Today we’d like to introduce you to Micah LeClercq.
Hi Micah, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I often get asked how I got into ventriloquism, and I have to admit, it was a wild road full of open doors that only God could provide. It all started in August 2016, when I was 15. At that time, a 3-day storm hit my parish and submerged every town in several feet of water. It was nighttime when the flood hit my neighborhood, and my family of 6 barely escaped by quickly piling into my dad’s truck and driving through really high water. The flash flood was so high that it covered my dad’s headlights, but miraculously, God allowed us to make it out. We eventually reached a high part of town and drove to Mississippi to wait for the floodwater to recede.
What our government eventually named “The Great Flood of 2016” turned my life upside down. My house was destroyed with 5 feet of water, everything I ever owned had to be thrown away, school shut down for 3 months, and my community was shaken to its core. My family was not only busy gutting our own house, but due to my father’s position as a pastor of the First Pentecostal Church of Livingston, we had to split our attention to help nearly a hundred church members or repair our church that received almost a foot of water.
I needed something to help distract me from the devastation that seemed to drone on with no end. That eventually came weeks after the storm when my family moved into my grandmother’s house. Thankfully, her home did not flood, and although it only had two bedrooms, we were happy to have a roof over our heads until the federal government could supply us with a FEMA trailer. I’ll never forget the night we were all lounging about, and my grandmother offered to play some old VHS tapes of the Comedy Barn, a family-friendly vaudeville attraction in Branson, Missouri, that she had visited earlier that year. We were eager to watch something together, and I loved the first act. It featured a ventriloquist named Bob Hope, who used a couple of elderly human puppets and a sock puppet to deliver a comedy routine.
Hope’s performance enamored me. Up to that point, I had never even heard of ventriloquism. I asked my grandmother how he made those puppets look like they were talking independently; my initial theory was that he was making them lip-sync to a pre-recorded CD. However, she informed me that he was a ventriloquist, a performer who learns to talk without using his lips and sync his words to a puppet’s mouth. I was determined to learn this skill, so I worked every day to become a good ventriloquist using some puppets in my church that had survived the flood.
As I said earlier, this new hobby kept me from going crazy as I shoveled rotting sheetrock out of my house and church. I had never intended to do live performances myself, but as time passed, God began to put me on that path. A year later, in 2017, my mom posted a video of me practicing ventriloquism, and a retired ventriloquist contacted her so he could ask if he could mail me some old puppets he did not want anymore. These puppets, a toucan and a shark, became the first characters in my “show,” where I would do short skits in front of the kids at my church. Later that same year, in June, my mom signed me up to work as a counselor at a massive Pentecostal summer camp in Tioga, Louisiana. This counselor program, the Student Action Leadership Team, or SALT, comprises nearly 2oo teenagers and young adults. This large staff is needed for the 1,500 kids attending the summer camp yearly. I was 16 then and was so attached to my puppets that I brought them with me purely out of wanting them beside me. However, many people in the leadership noticed that I had some skill with these puppets, so they allowed me to do a couple of live skits in front of the kids before services, filling time between speakers.
My performances for that summer camp opened the floodgates for what would eventually become my ministry. I got calls from kids pastors at the camp with their church’s kids groups, asking me if I would do more ventriloquism for their churches, along with altar calls. I decided to try it, and by my first service, I fell in love with being a minister. I began studying the Bible much more. I devoted so much more time to prayer. I learned comedians to work hard and create genuinely funny skits; the idea was that if I could get their attention with silly puppets, I could eventually hit them with an essential Biblical lesson, which has been very effective for me. The name for my ministry came in the middle of one of my early events, where a middle school-age kid stood up in the middle of the congregation and shouted, “You’re too preachy! This ain’t your puppet pulpit!” I thought that wordplay was clever, so from that point on, I referred to my ministry as The Puppet Pulpit.
