Many thanks to Barbara, Anna, Clyde, Jim, Beth-Ann, Sherrilee, and tim – the guest bloggers who kept the conversation going in my absence. I spent a large part of the week with my family in New York City, getting my annual dose of subway grit, crowded sidewalks and car horn serenades.
We also saw some shows. One day had an “Animals in Wartime” theme, starting with a performance of “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”, Rajiv Joseph’s intense take on the madness and brutality surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Robin Williams played the tiger. In a brilliant bit of misdirection, he played the role like a tiger who was trying to look and sound enough like Robin Williams to get Midwesterners like me to buy a ticket. It worked! The rest of the play featured a lot of shouting, gunplay and profanity. It asked big, insoluble questions, like “How much control does God really have over a crazy world?” and “How long would I have to stand by the stage door to get Robin Williams to sign my program?” The whole experience was unsettling and thought provoking to a much greater degree than the classic musical revival that was our fallback option for the Wednesday matinee. Though to be fair, each play was set in an environment where “Anything Goes” pretty much sums up the rule of law.
The second play in our “Animals in Wartime” drama series was “War Horse”, a transplant from the National Theater of Great Britain. This one is based on a book by Michael Morpurgo with an ambitious goal of presenting World War I as seen from a equine perspective. That’s a tough assignment, but fascinating and meaningful on multiple levels, chiefly because the Great War was hell on horses. The development of barbed wire made cavalry charges suicidal, and artillery shells finished the grim job. This was another drama full of loud voices and gunfire, but it had something more – a huge heart and an amazing technical and artistic achievement in puppetry. Handspring Puppet Company created the life sized horses at the center of this show. “Joey” and “Topthorn” are each operated by three people. To call them technicians or anything less than actors would be unfair, since the trio that animates each puppet collaborates to bring a fully realized character to life.
I’m sorry I don’t have video of the actual performance, but if you get a chance you should try to see this show. There are some You Tube videos of the horse puppets in action at promotional events, including this one at an English racetrack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwu_d0xRhdI
Before technology made it possible to create virtual characters on a computer, one of the only ways to depict a non-human or exaggerated personality was with a puppet. From ventriloquist’s dummies like Charlie McCarthy and Howdy Doody to Shari Lewis’s Lamb Chop, Soupy Sales’ bodiless dog leg named White Fang and Jim Henson’s Muppets, our culture has a host of icons who can only move with the help of a hand up their back.
Name your favorite puppet.
Trail Baboon 
Kermit the Frog-smart, resourceful, good sense of humor, good sense of self.
Host of one of my all time favorite shows on tv.
(don’t tell Miss Piggy)
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Welcome back
Sounds like a fun week
I love Kermit so it’s he a George w bush that come immediately to mind
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Good morning, baboons!
What can I say? I’d like to be original, but my heart belongs to Kermit. As I type, Kermit is up above my computer monitor with his arm thrown around the neck of the first really popular stuffed toy my dad ever designed.
Ventriloquist dummies usually are smart@sses who enjoy putting people down. Their hearts are made of wood, and their painted eyes don’t really see.
But Kermit, sweet Kermit, is a fellow you can live with. I love his enjoyment of other people and his unflagging good spirits. He tries to organize his show in spite of all the competing egos and other sources of conflict, yet he doesn’t lose his temper or dedication to making a good show. Events in his world are forever dissolving in chaos, yet Kermit will not give up, nor does he take it personally. He lives in a world marked mostly by colorful chaos. As he moves from disaster to disaster, Kermit goes on hoping the next “number” will meet his dreams for it.
A friend who just died was a lot like Fozzie Bear. I went to school with a guy like Rowf. I’ve had dates with Janice, or her human counterpart. But if I’m to travel far on the road of life, my favorite companion will have to be Kermit. Don’t you love it when he cracks up at his own jokes?
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This is easy… I was a Lamp Chop/Shari Lewis devotee.
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A fine choice, VS.
Did you know Shari Lewis’s daughter Mallory continues with Lamb Chop?
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Yes… I’ve seen Mallory doing the act as well. One of the things that I really appreciate about Shari and Mallory and Lamb Chop are that they are nice (like Kermit). No smart-ass mean stuff.
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Can’t find it now, but I remember an interview in which Shari Lewis said her association with Lamb Chop was a burden at times. Once a fan of the show caught her at a restaurant eating lamb!
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I’m sure that almost any entertainer who has a routine or a character who becomes so closely connected with them is sometimes burdened by it. William Shatner comes to mind – Captain Kirk has got to be a hard act to follow. When we saw Peter Mayer last week, I was so grateful that he played his two signature songs (Everything is Holy and Blue Boat Home) – I assume that they get sick of playing some songs over and over.
The lamb at the restaurant doesn’t bother me… again it seems like entertainers ought to get a break from their characters and people’s expectations. I’m sure Jacques Cousteau ate fish and Jeff Dunham has jalapenos on his Mexican food…..
