Watch this Space

Posted By: Kathleen DavidPosted On:

Or at least come back tomorrow (May 16th) about Noon for some really cool news.

And to pass the time I thought I would do an Ask the Wife but just to change things up a bit, I picked a theme.

So ask me questions about Puppets or Puppetry.

68 comments on “Watch this Space”

    2. Because the US Embassy in Uruguay asked him to attended a comic book convention and a college lecture series. And when you get asked to be a good-will ambassador for the USA you tend to say “Yes”

    3. I’m from Uruguay and just came from the anual comic convention where Peter talked about his profesion.
      Peter, you are amazing an such a great guy.
      You are a great inspiration for all who love comics, novels, movies and a good work.
      I hope to see you again in Uruguay.
      Did I mentioned that you are a great singer too? (because of the translator delay, Peter broke the ice singing to the audience)
      just a great night!

    4. I, too, wanted to say that I had a blast at both panels I attended, and that it would be amazing to have Peter back in Uruguay sometime. I mean, I expected him to be funny, but didn’t imagine I’d be doubled up in hysterical laughter for the most part of both panels.

      …also, I figured I should post this.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49bz-MK2EPI

      Unfortunately, I didn’t get the second song. I’m sure someone did, though.

    5. Well, I for one I’m glad he was in Uruguay. I got to interview him and get my Atlantes Chronicles, one of my favorite comics ever, signed. Sorry for taking your dad away from you Shana.

    6. Because I wanted to interview him? Well, no, but I did get to interview him, and get Atlantis Chronicles, one of my favorite comics of all times, signed by him. Your dad’s a great guy, as well as an AWESOME writer, Shana… sorry we took him away from you for a bit. (Sorry if this was a double post.)

    1. Well you know the answer by now. Apparently a whole bunch of questions got caught in the filter and are only now being shaken loose.

  3. Do you think puppets get uncomfortable with someone’s hand up there? I know I would if I were a puppet.

    Aslo, how long untill noon? I go by a different time.

    1. See below for my answer to your question about puppets and hands.

      It’s up now.

  4. Kath, your thoughts on Vichy France? [gets poked by someone] excuse me, please? [to the other person poking, sotto voce] What?! [unintelligible mumbling] she asked for questions on puppets and puppetry [more mumbling] she did not mean that. [more] jeez all right. My apolgies, I misunderstood. Kath, have seen Mexican/Spanish TV and seen the humans working with a puppet and wonder “What did they do to deserve that gig?”

      1. I have seen. I was at a convention in Mexico City with Peter and we did watch some TV.

        There were good and bad puppeteer but that is par for the medium.

        I think that in the US we have been spoiled for good puppeteering on a national level but believe me that we have just as bad on the local level.

        My guess is that they know someone or have pictures of someone.

    1. Ah, limiting it to film and TV was a good idea since the best I have ever seen was live.

      The Muppets are pretty much up there but I have to say that Bruce Shwartz on the Muppet Show gave me something that spoke to my soul.

      2. @Mike Yes. He used a combination of Bunraku and Czech Black.

        He did this amazing show called “Marie Antoinette tonight” at the Center for Puppetry Arts that haunts my soul to this day.

      3. Speaking of CFPA and other puppetish things – i met the son of Bil and Cora Baird (who did some of the jukebox band on “Shining Time Station”, among other things) a few years ago – it seems he was an old friend of Kate and Helen…
        .
        It’s fascinating the people i keep finding out that know at one remove – i used to work with Steve Whitmire’s old puppeteering partner, a long time ago.

  7. Kath, What is your opinion on Jim Henson? I know I heard this a while back but Jim Henson, in addition to giving us treasured, legendary creations, is a shining example of what a can-do attitude can do in America.
    It seems Henson didn’t set out to be a puppeteer. He just wanted to work in TV. At 17, he went looking for his first job at a TV station and they rejected him.
    However, while there, he saw a sign on a nearby bulletin board. The TV station was looking for a puppeteer. Henson went to the LIBRARY, checked out a book on puppetry, built a few puppets and returned to the station.
    He reportedly just said, “Now I am a puppeteer. Will you hire me?” They gave him five minutes – and the rest is history….WHAT AN AMAZING STORY!