Six years later, The Puppet Pulpit is still going strong. I have built or acquired nearly 20 characters for my show. I have spoken at over 150 churches, schools, theaters, concerts, festivals, hospitals, libraries, and nursing homes. I have traveled to over 10 states, including the beautiful South Carolina. My ministry has even branched out to video production, and I am currently trying to create some Internet shows and books starring my puppet characters.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like anything, creating a traveling evangelism ministry has its pros and cons. Getting to where I am today had its snags, but some variables about my job make it easier to get through. If you work in comedy, especially faith-based comedy, you will always have the odd parent or college student who gets offended by what you say. While I tailor my material to every audience and never make fun of any group, you cannot please everyone. Also, most of my audiences are comprised of kids or teenagers, and one of the biggest distractions those age groups suffer with is the smart device; I sometimes get discouraged because parents would instead give their kids an iPhone in the middle of a program specifically made for their kids, or I see a bunch of lit-up faces of young people at a college show. I often drive long distances; on average, I go from 2-7 hours to each venue, which can be physically draining. I fly a lot, too, which can irritate me because I wouldn’t say I like airports or layovers. But there are so many good things about what I do as well. Pastors are usually so hospitable; they offer to take care of my every expense, plus they are always generous with paychecks, which helps a lot because I do not set a fee for my events. Kids are often quick to hug you, want a picture, or demand the name of your YouTube channel so they can become fans of your work. School leadership always makes me feel right at home when I am asked to do shows for elementary schools or high schools. Evangelism has drawbacks, but after 6 years, you get used to them, and the benefits outweigh them.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might need to be more familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a ventriloquist from Livingston, Louisiana! I am a traveling evangelist under my ministry called The Puppet Pulpit, and I use ventriloquism to teach audiences of all ages about Biblical lessons. While I live in Louisiana, I was honored to visit the Greenwood, SC, area to speak at Life Pentecostal Church!
I specialize and am known for my ventriloquism skills. I have nearly 20 puppets in my show, each given distinct personalities and voices. I built some of them; the rest were either bought as stock or commissioned to professional puppet builders. In 2018, I was recognized by America’s Got Talent finalist and Las Vegas performer Terry Fator as being a ventriloquist worth winning his Clinton-Detweiler Scholarship Award, which he annually gives to high school students who apply and show video clips of their performances. I am a member of the Association of Children’s Evangelists (ACE), a recognized directory of kids ministers under a denominational organization called the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI).
I am very proud of where God has allowed me to go because of The Puppet Pulpit. I do think that there are a couple of factors about my ministry that set me apart from other entertainers or kids evangelists. I aim not to entertain or make money like other kids entertainers or adult comedians. I want to use ventriloquism to get my audience’s attention before introducing them to emotional and God-centric topics near the end. Each of my skits serves as an object lesson to teach a more profound message, like salvation, God’s love, the impact of bullying, peer pressure, etc. I also think my education sets me apart because I have lots of training on how to appeal to special needs children or children from complex backgrounds. I have a B.S. in Communication Sciences and Disorders, which taught me how to teach children in a speech therapy clinic setting, and those skills translate well into performing in front of kids. Given prior knowledge of what types of exceptionalities lie in each audience, I can account for those differences and appeal to special needs audience members and the remaining neurotypical people in attendance. I also worked as a bus minister for my church since 2018, which gave me years of experience getting to know members of low-income communities. I can empathize with people from backgrounds of addiction or abuse because I worked with kids in those homes for so long. These experiences compelled me to pursue a church counselor certification from Urshan College in 2022.
In essence, my work has something different in the sense of quality. Christian entertainers don’t need to focus more on quality because they are too focused on getting a message out; I wanted to be different by working hard to have the best music, writing, lighting, and timing for my ventriloquism programs. Because kids don’t have to pay attention to bad performances, they won’t. I always say, get their attention and respect, and get what you want. You will only get their attention by staying up to date with what kids find funny, being prepared for kids in your audience who may be mentally or emotionally nontraditional, and working hard to make your puppet shows as professional as possible.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
If you are a creator, let me give you the best advice I ever heard – people will only care about what you have to say once they care about you. It’s easy to get caught up in the logistics of performing, but people see and are attracted to the personality you provide in your work more than you realize. Remember who you are in place to relate to your audience in a world of pandering entertainment, algorithms, and AI scripts. Only then will you be effective and make a difference because people only care about the words of people with integrity and love, not lectures and arrogance.
Pricing:
- I do not set a fee for ministry events.
- For any program outside of ministry (recording, birthday parties, etc.), you can contact me, and we can work out a price.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thepuppetpulpit.wixsite.com/zeke
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepuppetpulpit/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepuppetpulpit
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePuppetPulpit
