At 76, professional speaker Jeanne Robertson isn’t afraid to keep learning new things. So when a long-term quarantine left her with lots of free time at home, she decided that new skill should be ventriloquism — with a twist.
In a hilarious video, Robertson introduces herself from her dining room table, holding two stuffed beavers in her lap. “If there’s one thing we’ve been told over and over during this quarantine,” she says, “it’s that it’s a wonderful time to learn something new.”
And what has Robertson always wanted to learn? Ventriloquism. “Can I, at age 76, learn to throw my voice?” she asks, looking at her rodent friends as the camera zooms in. “Well, I have. You won’t even be able to see my lips move.”
When the camera pans back out, Robertson and both beavers have donned surgical masks and break out into an enthusiastic version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” trading lines while Robertson’s mouth blatantly blasts the lyrics from behind the mask. “If I could sing well,” she quips, “I might have been Miss America!”
