Alumni Spotlight: Davis Using Ventriloquism as a Ministry
Posted on: February 5, 2026
Alumni Spotlight
Tansy Lou Davis (’22)
Tansy Lou Davis (‘22) says making people smile is one of her main goals in life, and her work as a ventriloquist allows her to do just that.
Davis, who majored in Applied Theatre and minored in Christian Studies and Psychology during her time at North Greenville University, began her journey as a ventriloquist at a young age with her mom overseeing a puppet ministry at their church.
“When I was in fifth grade, there was a talent show and I really wanted to do something, but I had extreme social anxiety, so I did not want to talk or explain what I was doing,” said Davis. “I asked my mom to teach me a magic trick because I figured I could just show a little trick, like making the thumb disappear kind of thing. She didn’t know any magic, but she knew ventriloquism and she taught me that instead and convinced me that no one was going to pay attention to me because they just wanted to hear the puppet talk. And she was absolutely right.”
As she performed with her puppet, she noticed her classmates were captivated and engaged during the entire skit.
“All of the classmates were asking my puppet different questions, so I got to interact without the social pressure of it,” she said.
As she learned the art of ventriloquism, Davis noted that while the puppet manipulation was easy to learn with her background in puppet ministry, developing the skillset of not moving her mouth was challenging and took a lot of time.
She even began writing her own material at a young age as she found the script books she was using could have been better.
“I just thought that the script books were so cheesy, so I started writing my own stuff. But also as a sixth grader, writing my own material, it was also very cheesy. But I just kept with it and eventually got better,” she said.
Since then, she has been developing her own characters and writing scripts for them, with each having their own personalities.
For example, one of her characters is a redneck puppet and his personality was inspired by her family and friends back home.
“His personality I already had in my head. Some of the stories and jokes I wanted to tell because quite a few of my family and friends back home are rednecks. I am not, but I can use what I know to build him,” she said. “So, I actually reached out to a friend of mine at a ventriloquist convention and we came up with a sketch together of what I would want him to look like, and she built him for me, but I already had his personality in mind.”
Her most well-known character is Molly, a pink fluffy monster whose personality didn’t take shape until later.
“I had the puppet because I bought it for a very specific ministry event I was going to, and the puppet didn’t come in in time, so I borrowed somebody else’s puppet to do the script that I wrote,” she said.
When the puppet finally came in, it didn’t fit the script she had, and it sat in her closet for two years.
“One day I put her on again and it was just a perfect personality,” said Davis. “I just keep working at it and then I write more jokes, or I hear people saying silly things, I’ll write them down and figure out how to mold the joke to fit one of the characters.”
Davis left ventriloquism behind when she came to NGU because she didn’t want her reputation from back home as ‘puppet girl’ to follow her.
“Everybody knew me as the puppet girl and every time I went home, people would ask me if I’ve got any shows,” she said. “I didn’t want to be ‘puppet girl,’ I wanted to just be Tansy and have people know me as me. But I realized I really enjoyed doing it and making people laugh.”
It wasn’t long into her college career when she decided to pick it back up again.
“I think it was my second semester there, I ended up grabbing one of my puppets from home, then it kind of exploded at North Greenville,” she said. “I mean, everybody loved it, especially because I was involved with theatre people anyway. They were very encouraging about it.”
During her time as a student at NGU, Davis had many opportunities to grow in her talents as she performed skits with Act II and through on-campus events, like coffee house. In addition to growing as a performer, NGU also helped strengthen her faith and gave her a better biblical foundation through the various Christian Studies courses she took.
“[NGU was a] place where I was challenged to make my faith my own, but not just faith rather, like, make sure that I’m actually learning truth and understanding that is real life. That is the most important thing,” she said.
Since graduating from NGU, Davis has continued to perform with her puppets and is using the opportunities she gets as an outlet to share the gospel. Ventriloquism is more than just a show she gets to perform; it’s her ministry.
“I want people to enjoy life, enjoy the pleasures that God gives us, like laughter,” Davis said. “I always try to put into my shows reminders, or I try to make sure that my shows are directing people to God. By the end of the show, they know that I’m a Christian. They know part of my testimony with social anxiety and how God used puppets to help me with that.”
While there are many unique things about ventriloquism that Davis enjoys, getting the opportunity to make everyone feel like a kid again is at the top of the list.
“There’s something really special about giving people an opportunity to become like kids again. When I put on a puppet and the puppet is talking, people forget about real life for a moment and they’re interacting with this make-believe imaginary world,” she said.
“I love giving people that space to be a kid again and I often think about what Jesus is, is like letting the little kids come to me. I think we’re supposed to have this sense of looseness like a child that we don’t necessarily have, and I really like being able to bring that out in people if they give it a chance, that is,” Davis continued. “The fact that I’m able to help people kind of get like loose first, then think about the goodness of God, I think it’s a really beautiful thing.”
Davis will perform a show this Saturday at Billingsley Theatre at 7 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to pay what they can, with proceeds benefiting the NGU Theatre Society.