    1. Jim was one of a kind and will not be seen again in this generation.

      Tomorrow (May 16th) will be the 20th anniversary of his death. I’ll be writing about Jim on my web log tomorrow.

  8. Do you think pupets ever get uncomfortable with people sticking their hands up there?

    I know I sure would if I were a puppet.

    1. No not really.

      Think about it. Without their “skeleton” ie the hand, they are not quite alive.

      Somewhere I think I told the tale of Urac the Mystic from Dark Crystal I took care of while I was at the Center for Puppetry Arts. When he got bored, he would slip his head off its armature so someone had to pick his head up and let him look around a bit.

  9. Ok, something obvious…..

    Sesame Street or the Muppets! 😀

    Yeah, I know, obvious, but always been curious which a puppeteer would prefer!

    1. The problem is that they are the same thing. So many of the Sesame Street performers are regulars with the cast of the Muppets that you can’t separate the two so both.

      1. Now, see, I know what you mean, and I do tend to agree, but I’ve alsways seen Sesame Street as the sensible sibling of The Muppet Show 🙂

        I still love em both, but much prefer the general insanity of the Muppets.

        Ok, take it further then, if you could work on one or the other, which would you go for? The insanity and mayhem and madness of the Muppets, or the chance to help and shape the young minds of the future with Big Bird and co?

      3. You are far more an expert than I, but I was jsut watching a West Wing Episode (guest starring the Big Bird and Elmo and a few other SS characters) and Donna wanted to know if Fozzi bear was going to be there.
        CJ had been prepping for the First Lady’s guest appearance and stated that althought all the characters on Sesame Street were muppets, the Kermit was the only cross over between both shows. (Muppts Show and Sesame Street). I thought about it and could not think of any other Mupept Show characters that appeared on Sesame Street. What other characters crossed over?

  10. Instead of the Muppets, which I am sure everyone will ask about, I am torn between three questions. I guess I will ask them all! 🙂

    1) What did you think about the marionettes in “Being John Malkovich?”

    2) Do you like Japanese shadow puppetry?

    3) Sock puppets – threat or menace? 😉

    1. 1) I thought they were pretty good. I have since met the puppeteers.

      2) I like the Shadow puppets but I am a big fan of the Bunraku

      3) Depends on how they are raised.

  12. The puppets come at night and stare at me. Stare into my soul. How do I make them stop? For the love of God, HOW DO I MAKE THEM STOP?

    1. tell them very firmly to behave and go away. It has always worked for me.

  13. Was Gerry Anderson stuff state of the art for its time? I always found it interesting that Anderson and Henson were both support by Lew Grade.

    1. It was very much so for its time. They used remotes and servos that revolutionized the use of puppetry in film and television. Gerry Anderson launched the careers of a number of special fx artists many that worked on Star Wars/

  14. 1) Why do we never see SuperGrover and Grover in the same place at the same time?

    2) If Superman fought SuperGrover who would win?

    3) If SuperGrover fought at virus crazed Arnold Rimmer and Mr. Thwibble– who would win?

    1. 1) This question was answered in the show to my satisfaction back in the 70s

      2) SuperGrover of course

      3) SuperGrover but only because Mr. Thwibble would switch sides.

  15. Kathleen, since Peter said we should ask you about puppets or puppetry, I figured I’d ask you, How extensive do you think Ðìçk Cheney’s influence over the George W. Bush Administration was?

    1. Hahaha and I watch the Daily Show for my news. So what do you think I think?

  16. If there was even a movie made of AVENUE Q (a lovely thought, though I see a *lot* of parents who ignored the R rating, brought their little kids, and subsequently complain that it looked like a movie for kids… but I digress), would you like to see it done with puppets and visible puppeteers behind them (like on Broadway) or with CGI (no strings, no people, but no puppets)?

    1. Funny you should ask this since I asked John Tartaglia the same question.

      If it was done say by Great Performances then it would be as is.

      If it were to become a film then puppets like the Muppet Movie.

  17. Whoa. OK. So, did the US Government fly him down or did the convention? And how long will he be gone?

    1. Unsure who was flying him down but it was on their dime.

      He’s back sometime Wednesday depending on how screwed up JFK is by the time he fflies up from Miami.

