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Some might have foreseen Barber’s future in ventriloquism when he picked up his first puppet at age 10. Others might have seen it shortly after that, when he started posting hand-drawn signs to telephone poles in his hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota, encouraging residents to come to his performances in his family’s basement. But for Barber, the deal was sealed when he was 13 and a family friend offered to pay him to perform at a birthday party. “I got $3,” he recalls. “And that’s when I decided to start charging on a regular basis.”

These days, Barber brings a half-dozen characters to life at the 642-seat Hamner-Barber Theater in Branson, Missouri. They range from a wise-cracking baby to a singing diva, all infused with frenetic energy, wry humor, and earnest enthusiasm. In addition to his almost-daily ventriloquism performances, he’s appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and earned Ventriloquist of the Year honors from the International Magicians Society.

Though Barber shied away from performing when he started college at a South Dakota school—deciding that architecture would be a surer path to financial stability—the lure of entertainment proved irresistible. It wasn’t long before he transferred to the University of Minnesota and switched his major to speech communications. With a nudge from professor David Sleeper, an amateur ventriloquist himself, Barber got an interview—and a short-term gig— traveling with an Armed Forces USO tour. The tour took him around the United States, and after he graduated, he did another tour that took him around the world.

Along the way, he learned that ventriloquism is about a lot more than just talking heads. “Multitasking is the perfect word for it,” he says. “I have to play myself, but I also have to play multiple puppets, switching from instant to instant to different characters and personalities,” he says. “I need to be able to know the material well enough to make the switch without thinking about it, but I also need to keep up on the news and what’s going on so I can ad lib.”

Though ventriloquism may seem like a throwback to a simpler time, Barber says that the magical quality that allows ventriloquists to bring inanimate objects to life will always inspire awe. “Some ventriloquists tried to use high-tech, animatronic characters, but it comes down to entertaining, not technology,” he says. “The people who know how to engage audiences will always have opportunities to perform.”

Barber settled in Branson in 1999, where he lives with his wife and 6-year-old daughter. By day, he runs the theater that he co-owns with his performing partners, Dave and Denise Hamner. Six nights a week, he takes the stage.

It’s a grueling schedule, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I met George Burns a couple years before he passed away, and he was still performing into his 90s,” he says. “I thought: what a great career. That’s how I want it to be for me—to have a career that keeps building and building. And then? Then I’ll check out.” —Erin Peterson