Notes from a ventriloquist convention:

At the convention, I encountered two types of dummies: the Freudian Ids, brightly colored, creaturely puppets who acted out the dormant longings of their masters, and the Superegos, usually wise-cracking boys like the famous Charlie McCarthy dummy, or squinting, censorious characters attired in three-piece suits. In all of these interactions I, at first, played it cool. I’d always address the vent, never the puppet. But it didn’t take long for me to begin talking directly to the dummy—to many dummies, in fact, and candidly and for long stretches—because, as odd as it was to talk to dolls, it felt less odd than ignoring them...