On Wednesday, March 12, Brent Vernon will bring his unique live show, “Brent Vernon & Sam,” to the Brundidge Methodist Church. 

Vernon, a Florida native, brings together music and ventriloquism for what he calls a “quirky, fun” experience for viewers. 

“It’s very much family friendly, kid friendly, and is a combination of music, ventriloquism and puppetry,” Vernon said. “It’s a combination of music, stories and puppetry. I share some things related to my faith, not exclusively that, but just a good fun combination of all those sorts of things.” 

Vernon has been performing for nearly three decades, beginning with a band he formed in high school called Vision. 

“When I was in high school I got really enamored with music and started writing music,” he said. “I never thought of myself as a soloist but I loved vocal harmony. I put together a little vocal group when I was in high school and started recording and singing around until someone actually bought us an old beat-up van and we had a gentleman that had a lot of contacts around the country that would be our booking agent.”

Eventually, Vernon added his ventriloquism to the act.

“Within the first couple of years we started traveling, we went on a series of Christmas concerts and the other members of the group said I should do my ventriloquism at the shows,” said Vernon. “My parents bought me a ventriloquist puppet when I was a kid, I don’t even remember asking for one, but I just picked it up and it stuck. I don’t consider myself the best ventriloquist but people love it and people latched onto it and became a quirky sort of thing we did. That became a bigger part of what I do and it’s still part of the program.” 

The group toured across the United States in the 1990s until the other members left the group, leaving Vernon as a solo act. He and his ventriloquist dummy Sam have performed in churches, schools and special events cross the United States, Ireland, Australia, Canada and the Caribbean Islands. He’s also released three studio albums and two instrumental albums along with being a published children’s author and illustrator. 

“I started to write and illustrate children’s books about 15 years ago,” he said. “I decided to take it seriously and thankfully my first book, which I pretty much sold out of my trunk, did really well. I sold a ton of them and people really seemed to like it and I kept writing and illustrating.” 

When Brent Vernon & Sam make their way to Brundidge in Pike County for the first time, Vernon said that viewers will have a lot of fun and maybe take away more from the show.

“Hopefully you’ll have a lot of fun and hear some good music and good stories and one thing I really hope to do with kids that come out is just to encourage them,” he emphasized. “I’m such quirky guy but I have such joy in what I do, too. God gives us all talents, so we should use it. Even if it’s quirky there’s joy in using the talents we’re given. It’s fun to see the kids buy into the creativity and imagination and I’ll get to share some songs and reflect on our lives and what’s important and what’s not within that.” 

Vernon will perform at Brundidge Methodist Church at 140 N. Main St. in Brundidge, at 6:30 p.m. on March 12. Admission for the concert is free.