Lester & Willie Tyler - Smart-alecky black ventriloquist dummy
owned and operated by comedian Willie Tyler and seen on the comedy
variety program ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN/NBC/1968-73.
Lester was a hip, 42-inch dummy with a big afro-hair style (since
trimmed) who always dressed in super-cool fashions to attract the
ladies.
When Willie Tyler was ten-years-old in the early 1940s he saw a
magazine advertisement for a correspondence course teaching
ventriloquism. He sent away for the information and began to
practice throwing his voice with a doll discarded by his sister. His
first real dummy was a Jerry Mahoney doll that he painted brown.
Lester got his name one day when Willie Tyler's brother came home
and commented "there's a guy in study hall named Lester and he looks
just like your dummy."
Willie used his talents to entertain his Air Force buddies while
in the service and later toured with such Motown singers as the
Supremes, and the Temptations in the 1960s.
1965 Comedy Album
Born September 8, 1940, in Red Level, Alabama, Willie Tyler debuted on THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW in 1970 and then was
picked as a regular on LAUGH-IN for 1972-73 seasons.
| Willie: |
Hey, you've traveled all over the
world, right? |
| Lester: |
Right. |
| Willie: |
You've been where. |
| Lester: |
I've been to Alaska. |
| Willie: |
When's the last time you've been
to Alaska |
| Lester: |
Not too long ago. I went up there
one time, man and I saw some tourist, They were so ugly, the
bears were taking pictures of them |
| |
|
| Lester: |
When I was in school the teacher
told me I was going to be an astronaut. |
| Willie: |
When you were in school the
teacher told you you were gonna be an astronaut? |
| Lester: |
Well, actually she told me I was
taking up space. |
| |
|
| Willie: |
Hey, I got to ask you something.
Do you believe in reincarnation? |
| Lester: |
What kind of carnation? |
| Willie: |
Reincarnation. |
| Lester: |
What is that, recycled evaporated
milk? |
| Willie: |
No, it's when you pass away and
you come back again |
| Lester: |
Come back from where? |
| Willie: |
Wherever it is you go when you
pass away. |
| Lester |
:In other words, you don't know |
| Willie:
|
No |
| Lester: |
So let's say for the sake of this
conversation you pass away, you go somewhere. You don't where
you've been. How you gonna know you were there. If you don't
know you were there, How you gonna know you were back from
where it is you don't even know you were? |
In the fall of 1981 Lester and Willie Tyler hosted a Saturday
morning ABC WEEKEND SPECIAL anthology of popular short children's
stories.
Willie Tyler and Lester the Dummy have since performed across the
county in a number of venues, including comedy clubs, colleges, Las
Vegas hotels and corporate shows.
TRIVIA NOTE: When buying clothes for Lester, Willie goes to the boy's clothing
section at local department stores. (Ebony 10/81).
George Jefferson with Lester and
Willie Tyler
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