Sunday, November 29, 2009

"Can you make a puppet's nose bleed?"

Last weekend we shot some more "Steve The Vampire" shorts!
Here's Mom (Jim Williams), Steve (me!), and Han (Christoper A. Lemanski) on the set... And Jim's eye peeking through just to creep you out!

As a puppeteer and puppet maker I get asked some strange questions sometimes, usually funny.. . Or while working I tend to say and hear weird things that said anywhere else would just be wrong. In funny ways...

Ricardo (who directed Betty And Me and Plinksgiving) once asked:
"Can you make a puppet's nose bleed?"
My wise ass response:
"If you punch it hard enough."

Brie's sister Maggie asked while watching The Muppets last Christmas:
"What happens if you put a puppet in water?"
My wise ass responce:
"It gets wet."

Here are a couple of my faves from working with puppets...

"If I put my hand all the way in here, she'll pop."
- This came from Jim putting on a puppet that was very tight, and he could have popped a seam in her neck.

"Grab those balls and put them in my mouth."
- Making puppets with Pete one day I had a eyeless puppet on my hand and I wanted him to hand me two ping pong balls, and since the hand with the puppet on me was closer to him I wanted him to put them in the puppets mouth... We laughed untill we were in tears.

Many times we're all laying on a floor with the puppets up in the air and the director behind the camera will tell us we need to get the puppets closer to each other. In this case we have to spoon up together, or on top of each other and so on... Very often it looks like grown men playing Twister without the Twitser pad... A very bizarre orgy... I worry someday someone will get hurt and 911 has to be called and we're all stuck in position... That would be a story for the EMTs to tell...

Anyway... December 1 the next Puppet A Day goes up, another one from the collection. I'll start posting Elmwood Puppets again at the start of the New Year...
Have a great one!

Monday, November 16, 2009

I Am A Genius!

A few months ago I was getting ready to work on some things and I layed out some antron fleece to cut, and I folded it over a could times to do one cut instead of several. While cutting it I hit a part that took a little extra pushing with the scissors. Then a little while later I plugged in the power strip to get the glue gun warmed up... And it wouldn't... Hmm, I wonder why...
I will admit, this wasn't one of my brightest moments!
Hahaha

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Bert - The Collection

Bert
One of my oldest toys

My brother, Michael, and I - at Sesame Place

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Monday, November 2, 2009

Paper Bag Portrait By Mad Matt

This portrait of me was made by Matt Ficaro back when I worked a Blick with him in 2005. In return I made a puppet of him. Click his name to see it!
Click the pic to see more puppets of me, if you really want to! Hahaha...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Yoda - The Collection

Yoda
I got Yoda way back in 1981, when The Empire Strikes Back out!