One old man way out in the delta islands always asked me very seriously
how Felipe was doing. What am I going to say? I am sure that he
thought he was alive.
Rarely little kids, sometimes the most brilliant 3 or 4 year-olds, are
frightened out of their wits and run away crying. They are smart enough
to know that that "thing" is a "thing" and as such should not be looking at them
and talking. Most little kids easily fantasize that he really is talking, but
they know I am a vital part of the act.
Felipe is always really nice to
kids. He doesn’t insult them, or embarrass them. He gets his Bible
stories all mixed up, but I correct him and hopefully the kids get the message.
The strange result is that kids identify me with Felipe. He
flirts with the little girls and tells them how cute they are. Then after church little
kids, boys and girls both, sometimes run up to me and wrap their arms around my
legs and want me to bend down for a kiss on the cheek and they hang all over
me. I love it. It’s wonderful!
Years ago we were in the USA doing itinerary and living in Santa Cruz
next to the Bethany camp grounds. I was asked to do a Felipe act every
evening for a Kids Camp. After a couple of days some of the bigger
kids, 10 or 11 years old, started yelling, “We know who is talking. You can’t fool
us.”
I decided to fix them good: I had a little flat tape
recorder and hid it in the suitcase. I purchased a “continuous tape” that
repeats itself every 45 seconds. And I recorded on it the sound of Felipe
screaming, “Let me out of here! There’s a cockroach in here!” and several
other similar outcries. Then I put a hidden toggle switch on the outside of the
suitcase to activate the recording.
So the last night of the camp I had a
little girl holding the suitcase for me as usual. Felipe did his thing
and as always resisted going back into his case. So after his dialog, now
with the little girl holding the case I finally got him to say his final
good-byes to the kids. The little girl was supposed
to carry him over and place him beside the grand piano. As I was zipping
up the case I flipped the switch on and now as she was carrying the case away
you could hear him screaming, “Let me out of here! There’s a cockroach in
here!” She put him down quickly and hurried away. But he kept on
yelling stuff, like “I want a drink of water!”… and more. I was finished with my part, so I walked over, picked up the suitcase and yelled at Felipe
to be quiet as I said goodbye to the kids and walked out with both Felipe and me yelling
at the same time to each other.
But this gets better: Before returning to Argentina, I changed the tape
to Spanish and kept the tape recorder in the case. One day I had the
Mission’s Area Director in the back seat of my car while driving through the
streets of Buenos Aires. I hit a pot-hole or something and it switched
the tape on. The Area Director said, “Ralph, you’re not going to believe
this, but I think I hear Felipe yelling in the trunk of the car!” I had
to pull over, open the trunk and shut him off. Of course I had to tell
him.
I very seldom used this trick though, since it was really an overkill
with my quite successful little show which I still use just before preaching.
But the best one came when I was way out in the maze of canals and rivers of
the Paraná Delta. I had a young pastor with me for the first time
enjoying the exciting ministry we had, and still have, out in this river wilderness. Our Messenger of Peace boat had a storage area under the
prow. It was a crawl space where we kept the food supplies, my accordion,
Felipe, etc. We had arrived
at one of the places where we were going to have a service. I had tied up
the stern to the dock and had climbed up on the dock. The young pastor
crawled into the storage space and was getting my accordion out. There he was with his ear almost next to Felipe’s case when he
inadvertently hit the hidden switch. Felipe started yelling, “Let me out
of here! There’s a cockroach in here!” This young pastor came out
from the crawl space like he had been shot. He looked up at me where I
was standing grinning at him on the dock, twenty feet away. Then he looked
back at Felipe’s case, then back at me... as Felipe kept yelling.
Finally he said, “Man! You are good at that!” I jumped into the
boat reached out and picked up Felipe’s case and flipped the toggle switch
which was hardly visible. I said, “Shut up, Felipe.” And I never did tell him how I did it. Well, he never asked! Ha!
And did I ever tell you about the lady in the Oakland airport that was
running the security screener? I always carry Felipe on, so he goes through
the machine. She stopped the belt and asked, “What in the world do you
have in there?” I told her that I was a ventriloquist and that was my
dummy. “Can you make him talk?” she asked. I said, “Only if
you let me take him out of the case.” Now the people behind were getting
nervous, so she turned the machine over to another screener and came
over. “I’m due for a break and I want to see him and hear him talk,” she
said. So I pulled him out. Now this lady was blonde and did not
look anything like she might speak Spanish, but without me even realizing it,
Felipe started right off talking to her in Spanish. And behold, she really did
speak Spanish. So he said something and she answered him and now there
was a little conversation going on with her and Felipe all in Spanish.
Suddenly Felipe said to her, in Spanish, of course... “The guy that is holding me in his hands doesn’t
speak a word of Spanish. He doesn’t even know what we are talking
about.” I had to interrupt the little liar. I said, “Felipe, You
know that isn’t true!” And we all, including the bystanders, had a great
laugh. And, fact is, I am still laughing because the whole thing was
Felipe’s idea… not mine.
In all, Felipe has, for forty years now, been an interesting tool to attract people of all ages close enough to hear the preaching of the Gospel of God's love. And that's what its all about.
Ralph
I love it Ralph, it seems that I have known Felipe my whole life.
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