Muppet Impressions

[beakerfan76]

Rowlfy, I can do most of Frank's character's easily (From Piggy to Marvin Suggs, but Bert's laugh is the hardest thing for me), It's more Nelson's voices that are a bit tougher for me (Though I can do a mean Mr. Johnson.)

 

[rowlfy662]

Yeah looking at my palisades I can do all the voices and then thanks to party cruise racemania and YouTube I mastered it's just piggy noise when she karate chops someone although I can do a mean newsman dr teeth but my best have to be link rowlf and sam

 

[dwmckim]

She won't insult my bad Piggy when we sing "Love Led Us Here" or my terrible (I mean it!) Fozzie when we go over the "Good Grief! The Comedian's A Bear!" sketch from TMS.

The garage door at my house is really loud when it opens, and I've made it a tradition to practice my Red impersonation whenever it does...that way, I can make sure that none of the neighbors hear!

("Good grief - the comedian's a bear!")

When i was a kid i was fascinated with the Muppets pretty much right out of the womb. My best friend and i would play at being Jim Henson and Frank Oz the way other kids would play at being Cowboys & Indians. We would get all the toy hand puppets of all the characters (the hand puppets were such a huge part of the merchandise back then - it's sad we haven't really seen much of that since the 70's!) and were both determined to do them all so well so we could take over the characters when the real Muppeteers got too old! So i've been doing Muppet impressions a long time - i learned how to do a lot of different voices and a wide variety - which is easier for a child to do as puberty limits what one can do later! It was this early play that got me into puppetry (i was considered a prodigy at a young age and my first professional performing experience was as a puppeteer) and through puppetry i got into acting and singing.

At any rate, i pretty much hadn't done puppetry since my teens (the singing/acting eventually became the greater passion) and like i said, my range of impressions went down a bit after puberty though i could still do a large number (Frank Oz and Dave Goelz's - with the exception of Gonzo - being easiest) though as i got more into singing and developing my voice i tended to do impressions very little so as to not abuse or damage my voice - and when it turned out in 1999 that chronic bronchitis would be part of my life from then on, i've had to REALLY be careful and superprotective of my voice since then so the only time i even would do an impression nowadays would be if i was quoting a line and wanted to do so in character.

I never had a problem with Bert's laugh - heck i LOVE doing Bert (though i love - and usually will do - his mid 70's vocal patterns as opposed to more modern era) I also have always been big on voicespotting - again going back to that early obsession with Muppets, Muppeteers, impressions, voices, etc. And when Fraggle Rock debuted (and when i wasn't as sharp with voicespotting) i at first thought Jim was Traveling Matt and Frank was Boober.

Actually the one Muppet that i DO tend to impersonate these days just for fun and out of discovery is Wayne (and by extention Placido Flamingo) since i love the idea of a very vain singer and when just playing around on that on my own found out just how much i can sound like Wayne so every now and then when i can't resist (and my voice is up to it), i'll sing along to something as Wayne!

 

[rowlfy662]

yeah bert laugh kind of just happened just like week when i suddenly started doing johnny digit and angelo which i was suprised about

 

[ilovemusic]

My voice is always a little bit hippie-like, so I can do Janice's voice pretty good (that's what my sister said)
Also I can do Zoot, although, at least his phrase 'forgive me charlie parker wherever you are' from sax & violence.
Sometimes I can do the voices of kermit and gonzo.
Aaaaaaand of course beaker

 

[Fraggline]

And Fraggline, I can sympathize a bit. I used to not be very good, but I practiced and practiced (Swedish chef's VOICE is easy enough, but it's his speech patterns that'll screw you up.) until the cows came home and I can do a large amount of muppets.

Thanks for the encouragement, beakerfan76!

One more impression trick I like to do --- it's really crazy --- Muppet sneezes!

All you gotta do is:
1) When you're about to sneeze, think of a Muppet voice and try to do it.
2)That's the only step! (Mokey is an easier one, by the way --- at least for me, my voice goes higher when I sneeze. Still not perfect, though.)

 

[beakerfan76]

^That's strange but I like it (That's just the way I am.) (E-cookie to someone who can get the reference). I sometimes sneeze with a Bert voice or Grover/Piggy.

Also I've been getting better at Jim's gruffer voices (Waldorf mainly) and some of Whitmire's higher voices (Bean Bunny and Wembley mainly, not so much Rizzo with his New York accent)

I also notice when I sing some older Weird Al songs (Think I love Rocky Road or Eat It), I always do Wembley's singing voice for some reason. It comes naturally.

As for your "Mokey Sneeze," Fraggline, that reminds me of a friend I used to have who had a high pitched sneeze (That sounded like Mokey as well), so you're not alone. I, personally, cannot do Mokey's voice, because if I did, I'd scare people.

 

[rowlfy662]

the muppet sneezes are so cool i tried it today and i sneezed like kermit quite funny and beakerfan76 you can do bean thats great hes the only one i can't master well him and janice

 

[Fraggline]

Thanks, everybody, for you compliments!
I agree, beakerfan76, it is awfully crazy...

I've been trying to do a Gobo sneeze, but it's incredibly hard...maybe someday...

 

[rowlfy662]

oh fraggline for me gobo is just hard for me in general i hope you will be able to a gobo sneeze soon good luck