What lurks in the Shadows… One of the most ancient forms of puppetry recorded is that of the shadow puppets. It is also one of the more simpler forms of puppetry. Hand shadow puppets, in short, is the manipulation of your hands in a way that creates a cast shadow on a wall or screen which resembles something else such as an animal or or something. It’s fun and creative to try and figure out what positions transform the shadow and then taking it one step further by giving that

Cheap Manual Mechanism This post is going to be short, but thought I would show an inexpensive way to add functionality to a puppet that will give it more life as far as the audience is concerned. Need: Balls for eyes (ping pong balls, wooden balls, etc.) Wire (coat hanger from dry cleaners work great) Wire cutters Prep the Eyes Small holes big enough to fit the wire through needs to go through the entire ball. Right through the center. Figure out where the center of the eye

Didn’t I Already Blog On This? NO, actually in blog post #29 I discussed script writing, but have gotten some comments that I didn’t go into enough detail about the story creation, so here we are. “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” ~Steve Jobs Great Stories Don't Just Happen When creating a great story, storytelling is about keeping it real for the audience, they need to relate and be able to put themselves in the shoes of the character. By taking cue

The Power of small Habits Whether you are just starting your puppet venture or if you are a seasoned veteran looking to hone your skills, it all starts with habits. Habits are the stepping stones used to reach your goals. Too often we set lofty goals for ourselves and then we try to take big leaps to reach those goals and when we miss the mark we give up. It’s not the big leaps that get us where we want to be most of the time, it’s the little steps forward and upward that get

Puppetry often gets pigeon holed, but it can be used in so many facets; not just entertainment, but education as well. From actually using puppets to teach all the way to having the students write plays, the whole concept of puppetry is made for education. Average classrooms nowadays generally run 20 to 30 students, so it may seem like a big task to use puppetry in this environment, but it really isn’t. One Bite at a Time Break it down into 20 minute segments each day, then

The Legend James Maury Henson, or just Jim as he was known by, was born in Greenville, Mississippi, on September 24, 1936. I joke that my daughter better be glad she was a girl or I would have named her Jim in memory, as she was born on September 25th. Jim was the youngest of two children, his father was Paul Henson, his mother was Betty Marcella. His early childhood was lived in Leland, Mississippi, before moving with his family to Maryland in the late ‘40s, near Washington

Let Your Creativity Flow I am a big proponent for teams to come up with their own concepts, scripts, and programs for two reasons. The first is the financial factor involved. It is so easy to spend a fortune to get permission to use other people’s material. The second is because is gets the creative juices of the group to flowing and helps pull the team together when they are racking their brains to come up with ideas and creating the script around their characters as opposed

Birds of a Feather… Ventriloquism is one of those skill sets that becomes better with time, but also gets better with proper feedback from other ventriloquists. Study masters in the field and mimic their actions and techniques until you develop a style of you own. Find a Mentor In certain ways, puppetry and ventriloquism is dying out. Less and less people are showing interest in this skill. Most of the veterans in this art would love to pass on their techniques to the next ge

Don’t jump the gun If you haven’t read the previous blog introducing ventriloquism, click here to read it first. Consider it mandatory homework before learning the cheats. To learn these techniques without having a grasp of the basics will lead to sloppy ventriloquism. Now for the cheats Even though learning the techniques will make you an expert ventriloquist, there are some cheats that you can do to accomplish a good ventriloquist act. The visual perception of the audience

What is Ventriloquism? Ventriloquism is a finely crafted art that has been mastered by a select few. The techniques of distorting one’s voice to make it seem as though it is coming from another source; in this case a puppet. Like magic, these techniques were guarded and passed down throughout the centuries. It has been used as a form of entertainment for years, and has its origins dating back to as early as the sixth century, back when many thought it to be a form of witchcra