Classmate spotlight...

This classmate of ours is no dummy...he designs them, he restores them. In fact he does a whole lot more than that! Alan Semok has enjoyed an amazing career in the entertainment field.

We should have realized that Alan was destined for impressive accomplishments when he handled the lead role in our high school play, The Education of Hyman Kaplan, with ease. Alan’s performing career includes live theatre, film, series television, commercials and promos, standup comedy, and both character and straight voiceover work.

In 2003 Alan lent his internationally recognized expertise in the field of ventriloquism to a variety of film projects, including one entitled DUMMY. In addition to designing and constructing the film's title character, he served as the ventriloquial technical advisor on the project and spent several weeks personally coaching Adrien Brody in the techniques of ventriloquism and puppet manipulation.

Alan (wearing his "other" hat as the internationally known "Dummy Doctor") appeared as a "guest expert" on an episode of the PBS series HISTORY DETECTIVES. The program segment revolves around an interesting search concerning the origins and provenance of a 90 year old ventriloquial dummy, purporting to be directly related to Edgar Bergen's famous "Charlie McCarthy".

Alan's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE episode entitled The Duel, continues to air on PBS stations around the country in frequent repeat showings. (July 2004 marked the 200th anniversary of the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr). The film has also been picked up by many schools around the country and is shown in the classroom as a faithful depiction of events surrounding the infamous duel involving two of our founding fathers. In this film (shot on location in May of 1999), Alan portrays Vice President AARON BURR in re-enactments of the events leading up to the famous duel (as a result of which Hamilton died)

Alan has also recently been on television with three commercials: the first is a commercial for Wendy's restaurants, in which he portrays a corporate C.E.O. with stage fright attempting to give a company report to a group of perplexed employees. Alan has also been featured on television and in movie theatres across the UK and Europe in a commercial spot for M&M's, appearing with the commercial's two stars, RED and YELLOW. Throughout most of 2007, Alan was featured in TV commercials for Levitz furniture The spot was shown in the New York area as well as the Pacific Northwest and California.

In addition to the original vintage puppets, in the early 1990's Alan (at the request of Bob Smith) created several exact replicas of Howdy including (thanks to improved materials and new moulding techniques) a more exact marionette replica than had been produced in the past, as well as a new Photo Doody which Smith used in personal appearances until the time of his death. One of Semok's marionette duplicates appears on a 2005 cover of TV Guide magazine as part of a series recreating classic covers from the magazine's history; the cover featured Howdy with Conan O'Brien standing in for and dressed as Buffalo Bob Smith. Another of the Semok duplicates resides in the International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, the private museum owned by renowned illusionist David Copperfield.

This very multi-talented classmate of ours is someone we are proud to call "fellow alumni".