Nina Conti Says That Working With Puppets In Her Comedy Makes Her Feel Safe

UK comic Nina Conti is carrying the torch for comedic puppetry. The performer has spent nearly two decades sharing her stage with dummies, but admits the practice often slips her mind at this point.

“I like that there is some sort of ancient practice to it, and that it has this incredible history, but to be honest I don’t really think about the fact that I am actually doing ventriloquism anymore,” she says. “That’s the first thing I learnt back in 2000 or whenever when I first started learning those skills. It took me a fair while to learn that disconnection, but ever since then I haven’t really thought about it.” 

Working with puppets has, strangely enough, allowed her to show her real self. 

“I feel it really gives me, as a performer, a sense of dimension, you know? It’s all the stuff I actually do my best to hide otherwise, but it’s also all the interesting parts of me,” she laughs. “I think I was quite locked in to who I was. Especially as an actor, I was going for roles just hoping someone would think I was good but feeling like I wasn’t being able to show it in the auditions. As soon as I started the puppetry and the ventriloquism I realised it could really help me [to] show myself more, in a weird way. It was just the right time for me. It really was. And I found it by accident, really. 

"And through it all, I learnt how to write as well. I always thought writing was just for, you know, writers. But as soon as I started making up jokes through the puppets I realised, ‘Oh, this is writing. This is how it’s just going to happen for me.’”

With a tour of Australia on the horizon, Conti says that there’s actually very little she can do to prepare. “It’s not really a ‘preparable’ form because so much of it happens in the room, so prep is really quite easy,” she says. “There’s not much to it – I just have to fix some masks and paint some things. But mentally I can’t prepare for it.”

She acknowledges that what she does wouldn’t necessarily be understood as ‘improv’. “It seems funny to call it ‘improvising’ because it’s not what people might traditionally think of as improv. It’s just going in, meeting people from the audience, and basically just narrating whatever the hell is going on.

“Everything I do in a show, more or less, just reduces to the one person I’m on stage with, and so the great thing is that it doesn’t really matter what country I’m in. It’s all just down to that one moment, and that’s different every time no matter where I am. It really doesn’t change much, if at all, if I go somewhere else. It is refreshing though! Just being somewhere else is energising and exciting, so I guess that might inform it a bit.”

While some may see ventriloquism as a more difficult and isolating form of comedy, Conti reckons the “company” has plenty of merits. “I think there is a safety in what I do and how I do comedy. I’ve spent so long crafting it now and it’s at a point where on stage or off I know it’s going to be ok. I think it has something to do with not being alone – that really helps. It might be with a little stuffed monkey, but you’re not alone,” she laughs. 

“There are so many ingredients and components to being on stage that there are just constant possibilities to get a laugh. It’s a very straightforward form of comedy, so in that way it does feel quite safe to me. It’s a high-wire [form], certainly, but once I get through the nerves and everything it feels safe.”

"It might be with a little stuffed monkey, but you’re not alone."

Conti’s trusty simian sidekick, Monk, has been with her since early in her career. But she assures fans that while she’s tried some other puppets over the years, Monk isn’t going anywhere. “There’s something about him as the vehicle, you know? His little face doesn’t change. He’s only got one expression but it’s a very useful one; it’s very deadpan and easy to project things like sadness or anger onto. But there’s nothing there! He’s literally emotionless, but that’s the perfect canvas for people to bring whatever they want into the situation.

“I’ve had a lot of other puppets, and he actually wasn’t bespoke or handmade for me or anything like that. He’s just an old guy from the ‘90s. I’ve had a lot of others; I’ve gone about crafting my own... I even had a Trump one for a little while, but I got rid of him almost immediately. It just felt wrong.

“It’s difficult to find a puppet that feels like it wants to say something. It’s quite rare for me, really, to have a puppet and immediately know what it wants to say, but I did with Monk. After so much investment, you begin to believe that he’s a thing that exists. He’s got this solidity and validity to him, and so it wasn’t really ever a decision to stick with him. It just felt natural.”