Puppets

I think that Brits are a little more wary of puppets than Canadians, because we have the scary memory of Rod Hull and Emu. I don't think it was ever clear whether Rod Hull realised that Emu was just a piece of fabric on his hand. A bit like Cartman in an episode of South Park I saw recently, where his hand became a Jennifer Lopez replacement.

At the Nature Park, we use both plays and puppet shows to introduce ideas to kids in the programmes. These are little kids, generally aged 5 to 6.
When I was a teacher training mentor at Mayhem, the University programme coordinator once showed us how to introduce ideas using a puppet. We were all teaching secondary aged children, we'd have lost all credibility.

Yesterday evening, I went with Lori to a workshop she was doing with 'early years educators' autrement dit childminders, on puppetry. And I had no idea how interesting and complicated it really is. I almost understood Rod Hull .... just for a second you understand.

Lori and I had taken all the puppets into the room, sorted them into 'mouth puppets' and 'non-mouth puppets' and put up the puppet show scaffold. Even when you have a simple glove puppet with a mouth that moves, the operation isn't simple because you have to get used to only moving your thumb rather than flapping your whole hand, and you have to make the eyes look at the audience instead of staring off into space.

As the attendees were arriving, I was sitting practising the techniques Lori had already taught me with a puppet on each hand. As people came in, their eyes were drawn to the two puppets and there was a kind of suspension of belief even from these adults, a hush, an 'ooh' an 'ah', as though you had gone to see a play and one of the actors in full make-up and costume were sitting in the audience.

Lori demonstrated how it is easier to control behaviour of young children using the puppets, they will accept being told off by the puppets more than by an adult, and lo, someone's mobile phone rang and the crow on Lori's hand said,
'Hey, is that for me?' and the phone was turned straight off.

I enjoyed the workshop and learnt more than I was even expecting. I think the audience enjoyed it even more than Lori was expecting, but it was fun, and very good for the arm muscles - you are holding the arm with the puppet on up above the front of the Punch and Judy style show framework, and this can cause another problem, dead puppet syndrome.

I think that as with many things, when you see someone experienced doing it, it looks easy, and when you have to do it yourself, you realise how complicated the thing is.
I don't think I ever thought of the Muppets as not being real, but the skill that must have gone into bringing them to life is something I am only just grasping, it's not just a question of being able to imitate Kermit or Miss Piggy, that isn't even half of it.

Puppetry for adults, puppetry for children, the difference can be the body parts you choose to use.
Now that I've thought about the art of it, I'm starting to wonder about those Aussie guys who did the puppetry of the penis, what do you say about someone who needs to turn their private parts into an imaginary friend. Hmmm?