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I thought I'd start an appreciation thread for Camille Kampouris (aka Camille Bonora, before she was married). She was a major Muppet performer throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and then it seems like she stopped. She's one of the few long-running performers whose departure we know nothing about (could she be one of those performers Caroll Spinney said left because she wasn't getting recognition for her work?), and it seems like she never does interviews or anything. I'd almost like to see The Muppet Mindset or Tough Pigs interview her over Frank Oz or Brian Henson. Almost.
She didn't really have any really major characters people know about, but she did have quite a few recurring characters during her time on Sesame Street. I guess her biggest character was Clementine, who had previously been performed by two people (and yet it seems like whenever an article or book mentions Brian Meehl's characters who were recast, Clementine is the one character never mentioned). It seems like they were trying to make Ruby her main character, and yet she seems to only have one well-known segment (Monsterpiece Theater: Guys and Dolls).
I really like the childish voice Camille Bonora used for many of her characters (Kai-Lee, Jojo, Ruby), as well as the preppy/yuppie voice she sometimes used (though not too different from the child-like voice). So maybe she didn't have much vocal range, but I really like the voices she did use.
Many of the female performers before her (Fran Brill, Louise Gold, Kathryn Mullen) were either actresses or aspiring actresses before joining the Muppets, and I wonder if that's the case with her, considering she had a few on-screen roles in various productions (essentially playing herself in Neat Stuff, being a Gorilla Television victim on The Jim Henson Hour, voicing the unseen older sister in The Christmas Toy).
She didn't really have any really major characters people know about, but she did have quite a few recurring characters during her time on Sesame Street. I guess her biggest character was Clementine, who had previously been performed by two people (and yet it seems like whenever an article or book mentions Brian Meehl's characters who were recast, Clementine is the one character never mentioned). It seems like they were trying to make Ruby her main character, and yet she seems to only have one well-known segment (Monsterpiece Theater: Guys and Dolls).
I really like the childish voice Camille Bonora used for many of her characters (Kai-Lee, Jojo, Ruby), as well as the preppy/yuppie voice she sometimes used (though not too different from the child-like voice). So maybe she didn't have much vocal range, but I really like the voices she did use.
Many of the female performers before her (Fran Brill, Louise Gold, Kathryn Mullen) were either actresses or aspiring actresses before joining the Muppets, and I wonder if that's the case with her, considering she had a few on-screen roles in various productions (essentially playing herself in Neat Stuff, being a Gorilla Television victim on The Jim Henson Hour, voicing the unseen older sister in The Christmas Toy).