Horizons Online Edition

Issue date: 3/10/10 Section: Diversions

Media Credit: Jeroen Geeraert Ventriloquist Andy Gross attempts to read the card of audience member Ashley Mully.

On Friday, Feb. 19, 2010, the ventriloquist, comedian, and magician Andy Gross entranced the students with a mysterious and mind-bending act. It all began with Andy talking about a fight with his mannequin for calling it a "dummy, " which is not politically correct. And so he skipped straight to magic. He kept the crowd howling with his oversized deck of cards and somewhat lewd jargon. Then he asked the crowd for a $100 bill. A girl stepped onto stage and was amazed when he turned that $100 into a measly $1 bill. The crowd was astonished when Andy then took the orange he had given the girl, missed trying to cut into it, and cut into his own arm! When the orange was finally opened, there was the $100 bill, untouched, although a little wet, certainly.

Yet another trick performed was when Andy threw a fully shuffled deck of cards to a person in the audience and had him pick a card. The deck was then thrown to three other people, each of them choosing a different card. Finally the deck came back to Andy, and he had the people stand. They were instructed to sit when they had heard their card called. All four cards were called, in quick succession, and in order.

Andy's witty comments kept the audience laughing throughout the show, but nothing could compare to what happened to one of the guys in attendance when he was made into Andy's puppet. He was forced to sit on Andy's lap and open his mouth whenever Andy pressed on his shoulder, and thus made to say all kind of embarrassing things, and sing him a love song. But the fun wasn't over yet. Andy then masked him, with a moving jaw on the mask to allow him to continue, and while continuing in the lewd descriptions, squirted the audience with water from the mask. Everyone had a great time.

Andy Gross was born on May 10, 1968, and by the age of 15 he was the youngest professional racquetball player in history until he retired at 26 to go into the entertainment industry. He married his wife, April Bartlett, on Aug. 15, 1997. They have three children, two of whom, Morgan Lily and Jordan David, are both in the acting industry. Morgan Lily took after her father and became a ventriloquist and magician also. Andy Gross has one of the largest collections of ventriloquist paraphernalia in the world, and also designs a line of magic and trick goods for LA Magic & Toy. He is a Las Vegas regular, and well-known in the comedy industry. He has sold more merchandise with his name on it than almost any other performer. He has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX.

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