“I’m a ventriloquist who unravels people as I improvise with a small monkey puppet who reveals my every unspoken thought obscene or otherwise,” explains award-winning comedian Nina Conti. “I get people up from the audience and by putting a mask on the lower part of their face, which I control the mouth of, I create a living puppet out of them.” Her new show In Your Face is improvised and takes inspiration from lucky (depending on your perspective) members of the audience. As with any improvised show, there’s an element of risk that would terrify most, but Nina revels in it: “The situation is very fertile for big laughs, and in many ways the funnies are effortlessly created. I try to avoid the chronically shy and the chronically eager, but I’m happy with everything in between.”
Nina is famous for her puppet Monkey: “I found him on the floor in an actor’s flat share in Stratford upon Avon. I stole him from the actor William Houston, then playing Henry V who was given Monkey by his mother I believe as a first night gift. He plays quite a lot with my youngest child, mainly in the role of co-piloting in intergalactic battles with Play Doh monsters.”
When asked about how she always seems shocked at what the puppets say, she says “I have a keen sense of how absurd it all is, not least that I am a professional ventriloquist at all. How in hell did this all happen?” With a host of brilliant characters, and a show chock full of new content, this is an unpredictable tour where anything can happen with Nina, Monkey, her mask, and her bag of tricks. Nina also recently posted a pilot for Living With Monkey, where she pledges to wear Monkey for six weeks, causing tension with her husband and her father Tom Conti. “I think some version of Living With Monkey will happen but I’ve yet to work out what. I’m not sure that a television series is its best calling. A film perhaps?”
Princess Theatre, Port Talbot, Fri 13 Nov. Tickets: £20.70. Info: www.ninaconti.net
words RHYS MATTHEWS