Wayland Flowers

Wayland Parrott Flowers Jr. (November 26, 1939 – October 11, 1988) was an American actor, comedian and puppeteer. Flowers was best known for the comedy act he created with his puppet Madame. His performances as "Wayland Flowers and Madame" were a major national success on stage and on screen in the 1970s and 1980s.

Flowers is frequently cited as a ventriloquist despite the fact that he made no effort to conceal that he was voicing his characters (Madame's infamous opening line was, "You may have noticed Wayland is no ventriloquist and I'm no fuckin' dummy"). He instead preferred to be called an "illusionist," because onlookers tended to focus their attention on his animated puppets, who seemed to do all the talking.