Henson.com Podcast

Patrick Johnson, Patrick Bristow and I were interviewed for the June 16 edition of the Henson.com Podcast - Check it out. As a reminder, Puppet Up is playing at the Avalon in Hollywood this Saturday. Click here for more info.

Another Update

In my last post I said that I was going to be doing a series on stages. I still plan on doing that, but I got delayed because over the past few weeks Patrick and I have been working at Jim Henson's Creature Shop on a top secret project for Kanye West. Since I was 13 years old I wanted to work at the Jim Henson Company and Jim Henson's Creature Shop so this was a dream come true. I can't tell you anymore about the project right now. For more information click here and here to see some photos from Kanye West's blog.

Also Forgetting Sarah Marshall opens April 18. It's getting really good reviews, and I'm really excited to see it.

Big Update

I realize that I have been neglecting my blog for a while. Thank you all for your pacitence I wanted to give you all an update on some of the projects I've been working on.

Right now Swazzle is booking summer puppet shows at libraries all over California. Down in Southern California we have over 130 bookings - it's going to be a busy three months. This summer the theme is bugs so we'll be touring Bugys Brown Private Fly in Northern California and Space Bugs: Alpha and Zeta down south. We're working out the scripts now, we should start designing and building the puppets very soon. Along with the bug shows, we are also writing a puppet show for L.A. City Libraries called The Magical Misadventures of Walnut the Wizard.

Swazzle has also been working on the creation of a new school show called, The Swazzle Workshop Live. This new show will be showcased in May, and it will make it's debut this coming school year. The Swazzle Workshop Live was created in partnership with The Orange County Performing Arts Center with a grant from The Puppeteers of America.

Swazzle's new preschool puppet show Forest Fables debuted a while back, and it has been very well received. This show also doubles as a birthday party puppet show - a new market for us.

Our Spanish puppet show Aventuras Saludables continues to play at large events all over Southern California.

Aside from Swazzle news, I've been keeping busy with many exciting puppet projects. Patrick and I just built a series of puppets for Sprout (PBS's network for preschoolers). I'm not sure when they'll be making their debut - so keep an eye out. Patrick and I also did more Sendables for Jib Jab. The Valentine's Day one has already debuted - more are coming soon. The film I puppeteered on, Forgetting Sarah Marshall comes out soon. This was my first film role, and I was working with Jim Henson's Creature Shop - a dream come true (the movie is rated R so leave the kids at home). Fianly, I continue to be involved with the Henson Company's puppet improv show Puppet Up. For the last couple of months Patrick and I have been teaching puppet technique at the Jim Henson Company - another dream come true.

That's it for the update - thank you for letting me share. Keep tuned in to Puppet 101 because I have some excited posts planned. First up, I'll be sharing information about puppet stages. Over our years of live performance, we have been through every type of stage: PVC, wood frame etc. Finally, I feel like we have hit on a stage that is study, flexible, quick to assemble, and portable.

I hope you all tune in for that.

Thank you to all of my readers. I hope you find this blog helpful and inspirational. If you have any questions about puppet building please drop me an email - sean@swazzle.com and I'll try my best to answer them.

Half Price Tickets for Puppet Up!

See Puppet Up! - Uncensored for just $15.00! Goldstar Events is offering half price tickets to this Saturday's show. Puppet Up! - Uncensored is the Jim Henson Company's hilarious puppet Improv show. The show plays at Avalon Hollywood, Saturday, Oct. 20 @ 8:00pm. Click here to get your $15.00 tickets!

Puppet Up! Sat., Sep 29, 8:00, Avalon

The Jim Henson Company's Puppet Up! Uncensored returns to Avalon in Hollywood this Saturday. Doors open at 7:00 pm and the show begins at 8:00 pm. If you haven't seen this show you really must check it out. Click here for tickets.

Video Puppetry Workshop in L.A.

I just got word that puppeteer Michael Earl will be offering some video puppetry workshops in the Los Angles Area. As a past student of his, I would highly recommend this workshop to any puppeteer interested in video puppetry. Working with Michael eventually led to my involvement with Jim Henson's Puppet Up!, and greatly improved my video puppetry skills. Many of today's top film and video puppeteers have studied with Michael. Anytime I perform a puppet in front of a camera, I am using the techniques I learned from his classes.

Michael Earl has performed in many Muppet and non-Muppet productions, most notably as the original Mr. Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street. He joined the Muppets in 1978 at the age of 19. After three years under contract, he freelanced with the Muppets for the next twelve years on several projects. After leaving the Muppets, he went on to become a four-time Emmy Award-winning puppeteer and writer/lyricist.

