Is anyone paying the bills using their puppets/puppetry?

[Puppetainer]

Well, I'll tell you P&J, many people would say it's crazy to try and make a living through puppetry, but I think I would go crazy if I didn't try!

I'm reminded of when my wife and I flew from our home in Wisconsin to audition to be puppeteers at Disneyland. When all the other applicants (all from So Cal) asked what we would do if we made it I told them we would sell everything, move to California and get to work! They all said, "Wow! That's awesome!"
I told them that this was one of the few groups of adults who would have that response to my answer. Most would have moved away with a frightened look in their eyes.

 

[dwmckim]

Even though i haven't done any puppetry since my teens, i can tell you (as someone who's gone onto acting and singing since then) then being a puppeteer is just the same as any other member of the performing arts community...you don't go into it for the money and make sure you have your "day" job (or "night job" if your puppet work is during the day) to pay the bills on a regular basis.

Just look at our idols and the reason we're here - the Muppeteers...many of them even after reaching what we might look at as "the pinnacle of success" working for the Muppets don't earn enough for the first several years to give up everything else (working for other productions, doing commercials or voice overs, non-puppetry related sources of income). Even Caroll Spinney talks in his autobiography how even though the show was a phenominal success right off the bat, he was faced with the difficult choice of questioning if he should leave the show between the first and second season since the pay at that time was not enough to pay his existing expenses...thankfully the sage advice of Kermit Love to spend some time before making his final decision and finding Big Bird had made the cover of Time Magazine while he was taking that time to think about it, kept him going for a second year...so one can even reach an iconic status and be on the cover of a national magazine and have their character known by millions and still have financial challenges.

 

[Puppetainer]

YAY! Starving artistry here I come!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Even Caroll Spinney talks in his autobiography how even though the show was a phenomenal success right off the bat, he was faced with the difficult choice of questioning if he should leave the show between the first and second season since the pay at that time was not enough to pay his existing expenses...

That's a very good point, there is often a big difference between fame and wealth.

 

[Snillies]

um, yeah.

All artists have it rough. SERIOUSLY. I'm a hairstylist, which is an artform. Not everyone makes a killing at it. Before I had a tot it did pay the bills and then some. But now I'm trying to get my own thing off the ground. Eek. My husband is an artist too(painter).
With puppetry, the pay is seeing a little tot's eyes light up. (And that takes my mind off the bills!) If only we got paid in giggles and laughs!

 

[Dagger Claws]

Boy this topic takes me back to something that I was told by a fellow puppeteer, which is similiar to alot of sage advice that has been shared with folks previously posted:

"There are no millionaire puppeteers."

What he was getting at is that no one who gets into puppetry, at least in America, is going to be a millionaire based solely on doing puppetry for puppetry's sake (ie. building and performing theatrical puppet shows for adults, children, touring, ect). People who have made a significant amount of money and sucess or fame in puppetry (his examples were Jim Henson and Jim Gamble) made that money through other means and ways. Jim Henson made his initial money using puppetry to sell commercials and then invested that money into other projects. Jim Gamble was an airplane pilot for the longest time and an engineer who later gave up that career and invested the money into a new career choice.

Also here is some advice from Mr. Bruce Campbell, the famous B-movie actor. On his website, he talks about how alot of people send him emails asking how they can be a Hollywood actor in movies. His answer is there are many, MANY levels to being an actor, and in reality it's all in what you are content with. If you get a big thrill working with your local community theatre, fantastic! If you belong to a local film group and you star in their low budget efforts and enjoy it, that's great! You don't have to be in Hollywood or L.A. or New York struggling for work as an actor to be considered an actor. However, if you want to go for a career in major motion pictures, there is a lot you need to keep in mind and research (sacrifices, unions, moving to where there is work, working several jobs in order to pay for your dream and its expenses, going to audition after audition after audition and trying not to get too discouraged when you don't get hired) and be prepared for those when they come up.

The same is easily applied to a life in puppetry: what are you content with? And be honest with yourself when you answer that question. If you like it as a hobby but want a regular 9-5 job that will keep you in health benefits and a steady pay check, that's alright as long as you feel it's alright for you. If you like working for a children's theatre (or several in case working one job can't support your cost of living) as a freelance builder or as their in house designer, great! If you're working for an already established puppet theatre in your area, one that is known in your area but maybe not well known outside your city or state, touring and doing lots of shows and building new productions, then alright! It's all in how far you want to go, or in some cases can go if you have a wife, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend, children, or other element that might limit the extant at which you can follow you're dream and passion.

As for myself, I've worked as a freelance puppet and prop designer and builder for 4 years now. I graduated college a little over a year and a half ago in Chicago, and worked with a local touring marionette company for 3 years. This past fall I got an amazing opportunity to work with Michael Curry Designs as an overhire in Oregon. Unfortunately, they weren't hiring on any permanent staff, so I had to go back to Chicago at the end of December.

Since I got back home, I've been hitting the pavement, sending out resumes to as many places as I can or have heard of. I'm 25, young and in relatively good shape, and I have a decent resume and portfolio. I don't have a girlfriend or wife or children, and my parents are still young and healthy enough to live and work on their own without having their children stay close to home to take care of them. So, I can afford to travel and go where there could be work and live there for a while or forever. I've lived in Chicago all my life, and right now I'd love to move and to live somewhere else for a while.

Am I making a living? You be the judge; I haven't worked a "real" 9-5 job in over 5 years and one of my few fellow college graduates that can say "I'm already working in my field after leaving collge." I've met some amazing people and worked on some incredible projects. Freelance work has been a major source of my income, and it can be quite nice to create your own work day.

However, I'm inbetween jobs and my budget is tight until I can find work again. I'm living at home with my folks until things pick up. Most of my friends have either left the city to find work elsewhere, or they're in other states, so it can get a little lonely at times. I'm not with a company that has health benefits, and the insurance I am on is VERY exspensive until I can find a better one.

