10/2007 11:28am CST
YouTube.com
Jay Johnson wins Tony Award for “Best Theatrical Experience”
Here is the footage of the acceptance speech for Jay Johnson. The award is presented by comedian Eddie Izzard.
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