I just got a letter, addressed to me, mailed to the Helen Hayes Theater on July 9th of this year. The letter is from a gentleman named, Joseph Thiyoga Rushan Fernandopulle, of Negombo Road, Dankotuwa, Sri-Lanka. (If I were doing stand up at this point I would say, “I’d like to buy a vowel, Pat.”)
Mr. Thiyoga Rushan Fernandopulle is writing me for permission to translate “The Two and Only” into Sinhala, the language of Sir Lanka. His goal is to do my play for the dramatic theater of Sri Lanka. Although flattering to think that someone would think of my “play” as good, translatable Sri-Lankan drama, I just don’t see how it would translate.
A year after I got married I worked as a writer for a bilingual educational children’s television show. It was supposed be the new Sesame Street but it was canceled.
One of the things I learned from this experience is how difficult it is to translate jokes. The show had to be balanced with equal segments in English and Spanish. Once in a while the producers would come to me and say they were light on Spanish and needed to translate my sketch. There would be a language person that would accomplish this task. In a read through the next time I would hear my sketch (which I thought was extremely funny) it would get no reaction from the Spanish-speaking writers. At first I assumed it was professional jealousy but soon realized there were no jokes left after the translation.
It reminds me of a Johnny Dark routine. He did his act for a Japanese speaking audience one time. He found out they only knew three words in English,
“You, not funny.”
Mr. Thiyoga Rushan Fernandopulle said he learned of my show from the Internet so I assume he has not actually seen it. The fact that he thinks it is a drama is not a good sign. He may be reading this right now. I have sent him an email explaining that it really is a show that involves my art as a ventriloquist and not intended to be performed by anyone other than me. However, on the chance that I could do well in Sri Lanka I have decided to learn Sinhala. The way the tour is going I think I may need to look for other venues.
PS. Don’t forget to tell your friends about “The Two and Only” in Dallas.
Dallas: Jay Johnson The Two and Only
As you were,
Jay
1 comment:
Dear Jay,
My name is Weiji Ma and I am a computational neuroscientist at the University of Rochester. I became interested in ventriloquism from a scientific point of view. It is a fantastic example of so-called "cue integration under conflict". In normal English: when you hear something and you see something that seem to come from the same source but don't quite match, how do you combine the two pieces of information? Much of my work consists of building theories of how (and why) the brain solves this type of "cue integration" problems.
In my search for real-life demonstrations I found the clip of you in Letterman's show. I was incredibly impressed, especially after I then checked out other ventriloquists and they weren't nearly as convincing. In scientific talks about my work, I always first show 90 seconds of that video to make the topic come alive for the audience, and it works great.. people are incredibly fascinated by it.
Needless to say, I very much want to see your show. Since I didn't know of it last year, I missed the Broadway performances. I see that you are going to play in Dallas now, but will there be any performances this year in the NYC area?
Finally, if you are interested in the recent scientific work on ventriloquism and its bigger implications, I would be happy to provide some references.
best,
Weiji
weijima@gmail.com
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