By Quinn O’Hara

This past Saturday, December 6th, the Rex Theatre hosted Kansan Ventriloquist Greg Claassen for a performance for the Clay County Arts Council. Claassen, who grew up on a farm a half hour north of Wichita, says he fell in love with ventriloquism in high school when he saw a ventriloquist at a farm expo in Indiana. In the 30 years since, Claassen has performed in 48 states and for several large agricultural companies such as John Deer and Pioneer Seed.

Claassen says despite his travels, his favorite shows are in small town Kansas:

Claassen’s performance on Saturday was the 3rd time he has performed at The Rex Theatre.

Claassen says in addition to his performances, he also builds the ventriloquial figures that he and others use for ventriloquism acts.

Claassen says there are two varieties of puppets; hard and soft, but he mainly uses two soft puppets for his shows:

He estimates he has built around 30 to 35 complete dummies. A few of his creations have been sent around the globe, including to magician David Copperfield in Las Vegas, Nevada.