This is your last chance to enter your puppet in The Once Upon a Puppet Contest!  The dealine is tomorrow, so finish those noses, arms and eyes.  Get those puppets in you guys (and gals)!  Hey, I’m a poet!  Don’t be late.  I am looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

After coming back from the Puppets Up! Festival in Almonte, Ontario, I have been rejuvinated in my puppet passion and I have decided to write about some of the acts (and people) that I have enjoyed.  When the festival first started (three years ago) I was asked to help out doing puppetry improv from the balcony.  I agreed and did some puppetry on the balcony for maybe two or three 20 minute stints.  I can tell you it is hard work. 

 Talking for 20 minutes is challenging enough, but in the direct sun too, now that was hard.  But that is nothing compared to the other people who helped out.  One of those people is Jamie Douglas.  The truth is that he along with Will Richardson and Allan Martin, ended up being in the hot sun a lot longer than me. 

There is a great video interview of Jamie Douglas talking about The Balcony Puppeteers on the MuppetCast website here. The acts were a hit and before you knew it, they became their own puppetry team.  The are called “The Balcony Puppeteers“, and what is great is that the passion that these individuals have becomes infectious.  They are all super entertainers and have the ability to do it in the hot sun for rediculous amounts of time.  After my short stint on that balcony I have a huge amount of respect for the stamina it takes and for them as performers. 

I am happy that I was able to meet these guys and I encourage anyone visiting the Puppets Up! Festival to pull up a chair and watch them in action.

This past month I had the pleasure of taking a workshop and speaking with Connecticut based Jim Napolitano (aka “Nappy”).  As a UCONN Puppet Arts Program alumnus he has a bunch of television credits under his belt including Between the Lions and The Book of Pooh.

There are many people and things that I admire, and one of those things is the passion that people have towards whatever they do.  Jim has it and I admire that.  After taking his workshop I am now ready to investigate this form of puppetry more.  I would like to thank Jim for that. 

And one more thing I should mention.  As a teacher I know a lot about good ones, Jim is one of the best I have ever had a workshop with.  Great pacing, extremely clear; I would highly recommend hiring him. School event, daycare event, corperate team building event?  What not look at taking a workshop with Nappy?  Hats off to you Jim!  Go check out his website.

I have posted about puppet builder and puppeteer Matt Ficner before.  Matt has started a series of videos called “The Creepy Puppet Project” with this one titled “Blind Rage” being the first installment.  The film is a horror film with lots of blood and gore and thus the reason for my warning in the title of the post.  The entire short film was made (including building all the characters) in 20 days.  Matt also had help puppeteering with two other great puppeteers/builders, namely Vicki Veenstra and Stephen Brathwaite.

 I look forward to posting more about these films as they come.  So stay tuned…if you dare.

Kanja Chen (founder of Puppet Buzz and head honcho of Chensational Puppets) is cleaning out his workshop! Not only is that amazing news - it was about time - but he’s selling some fabulous puppets! These puppets are pieces of the personal history of a fantastic puppet builder and puppeteer, not to mention that some of them can be considered television memorabilia. The two puppet bunnies (pictured above) were used for a Canadian television show called “The 11th Hour”.

I’m always amazed at the versatility in style that Kanja is able to achieve in his individual projects. Check out the rest! I have a feeling these puppets will be worth a lot more in the not so distant future than he’s asking for them now.