 
Ronn Lucas
By Chuck Rounds
| Ronn
Lucas has just opened his new
afternoon show in Las Vegas.
He is playing inside the Copacabana
Showroom (or now the Masquerade
Showroom) at the Rio Suite Hotel
& Casino. Lucas has many
accolades under is belt; he
is known as "The Man Who
Can Make Anything Talk." |
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He has performed
for most of the recent U.S. Presidents
and for World leaders and Royalty
around the globe. Both the London
Times and the NY Times have called
him the "World’s Best
Ventriloquist." All of these
things are quite a list of accomplishments
to live up to, and having seen his
show here and in a couple of other
venues, I cannot dispute any of
these claims.
Ronn Lucas is an
amazing talent--working with both
complex and simple puppets and objects,
he often makes us forget that he
is really the only one "talking"
onstage. In the world of Lucas,
it seems as if everything can have
a life and a mind of its own. Not
only do his puppets talk to him,
and talk back to him; so does the
microphone, his hand, his foot,
and anything else that comes into
his proximity. The really amazing
aspect of all of this is that we,
the audience, buy it. We give up
our sense of disbelief. We forget
our saner selves, and for little
moments here and there, we believe
that these things can talk.
The progression
of Lucas’ show goes from the
complex to the simple. His first
puppet is "Scorch," a
teenage dragon that is having problems
fitting into high school because
he is different. "Scorch"
is the most complex and well articulated
puppet in the Lucas array, and the
movements that accompany the voice,
allow us to get into the spirit
of things. "Buffalo Billy,"
who seems to want to take over and
have his own show, is next. "Billy"
is a simpler hand puppet, but fully
has a life of its own. Lucas follows
with a "Human Puppet,"
which is hilarious. By the end of
the show, Lucas is talking to his
hand, and we are still with him.
We find ourselves believing in his
characters, no matter how simple.
Lucas has a great
show for both adults and families
alike. The afternoon slot may be
a tough slot to fill, though. The
Masquerade showroom is a large cavernous
showroom that has a lot of seats
to fill, and it will look pitifully
empty if only a few hundred people
show up. Additionally, there have
been a plethora of afternoon shows
popping up. Lucas, however, seems
ready to raise the bar of competition.
The Masquerade showroom
is a tough room to work. It is a
circular 800 seat house, and not
all of the seats can be considered
good ones. The only problem I had
with the show is that sometimes
Lucas didn’t seem able to fill
the space. The times that I have
seen Lucas previously, have been
in smaller comedy clubs. This seemed
a bit better for me because, inherently,
the audience wants to be able to
see the ventriloquist "not"
move his lips. This doesn’t
work when you are positioned so
far away that you can’t even
see his lips. The Masquerade showroom
has the potential of becoming a
giant cavern which could easily
swallow up a single performer.
In spite of my perceived
mismatch between showroom and performer,
Ronn Lucas is everything that he
is billed to be. He is a great talent,
and his show would be a great way
to spend any afternoon. His show
is delightful. He truly is, "The
Man Who Can Make Anything Talk."
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