JovialJMan - Ventriloquism (Speaking From Elsewhere)

"The frog... is scary as hell... Nightmare fuel even... Hold me?" - OddballGreg

Have you ever heard a doll talk or a wall answer you back, then you probably know the work of a ventriloquist, (or you're delusional, maybe both). Either way, hearing voices from strange sources can be a somewhat rather entertaining experience, lets talk about that.

Ventriloquism is the act, as referred to in English, of throwing your voice to make it sound like it is coming from a different place; usually a puppet or doll of some sort. Ventriloquism was first a religious practice. The noises produced by our stomachs were once believed to be the voices of the undead and the ventriloquist would then interpret it as they were able to speak with the dead, as well as foretell the future (whooo spooky).

The following paragraph is made up and should not be taken seriously. 

In the beginning, as people started to do ventriloquism for entertainment, there was a man. He practiced day after day, until he could throw his voice so well, you would say the person across the room uttered them. He started to go to the park and make the peoples pets talk to their owners as practice; after a while he was so confident in his skill that he went to a bank and shouted through another person's mouth, "everyone on the ground this is a heist!!" The poor person was arrested but this ventriloquist found it rather amusing. So the next day he went to a stripper club... and well... you know what he did there. No one ever found this man, but if they did ... they would hire him to do stand up comedy. But wait! They did find this man and his name is Jeff Dunham. (Jefafa... Dun Ham... Dot Com).

Jeff Dunham is a very well known ventriloquist and stand-up comedian who does various shows with his famous puppets, (Peanut, Walter, Achmed, José Jalapeño on a Stick and others), but the most well know of the lot is Peanut. This overactive, purple skinned puppet, who only has one shoe, is hilarious. He often makes fun of Jeff and torments another puppet, José Jalapeño on a Stick. Jeff often has to argue with Peanut to do the stuff Jeff wants, (remember he is a puppet). When people call José Jalapeño, on the other hand, he will often have to say "on a stick" meaning that it is his name not just an attribute. The fights that Peanut and José have are really quite comical.

Nina Conti is another ventriloquist that has done many shows, where she gets a "volunteer" from the audience and puts a fake mouth on them, which she controls. She makes them say they want to dance, which is really funny since no one ever does. There is another skit that she does with a monkey, where it possesses her, considering it is a puppet, it makes things somewhat strange.

(warning: strong language)

Ronn Lucas has been on The Late Show With David Letterman, his show was with Scorch the dragon. He makes fun of the audience, the host (David Letterman), and the city they are in and the people that live there. He also pretends that the puppet isn't a puppet and gets him to throw his voice. He was also on the British Royal Variety show and sang a few songs with Scorch which was spectacular.

Ronn Lucas at the British Royal Variety show

Anyways, if you found this to be interesting, funny or you have any stories of your own, please let us know down in the comments, over Facebook or tweet us on the Twitter of the Tweeters. Please share this with anyone who likes playing with dolls, or anyone who likes a good show. They'll probably share it with more people and our beginning of conquering the world can start. If you would like to read more of what I and OddballGreg have to say then please like our official TSCA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, so that you can see the latest posts as they are published. Regardless of what you do please have/had an awesome day. Thank you for taking the time to read the post and I shall speak to you soon.

Happy laughing friends.

OddballGreg - CreepyPastas (Scary Stories)

People say clowns scare them? Are you afraid? Technically speaking... Gene Simmons is scarier.

About 6 days ago I wrote an article about horror games, and why they tend to make me yelp like a little puppy for no reason. So it seemed fair to continue the train of thought and discuss some other reasonably fear-inducing media, though of a kind that I actually enjoy. That would be CreepyPasta's, the internet's ghost stories from around the camp fire.

According to the Creepypasta Wikia, a Creepypasta is a "short story posted on the Internet that is designed to unnerve and shock the reader." An internet phenomenon that arose years ago, these short horror stories were quickly popularized for a variety of reasons, ranging from peoples need to scare themselves for laughs, to literary enjoyment, and the eventual movies, memes and games that originated from these stories. There's also a ton of people on YouTube who continue to say that the stories are true. (There's also people who think the contents of a lava lamp make a good moisturizer... so believe what you will.)

One of the CreepyPasta stories that is most notorious for the way it has expanded the the Creepypasta following is Slenderman, a tall, faceless man with tentacles who kidnaps people and, in some versions of the stories, spikes them onto pine trees in the forests. Slenderman has seen hundreds of stories written about him, and a fair few games which were played on YouTube by various personalities including, (Of course), PewDiePie. (Who on an unrelated note, apparently made an old game so popular that the publisher started printing it again according to Kotaku.co.uk) Some of the other notorious CreepyPasta stories range from Jeff The Killer to Smiledog.png. All extremely odd and yet strangely fascinating at the same time. (One must wonder at the mind of people who write stories like these.)

Of course, being the artsy person that I am, I found the stories themselves to be far more interesting and fun than PewDiePie's screams... but that's just personal preference. So if you are looking for some fun scares or are simply a fan of well written stories, then be sure to visit either www.creepypasta.com or the Creepypasta Wikia; both of which are compendiums of these strange horror stories.

However, being the YouTube warrior that I am, (That basically means I'm frequently bored and watch a lot of inane videos.), I have found a rather good channel by the name of IReadCreepyPasta's in which a man takes some of these stories and narrates them in his very well suited voice, complete with additional sound effects and a bit of visual stimulus for a very entertaining and genuinely frightful combination. He's even managed to scare me this way. (Which, apart from games, is rather hard to pull off.) Perhaps of all the CreepyPasta stories I know, The Russian Sleep Experiment, complete with his narration, is by far one of the best in my opinion.

Ghastly isn't it?

There are others he has narrated which have proven to be equally entertaining to listen to, such as Mister WideMouth and Tulpa, both of which, like The Russian Sleep Experiment, appealed to my enjoyment of topics regarding the human mind. So naturally I found them very entertaining.

In any case, I should mention that these stories can be VERY scary for some people, with the CreepyPasta website even requesting your age before allowing you entry because of that. So consider yourself warned. In any case, if you found this article to be of interest, or have some of your own CreepyPasta stories that you think are worth mentioning, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below or via Facebook/Twitter. And of course, if you are friends with any horror aficionados, then perhaps sharing this article with them. They'll probably thank you for it. Of course, if you would like to read more interesting articles like this one, then do be sure to like our official TCSA Facebook page and or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left so that you can get the latest posts, as they're posted. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Good luck sleeping my friends.