My rock and roll heroes, what are you doing here?
Yeah, we're calling out of your record player to help you.
In the break, y'all! In the break!
So, Carla, what is this all about?
I never ask you much about yourself, because I don't really care.
Yeah, alright, but I'm curious, what got you started in Zentriloquism?
Oh, it's Carla Rose!
Well, I turn on the TV and I saw this woman named Sherry Lewis.
They let ladies on TV.
Yes, they did. Did she wear trousers?
She had a little puppet named Lambchop,
and I was nine years old and I was mesmerized by Sherry Lewis and Lambchop.
She ended up becoming a mentor.
Dreadful, I feel dead for you.
Cecil, you know, without Sherry, you wouldn't even be here.
Sherry was my everything. She's the reason why I became a ventriloquist.
There's a yearly ventriloquist convention in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.
I go to my friend's table who has a lot of memorabilia and stuff.
I see a red ear sticking out from underneath the table.
I go, what's that?
And he's like, oh, it's this really horrible old dummy that no one wants.
And I go, oh my god, I got to see it!
He pulls it out.
It's Cecil.
Cecil is actually an antique puppet from England in the 1920s.
I do kind of believe when an object is old and antique, it's kind of like having a very old Gibson guitar.
I have certain guitars that I feel like I can write better music on.
Cecil is an instrument and I just think he's got kind of this magic about him.
I do have the typical ventriloquist thing with Cecil that sometimes if the crowd is good, stuff comes out of Cecil.
I have no idea where it's coming from.
Hello, anyways.
Well, I'm Karla Rhodes. I came to New York City to be an artist and make it big.
Great. Well, you know, I don't want to be a legend.
But the only thing that's gonna make it big is your waistline, you know?
Being a ventriloquist is a double-edged sword because I think it turns a lot of people off,
but it also makes people go, oh, that's like really different.
But then what do you do with it?
What's the audience for a ventriloquism in 2014?
For example, once my picture was in New York Magazine for the top ten comedians to watch,
I didn't get one call from that.
And everybody in that article now has done something very big.
When you do something different, you just get so many rejections,
but something inside of me just won't let me quit.
I won't let her quit. I said if she quits, I'll...
Well, because this is a tribute to outside artists and of ventriloquists,
it would be appropriate to have one of those people on the stage as part of this.
So I'd like to introduce Ms Carla Rhodes.
Yes, my pants are falling down. Can you pull my pants off?
Thank you. They're actually unzipped.
Very nice. Very nice.
Carla, I thought since we're at a public place and we're getting personal,
that it would be time for you to admit that you're a leased down.
You're a leased down. Why don't you admit that you're a leased down?
You are a leased down. Leased down, leased down, leased down, leased down, leased down, leased down.
Sherry said that I had a real fire in my belly for show business.
I've always remembered that because no matter what happens, no matter what ups and downs
of the business, something just won't let me quit.
You know, I was so glad that you were doing this, and I thought when I come to Britain,
when I do this talk in Britain, I need to find people in the towns that I'm talking
about who sort of do strange, marginal things, and do you mind me saying that what you do
is strange?
It's very strange.
I struggle with it because I've been doing it.
My biggest goal, immediate goal, is a web series around Cecil because the audience can
find them on the internet and go from there.
I think no matter what happens with me in my life, that I will always be doing something
artistic.
I have never been able to explain why I wanted to be a ventriloquist.
I think maybe my purpose as an artist is to do something new with this.
I definitely have done things with the art form of ventriloquism that I feel like I've
never been done before, so I'm very proud of that.
Cecil, would you like to send this off with a tune?
Oh yes, I would.
Let's crank the killer up to groove number one, who wants a salt water taffy?
I've got a salt water taffy.
