Puppeteering Testimonies

[scarylarrywolf]

So, all you puppeteers out there, you couldn't have all been born with a puppet on your hand -- how did you first develop an interest in puppetry?

As for myself, I had made paper bag puppets ever since I was about 5 after having copied a paper dinosaur head from a book at the library and gluing it to a bag. Puppets mezmorized me and I had so much fun making them. I even tried to make a George Washington paper bag puppet complete with wooden teeth. Puppetry had been just a sort of fun arts & crafts thing to keep me occupied when I was little, until it became my passion when I was 10. A friend of mine told me about Muppets Tonight and how funny it was, so that night when we went over to my grandparents' house they turned it on and I knew from that point that I was forever connected to the realm of puppetry. The use of artistic talents and the humor all mixed together was exactly what I wanted to get my hands into (I know, that's an AWEFUL pun ). I got a Jim Henson biography from the library to do a report and discovered that his interests in his youth were extremely similar to mine. It all seemed perfect.

So the next day I set out to built my first "professional" puppet (whom I stapled together) -- "Rotting Rex". I decided after that that hot glue worked a little better, resulting in my biggest character personality, "Scary" Larry Wolf. Since then I've made two upgrades of Larry and done a lot of learning and improving, both in building and performing. Everybody's gotta start somewhere, and that was my starting block.

How'd the rest of you get mixed up in this stuff?

--"Scary" Larry Wolf

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I was a 70's Sesame baby. My mom bought me all these old SS puppets from the store and I used those for puppet shows for friends, family, etc for years.

In 1990 I made my cartoon character Muley as a puppet and since then created over 30 different characters and performed at places such as Isaac Hayes' restaurant, on Beale St, and several other locations, Muley has also appeared on local radio and TV and in several newspapers.

Nowadays, there's a full-body costume.

 

[Super Scooter]

My mom had bought 3 Muppet tapes when my brother was born. Muppet Treasures, Children's Songs and Stories with the Muppets, and The Kermit and Piggy Story. My brother loved them, but didn't really get atteached to them. So, then when I was born, we had those tapes. I watched them from the very beginning along with Muppet Babies and Sesame Street. I got hooked. I still have those tapes! That's how it started. I was wondering how in the heck they did it, even at that age. Then the year the Muppet Workshop came out with those Muppet Puppet 'N' Parts puppets, I bought one. I turned that into what many consider the most lovable, and obnoxious character ever. I don't perform him anymore, my brother does (he brings a sort of magic to the character when he plays him. Really brings him alive). Anyway, that's when I got bit by the bug. I started building my own characters. Unlike you guys, I don't think I've really created a signature character yet. I've created a signature company (I call it Parallel Pictures ), but not one signature character for myself. I've also created signature characters for one of my friends and my brother (the one mentioned above), but have yet to create that one guy that just clicks with me. Who knows! Maybe I never will. Oh, well.

 

[CaptCrouton]

Sesame Street was my favorite show as a child, and I don't remember life without it. In church when I was very young, I remember marionettes and Mr Rogers type puppets. I don't remember much of what they taught, but it sure beat the flannelgraph and captured my attention. And I loved to come to church because of the puppets.

My mom became the children's church teacher and made some sock puppets (which I still have) and then because of their popularity made basic sock puppets for everyone to create their own features. My mom was awesome! I'd often read the lessons before she'd teach them just to really wow my classmates.

Eventually some other guy took over the class who was awful. I remember him telling us a story how years ago his son came home with a black eye because he'd been in a fight. The boy got 2 spankings from his dad. One for getting in a fight and one for losing. As an eleven year old, my mind whirlled with his screwy wisdom. Can he actually be telling us this stuff? This man didn't have a creative bone in his body and taught the same stuff week after week. Aargh! I vowed to some day take over his job and be nothing like him... and eventually I did.

When I was too old to be a student in kids church, I offered to divide up the class and teach the little guys. When I proved myself, I brought back the puppets and did an improv show every week based on whatever the new teacher had been teaching two minutes earlier. We were a big hit and I kind of miss those times when I did NO preparation and just had fun with puppets.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I watched Sesame as a kid and probably the Muppet Show too, but wasn't really in to puppetry until I saw an exhibit at a Museum in Toronto ("The Art of the Muppets") around the time I was five or six. There were most of the Muppets on display and because Fraggle Rock was being taped here Muppeteers were giving demonstrations with Red, Mokey, etc. It was very cool. I went to school the next day and we were drawing pictures of what we wanted to be when we grew up. I drew a picture of myself in a TV studio with Cookie Monster and said I wanted to be Frank Oz when I grew up. I guess David Rudman ended up with that job, but for better or worse I was hooked.