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Ventriloquist Kellie Haines coming to Quesnel

Haines has been performing since she was eight years old
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Kellie Haines and Magrau. Kellie Haines Ventriloquist/Facebook photos

Kellie Haines received her first puppet when she was eight years old.

A big red, blue and yellow bird, she named it Magrau the Bird, and took it to the school talent show. “I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t have a script or anything. I just got up there – I didn’t even have a microphone. It was in front of the entire school … and it just brought the house down. It was Magrau talking to me and me talking to Magrau. It was believable and it was funny.”

A shy kid who didn’t fit in, Haines says her performance with Magrau helped her make friends and gain confidence in herself. At the time, she didn’t even know what ventriloquism was – even though she knew how to do it.

Haines says she believes all children think of their “stuffies” as characters, with voices of their own. Using Magrau as a puppet allowed her to bring her own toys to life.

She went on to study drama in university, where she learned theatre, dance and music.

Now a professional ventriloquist, Haines has toured around British Columbia and Ontario, performing shows primarily for kids.

She has also worked as a puppeteer on the film Turkey Hollow, which was produced by The Jim Henson Company for the Lifetime Network in 2015. The film is about two kids who decide to hunt down an elusive monster while visiting their aunt in a town called Turkey Hollow. Haines says working on the film was a dream come true.

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“It just instilled in me that you can work at your goals, whatever it is,” she says. Although she taught herself ventriloquism, she credits going to university to study drama with helping her feel comfortable onstage and being filmed.

Now, having made a career out of her puppet Magrau the Bird, and Magrau’s companion, Kamilla the Frog, she says performing comes naturally. “The puppets are so alive, even to me … that there have been times I’ve forgotten a line and Magrau the Bird will tell me the line, and tell me I’ve forgotten a line. It’s funny, because it’s just so natural for me, because we’ve been working together so long, that if I lose a line they’ll come in with a line. So what’s going on there?” Haines laughs.

Haines will be performing in Quesnel on Saturday (Nov. 24), at 2 p.m. at the Chuck Mobley Theatre in Correlieu Secondary School. It will be her first time in the area.

She says her show is for anyone who loves puppets “who seem to actually talk by themselves,” music, action, “and laughing really hard.” Haines says it’s a funny, fast-paced show with lots of audience participation and interaction.

Ultimately, the message behind the show is all about learning to celebrate your own differences and talents. Haines gained confidence in herself and new friends by doing what she loved and wowing the crowd with Magrau the Bird as an eight-year-old, and now she wants to help her young audience do the same.

“That’s what I tell the kids, I say, you know, look at your talents and celebrate your talents, whatever it is you love to do,” she says. “And so I feel really good when I’m doing [the show], because I want to help kids celebrate. And I want kids, as well, to celebrate their diversity.

“Magrau is the only bird puppet in his Grade 6 class and that’s OK. And Kamilla has frog red hair that nobody else does, and that’s OK too.”

She says she often gets messages from the kids who come to her shows, including one from a young girl which said: “I didn’t give up, just like Magrau the Bird!”

These messages mean the most to Haines. “It’s something I wish I had when I was younger, that somebody could come into my school and just say, ‘Hey, this is what I do,’ and make me laugh, and help me understand that it’s cool to be different. It’s not only cool: it’s extraordinary, so embrace it.”

Haines calls the show a “musical adventure,” one where she and her audience use their imaginations to do all kinds of extraordinary things, like visit outer space, for example. At the end of the show, there will be a meet and greet with Haines and audience members will be able to ask her (and Magrau and Kamilla) any questions they want.

Even the adults at her shows often ask her if she’s actually the one speaking for her puppets, or if she is using some kind of speaker. “That’s the best compliment for me,” she says. “I think if my mouth isn’t moving and the puppets are talking and animated – well, they should be. I’ve been doing it long enough.”

Going forward, she hopes to inspire other kids to work with puppets, too.

Tickets for the show are available in advance at Bo Peep Boutique, Circle S Western Wear and the Quesnel & District Arts and Recreation Centre. They’ll also be available at the door on Nov. 24.



heather.norman@quesnelobserver.com

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