This documentary is about five ventriloquists of widely varying backgrounds and ages. One of them, Terry Fator, is extremely rich, famous and a major star. The rest of them are trying to become stars and make careers out of ventriloquism and they find the path very difficult and personally destructive in at least one case.
While "Dumbstruck" was enjoyable to watch and well made, I must warn you up front that several of the stories are very painful to watch and made me feel a bit embarrassed for the folks portrayed in the film. I'll be blunt and also say that several of them loved ventriloquism but they should consider other careers because they just weren't funny...in fact, some of them were god-awful. I know this sounds cruel, but many of the people in the film were NOT the quality of Jeff Dunham or Edgar Bergen. In fact, a couple of them would have been booted off "The Gong Show".
While "Dumbstruck" was enjoyable to watch and well made, I must warn you up front that several of the stories are very painful to watch and made me feel a bit embarrassed for the folks portrayed in the film. I'll be blunt and also say that several of them loved ventriloquism but they should consider other careers because they just weren't funny...in fact, some of them were god-awful. I know this sounds cruel, but many of the people in the film were NOT the quality of Jeff Dunham or Edgar Bergen. In fact, a couple of them would have been booted off "The Gong Show".