About a month ago I was asked by Loutky Teahouse to drop by to discuss performances there. So MJ and I took the 3.5 hour drive up and visited. I was a little disturbed every time the owner (Wez) kept saying "this is very strange talking to a puppet I'm not very comfortable" which he said several times throughout the meeting. I soon discovered the teahouse was a new business with no established plan during our meeting.

Anyhow today I received an email from Wez which stated he wasn't comfortable with MJ because he referred to himself as black (huh!?) and he felt a comment MJ made about being aboriginal and if his people had of invented immigrant detention centres then white Australia would really have a reason to say sorry was too politically incorrect. (has he not seen Jeff Dunham or David Strassman) Clearly Wez missed the point of ventriloquism and who MJ represents.

I guess in a way I'm happy he bought into it, but I'm disappointed that someone claiming to be a puppeteer could be so single minded. Oh well.

I thought it pertinent to respond to Wez's email

An absolutely appropriate and professional response. What an odd meeting that must've been for you.

-Philip

Thanks Philip. Yes it was an odd meeting because he asked me to come to see him with MJ because he felt a ventriloquist would be great for his business. I've had MJ at public venues and amongst other puppeteers since he arrived and they have all responded to him really well, in fact often talking directly to him rather than to me. So when this guy from Loutky Teahouse, who himself claims to be a puppeteer, kept saying " it's very strange talking to a puppet I wasn't prepared for that" MJ would respond accordingly. He kept asking questions about how MJ was built and had never heard of Timothy Selberg asking "does he live in Sydney?"

To be honest I left knowing this was not a venture I wanted to be involved in and left it at that, but his very long email to me explaining why he didn't want me performing at his establishment both surprised and amused me. Surprised because the meeting was several months ago and amused because I felt he had no idea what a ventriloquist really is and clearly had some level of racism that he projected onto MJ.

Oh well back to entertaining people

Oh and for the record, he hasn't responded to my reply email.