Shaun Ryder and Spoons

Comedian & writer Paul Kerensa

My all-time favourite fact involves an unsung star of yesteryear: Paul Winchell, aka ‘Winch’. He’s probably best-known for voicing Tigger in Winnie the Pooh, or Dick Dastardly in Wacky Races, or the evil Gargamel in The Smurfs. But here’s the fact: bonkers as it sounds, this voice behind Tigger invented the artificial heart.

At a young age, Winch was obsessed with ventriloquism, and his hit radio show featured just that… Radio ventriloquism, where your lips can move to your heart’s content. Early on, Winch created that Muppet-like method of moving puppets’ hands via your own linked gestures. By the late 50s, he was a star, and won ‘Arthur Murray’s Dance Party’, the Strictly of its day. During after-show drinks, Winch met Dr Henry Heimlich, of Heimlich Manoeuvre fame – just the person you want at a party full of vol-au- vents.

This strange friendship formed between Tigger and the manoeuvre guy. “You must be choking?” Well I’m not. Dr Heimlich let Winch observe his surgical operations, and their interests combined to invent the artificial heart. The ventriloquist behind puppet gestures became equally fixated on manoeuvring human bodies – and who better to manoeuvre them with, than the world’s most famous manoeuvre.

Transferable skills – even ventriloquist doll-making and cardiac surgery – show us the value of trying another path, a parallel path, to the one we’re on. Winch was fascinated with how bodies work, and how to physically manipulate them when they don’t. Jesus was a carpenter, then built with words and teaching. His disciples were fisherman, and then fishers of men. Personally, my first writing job was for Radio 2 – jokes for The News Huddlines in 2001. I never thought that would wind up here. I couldn’t have predicted what led to now.

We may think we’ve found our calling, a job for our skillset. But for me, God’s the ultimate manoeuvrer. Paul Winchell gave new life to puppets and people. I believe that maybe, just maybe, God’s manoeuvring us likewise. We might yet discover new, surprising, dynamic uses for parts of us we’ve given up on.

So I think bouncing is NOT what Tiggers do best – I think it’s artificial heart invention – and maybe what we do best will surprise us yet. Because like the Tigger song nearly goes, the wonderful thing about each of us is, that we are the only one.