| Jay Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 11, 1949 Lubbock, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | Ventriloquist |
| Years active | 1977–present |
Jay Johnson (born July 11, 1949, Lubbock, Texas) is a ventriloquist best known for his role on the television show Soap. He played Chuck Campbell, a ventriloquist who believed his puppet Bob was real and demanded everyone treat Bob as human. Chuck never went anywhere (even on dates) without his dummy Bob, who basically said all the things that Chuck was too polite (or repressed) to say.
Jay Johnson also starred in Broken Badges, a 1990 Stephen Cannell CBS television production where he played a psychologically depressed police officer named Stanley Jones. He also appeared as a celebrity guest on many game shows and hosted two series of his own, So You Think You Got Troubles (1983) and Celebrity Charades (1979). He won the 2007 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for Jay Johnson: The Two and Only. He made a guest appearance in an episode of Mrs. Columbo where he played a ventriloquist who finds his dummy is acting independently of his will and kills the man who carved it.
Jay Johnson: The Two and Only written and performed by Jay Johnson, opened on Broadway to rave reviews at the Helen Hayes Theatre on September 28, 2006. This was proceeded by an acclaimed off Broadway run at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York. The show also performed at the Zero Arrow Theatre, Cambridge, MA, and the Brentwood and Colony Theater Company in Los Angeles. The Cambridge performance garnered the New England Critics Award, and in Los Angeles Johnson received the 2006 Ovation Award for Best Solo Performance.
The Two and Only deconstructs and demonstrates Johnson's lifelong obsession with the art of ventriloquism. The show is a Valentine, not only to the art, but also to his mentor and friend Arthur Sieving, who created Johnson's first professional puppet. The show is aided and abetted by a cast of ventriloquated characters, including his Soap alter ego, Bob.
Jay Johnson is the only ventriloquist to ever be nominated and win an American Theatre Wing Tony Award or an Ovation Award.
The original Bob puppet featured on Soap was inducted into the Smithsonian Institutions collections of pop culture icons in May 2007.