Guillotine! Guillotine!

Inspired by ma'main man in the ventriloquist world who described the challenge buying dummymaking supplies, this weekend I'm hoping to at least two of three things:

1.  I've accumulated rubber bands or various strengths and need to see one of them will cure my dummy of lockjaw. The current one that functions to close its mouth is too tight. Back in the pre-tetanus shot and pre-galvanized nail days of my childhood, lockjaw was a constant threat.  I now see though my dummy what it probably would have looked like.

2.  Figure out how to keep my dummy's head from falling off its body.  Please remember this is a novelty store quality dummy made by the Juro Novelty Company.  But apparently, its head, absent its body, frightens my teenagers and their friends ten-fold more than when they are joined together. Go figure.

3.  Patch the hole that is on the side of my monkey puppet's mouth.  I've never been good with sticky, gluey fluids. (Parenthetically, it's why I don't drink Guiness.) Anything that dries fast may result the monkey being a constant companion. I don't think having the monkey with me is nearly as explainable as the dummy to the people at work, so caution is the watch word.

Thinking about the lockjaw issue, would it be worth researching whether great ventriloquists had rusty nails in their past?

My Kingdom for a Rubber Band!

My little buddy (he's growing on me, so "dummy" now seems a bit harsh) was made by the Juro Novelty Company and is dated 1968.

I was reading about dummies and how they should be a about as big as would fit a kids size 3-4.  I would put this guy at a 2-3 at the most.

I need to work on getting his mouth working smoothly. It's a pretty simple mechanism with a rubberband to automatically close the mouth after a pull string opens it.  But it does take the right rubberband.  The one that I put in is way too strong, so the mouth is too hard to work. Length is important as well.

I spent some of the day at work yesterday eyeing up rubber bands to experiment with.  I Think I got on some peoples nerves asking, "You going to use that?"

But, there's no "Thou shalt not covet thy co-workers office products" commandment, is there?

Is there?