Questions about Puppeteering The Count

[mrfinch]

So when I first saw this clip on the Robinson blog, I was amazed that the Sesame folks had found a new, young puppeteer that does a dead-on Count Von Count.

http://www.sesamestreet.org/parents/blog/-/blogs/the-woman-underneath-rosita

On second viewing, I see that the puppeteer appears to be mouthing along to the voice of Jerry Nelson himself. I was just curious if any of you Muppet experts know...how do they do it? I thought it was common in puppetry to have a voice actor loop dialogue after the puppeteer's performance, which seems the most reasonable way to do it. But I see in the same clip, Kevin Clash lends a little Elmo vocal from the sidelines, so maybe Mr. Nelson is off-camera too - dressed up like the Count, I assume.

Sorry, these technical things hang me up for no good reason, thought you might be some help. Hello and thanks!

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah.. that should be Matt Vogel. He was hand picked by Jerry himself to not only help perform characters he does the voice of, but to continue the roles of his Muppet Show characters.

 

[Mupp]

so maybe Mr. Nelson is off-camera too - dressed up like the Count, I assume.

Yes, that's it, I remember reading that.

 

[gail]

Gee, I just love the behind the scenes clips!

 

[antsamthompson9]

In new stories or segments, Matt preforms the Count while Jerry does the voice off-camera. In DVDs like this, Jerry pre-records the Count's voice while Matt lip-syncs.

 

[minor muppetz]

Watching that clip, it's interesting that Kevin Clash only voiced Elmo due to directing. I would have thought it would be easiest to perform and direct the same production if one was a Muppet performer, since performers have monitors to watch what they are doing. Though I read that in The Muppets Take Manhattan Frank Oz didn't perform his characters in scenes where they didn't have much dialogue.

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing that I wonder: Why was Matt Vogel mouthing out Jerry Nelson's vocals? It would make since if Matt was performing the voice, but it seems he was moving his own mouth in addition to having The Count lip-sync. Weird.

 

[Xerus]

Watching that clip, it's interesting that Kevin Clash only voiced Elmo due to directing. I would have thought it would be easiest to perform and direct the same production if one was a Muppet performer, since performers have monitors to watch what they are doing. Though I read that in The Muppets Take Manhattan Frank Oz didn't perform his characters in scenes where they didn't have much dialogue.

Also, I heard in the Muppet Wizard of Oz, Kevin only did the voice of Clifford, but didn't do the puppetwork.

 

[Beauregard]

One thing that I wonder: Why was Matt Vogel mouthing out Jerry Nelson's vocals? It would make since if Matt was performing the voice, but it seems he was moving his own mouth in addition to having The Count lip-sync. Weird.

Yeah, but its always easiest to move a Puppets mouth and give it realistic expressions if you are also moving in similar patterns yourself, I've always found. (That's why no one sees behind the scenes at my puppet shows when I'm performing girl puppets dancing...aheh...)

 

[Collgoff]

Yes, that's it, I remember reading that.

Me too!