For more information about his classes visit his web site and click on contact.

The New Henson.com

The Jim Henson Company has just updated their web site. The new site is bright and colorful, and features photos of their puppets. The home page has a flash slide show that has information about Puppet Up Uncensored!, The Skrumps, Tinseltown, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth DVDs and more. Also on the home page there is a link for a new Kids' Zone (Coming Soon) - that should be fun. You can also ask the company a question, and it might be answered in an upcoming episode of the henson.com podcast.

Frog Dissection

I occasionally get e-mail from readers of my blog. Most people ask about specific puppet building questions. Some people send me photos of their puppets, or works in progress. The other day I received this photo from a sender that asked to remain anonymous. Yes, they have actually deconstructed the Kermit the Frog photo puppet from Master Replicas.

Comic-Con 2007

I've just posted all of my Comic-Con photos on my Flickr site. Enjoy!

Puppet Up, Uncensored Tonight!

Be sure to catch The Jim Henson Company's improv show Puppet Up, Uncensored tonight on TBS at 11:00 pm.

This one hour special was taped during two live performances at the Comedy Festival in Vegas just a week ago. Under the direction of Groundlings alum Patrick Bristow, the puppeteers of the Jim Henson Company perform improv sketches based on audience suggestions. Unlike previous Henson productions, the puppeteers are visible to a live audience, and the television cameras.

Patrick and I have been fortunate enough to participate in this exciting project as it has evolved over the past year and a half. Although we will not be in tonight's show, some puppets we built for the production might - because it's improv there are no guarantees. Keep an eye out for a little gray monster, a red crab, and a shinny turquoise alien.

By the way, this show is not appropriate for children.

Henson Halloween Party

Check out my photos from the Jim Henson Company Halloween party.

Late Night Buffet

Last night I got to puppeteer on a new Jim Henson Company pilot called Late Night Buffet with Augie and Del. I was assisting the very talented Julianne Buescher with Louisa Cappellini, the band leader and keyboard player. Bill Barretta and Brian Henson performed the co-hosts Augie and Del, assisted by Michelan Sisti and Leslie Carrara. Puppeteers Karen Prell, Kevin Carlson, Tyler Bunch, and James Murray performed the monkey band. The pilot was taped before a live studio audience at the Jim Henson Company studios.

More Friday Fun, Puppet Up! Stuff

The Jim Henson Company has just made some Puppet Up! stuff available through Cafepress. The t-shirts and pins feature the Puppet Up! log, the cute pug, a hot dog, and the three aliens.

Red Crab

This is a crab that I built for Puppet Up! Featuring the Henson Improv Company. He is based on a green crab that was built a while back by the very talented puppet builder Eric Englehardt. Eric is a veritable encyclopedia of puppet building knowledge. He happened to be out from New York and working in the Henson Creature Shop, at the same time I was building the crab. He gave me so many great tips and advice - I could not have built this puppet without him.

Meet Herman

I built this puppet for Puppet Up! Featuring the Henson Improv Company. He made his debut this past week in Hollywood, and he will be traveling to Edinburgh when the show tours this August.

Herman was designed specially for the show by long time Jim Henson Company puppeteer Julianne Buescher. I built him in the Creature Shop under the watchful eye of Jane Gootnick, an extremely talented builder that has been with the Jim Henson Company since the second season of The Muppet Show. Even though I've been building puppets for over 10 years, I learned so much from Jane.

A small trivia note for all you Jim Henson Company fans: Herman is made from the same fur as Sprocket from Fraggle Rock.

Puppet Up!

I hope some of you were able to check out Puppet Up! Featuring the Henson Improv Company in Hollywood this past week. Last night I performed in the 8:30 show and Patrick performed in the 10:30 show. Both shows were hilarious - in my humble and unbiased opinion. The next stop for the show is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, August 4 - August 20.

Jim Henson's Puppet Improv Live in Hollywood!

Puppet Up! for adults only, Featuring the Henson Puppet Improv Company, The Improv, 8162 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. June 21, 8:30 pm, June 23, 8:30 pm, and and June 24, 8:30 pm and 10:30 pm.

Patrick and I will be performing in the show on Saturday. I'll be in the 8:30 show and Patrick will be in the 10:30 show.

From the company that for fifty years has celebrated irreverence, creativity and performance comes PUPPET UP! (for adults only), featuring The Henson Puppet Improv Company, a demonstration of what happens when the perilous and provocative forms of traditional comedic improvisation are mixed with a bunch of puppets. With a motley group of characters brought to life by the world renowned puppeteers of The Jim Henson Company, this is not your average night at the improv and it is definitely not for children. But all others are welcome to enjoy the uninhibited anarchy of live puppet performance as never seen before.

