About Mike

Mike Randall NEVER met a puppet he didn't like! At the tender age of 7 he was hospitalized for three months following a car accident. While on the mend...there was one thing that kept the active youngster from going stir crazy-his Grandmother had given him seven Disney hand puppets. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Shaggy Dog and the rest of the gang provided Mike with hours of imaginative play and sparked a life long love of puppets and performing. For Christmas & birthdays he'd ask for puppets and ventriloquist figures and during those early years Mike learned to make puppets out of just about anything from socks and paper bags to paper mache and plastic wood.
	Like many baby boomers, Mike Randall was entertained by the Ventriloquist Greats of the 50's & 60's including Edgar Bergen, Paul Winchell and Jimmy Nelson and their life like side-kicks Charlie McCarthy, Danny O'Day and Jerry Mahoney. In Jr. High School Mike got his hands on Paul Winchell's classic book "Ventriloquism For Fun & Profit" and immediately went to work talking to "himself" and building puppets. In 1978 Mike auditioned for and won the role of the "Marvelous Magical Burger King" for Western New York, Pennsylvania and Southern Ontario. One of twenty "Kings" hired and trained by the Burger King Corporation, Mike learned first hand about performing magic for children, presenting hundreds of shows over a two year period.
Trained by Tony Hassini, Magician and special effects coordinator for the Burger King Commercials, Mike became a leading King-eventually being hired by Tony to help train additional Kings. Over the years Mike Randall went on to create his own one-man Mark Twain show performing Nationwide (www.MarkTwainLive.com) and in 1981 made the move into Broadcasting. Mike is the Chief Meteorologist at WKBW-TV (www.wkbw.com) in Buffalo, NY ,In 2006 he debuted a NEW solo show! Charles Dickens Holiday Show performing A Christmas Carol. (www.CharlesDickensLive.com) Mike continues to perform magic and ventriloquism for audiences of all ages all across Western New York!