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VS A friend who lives Out East saw Jeff Dunham perform last year. When he opened a case the dummy fell apart, parts bouncing around on the stage. Dunham was so rattled he couldn’t remember his material, so the crowd (having memorized this on YouTube) was prompting him by shouting out the next lines.
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“on a stick”
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a gracious good morning to You All – s’all right?? s’all right.
yes, i forget the name but my favorite is the little guy in Señor Wences’ wooden box.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AaIDmiFXmo
then, the Muppet drummer, Animal.
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Senor Wences was great. His NY Times obit says the Pedro character was put in a box out of necessity because the rest of the puppet was “crushed in a train wreck” near Chicago. Apparently people were reluctant to book his act because they didn’t think audiences could relate to a head in a box. Oh, how they underestimate us! Senor Wences made a bunch of appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Another puppet character who was a favorite of mine also appeared regularly on Sullivan’s program – Topo Gigio.
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All right, Dale. Another good one. There seem to be a long list of great puppet based acts or shows.
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oh man, i love Topo! i was gone from home by 1964 and after that didn’t watch much Ed Sullivan (or any tv, i think) so missed a great puppet act! thanks for sharing, Dale. love the singing cacti
🙂
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forgot to say Welcome Back Dale!!!!
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It’s our 42nd anniversary so I took the day off because I could; so here I am on my own time instead of at work to say Good Morning.
I have a wonderful rabbit in a top hat puppet that can keep kids and dogs entertained for as long as the puppeteer wants to keep popping the rabbit out of the hat. The Lark Toy Store in Kellogg Minnesota has a fantastic selection of hand puppets if you’re ever looking.
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Where is kellog?
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Right by Wabasha down on Hwy 61; you’ve already gone through Red Wing and Lake City, and could be headed to Winona…
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Tom Servo. He has a little bit more of an edge than Kermit, but a similar outlook on life.
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I have lots of puppets in my play therapy room. My favorite is a 5 ft long snake that has a hole in its mouth through which you can pull things through to make it look like the snake is eating and swallowing. The snake frequently swallows an indignant green fairy finger puppet who screams as she is swallowed and exclaims with disgust when she is “pooped” out. This pair is a favorite of uptight, perfectionistic, OCD kids for some reason.
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They sound strangely appealing to me. 😉
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(If the shoe fits ! Or . . . if the foo . . . . )
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I suppose I was fond of Howdy Dowdy…I don’t remember him being a smart ass,but then…I was young and innocent. My adult favorite (oh, yes, I suppose after Kermit…even have a horse nicknamed after him) Muppet is/was Count Dracula.
Gotta run…performance review this morning. Mike forgot to play the Sons of the Pioneers (or I didn’t hear it) this morning, my inner clock is off.
Good morning all…good to have you home, Dale.
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Welcome back, Dale. Tim beat me to it, but thought George W. Bush was incredibly life-like. What made him seem so real to me was the puppet master’s regularly having ‘Dubya’ trip over everyday words.
Let’s not forget the incomparable Captain Kangaroo’s ‘Bunny Rabbit’, who could say so much without speaking. Plus, I was always fascinated by those beautiful bunches of carrots he eagerly accepted from CK. I only saw packaged grocery store carrots as a kid, sans the bushy green tops.
Chris in Owatonna
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Chris… I also loved Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose. I thought it was very funny that Bunny Rabbit wore glasses and I never got tired of the ping pong balls falling on Captain Kangaroo. That was wonderful tv.
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Me too.
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Ping pong balls – and the spinning box of Colgate (I can still sing the jingle for it). Mr. Moose was pretty cool.
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Pinocchio – We had the 4 figurines from the Disney movie characters – Geppetto, Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, and Figaro; I loved that movie and knew some of the songs, so would play with them while singing things like “Would you like to swing on a star”…
Good to have you back Dale, envy you your NY adventures!
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Good morning to all:
That big horse puppet is amazing, Dale. I hadn’t heard about those two animal themed shows you saw in New York. Thanks for telling us about them. I would like to see both of them.
It is hard to beat the muppets when picking puppet favorites. The ones from the Soupy Sales shows are also great. In fact, I like just about any kind puppet act or show.
There are so many good muppet puppets that it is hard to pick a single favorite. I guess I would say Cookie Monster or Oscar the Grouch because I have had a lot of fun playing with my kids and grandchildren imitating the voices of these puppets. I also like to imitate Bert and Ernie. BiB mentioned another one of my favorites, Animal, and there are many others including Beaker and the Swedish Chef.
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AND… (I love this topic), I think I’ve already mentioned an accidental trip to Mason City during which the child and I discovered the home of Bil Baird, who did the fabulous marionettes….
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And does anyone remember which one of the puppets was Kukla and which one was Ollie?
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was Kukla the dragon and Ollie the little bald guy? loved them too, VS!
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Ollie was the dragon.