Things will pick up, I know this. I've gotten some feedback already from a few companies, and there is possible work this summer for a theatre company in Kentucky working as a props master. It just takes persistance and timing, going out every day and getting your name out there and making yourself "a polite thorn in people's sides;" in other words keeping in touch with the people you're sending resumes out to and letting them know that there is an energetic and talented person who is interested in working with them.

Hope this helps?

 

[Puppetainer]

WOW DC! Awesome response! As to whether your response helps, everyone's responses help! I guess I've pretty much already made up my mind to go for this. What I'm looking for (and getting!) from my fellow artists here at Muppet Central Forum is encouragement from their own personal tales of trying to make it as a puppeteer. Hopefully others who may read this thread can get a better and more realistic picture of the life that a puppeteer chooses. For me it helps to prepare me for the life my wife and I are preparing to embark upon.

We already expect that it will be a struggle. I've started and run several businesses in my career. I have over 20 years of retail management experience a BA in art and a fair amount of live theater experience. My wife brings over 14 years of experience as a professional educator. What I don't have is very much actual puppeteering experience. I know that it may seem crazy for someone with so little experience to upend their life in pursuit of a career they haven't really tried on yet, but I would say the relative sanity of such a decision depends largely on the person who is making it. Me, I'm a highly energetic and creative person who has always found a path to success down any road I've really been passionate about traveling.

I was already seriously considering the idea of puppetry when my wife and I flew to California for the puppeteer audition at Disneyland. That was my first and only real experience with a professional puppet on my arm but it was more than enough. I literally had chills when I put that puppet on and the electric thrill I got from performing put me on a high I didn't come down from for weeks. While I was auditioning for the directors and other staff I was so lost in the magic of performing with that puppet that I actually forgot they were there until a couple of them laughed at something in my performance. I already had a fire burning in my soul for puppetry and that experience just threw a barrel of gasoline on it.

I have done a fair amount of research into this concept and the plans I'm developing are well thought out. I've always said that as an entrepreneur I'm more than willing to leap from a cliff after I've thoroughly examined the cliff face, the rocky approach, the walls of the cliff, the atmosphere on the day of the jump, my parachute and all of it's straps, my back-up parachute, and...well you get the idea. I won't bore you with all the details of my research, but I guess belonging to this forum is a part of that.

I do not make this decision lightly and I realize the sacrifices and the risks. In fact I've already started paring down mine and my wife's lifestyle in preparation for a much more "modest" income. I expect to set up a stand alone theater here in Wisconsin that will include a gift shop. It will offer shows to the general public and have special arrangements for birthday parties and various field trip groups (day cares, schools, etc.). I plan on it being able to support a modest full time income for at least 3 or 4 adults (my wife and I plus 1 or 2 others) at the start and possibly adding another full time person if we find enough success.

I'm still very much in the planning stage. Still checking out that cliff and packing my parachute, but with each step I get a little closer to that always exciting plunge. It will be some time before we've built the puppets and gathered the finances necessary to launch but as I've said I find encouragement and further energy for my task through the stories of all my fellow posters here at the forum.

In the end I guess that choosing puppetry is like choosing any other career in the arts. I once read a famous author's quote saying about writing, "If you CAN do anything else then do it. If you can't then you're a writer." Well, for me I don't think I can imagine anything else worth risking everything for. There are those who will disagree, but I truly believe that if you pursue something passionately and believe in making that dream into a reality; if you chase that goal relentlessly regardless of the obstacles in your path and if you never give up you WILL make your dream into a reality! I've got the life experience to back up that theory so I guess that's why I believe it. Like the song says, "life's like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending we've done just what we've set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers and YOU!"

 

[Dagger Claws]

Hey there Puppetainer!

You've got alot going for you already with you and your wife's combined business and professional backgrounds. Back when I was still in art school an issue that would come up again and again with students was, "How are you going to make a living at this in the real world?" What I think people were getting at when they asked that question was how are you going to market yourself and your art work so that people will not only be interested in who you are and what you do but are actively seeking you out and buying/supporting your efforts.

Many of those budding artists graduated with a diploma that meant very little once they were out side of school, and they had very few (if any) skills in how to sell themselves. The fact that you have decades of retail experience in knowing how to sell something to someone off the street plus college training in the arts and background in theatre is a HUGE step up for you. With you're wife's background as an educator it sounds like you two have a winning combination to start off a theatre of your own. Also, the high energy and dedication to an adventure like this being obvious from your writing is a major bonus for those times when things get rough.

Someone who I think would be an immense source of information in what you're doing is Guy Thompson and his lovely wife Christine who run The Mouse Trap Puppet Theatre in Shipshewana, IN. The story of how Guy and Christine got their theatre going and how successful it has become is truly an amazing one. You can find them at:

www.mousetraptheater.org

In addition to having an established theatre space in a very busy tourist town with constant performances, Guy is still on the road touring shows, having workshops taught at the theatre, and a gift shop loaded with puppets and other merchandise. This summer the Great Lakes Regional Puppetry Festival is being held there (more information can be read on their website). If you'd like to see how a theatre like theirs is run and meet them first hand, make plans to attend that festival!

Good luck.

 

[puck]

I have to say DC: as a student and freelance builder/performer, and being slightly crazy, your post above was inspiring. : )

 

[Puppetainer]

Thanks for the vote of confidence and the info on Mouse Trap Theater. I would be curious indeed to hear their tale. Didn't see it anywhere at the site though.

Hey, since you're based (at least at the moment) not too far from southern Wisconsin maybe you'll be able to join in the fun or at least pop round for a visit when we finally do get this venture off the drawing board and into the real world!