Ventriloquist Intelligentsia Paul Winchell was one of the first entertainers that I connected with at young age. Born Paul Wilchinsky on December 21, 1922, was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, voice artist, humanitarian, and inventor whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he was the host of The Paul Winchell Show, which also used two other titles during its prime time run on NBC, The Speidel Show, and What's My Name?. From 1965–1968, Wi

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

This is part two of video recording your performances and practices. I mentioned B-roll, so I thought it might be good to have a post specifically about B-roll and how to effectively use it. What is B-roll A-roll is the main video, the interview, the main performance, whatever the main purpose of your video is for. B-roll is the extra footage added to help tell and accentuate the story. For example, you could be shooting a promotional video to show to potential program direc

Best Place in the U.S. For Puppeteers Most of the information in this post is straight from their website and accurate as of the time of this post, but I encourage you to visit their site. Puppeteers of America is a national non-profit organization founded in 1937 to provide information, encourage performances, and build a community of people who celebrate puppet theatre of every type. Along with Regional guilds that help like-minded members in the same area stay connected, t

Puppets on The Mission Field We have discussed puppets in the classroom and puppets in medical care facilities, but I would be highly remiss if I didn’t mention the missions field. Now don’t push political correctness on me, I am not selling a particular religion in this post. Whatever you religion, part of it is to win converts, teach about your religion and educate on the fundamentals of your religion, whether to adults or children. Puppets are a great way to do that. Now,

Therapeutic Puppetry Puppets aren’t limited to entertainment and education. They can also be used in hospitals and clinics to assist in calming fears and helping distract while a procedure is happening. I remember a time in Moscow Russia, going to a children’s hospital there. It still tears me up thinking about it. I saw a young girl, maybe 7 or 8, sitting alone. She seemed to enjoy the puppet performance that our group did, but didn’t interact with the puppets the same way.t

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