Click here to buy your ticket.

Busy, busy, busy

Whew! Summer is nearly here and this has been a productive and busy week for me. Patrick and I have been building puppets at The Creature Shop for Jim Henson's Puppet Improv, which has been a blast. In the evenings we're rehearsing our Swazzle puppet shows B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog and Rex and Boots Super Sleuths. Until my schedule lightens up a bit my posts may be a bit spotty, so please bear with me.

James Wojtal Interview, Part 14

James Wojtal is a talented puppet designer and builder. During his career he has worked on projects like Avenue Q, Bear in the Big Blue House, Crank Yankers, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street (the American and various internationl versions), Mop-a-Top’s Shop, Kermit’s Swamp Years, Animal Jam, and more. In this interview I asked him to share his thoughts about puppet building.



SJ: During your time with The Jim Henson Company you did refurbishing as well as building from scratch. What sort of damage did the puppets have, and how did you go about refurbishing them?

JW: It varied a lot from just worn out fur spots, to complete and total foam break down. The really old puppets would naturally have turned to "toast". We would pull them out of a box, take off the plastic bag, and be showered with bits of decayed foam rubber.



Sometimes it was just glue giving out, so you would have to re-glue a mouth plate, or replace some feathers. Often the challenge was trying to find enough material in the boxes to do the repairs, since a lot of the puppets were from dye lots, and fabric stock that may not exist anymore.

James Wojtal Interview, Part 13

James Wojtal is a talented puppet designer and builder. During his career he has worked on projects like Avenue Q, Bear in the Big Blue House, Crank Yankers, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street (the American and various internationl versions), Mop-a-Top's Shop, Kermit's Swamp Years, Animal Jam, and more. In this interview I asked him to share his thoughts about puppet building.



SJ: On Telling Stories with Tommie DePola, the puppets were built based on Tommie DePola's designs. How do you go about transforming flat watercolor pictures that were not meant to be 3-D, into successful three-dimensional puppets.

JW: I think a lot of that was the costumes that were designed. As I Remember, Jason Weber created the dying method used to make the costumes look like water color come to life - it was the puppet build and then the amazing costumes made from a kind of blanket.



The puppet build was actually pretty straight forward. Rollie Krewson was project manager on that one, and she certainly guided how things evolved from mock up to final. Most of the heads were carved foam, and Goat was patterned foam with carved horns and hoofs.

James Wojtal Interview, Part 12

James Wojtal is a talented puppet designer and builder. During his career he has worked on projects like Avenue Q, Bear in the Big Blue House, Crank Yankers, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street (the American and various internationl versions), Mop-a-Top's Shop, Kermit's Swamp Years, Animal Jam, and more. In this interview I asked him to share his thoughts about puppet building.



SJ: Some Muppet fans may be familiar with Tim Miller from the credits of The Muppet Show and many other Muppet movies and television shows. You worked with him on various projects including the British show Mop-a-Top's Shop. What did you learn from working with such an accomplished and experienced puppet builder.

JW: I was very fortunate very early on in my life. I first met, Ed Christie, Fred Buchholz, and Larry Jameson when I was just a kid in High School. They really encouraged me to continue working on my puppets. Fred even gave me a tour of the workshop a couple of times.



When I started working there, Tim really took me under his wing so to speak. He was puppet building supervisor, and I sat right across from him. I got to learn a lot just from watching. I was also surrounded by the most amazing puppet designers and mechanical/prop designers I could imagine, Rollie Krewson, Ann Marie Holdgruen, Paul Hartis, Mark Zeszotek, Tom Newby, Ed Christie, Fred Buchholz, Larry Jameson, and those were just people on my Floor. They all put any puppet I build to shame. I was, and continue to be in awe of the work they do, and I am forever grateful for what I learned from them (as well as everyone else, the list of builders goes on and on - not to mention the costumers, and textile designers). It truly was a warehouse of amazingly talented people, and I am happy I was allowed to play and learn with them for four years.

James Wojtal Interview, Part 11

James Wojtal is a talented puppet designer and builder. During his career he has worked on projects like Avenue Q, Bear in the Big Blue House, Crank Yankers, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street (the American and various internationl versions), Mop-a-Top's Shop, Kermit's Swamp Years, Animal Jam, and more. In this interview I asked him to share his thoughts about puppet building.



