Comedian, ventriloquist and entertainer James Wedgwood brought his unique form of pageantry to Becker and left a longing for more.

 

With the help of his funny, hardwood and feathery friends, Wedgwood gave his audience of youngsters and BCC staff a belly-ful of laughs Tuesday morning. The kids sat on the floor in a semi-circle around James’ stage and anxiously listened to his ideal brand of comedy while trying to catch his lips moving when puppeteering.

 

Wedgwood first introduced Patrick McWiggins, a wisecracking leprechaun, who cracked jokes at the host’s expense as well as some of the adult audience members. McWiggins (and Wedgwood) “wowed” the listeners as he recited the tongue-twister, "she sells seashells by the seashore," in a rapid rate. James then asked an audience member to give him another limerick for Patrick to utter.

 

Tyler, a youngster wearing a baseball cap, gave the puppet a challenge by asking him to recite, "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

 

Patrick floored everyone by not only reciting the tongue-twister to a “T”, but also reciting it backwards.

 

Wedgwood’s style and personality fit the room and his audience and by keeping the show interactive, had the kids’ attention throughout the performance.

 

Next, Wedgwood and Patrick introduced Mr. McNerney, Patrick’s grandpa and crotchety old man. He appeared in just his onesie underwear, which was what Wedgwood and Patrick focused most of their jokes on.

 

The kids loved it every time the word “underwear” was used and loved the fact Wedgwood could utilize both puppets at the same time during the exchanges. Grandpa was wearing black socks with the letters, “TGIF” on them and Wedgwood exclaimed he knew what the acronym for TGIF was.

 

However, Grandpa shrugged that off and said TGIF to him means, “toes go in first.” Most of the laughs came from the dozen or so adults in the room as the youngsters didn’t catch on to the irony of the situation.

 

Grandpa brought his jokes down to the intended level again when he started making funny faces with his highly-flexible face. The trio concluded their appearance when they sang a “ditty” using three distinct voices.

 

Wedgwood retired the two puppets and then said he could hear something coming from the crowd. As the kids followed Wedgwood as he traversed the gym to find the source of the squeaky sound, Wedgwood finally came upon a woman’s purse that when he held it to his microphone, the voice inside became louder.

 

Wedgwood invited the woman and her purse to the staging area while James proceeded to emit a voice from inside the woman’s purse — of a character he introduced as the woman’s “dirty Kleenex”. The Kleenex — through Wedgwood’s thrown voice — recited a made-up poem to the delight of the surprised kids and the purse-owner’s face.

 

Another puppet came forth, this time it was a colorful bird named Bill. Bill was a highly-excited bird who rarely sat still in the crook of James’ arm. Before many words were uttered, however, Bill the bird caught a glimpse of a lovely young lady — Emma, a staff worker at the BCC — who he asked for on a date.

 

Emma, blushed but was soon invited up to the stage to meet Bill and she so obliged. As Emma was taught how to “pet” Bill on the head in a gentle way, Emma hesitantly reached out to lightly touch Bill’s still head.

 

Bill screeched in excitement and pulled away as Emma and the crowd jumped from the sudden scream.

 

Another BCC staffer, Tyler, was invited up front and he and Emma proceeded to “feed” Bill with a stack of gummy worms. Following that, Bill and James sang, “Mary had a little lamb” before Bill said goodbye to the kids — and especially Emma.

 

Wedgwood topped off his 45-minute routine when he brought six children — three boys and three girls — to the stage for a quick performance. The two furthest-left boys and two furthest-right girls were given a couple silly dance moves and gestures to perform while the two main “singers”, a boy and a girl, were to become Wedgwood’s living puppets.

 

Wedgwood told the little boy, Danny, that every time he touched Danny’s shoulder, Danny was to open his mouth wide open until James touched his shoulder again, to close the mouth. He gave the same directions to the little girls and soon, he had the whole troupe on the stage dancing and mouthing words to a country song in voices created by Wedgwood.

 

It was hilarious.

 

In closing, Wedgwood gave the kids a few words to practice in ventriloquism and suggested those interested should practice, practice, practice to get better at it as he has.

 

“This was really cool and really funny,” said Danny, who was singled out for the country song.

 

“It was kinda embarrassing at first, but I had fun,” he said. “I’m gonna try and make a puppet and do those things. Maybe a talking cat puppet.”

 

Wedgwood is a regular on the GRRL circuit and was set to perform his show later Tuesday afternoon in Delano. He is originally from Indiana but moved to the Twin Cities where he acted, did commercials, performed with Dudley Riggs “Sunday/Monday Company” and even tried his hand at stand-up comedy.

 

He currently resides in Fergus Falls and has a cast of nine “dummies”. His website is www.jameswedgwood.com.

 

Tuesday’s event catered to well over 150 children of all ages and was billed as "The most fun you can have without moving your lips!"