I love being a puppeteer! :D

[ToodlesTeam]

Howdy howdy, folks. I just thought I'd share some thoughts about a performance I was recently able to do with some of my puppets.

The local elementary school is having a "Right to Read" week, and I was invited to bring some puppets in and have them read to the third grade classes. Toodles the Horse read "Stand Back," Said The Elephant, "I'm Going To Sneeze!" which is a great old book very reminiscent of Dr. Seuss. After that, Kermit the Frog came out and read "The Frog Prince Continued" which is a fantastically hilarious book by Jon Scieszka. If you haven't looked at any of his work, check it out! Very Muppet-y humor!

Anyhow, I read for five different classes, and it was a blast! I wasn't sure how the kids would respond to the puppets, but they were really into it! They loved how goofy Toodles is, but they were even more excited to see Kermit. Disney's attempts to get younger audiences watching the Muppets must be successful, because they all knew Kermit and were so happy to see him! After reading, the kids asked me some questions, which turned out to be wonderful. They were so interested in puppetry, wanting to know how I made puppets, how I could sound like Kermit, how I came up with the idea for Toodles, and all kinds of other great questions.

I told the kids that I was inspired to be a puppeteer when I was not much older than them. Hopefully I inspired some new puppeteers today! It's fun to build puppets, but I don't often get to perform them for anybody. Today was a real treat...though my arms are pretty tired!

 

[bigwilly2000]

Lol I know what that feels like. I just finished making my first puppet on Saturday for my Grand Daughter's 3rd birthday ( thread soon to come ). During the party my grand daughter wanted me to make it talk so I tried. It was the second time I've done this and it was horrible, but to those 3-5 year olds it was mezmorizing, ****. They didn't even notice that I was there unless I was actually interacting with the puppet. Makes you feel like Jim Henson himself. .

 

[DannyRWW]

When you have audience that is really into it, it is amazing. I used to do a lot of shows at libraries, Babies R Us, etc; and those were always great audiences. These days I do most of our shows in house at the school/church where I work. Sadly I think that audience can be a bit jaded...but when we do programs where we bring in people from the community they are mesmerized...and yeah I know the feeling when your talking to someone with puppet and they completely forget you are there.....even adults sometimes react that way.

 

[ToodlesTeam]

Yeah, even though I was plainly visible performing today, I think most people forgot about me while the puppets were talking! The teachers who were turning the pages and showing the illustrations to the kids even got behind a few times because they were distracted watching the puppets doing their thing! (Which, fortunately, led to some good opportunities for a little ad lib humor!)

 

[Bridget]

Wow, how amazing. There's just something magical to me about having the ability to earn a child's smile and laughter, using a puppet. You truly have to be dedicated; I'm sure you were!

Was it enjoyable?

 

[ToodlesTeam]

It was good fun! I was especially glad to see Toodles so well received. Kermit is extremely fun to perform, but at the end of the day, I'm just impersonating Steve Whitmire with him. I was glad that the kids also really responded well to my own original character too! They really liked his big eyes!

 

[Slackbot]

It really is wonderful, putting on a puppet and having people talk to the puppet, treat it like it was a real person. I walked around Dragon*Con last year with my Janken puppet, and you should have seen people of all ages light up with joy on seeing a Fraggle in the "flesh." I hope you get to do things like this more often.

 

[ToodlesTeam]

I would actually love to go to a convention at some point and take Kermit or someone along with me. That sounds like so much fun!