Behind That Uppity Dummy, There’s a Sweet-Talking Woman
There’s this dummy called Ezra P. Peabody who gets paid upwards of $1,500 to explain at management conferences the principles of motivation and teamwork.
No wonder the dummy’s favorite line is “I’m good.”
Actually, Ezra is the alter ego of sweet-talking, sweet-singing Gail Wenos of Tustin--at one time the shiest kid on the block--who last year logged 150,000 miles traveling the country with Ezra to dispense her brand of entertainment with a message.
“I’m not sure that I could be a stand-up speaker by myself,” said Wenos, a former elementary school teacher who used hand puppets to help get her message across to children. “I’m basically a shy person, and the humor comes out through Ezra.”
But Wenos, a member of the National Speakers Assn., said: “I’m doing a lot better now, and I don’t feel so up-tight”--quite a statement from someone who regularly speaks before thousands of high-powered executives.
“I’m not comfortable going into a roomful of strangers and striking up conversations with people I don’t know,” she said. “I’d be more comfortable walking in with Ezra.”
As a matter of fact, Ezra takes control. “I may look vulnerable, but Ezra is caustic,” said Wenos, who looks like the sweet young thing next door. “But Ezra is the opposite, and he can be outspoken. I would never say things like that on my own.”
Lately, however, “there are times that Ezra comes out in me when Ezra is not out,” she said.
And Ezra is not reluctant to commend himself, again the opposite of the person who gives him life and a voice. “I’m good,” Ezra exclaims. “I’m hot stuff.” Wenos said Ezra has great self-confidence and notes that “everyone comes to listen to Ezra. He becomes real to them, and they forget it’s me.”
Ezra had his beginning seven years ago as a head without a body. “He was sitting on a shelf in Disneyland singing “I ain’t got no body,” she joshed, “so I bought him and put him away in my closet.”
After quitting teaching, Wenos took Ezra out of the closet, gave him a full body, read a book on ventriloquism and introduced him as part of her act as a member of the Johnny Mann Singers.
Later, advertising herself as a humorist, she struck out on her own and started giving talks at schools and convalescent homes. “I had some lean times,” she recalled.
Although primarily a motivation speaker to the corporate world, she shifts gears and talks to church audiences about family bonding, God’s love and love for each other.
“It’s two different worlds, and I charge quite a bit less for the churches because they have less money,” she said.
The newspaper advertisement read: “Lost. 8-foot pet Burmese python. Do not kill. Friendly.”
Dave Parker, 20, of San Clemente, finally found his python a couple of days later in a drainage ditch near his two-story apartment. The python had crawled through an opening in a window screen and slithered down the wall.
“Buddha is a sweetheart, and he’s not dangerous,” Parker said. “He loves everybody.”
Eric Futterer, 32, of Fullerton is a voice teacher who works with record companies, but his latest venture is the collection of 1,100 limited-edition miniature cars he bought from a museum in Palm Springs to add to his own collection.
Why? “Craziness, I guess,” he said. Futterer is caught up in exotic machines and would like to see a transportation museum created that combines trains, aircraft and automobiles.
In the meantime, Futterer and his singing wife, Katherine Peters, 34, spend time admiring and keeping track of their 2,600 miniature cars, which include mint condition English and European Rovers, Corgis and Dinkys.
“I look at them as art,” he said. There is great public interest in miniature cars these days, he said, no doubt the reason he keeps most of them in a vault. “I also only keep those that are perfect.”
Sometimes Donald Hays, 58, of Yorba Linda gets some odd stares when he tells people he’s a futurist.
“There’s nothing mystical about it,” explained Hays, who recently retired as an administrator for the Fullerton Union High School District and now works as a “consultant/futurist.” Hayes is paid to offer planning alternatives.
“I work on the premise that the future doesn’t exist, but that people have to create it,” he said.
Hays said lots of people are futurists but are not aware that they are, such as people in planning, designing and creating.
“And every individual has his own guiding image to see what happens beyond tomorrow,” Hays said. He also noted that there’s a World Future Society headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Acknowledgments--Hebrew Academy second-grader John-Aaron Lenhert of Villa Park was named top fund-raiser for reading 202 books and securing pledges worth $1,240 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. A total of $9,000 was raised by 25 Orange County students who read 1,900 books.
