How do I get a job as a Muppeteer?

[Fozzie Bear]

Good. Keep in touch!

 

[Nick22]

when i grow up, i really wanna be a puppeteer. but i still need to get a decent puppet.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

If you check on ebay there are great puppets available there. You can also make wonderful puppets using patterns from www.projectpuppet.com. I highly endorse them.

 

[CBPuppets]

To become a Muppeteer follow these steps:
1) Practice, practice, practice...
2) Write scripts, perform, build puppets (keep doing step 1)
3) Get with a company or make your own (continue step 1)
4) Make an audition tape and sent it to the Jim Henson Company with what they ask for. http://www.henson.com/employment.php (still do step 1)
5) Get hired
6) Never stop doing step 1.

That said, there is also the "right time, right place" possibility. (This lucky option still requires step 1.)

I get what you're saying. practice makes perfect. That is very good advice.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I thought anyone reading this thread might find this interesting...a letter puppeteer Liz Vitae received back in 1995 when she sent in a tape to the Muppets. She later got accepted in to a workshop. Her Puppatoons Blog has some neat puppet and Muppet stuff.

 

[animal0606]

I want to wish all of you who wish to pursue this great art the best of luck.You all are right the steps to take to get into the business is going to be hard & full of challenges just remember
Practice, practice, practice (I could not agree more)
right time, right place (this is a big one)
Make yourself be known go out perform..remember there is youtube & word gets out fast form there.

 

[Samwise]

In order to compr todays hiring method from the past, it is best to read interviews of well known muppeteers. Carrol Spinney in his book descries ow he joined Puppeteers of America or Unima, and was spotted by jim at a confrence. Jim approched him, and invited him to play with puppets and have a tALK. these actually constituted job interviews- informal ones. This story, with varitions describes the experience of most of the classic original lead muppeteers- youcan read it over and over. So you would join a major puppet association, perform at a major confrence where brian or kevin attended and network if possible. That is your best chance. But if not the muppet, you might find somone else, say nicolodeon or HBO or one of the dozen or so other puppet production crews nation wide.

 

[CBPuppets]

I practice almost everyday.

 

[Girrrtacos]

About a week ago Bret Nelson (The Associate Producer of Sid the Science Kid) for the Jim Henson company came to a digital arts presentation thing in Westminster. I asked him a lot of questions about this.

He said to me that I should practice practice practice. He said to study like watching Bear in the Big Blue House and The Muppet Show every day. He said he didn't care about what school I would come from. He said get an agent and send in an audition tape to the company, but keep practicing.

He pulled out Animal and showed everyone how their puppeteering worked, and when I asked, he showed me how the blinking eye mechanism worked. I also asked about the Fraggle Rock movie. It was great.

-Girrrtacos

 

[Bob1995]

Your best bet is to apply for a job as a freelancer, and hope the Muppets are auditioning puppeteers nearby.