Well, Puppet Heap has been posting new episodes of Exit Row pretty regularly on their YouTube Channel. Check in there if you have a minuet.
More importantly, two of the episodes have been put on Funny or Die here and here. Help us out and go click "funny" for us, would ya? And tell your friends, too! Thanks.
See previous post: Exit Row from Puppet Heap
I love "America's Got Talent" (AGT). It's the only real variety show left on television. No where else can you see magicians, jugglers, knife throwers, and other Variety Acts on TV. I love people with one special skill. I can't get enough. They are my people! One of the great side effects of adding the Gong Show plot to a variety show like AGT is that you get performers who are horrible at what they do while being oblivious to their lack of talent. I love these people even more! Yes, part of it is the "bad is funny" theory (which I'll get into more at another time), but it's mostly seeing the naive delight on the performers face. You can't fake an "Ignorance is bliss" smile. Even though they are sucking up a storm they are having the time of their life doing what they love, no matter how good at it they are. It's not schadenfreude. I don't want them to be bad. I want everyone on the show to be good. But if they're bad, I can at least revel in their oblivious joy!
Then there are the acts that take a great idea and do a half-assed job. Few things infuriate me more that watching a performer insult their audience by doing a lame job. Usually they get buzzed off the show, and my indignation is appeased. This year one of these acts has made it through to the semi finals! Their name is Fighting Gravity (ptu!). I refuse to link their video here. You can google it, go ahead, I'll wait.
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Did you see the part where the judges say they have never seen anything like this!!! Really! Have you? Of course you have. What does it remind you of? Ping Pong Matrix, right! Which came form a Japanese game show called Kasou Taisho.
Awsome right? And so much more clever and entertaining! Fighting Gravity keeps doing the same bit! No new costumes, no real new choreography. There is no exploration of the medium. Like this...
or this...
And these people are amateurs!!! I wonder what a professional would do with it? Hmmm...
So that was an example of Black Light puppetry. Before the world knew how to control phosphorescence, there was a method know as Black Theater, invented in ancient China. The technique is used by puppeteers and magicians alike. Please enjoy Omar Pasha.
So obviously people have been doing things like this for hundreds of years, and much better. Hopefully America will vote off Fighting Gravity (ptu!) and expose them for the artistic slackers that they are.
I am so excited. This is the brain child of Paul Andrejco! Realized for him by James Godwin, Melissa Creighton, ME, and the amazing staff of Puppet Heap!
Please enjoy, and stay tuned for more episodes!
I seem to be finding a lot of old puppet things this week.
Chicago journalist Robert Loerzel went looking for the origin of the word "Puppeteer", and gives the credit to Ellen Van Volkenburg, who is credited with inspiring the "artistic puppet revival" in America at the turn of the last century with her work at the Chicago Little Theatre before moving to New York to direct plays withTony Sarg, the father of modern puppetry in North America.
Loerzel writes:
The earliest use of the word cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is an April 18, 1915, article in the Chicago Sunday Tribune. In a "News of Society" column, a writer going by the pseudonym "Mme. X" discussed the artistic pursuits of various Chicago society ladies, including a "puppeteer" named Mrs. Seymour Edgerton (that would be Harriet Edgerton, if Mme. X had bothered to include her first name).
Huh, the word "Puppeteer" is American! Who knew?
The article, and his article, can be found here.
Paul Andrejco turned me on to this. Originally released in 1907, it appears to be a filmed documentation of a French vaudeville act. Not only is is delightful, it is documented proof of puppet mechanisms existing and working in 1907. Paul then pointed out the most important fact that polyethylene foam, or ANY sheet foam, did not exist in 1907! What is the pig made out of! AND no visible seams! Have at it, puppet nerds. The rest of you, enjoy!
Here's the IMDB about it.
Philippe GENTY’s “FLOPPIENNCO”
Enjoy this bit of silliness from Compagnie Philippe Genty. I have had the privilege of seeing a number of their shows. His company is inventive and impeccable. Their shows surreal, beautiful, and completely entertaining. Enjoy!
More here.