Wenceslao Moreno Centeno (April 17, 1896 – April 20, 1999), known professionally as Señor Wences (), was a Spanish ventriloquist and comedian. His popularity grew with his frequent television appearances on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show during the 1950s and 1960s. Later, he became popular with another generation of fans on The Muppet Show.
Early life
Wenceslao Moreno Centeno was born in Peñaranda de Bracamonte, Salamanca.
At age 15, he learned how to juggle. He then joined a circus act of some friends. His stable of characters included "Johnny", a childlike face drawn on his hand, placed atop an otherwise headless doll, with whom the ventriloquist conversed while switching voices between Johnny's falsetto and his own voice with great speed. He opened his act by drawing Johnny's face on his hand, on stage. He would first place his thumb next to, and in front of, his bent first finger; the first finger would be the upper lip, and the thumb the lower lip. He used lipstick to draw the lips onto the respective fingers and then drew eyes onto the upper part of the first finger, finishing the effect with a tiny long-haired wig on top of his hand. Flexing the thumb would move the "lips". Moreno performed a scene using Johnny in the 1947 musical Mother Wore Tights. The inspiration for Johnny came from his school days when the teacher punished him for imitating classmates and answering "present" when they were absent. His punishment was to clean the inkwells and he smeared some of the ink on his hand, then clenched his fist to create the face.
Another popular Señor Wences character was the gruff-voiced "Pedro", a disembodied head in a box. Señor Wences was forced suddenly to invent the character when his regular, full-sized dummy was destroyed He also performed on Broadway, in Las Vegas casino theaters, in feature films, and made an appearance on The Dusty Springfield Show in 1966.
Catchphrases
One of the Señor Wences trademark bits of shtick (referenced several times below) involved his dialogue with a deep voice emanating from inside a box. At the opening of the dialogue he would shout, "Hello in the box!" At the conclusion of the dialogue, he would open the lid of the box and ask "S'ok?" ("It's ok?") and the box voice would answer "S'ariiight!" immediately after which Señor Wences would shut the lid of the box. In 1959, the phrase was adapted for use in the closing credits for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon show Quick Draw McGraw where sidekick Baba Looey, trapped inside a chest, falls off a stagecoach driven by Quick-Draw whose shout "Hey Baba Looey" is met by the response "S'awright".
Another routine involved explaining to his hand puppet Johnny that something was easy (or difficult) to do, to which the puppet always would reply the contrary, such as, "Easy for you, for me ees very deefeecult!" in his Spanish accent.), and he was so impressed with LaFong that he befriended her. Not only did he give his puppets to her, Las Vegas headliner Michele LaFong continued to perform Señor Wences routines after the performer's death, using some of the original characters. Another famous ventriloquist who was present at Señor Wences' birthday party, and who met him there for the first time, was Paul Winchell.
Moreno died on April 20, 1999, three days after his 103rd birthday.