Jimmy Vee

He did not discover ventriloquism from a distance

Jimmy is not an academic who discovered ventriloquism from the other side of a display case. He is a working ventriloquist who has spent decades inside the art and got tired of watching its history disappear.

It began at a school assembly when Jimmy was eight. A ventriloquist made a figure appear alive in front of him, and Jimmy was hooked.

His grandmother bought him a Howdy Doody toy dummy that Christmas. He still has it.

But Jimmy did not find a real way to learn the art until he was eighteen, when a former professional ventriloquist running a puppet cart in an Orlando‑area mall pointed him toward a book.

Once the book arrived, Jimmy learned in a month.

Then came birthday parties, libraries, comedy clubs, and a scripted magic‑and‑ventriloquism show that helped pay his way through college.

A note from Jimmy

I started building the Archive because I kept running into questions nobody could answer. Not because the answers were gone. They were trapped in somebody’s scrapbook, an old newsletter, a mislabeled photograph, or a box nobody had opened in thirty years.

At the same time, I kept thinking about the eight‑year‑old version of me. He had the interest. He had the dummy. He just could not find the instruction.

The Institute exists to solve both problems. Save what came before us. Support the people doing the work now. Make the door easier to find for whoever comes next.Jimmy Vee, Founder

Written to be performed, not recited

Jimmy has written ten children’s books. They are funny on the page, but the page is not where they stop. They were built for voices, reactions, interruptions, and the inevitable request to read the whole thing again.

One of them, How to Make Your Sock Talk, teaches children how to begin ventriloquism. It is the book Jimmy wishes he could have found when he was eight instead of eighteen.

That book now sits at the center of the Institute’s largest ambition:

One million children.
One million books.
One million puppets.
One million first shows.

The tenth, Look! There Are No Monsters Inside of This Book, is with its illustrator now.

Inside the art

More than 30 years as a working ventriloquist

Libraries, family events, comedy clubs, corporate events, and live productions.

Vent Haven ConVENTion

Executive Director in 2024 and 2025 after three years working alongside longtime director Mark Wade.

Vent Haven Museum

Member of the Board of Advisors beginning in 2021.

Florida Ventriloquist Association

Helped revive the former Central Florida Ventriloquist Association and has led or worked with the organization for more than twenty‑five years.

The Dummy Blog

For years, one of the largest collections of ventriloquism video available online and a direct ancestor of the Archive.

The Archive

Built the preservation project that now connects more than 545,690 sourced facts about the people, figures, makers, works, and organizations of ventriloquism.

Why he founded the Institute

The further Jimmy went into ventriloquism, the more often the same thing happened.

Someone had a question about a figure, but nobody knew who made it. A performer worked for decades, but their story was nowhere people could find it. A collector knew one detail that connected the pieces, but the detail had never been written down.

Meanwhile, children were still discovering ventriloquism the same way Jimmy had: by chance. Those who wanted to learn still had to work too hard to find the door.

The Institute brings the whole thing together.

A public Archive where the history can be found, connected, and explored. A showcase for the people behind the art. A year‑round home where the living community can learn, connect, and belong. And a way in for whoever comes next.

Jimmy built the Institute to give ventriloquism what he spent ten years looking for.

A door.

See what the Institute is building Invite Jimmy to speak