How to operate a muppet...

[KingPrawn]

In cruising muppetcentral, I have seen quite a few photos of muppeteers performing their craft. In these photos, I notice that quite a few (if not all) muppeteers wear some sort of apparatus on their head while operating a muppet. What is that thing?

Additionally, there are quite a few muppet characters that would appear to be quite difficult to operate. For example, do Beeker and Swedish Chef, since they each have two fully functional hands, require two operators?

Could someone with a greater knowledge base than I in The Ways of the Muppet shed some light on how to operate a muppet?

 

[WiGgY]

Real hands puppets are oporated by two people. One does the head and another does the arms.

That thing are their heads is a mic set I think. It's how they get the audio. If they used a regular boom mic or something the voices would be muffled since the performers heads are so low.

 

[Skeeter Muppet]

Originally posted by WiGgY
Real hands puppets are oporated by two people. One does the head and another does the arms.

Actually, sometimes the main puppeteer did the head/mouth of the character as well as the left arm. The second puppeteer did the right arm of the character. A good picture of this can be seen at, of all places, Mar's Muppet Links. The header for the Performers section has a picture of Richard Hunt, Jim Henson and Frank Ox performing Ernie and Bert, with Richard and Jim performing Ernie.

And there's a picture at "Your Face" that has David Rudman and Richard performing a monster the way you described, WiGgy. I guess it all depended on the puppet.

That thing are their heads is a mic set I think. It's how they get the audio. If they used a regular boom mic or something the voices would be muffled since the performers heads are so low.

Yeah, it is. Interesting little tidbit - some of the puppeteers had the foam pieces of the microphones carved to look like their characters; for instance, Jim's looked like Kermit.

-Kim

 

[KingPrawn]

that's impressive that they can do that and not fall over each other.
are there any other pics out there showing the muppet with the operator?

 

[sarah_yzma]

that is impressive!

Sarah

 

[KingPrawn]

big bird had always puzzled me, and for a while i thought i had it figured out...
one hand was held up to operate big bird's head with the muppeteer's head hidden in big bird's shoulder. big bird had one hand operated by the operator, and the other hand (wing?) just never really moved.
but then i thought i saw an instance when big bird had two functional hands.
maybe its just magic, haha.

 

[muppettheatre]

Yes the thing on their head is a mike. Frequently who performs the hands of a live hand will be determined by what has to be done by the puppet, it will either be one person performing both hands, or the main puppetteer performing the head and one hand, or occassionally one hand will be stuffed and pinned in place. Big Bird is generally one hand in the head, and one hand in one of the wings. The other wing is connected with a piece of monofilament to the operated wing to create movement, or on rare occassions someone will be behind the bird performing the other arm.

 

[sarah_yzma]

i saw some pics, but which link on that site had the most pics?

Sarah

 

[matleo]

Originally posted by Skeeter Muppet
The header for the Performers section has a picture of Richard Hunt, Jim Henson and Frank Ox performing Ernie and Bert, with Richard and Jim performing Ernie.

And there's a picture at "Your Face" that has David Rudman and Richard performing a monster the way you described, WiGgy. I guess it all depended on the puppet.

It's not soi much dependabt on the puppet as much as what the puppets has to do. If, for example, a puppetcharacter is required to just stand there and talk as Ernie is doing in that one pic. It's easier for Jim to be able to let his acting guide the hand he is controlling and Richard juts kid of keeps the arm activated. but when you're dealign with a puppet who has to play piano (like Rowlf) who handle a certain prop a certain, it's wasier for onr puppeteer ot have to focus on that while the main performer conecntrates on the acting. When they did the Swedish Chef, Frank laways did both hands while jim concentrated on the head movements. that gave Frnk the freedon to pick up props andp lay with them and jim would usually kind of ad-lib ot whatever Frank was doing. Of course there are also scenarios where they'll just pin the arm to the puppet's chest and let it hang there too. Hope this helps a little.

--Matt

 

[sarah_yzma]

it's all starting to make some sort of weird sense!

Sarah