Señor Wences

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Wenceslao Moreno (April 17, 1896–April 20, 1999), known as Señor Wences, was a prominent 20th century ventriloquist whose popularity grew with his frequent appearances on CBS's Ed Sullivan Show. He was born in Salamanca, Spain, and was a matador before finding fame as a ventriloquist.

Señor Wences was known for his speed, skill, and grace as a ventriloquist. His stable of characters included "Johnny," a childlike face drawn on Wences' hand, which he would place atop an otherwise headless doll, and with whom Wences conversed while switching his voices between Johnny's falsetto and his own voice at amazing speed. Wences would create Johnny's face on stage to open his act, placing his thumb next to, and in front of, his bent first finger; the first finger would be the upper lip, and the thumb the lower lip. He would use lipstick to draw the lips onto the respective fingers, and then draw eyes onto the upper part of the first finger, finishing the effect with a tiny long-haired wig on top of the entire hand. Flexing the thumb would move the 'lips.'

Another popular Wences character was the gruff-voiced "Pedro", a disembodied head in a box. Wences was forced to suddenly invent the character when his regular, full-sized dummy was destroyed during a train accident en route to a performance. Pedro would either 'speak' from within the closed box, or speak with moving lips--simply growling, "s'alright"--when Wences opened the box's front panel with his free hand. A large part of Wences' comedy lay in the well-timed high-speed exchange of words between himself and his two creations, and in the difference in their voice pitches.

Wences usually built to a big finish that combined ventriloquism with graceful juggling and plate-spinning. As Wences performed his routines, Pedro and Johnny mercilessly heckled him with flawless comedic timing.

Señor Wences died just three days after his 103rd birthday. He had been residing at New York City's Ameritania Hotel on 54th Street, just around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater. That section of 54th Street has been named "Señor Wences Way". His portrait can be seen at the Players Club in New York.

[edit] Catchphrase

  • One of Wences's trademark bits of shtick (referenced several times below) involves his dialogue with a low voice emanating from inside a box. At the conclusion of the dialogue, he would open the lid of the box and ask "S'Alright?" ("Is it alright?") and the box voice would answer "S'Alriiight!"

[edit] Popular culture references

  • Several episodes of the animated series Roger Ramjet are set in the fictional South American republic of San Domino, which is so small and impoverished that the President's Cabinet is literally a wooden cabinet. When the President wishes confirmation of some train of thought, he asks it "S'alright?" and a gruff voice from within replies "S'alright".
  • In the Chilly Willy cartoon "Half-Baked Alaska" (1965), while getting his order for pancakes from Smedly the dog, Chilly and Smedly did a routine similar to the "Nice?, Nice" act. A similar gag happen at the end of "Pesty Guest" (1965).
  • A reference to Señor Wences occurred in the 1979 movie The In-Laws. The dictator of the South American country in which the action takes place, at one point talks to the main protagonists indirectly, via a "Johnny"-like character drawn on his hand named "Señor Pepe." At that point, any doubts they may have had about his sanity are confirmed.
  • In "Fat Butt and Pancake Head", an episode of the animated television series South Park, Eric Cartman creates a hand puppet identical in style to Señor Wences' "Johnny". Cartman's puppet is a parody of singer Jennifer Lopez, but the puppet still speaks like Johnny, with a high-pitched voice and stereotypical Spanish accent. Cartman and the puppet also go through several of Señor Wences' classic routines, such as having the puppet "kiss" a real person and enjoying it tremendously. Final proof of the writers' knowledge of Señor Wences comes when Cartman and "Miss Lopez" share the trademark "s'alright" routine Wences used to do with his "Pedro" puppet.
  • Wences's "S'Alright" shtick was frequently alluded to on the animated TV show The Flintstones.
  • In Disney's Aladdin, there are two references to Señor Wences. The first happens when Aladdin first meets the Genie: when the Genie (Robin Williams) describes himself as "often imitated", the voice he uses is a high-pitched, Spanish-accented voice similar to "Johnny" (he's also seen as a ventriloquist, though with a traditional dummy). The second is in the song "Friend Like Me", during the "scat" portion: this time, the Genie's hands are seen as "Johnny"-type puppets (with eyes painted on the fist), though the voice is not like "Johnny".
  • In the Sam & Max comic, Bad Day on the Moon, Max spends a brief time as disembodied spirit in possession of Sam's hand, taking on the appearance of "Johnny"-type puppet, except with bunny ears. Max also says the "s'alright" line to make it clear that this is a tribute.
  • In the novel Caramelo, one of the characters meets Señor Wences in a Chicago jail cell.
  • In the movie America's Sweethearts there is the following discussion:
    • Dave Kingman (Stanley Tucci): We had to make a Weidmann film! -He has three Oscars. He's a genius.
    • Lee Phillips (Billy Crystal): There's only one genius in the business: Señor Wences! Lipstick, hair and his hand! He had an 85-year career!

Do you remember?

  • In the online game Kingdom of Loathing there is a character, Blaine, whose icon is a box. If he has no quests to give you, the description will read "You knock on the side of the crate, and ask "S'alright?" A voice inside mutters "S'alright.""
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