When I was a kid I had pajamas featuring Kukla and Ollie in a repeating pattern. I think they must have been hand-me-downs – my sister remembers Kukla Fran and Ollie, but they were off the air by the time I was born.
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Being of the first generation to grow up with Sesame Street, I, too, have a special fondness for the Muppets. Kermit has been mentioned already (what’s not to love about Kermit?), but as a kid I also really liked Big Bird and Snuffleupagus (I’m a bit sad that everyone can see him now) – I loved how they cared for each other and that they were friends no matter what. One of my favorite “West Wing” episodes included a cameo by Big Bird. I can also recommend Carrol Spinney’s autobiography; short, funny, and lots of neat stuff about a lifetime playing Big Bird.
Non-Muppets also go back to PBS and being a kid: Lady Elaine and the Platypus family from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood (see, there is a reason I had platypuses on the brain over the weekend). Big fan of the Land of Make Believe and the trolley that took you there.
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I so enjoyed Lady Elaine Fairchild. I knew life would be easier if I were like Queen Sarah Saturday, but in my heart, I knew I was going to take the Lady Elaine route, almost every day.
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Another thing to like about Kermit: his bicycle!
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And he plays the banjo. 🙂
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It’s the trench coat and fedora that do it for me. So Sam Spade.
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I remember Kukla, Fran, Ollie as another of my favorites. I lvery much liked Soupy Sales with and without puppets. His work with puppets was very unique as well as the other things he did. For some reason his advice to kids, ” eat your vitaminnies”, is a phrase from him that has stuck in my mind.
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OMG! That horse puppet is the COOLEST thing I’ve ever seen!
Not to mention how interesting the show sounds…
Welcome back Dale– thanks for bringing us your experiences.
I saw a production of ‘Animal Farm’ in Chicago way back when that had the same sort of thing with actors as the animals and those mechanical legs…
I remember watching Captain Kangaroo but don’t remember much about it. I sort of remember the ping pong balls…
PeeWee’s playhouse was — and still is– fun with all his playhouse friends.
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I’m with you, Ben. PewWee’s playhouse is great.
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I had a different animal experience years ago when I saw “Equus” in Boston. All sorts of heavy psychologic mesage surrounded the horse. As the audience surged out of the theatre, crowd control was provided by Boston’s finest-on horseback. The whole crowd gasped.
Welcome back Dale. Even if you don’t read all of our blogging, don’t misss the comments made about you by musicians in various venues.
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I saw Equus in NYC with Anthony Hopkins who was alternating the show with Richard Burton…the wire horse heads on the actors were the most amazing, hypnotizing thing I have ever seen on stage. They still are vivid in my mind…what, 40 some years later.
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Equus was one of the first shows I volunteered on when I started doing theater. (Yeah, the audience wasn’t sure what to do about that whole season…we had the nudity and everything…)
Just read about a recent production that is still using the unique wire heads and horse shoe feet…
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Well, of course I loved Kermit, but I think Cookie Monster was my favorite. He and I share a similar train of thought (and vocabulary)… “Cookie!” That wealth of plushy blue hair and pink eyes really got me.
Welcome back, Dale!
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Don’t know why I remembered his eyes being pink….
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It was the “googly” part of his eyes (in my memory he is the only one I can think of whose eyes roll around) that I remember most. Also, he’s one of the few Muppets with “hands”…
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They almost all have hands, Anna!
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But not ones with puppeteer hands inside a la Cookie Monster and the Swedish Chef (and I think Oscar the Grouch) – those guys get a little more manual dexterity than Kermit and Grover.
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Bert and Ernie had hands as well, although only 4 fingers on each hand!
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My new favorite puppet is by an group from Australia called “Erth Visual & Physical” – they brought a juvenile T Rex to St Paul this winter:
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welcome back nils, good to see you
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Dinosaurs purr when you stroke their noses…who knew? This is fabulous! Thanks Nils.
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You guys and all the fun videos are the only thing keeping me afloat today!
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glad to see its working
hang in there
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Rise and Shine Baboons!!!
I am home again where internet access is dependable after 5 days of very spotty access and too much restaurant food. The trip had three legs: professional training in SF, family history in San Diego, and children and grandchildren in Phoenix. I will say that now that the grandchildren are of “spoiling age” it is really fun! Movies, candy, ice cream, pizza. Then we left them to their parents to straighten out.
Meanwhile, I was raised on Howdy Doody and Lamp Chop. But my favorite puppet and femme fatale is Miss Piggy. Her attitude rocks.
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Jacque!
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Glad you’re home safe and sound, Jacque.
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Love all the inserts today – thanks everyone! I missed out on a lot by having little or no TV in the late 60s, entire 70s and 80s – feel like I’m catchin up!
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A bit of plug (if I may) for a friend’s puppeteering – this is a show for grown-ups, not the kiddies, though not as, ahem, adult as Avenue Q. The folks behind this are local, and it’s mostly a labor of love. I have found that some episodes are better than others, but the puppets are pretty cool.
Transylvania Television
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