Review Fix Exclusive: Bryan W. Simon Interview

Award-winning and critically-acclaimed director, Bryan W. Simon is clearly no dummy as he educates his audience while getting a few laughs, with his newly released feature length documentary, “I’m No Dummy.”

With the will to persevere, despite the writers strike and lack of studio financing, Simon combined a childhood fascination with his love of directing to bring you the art form of ventriloquism, its intriguing history and modern day existence.

The film was bound to be something special when Gary Binkow, CEO of Salient Media, signed on as distributor.

Growing up, he had a Danny O’Day doll as a child.

More concerned with ventriloquism itself, rather than how many copies they needed to sell, it was a subject that hit close to home for both men, making the experience an enjoyable one.

“It’s done much better than we ever imagined. I never assumed that it would sell. The big joke was the worse you could do is sell 400 copies because that’s about how many ventriloquists there are,” said Simon.

Ventriloquism is a rare, but riveting art form with a rich history. Providing a glimpse into the works of legendary vents such as Edgar Bergen, Jimmy Nelson, Señor Wences and Paul Winchell, Simon gives the story a face and a soul, making this novelty act deeper than it originally appears.

“All of that [historical footage] came from Tom Ladshaw [associate producer] with the exception of Jimmy. Jimmy gave me his own footage,” said Simon. “Tom is a resident historian; he archived all that work. It was wonderful to get all that from him. He and the museum were a tremendous asset. All those old photographs came from Tom or the museum.”

The Vent Haven Museum in Kentucky is filled with hundreds of vent memorabilia. Pleased with the outcome of the documentary, they now feature a poster of it among the hundreds of dummies, photographs and videos on display.

Nonetheless, many viewers didn’t think that the six-minute section of the museum in the documentary sufficed. In a year or so, however, Simon promises to satisfy their needs a bit more.

“The museum has asked me to help them make a movie because I have so much footage. I have probably another 10 hours of museum footage of stuff we shot, interviews particularly about the museum that I’m going to donate and make a movie particularly for them that they can sell,” Simon said.

While they fully support Simon’s work now, the vent community was originally reluctant to get involved. As a matter of fact, the fear of being further portrayed as crazies in the eyes of society caused plenty of doors to slam in Simon’s face. That eventually changed however and now the documentary is receiving a plethora of positive feedback from the vent community.

“Once everybody understood what I was doing they were more than willing to participate because they have never been treated this way before. They always get treated as lunatics and they’re tired of it. It’s like we aren’t; we are entertainers, this is how we entertain. We’re not crazy. Something happened in our lives that made us want to do this, the same way that someone wants to be a painter or a violinist or wants to start a rock band,” said Simon.

Linking up with director, Kelly Asbury enabled the doors to swing on open, bringing forth popular ventriloquists such as Jay Johnson, Jeff Dunham and Lynn Trefzger.

“They all are constant professionals. The puppet comes out when they’re working and the puppet goes back when they’re not,” he said. “They don’t sit around the room or have them on display. They are like partners who appear when they’re ready to perform and disappear. They have their own lives when they don’t perform; they go back in the suitcase.”

With their own approach to the art, whether it be character-driven, with goofy, yet intellectual skits, or family-oriented, there’s more to ventriloquism than just throwing your voice without movement of the lips. Proving vents aren’t creepy, but are indeed, skilled performers, who are able to deceive the human mind into thinking there are two people on the stage holding a conversation, there is a definite art to the craft.

“You just think about what’s in front of you. They make us forget about all those problems we have as adults and we go back to the time when we’re eight-years-old and everything is possible and it’s all about our imaginations, buying into this little puppet speaking to us,” said Simon. “I knew there had to be others that felt the same way; were there a lot? I had no idea. I think if you try and make some thing for everyone it will fail because it will be for no one.”

Despite the countless critiques of vents featured in the film, Simon stands by his choices.

“I made the film for me. Ventriloquists have come up to me and said, ‘How come this person’s not in it?’ Even Tom Ladshaw would have liked to had more about the museum. He and I had a long discussion about that. He understood completely that it’s my point of view and it’s my documentary,” said Simon.

“You spend a quarter of a million dollars to make a documentary and you get to do whatever you want. I really made it for me so in that way it was personal, but also I had faith that there were others like me.”

Wrapping up the project in just two years, a fifth of the time it usually takes to complete the documentary process, shows how much time and effort the crew put into the film.

Early on in the editing procedure, three editors, one of which edited Simon’s previous feature, quit, claiming there was just too much material to work with. With the incentive to move things along, Simon took it upon himself to edit the movie.

Labor of love, you say?

Absolutely.

“I understand the editing process, but I always let other people do it because I think people should do what they do best. I got forced into editing and it was really an interesting experience. I don’t think I will do it again unless I had to. I really rely on my editors as I do my cinematographers to help me with visuals and putting up on the screen what it is I want,” said Simon.

“I’m a better director today having made this documentary; I’d never thought that in a million years. I had to take something that was not scripted where I had hundreds of hours of footage and had to mold something out of it.”