Jeremy Lepak is a local ventriloquist that’s keeping the art form alive in Minnesota. And with summer on the way he’s getting ready for another summer of bookings.

“I do a little bit of that variety artist stuff you would see on the Ed Sullivan show,” says Lepak. Jeremy performs all types of shows: family shows, kid shows, and adult shows.

Jeremy says, “It’s my passion to make people happy to make them smile and if I have a big ‘ole house full of happy folks that I’ve entertained thoroughly, my job is done.”

Jeremy says his interest in ventriloquism started at a very young age. Being inspired to get his first puppet after seeing Slappy the Dummy in the late 90’s kids horror TV show ‘Goosebumps’. Since then he’s developed his craft, building his comedy skills and creating new characters.

One of his stapel characters is Lucky, who’s a smart aleck sidekick to Lepak. He has about 12 different characters all with their own personalities. “A lot of mouths to feed,” jokes Jeremy.

Jeremy shares the number one secret to ventriloquism saying, “For them to really be believeable, you have to believe that they are someone other than you.”

Overall for Lepak, being a Ventriloquist is all about making people laugh. He says, “My main favorite parts are when Im mid show and people are really enjoying the show and I’m looking all around the audiance and there’s kids in the front and adults scattered around and I’m seeing the kids laugh and I’m not seeing them sitting there like that.”