VENKATESHAKA

He is a man who has developed a unique art of talking with the monkey.

P Venkateshaka who is more popularly called Venky is a ventriloquist who talks with the help of belly with doll monkey. For him, it was George Bernard Shaw who decided the career.

Before practicising ventriloquism, Venky was into mimicry for sometime. But he wanted to do something different and that made him to venture into ventriloquism under the able guidance of M.M.Roy a noted ventriloquist, who was his guru.

The monkey is now more famous than Venky. Venky began is career with a doll, but soon after realized that almost everyone was using a doll. That is when he decided to use a monkey. He was motivated on a perception that people will remember anything that comes out of a monkey’s mouth.

Venky’s shows are devoid of political satire. His shows have a social message like AIDS awareness for adults. For children, it is more educational, like educating them on how to obey traffic rules.

Venky has performed various shows at US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia and Muscat. The adept artist is now coming up with a concept Ican, which is a mixture of ventriloquism, shadow playing, mimicry and miming. It is basically a motivational programme and the concept is still under production.

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