SJ: Rebuilding familiar characters like Bear for Bear in the Big Blue House or Camilla for A Very Merry Muppet Christmas seem to have built in difficulties. How do you go about reconstructing a puppet so that it looks identical to the original.

JW: To start with, you want to get the puppet in front of you as much as possible. See where the wear and tear has really had an effect. Get good photos form the archives, and get the patterns, if possible. Talk to one of the other builders who may have worked on that puppet, and see what they remember. There is so much stuff that just does not get written down, weird little processes that a builder learns to do that become second nature, but can not really be described - it has to be shown, or taught to you.

Also, many puppet patterns evolve. As they do, they will end up with weird bits and pieces that were changed, or added to. You may come across something without a marking on it - it happens since a lot of time you're under a tight deadline to get something done. When you are finished you may not have time to get back and archive all the different parts of a pattern, or it may be a pattern from the first version that is no longer valid in a puppet that has been rebuilt or added to as its character has evolved. A running joke we would often run into is finding a pattern piece with "Totally useless old pattern, do not use, DO NOT THROW AWAY" written on it.

James Wojtal Interview, Part 10

James Wojtal is a talented puppet designer and builder. During his career he has worked on projects like Avenue Q, Bear in the Big Blue House, Crank Yankers, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street (the American and various internationl versions), Mop-a-Top's Shop, Kermit's Swamp Years, Animal Jam, and more. In this interview I asked him to share his thoughts about puppet building.



SJ: You mention on your web site that the most challenging and rewarding job while at The Jim Henson Company was rebuilding Bear. Can you tell me about the challenges you faced?

JW: Perhaps the biggest challenge when rebuilding a puppet is capturing the character that people have come to expect. it's more than just a pattern when you rebuild an older established puppet. Now you have to capture all the wear and tear that the puppet has gotten because it has become part of what the puppet is. You have to distress the fur a bit, you have to trim it to the right length, match the number of hairs in the eyebrows, etc.

When you get new fur its all fluffy - but take a good look at an old stuffed animal, or doll, and you will see all the wear playing with it has caused. If you look closely at Bear from his first show of the season to Bear at the end of the second season you will see the wear start to show. That's the puppet you are really matching - not the brand new clean original, but the well worn Bear (I really hope that all made sense).

James Wojtal Interview, Part 9

James Wojtal is a talented puppet designer and builder. During his career he has worked on projects like Avenue Q, Bear in the Big Blue House, Crank Yankers, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street (the American and various internationl versions), Mop-a-Top's Shop, Kermit's Swamp Years, Animal Jam, and more. In this interview I asked him to share his thoughts about puppet building.



SJ: Along with the smaller Muppet style puppets, you've also built some large walk-a-round's. What are some challenges unique to big puppets, and does working on a large scale change or affect your building process?

JW: I guess the main challenge is the size. Samson from the German Sesame Street was a real bear (pun intended) to work on.



As far as process goes it's pretty much the same, except you are now working as part of a large team. The body, hands, and feet are normally handled by the costuming department, and your work all has to come together as a whole. There are lots of meeting and fittings to make sure that all the parts work and move just right.

Friday Fun, Puppet Heap

Puppet Heap is puppet building company founded by Emmy nominated designer Paul Andrejco. They have built puppets for Nick Jr., Sesame Workshop, Disney Channel, and The Jim Henson Company. Some of their projects include, Bear in the Big Blue House, Jim Henson's The Animal Show, and Elmo's World.

Through my involvement with Jim Henson's Puppet Improv, I've had the opportunity to use the vulture and the armadillo (pictured above), which were originally constructed for Jim Henson's The Animal Show. After working with those characters, I can say from first hand experience that Puppet Heap's puppets are well designed, and expertly crafted. Additionally, they are built with the puppeteer in mind, and allow for some beautiful manipulation possibilities.

To learn more about Puppet Heap check out their web site, www.puppetheap.com. There you will find a full gallery of puppets, a demo reel, behind the scenes photos and more.

Friday Fun, Jim Henson's Puppet Improv

For the past nine months Patrick and I have been taking puppet improv classes at the Jim Henson Company with Groundlings performer Patrick Bristow. Now a selection of puppeteers from that class, (including Brian Henson and Bill Barretta) are taking the show to the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival in March. I was fortunate enough to participate in the second puppet improv show that played to an invitation only audience at the Jim Henson Studios a while back, and I know this show will be hilarious. If you are planning to attend the Festival don't miss Jim Henson's Puppet Improv.

For more information check out Andrew's post on Puppet Vision, the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, and Muppet Central.