Ventriloquist’s duck in fowl attack – 30 years ago in The Stage

This week 30 years ago (December 14, 1995), The Stage reported on a ventriloquist’s dummy attacked with a toy knife by a heckling audience member at a Christmas party.

“Ventriloquist Chris Bylett had to flee from a policemen’s Christmas party last week after a knife-wielding audience member took offence at comments made by his dummy,” we wrote.

“Bylett, together with his sidekick Desmond Duck, was providing after-dinner entertainment for 70 members of the Regional Crime Squad at a restaurant in north London.

“ ‘I was doing my opening patter when one bloke started heckling, so I tried a few put-downs on him,” Chris said. “Then I got Desmond out and he started up again. The next thing I knew, he’d put one foot on a chair, lifted up his trouser leg and pulled a knife out of a scabbard.

“ ‘Then he lunged at the duck and stabbed him four or five times. It turned out to be a toy knife, but I didn’t know that at the time.’

“Fortunately, Chris’s feathered partner was unharmed by the ordeal. ‘I was going to take him to accident and emergency, but his injuries were only superficial,” he reported.

“A spokesperson for the Regional Crime Squad told The Stage: ‘It all seems to have been in good humour. The ventriloquist was sawing the head off his duck just prior to the incident. There was never any malice.’ ”

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