  18. I dont know if this does count as puppetry but… what do you think of the british 80’s show Spitting Image?

    …Ive been mumbling “I never met a nice southafrican” for the last few hours and then I read this post.

    1. Spitting Image does count as puppetry. I even got to play with a Maggie Thatcher puppet they did a long time ago.

      I though it was bloody brilliant.

    1. The whole film? I thought it was brilliant. But the only reason it worked was Malkovich. I can’t think of many other actors that could have pulled that off.

  21. Technical question here: what kind of puppet do you make: hand puppet, marionette, or “marotte” (with a stick and a sleeve to put one hand)?

    1. My forte is hand and rod puppets. I have made marionettes, rod puppets and shadow puppets in the past too.

  22. Just wondering, have you ever watched the Japanese series X-Bomber, better known international as Starfleet. I saw it years ago as a kid and found it to exceed any-thing that Gerry Anderson did,(though his shows still provided me with loads of happy memories).

    1. I have to say that you introduced me to something I had never heard of. Now I have to see how much info I can pull up on it.

  23. Finally caught the tour of “Avenue Q” two weeks ago in Saint Louis. Which of your friends and family (and yourself) would be which characters in the play?

    1. Honestly I would be most comfortable being the second hand on Trekkie and the other roles that they play.

  24. When I watch Farscape, the part of my brain that knows that Rygel and Pilot are puppets often shuts down and I see them as characters, but at least one DVD reviewer couldn’t get past the puppet aspect of Rygel. Why do you think some people can more easily than others accept a “reality” based on a combination of human actors and puppets?

    1. Tough question.
      A lot of it has to do with the skill of the puppeteer(s). Another thing is how engaged you are in the piece. The more engaged in the story/plot/dialogue, the less you think puppet and your brain just sees another actor adding to the story. It sounds like this reviewer didn’t get into the show and therefore picked on the puppet to show their distain for the whole thing.

      My brain tends to flip back and forth. If there is something off about the operation of the puppet, that can pull me out of the scene and I watching the puppet rather than the character.

      1. Yeah, that makes sense. The reviewer had previously only seen little bits of the show, didn’t care for it, and was hired to write a review of The Peacekeper Wars. That was probably the worst possible jumping on point, intended to bring closure to a cancelled series. So while I don’t think it deserved all the cheap shots he gave it, including the puppet, I can see why it wouldn’t have won him over, especially if the assignment was forced upon him.

        Do some problems occur to the point of you noticing more often than others, say, hand movements?

      2. Honestly the two things that drive me crazy are when the puppet’s POV is off (it’s not looking at anything really or the head is tilted slightly up because that is more comfortable for the hand) and when the puppet’s stride it off unless it is for effect. The mouth off sync with the words less so but I do pick that up.

  25. 1) Crank Yankers. whadidyathink about that show?

    2) whatever happened to your Smile Time Angel puppet?

    3) If you could have a stringed puppet of French Royalty wed a Famous Mousketeer would you have a Marionette Marie Antoinette marry Annette?

    1. 1) Sort of OK but not a favorite. There were a couple of people who were operating the puppets that weren’t very good so I kept looking at the errors rather than the sketch

      2)In the collection of someone who really likes him

      3) Wow you really strung that joke along.

  26. I don’t have a question. I just wanted to say that I misread, “So ask me questions about Puppets or Puppetry” as, “So ask me questions about Puppets or Puberty” and thought, “whoa… that’s kinda random”.
    .
    But hey, since I’m here in the comment box anyway, I should mention that I think it’s ridiculously cool that you do these “Ask the Wife” segments.
    .
    One of the reasons I’ve been a big fan of PAD (aside from amazing writing) is that he’s always opened himself up to his fans, exposing his personal life, making him seem more “real”… more like a friend than an anonymous name behind a story. The fact that you choose to do so as well only strengthens that.
    .
    I don’t personally have any particular fondness for puppets or puppetry myself (and if memory serves, wasn’t all that fond of puberty either, for what that’s worth), but enjoy reading your responses to the questions. It’s enlightening (I never quite realized just how much of an art puppetry truly is), and you keep it amusing. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

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