You may be asking why I’m talking about a book on writing on a puppet blog.  Well, think about this for a minute.

Say you had the best looking puppets ever and an amazing group of puppeteers. Now you may think that would be an instant success. Well you would be wrong, because you would still be missing the third and most important element, story.  The element of story seems to be often overlooked among upcoming puppeteers.

Puppeteers are story tellers!!!  The only difference between puppeteers and other story tellers  is that we choose to do so with puppets as a tool to assist in telling our story.

So,  don’t you want to learn how to tell better stories? Sure you do.

I just finished the book “Invisible Ink ” by Brian McDonald.  The book is an extremely fast read and will change the way you look at books and movies forever. Brian has a fantastic approach to breaking down stories in a clear and concise manner.  The best part though,  is that this book will give you all the tools you need to craft amazing stories of your own.

So, if you care about being a better story teller check out this book. He also has a fantastic blog to check out with great info as well.

I love behind the scenes video.  Well, here is a gem!  The people over at Furry Puppet have just worked on a couple of puppets for some (possible) Go Daddy campaign.  The puppets are beautiful, but the mechanisms and the people working on these puppets are even more amazing to hear and see.

I am still wondering who puppeteered for these. It is all very inspiring to see. Enjoy!

Hello Everyone,

I saw that Kanja had posted a bunch of new stuff on the puppet buzz blog. So, I decided it was a great time to jump back in myself.

I love good theater and good puppet theater even more.  Monkey Boys Production is currently showing their production of the Little Prince at the  Bristol Riverside Theater.   The show is currently up and will be on stage until Febuary 13th.   Everyone should go see this brilliant use of puppetry and you can buy tickets here.

I got a sneak preview of this show when it was still in development at the O’neill Puppetry Conference this last summer.

Scott Hitz was the Artist in Residence at the puppetry conference and during the 9 days of the conference he worked extensively on the production of  The Little Prince.   The production combines modern technology, brilliant puppetry, and great direction to make in my opinion an amazing show.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out the video preview here.

If you live in the Greater Toronto Area (Ontario, CANADA) and have not been to Open Door Designs, you must make the trip.  ODD is quickly becoming the unofficial puppet hub of Toronto, and owner Joanne Bigham is delightfully warm and helpful “guide”.

ODD offers puppets, puppet stages (which are definitely investments; but one I plan to buy myself because of the quality), workshops, and artist studio space.  But since this video does a better job explaining about the store, I’ll let it do the talking.

Oh, and if you’re not already, get on the mailing list to hear new and wonderful news about puppetry.

I always love it when nice puppets, good puppeteering and improv work convincingly together. I’m sure you can understand why I like this little video from the UK. There is something about a believable puppet character interacting with real people, that I really like. I hope you do as well.

Well, it has been quite a while since anyone has posted.   Apologies dear readers.  I hope that I can start posting more regularly.

Here is a nice little video treat.  This is a trailer for a puppet pilot called Bobo and Kipi.  It is produced by a company in Democratic Republic of the Congo, however it was filmed very close to home by some of my very talented friends.  Enjoy!

I love Project Puppet‘s contests.  I have been a judge and a participant in these contests and they are a ton of fun.  Well this years contest revolves around the theme of Hero and villains!  Very cool.  I wish I had the time to enter.  I have a great character, but I have very little time to build for myself anymore.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t!

Entries are due September 17th, 2010.  Check out the Puppet Contest website and see all of the rules here.

Enjoy!

Swazzle is casting NY/Tri-State Area hand and rod puppeteers for a live show that will premiere at FAO Schwarz on 5th Avenue beginning in September. The show will be promoting the “Juno Baby” brand, which is a series of children’s DVDs featuring a cast of puppets who teach the wonders of music. Performances will take place over four Saturdays in September, with 3 to 4 rehearsal days in late August/ early September. Applicants must be available for all performance and rehearsal days. The number of shows per day has yet to be decided.

Due to the short lead time, there will be no auditions, instead please send your resume and/or links to your reels to Artie Esposito at artie@swazzle.com.

(via Swazzle’s Puppet 101 Blog)

Well this looks great. Forget the fact that you can win $10,000, I am interested in the puppet videos. I was very entertained. The writing is funny and visually it is very well produced. The puppets have a simple but nice look and the puppeteering is not that bad. I do however have a very strong critcisim of one of the puppets/puppeteers. The blond “dopey” character known as Mulligan is very distracting. I apologize if I offend anyone by this, but the puppeteering is significantly poor, in my opinion. The puppeteer constantly over works the puppet and gives a shakey, unbelievability to the puppet. Note to producers, hire puppeteers carefully. I am impressed with the subtle puppeteering if the ninja however. The Captain’s voice is great as well.

Here is the first of the series of videos. I don’t know who is behind this viral video series, but I am sure all will be revealed soon enough.

Thanks to Shawn at Puppets and Stuff for the heads up.

Puppet Heap has released “Exit Row”, a new comedy web series that joins two air sickness bags, Ralph and Chuck, as they grapple with everything from love, betrayal, friendship, identity, in-flight etiquette, and life ad nauseum from the perspective of a seat back pocket.

Puppeteers James Godwin (Chapelle’s Show, The Muppets, Henson’s Stuffed and Unstrung) and Tim Lagasse (Chapelle’s Show, The Muppets, Sesame Street) lend their inimitable talents to the characters of Ralph and Chuck. Exit Row will premiere on Puppet Heap’s YouTube channel starting NOW, with new installments added each week. (Puppet Heap’s YouTube channel can be found by following the link HERE.)

“Exit Row” is a great example of just how simple AND great a “puppety” idea can be. Long live paper sack (bag) puppets!