Let's burn the wizard!

If there's one name that achieved success on the magical stage in the 19th century, it's undoubtedly Louis Comte. A theater director, Louis Comte was an artist who – in addition to being a formidable businessman – knew how to blend ventriloquism and magic in his shows, two areas in which he excelled.

In the booklet Voyages et séances anecdotiques de M. Comte, the author (who, let's not be fooled, is certainly Comte himself or a close collaborator) recounts how the artist used his ventriloquist talent to build a strong reputation wherever he went.

Thus, he "makes Marguerite of Austria speak in the church of Bron, which this princess founded. In Tours, he has four doors broken down to reach an unfortunate man dying of hunger, whom they believe to be locked in a shop, where the ventriloquist had thrown his voice. In Rheims, he terrifies all the inhabitants of the Saint-Nicolas church district by making the dead speak."

We could go on with his exploits, but there is one that very nearly cost him his life. The same booklet recounts that when he was in Switzerland, Louis Comte, with malicious pleasure, reused his ventriloquism talents. It was then that "The peasants of Fribourg took him for a sorcerer, assaulted him with axes, and were preparing to throw him into a lit oven, if he had not managed to frighten the fanatical peasants by making a terrible voice come out of the mouth of the oven, which spread terror among them."

An engraving even illustrates this dramatic scene.


So, even if we can allow ourselves to doubt the veracity of all the anecdotes told in this booklet, one thing is certain: the next time you try ventriloquism, beware!

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