I still remember the first time I ever saw a ventriloquist in action. The legendary Edgar Bergen and his dummy sidekicks, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, appeared on an episode of The Muppet Show ...

For centuries Kasperle, a long-nosed marionette with the virtues of Galahad and the deportment of Mortimer Snerd, has been muddling his way to victory over the villains of Germany’s popular puppet ...