Puppetry

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Is anyone else obsessed or at least really interested in puppetry? This is a recurring interest that comes back around everyonce in a while, and it's just an amazing artform overall.

Without thinking to much about how you might feel about the 'late response' to the posting, I would like to say how puppetry does fascinate me and in my opinion as far as exploring 'practical effects' in movies it still has something to contribute and be explored with even though it seems 'under-utilized' kind of like how stop motion (short of the movie 'Anomalisa') is treated.

'The dark crystal' which came out in the 80's really carried puppetry to it's technical thresholds in presenting a genre story which goodness knows 'could have' been more 'mature' in terms of story (for those who would settle for 'action packed' spectacle though, there is something like 'Thunderbolt Fantasy' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1muOeJ4fBps) and your guess is as good as mine as to whether it will carry on with 'The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance' on Netflix which I would hope mainly adapt from the 'Creation Myths' comics.

Curious how that kind of potential lavishness can find itself more 'under-funded' than say the 'Happytime murders' and 'Team America: world police' movies profited with the former having been directed and produced by Brian Henson, Jim Henson's son; goodness knows how I would like to read more stuff about his dad sometime.

Is it too much to ask if Christopher Nolan could be into puppetry ?.

I have been learning and using puppetry since 1976.

I started out as an apprentice working mall shows such as Peter & The Wolf to Oklahoma.
I then ventured into marionettes. My oldest was made in 1987.

Puppets I believe can be the ultimate mask. One of them was used as a character in a Radio Comedy Show. (Voice only of course)
Do any of you go to the voice actor panels at comic con or view them on YouTube?

I've never used puppets or created them, but since I was a child, they capture and hold my attention far more than humans do. I like them very much.

If I ever had the time and ambition to work diligently creating and operating a Youtube channel, I thought a cool and funny thing would be for me to make very high quality recordings of my voice and have a nondescript middle age guy puppet sit in a chair talking about any number of topics, experiences I've had personally, etc. The puppet would be me. He'd tell some pretty amazing true stories and share his hopes, fears, dreams, failures, etc. I'd probably be the only one that would enjoy watching it, but if there regular and consistent videos to maintain interest, I think it would be cool.

Maybe the videos would cutaway to puppets acting out scenes being talked about by the main character puppet. Who knows.

Would I as a Youtube viewer tune in to watch some middle age nondescript guy sitting in a chair talking about his life? Probably not. Would I watch a puppet doing the same thing? Yes I would.

Some examples

https://youtu.be/EDs7zGWo2oo

https://youtu.be/hrpeFt9Tf0g

Of nearly normal puppetry.

Thank you for your kind words.
I worked for years in my house or literally behind a curtain.
Harmonica and puppetry have been 2 of the few special interest I have kept over the decades.

At a Juneteenth event I was advised to drop the puppets. I’m glad I didn’t take his advice.

Your encouragement is appreciated.

Late diagnosed 4 years ago Level 1.

When I was young, I had a puppet and practiced ventriloquism. I think it is a great tool for Aspies. It allows me to look at life from many different perspectives.

I was obsessed with Sesame Street and the Muppet puppets, and I planned a career writing for Sesame Street with Jim Henson. I also had finger puppets, a ventriloquism doll and a marionette on strings. I went to speech therapy for selective mutism and the puppets were never even suggested as a method of therapy. Go figure.

I'll watch your clips tomorrow, DrLaugh! I'm almost asleep!

Radio and puppetry were ultimate mask for me. I could be anyone.

Later I have learned to be comfortable with me off stage.

I needed lots of help with transitions in my radio writing. My co workers were very patient with my laughter during recordings.

For a while I felt it weird when people called me one of my puppets name rather than my own.

Side note Carrol Spinney recently retired after a long career as Big Bird and others.

I have used puppets in job interview groups ( Goodwill)
7 th grade drama classes topic communication)
Graduations at Therapeutic Communities inside the walls of a Maximum Security Prison.
People ask how a shy autistic person could have a career like this.
I answer I don’t know.
Sometimes I answer God puts us where we can be of use.
But I digress as usual.

“ My life is a digression”, sounds like a great title of book or song.