Muppet Impressions

[Gelfling Girl]

I did a pretty good Hilda impression once, but I haven't really felt the need to do the voice at any time recently.

And here's a video of my dad doing an impression of Animal with a Fisher Price puppet we got on Ebay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esjaNo2BkVo

Any character with a gravelly voice is basically out.

Yeah, same here. If anybody's seen the one video I have up with me performing Henry (I won't post the link of that here, but you already got a link to a video posted on the same account...), he was pretty much my attempt at doing that sort of voice. The camera's audio recording made it quite obvious that the voice is coming from a female performer, though.

 

[beakerfan76]

I have a bit of a hard time with the gravelly voiced characters (Rowlf, Dr. Teeth) mainly because of pitch. Sometimes I'll do Rowlf when I mean to do Dr. Teeth and vice versa.

As for Fozzie, I still can't seem to do him right. Like I said, I can do the infamous Wocka Wocka, and maybe his Hiya Hiya Hiya! and stuff from Bear on Patrol, but that's it. No corny jokes.

 

[analeisa]

Not to be a downer but I agree with others and say I've never heard a REALLY good Muppet impression. I've heard some pretty good impressions, though. I can do a decent Fozzie and Beaker. I can imitate the "Beaker's Ballad" video and get my family to crack up.

 

[MeepMeepBork]

The newest addition to my bad but not completely awful Muppet impression repertoire is Don Music. But instead of banging my head on a piano, I just use a pillow so as not to seriously injure myself.

 

[beakerfan76]

My newest addition is, though only used once, the two pumpkins in the Swedish Chef pumpkin carving video.

"If we make it to Thanksgiving, you're on your own."

 

[Kiki]

On a couple of occasions when I've said, "hey, man" a numbe rof people say it sounds Floydish- it doesn't, trust me. Can do a *horrible* Janice, and Kermit, and an okayish Swedish Chef. I've tried to do more feminine characters like Piggy and Fran Brill characters but my voice has never been high, as I have a fairly deep voice for a girl.

 

[Slackbot]

I've found that doing decent impressions isn't only a matter of being able to mimic a voice and vocal mannerisms. It also involves acting. If you can act the part, put the personality behind the voice, then your impressions will sound much more real.

Myself, I can approximate a number of muppets. Most of the "Frank Oz cluster" - Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, etc, but not Sam; I just can't push my voice down that low. Janice, Scred, chickens, Baby Gonzo (ouch), Beaker, and others, to a greater or lesser degree. You'd never mistake my versions of the characters for the real thing, of course, me being a soprano when I'm not twisting my throat into a pretzel.

Gonzo is my favorite character, and he's the one whose voice I never could get anywhere close to. The best I could do was just throw gravel into my own. But in high school I built a Gonzo puppet, and I have fond memories of people talking to the puppet as of he really was Gonzo and completely ignoring me. After one little show some little kids came up and actually hugged the puppet. Awww.

 

[beakerfan76]

I've found that doing decent impressions isn't only a matter of being able to mimic a voice and vocal mannerisms. It also involves acting. If you can act the part, put the personality behind the voice, then your impressions will sound much more real.

Myself, I can approximate a number of muppets. Most of the "Frank Oz cluster" - Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, etc, but not Sam; I just can't push my voice down that low. Janice, Scred, chickens, Baby Gonzo (ouch), Beaker, and others, to a greater or lesser degree. You'd never mistake my versions of the characters for the real thing, of course, me being a soprano when I'm not twisting my throat into a pretzel.

Gonzo is my favorite character, and he's the one whose voice I never could get anywhere close to. The best I could do was just throw gravel into my own. But in high school I built a Gonzo puppet, and I have fond memories of people talking to the puppet as of he really was Gonzo and completely ignoring me. After one little show some little kids came up and actually hugged the puppet. Awww.

Yeah, there are some guys I can't completely get down pat, Gonzo being one of them. However, Sam is one of my best voices along with Animal, Swedish Chef, and Beaker.

 

[dwmckim]

Me and Muppet Impressions

Ever since i was a kid i've tried to do all the characters - of course at that age you're convinced you can do "everyone" brilliantly but of course there would have been stronger and weaker ones! Of course with me, it wasn't just the voices though; it was also the puppetry. My Muppet puppets were my fave toys, i was ALWAYS doing puppetry (you know how kids play at Cowboys and Indians? My best friend growing up and i played at being Jim Henson and Frank Oz!) I was considered a puppetry prodigy at a young age because i had done it almost immediately once i had the motor skills and constantly. My friend and i were determined to grow up to step in for the real Muppeteers when they got t0o old to do them. My first professional performing work was as a puppeteer at age ten but that eventually gave way to acting and singing (without puppets).

Many people say Frank's voices are the hardest but to me they're easiest - but i suppose that comes down to what your real voice is like...mine has that very strong quality that Frank's has (though no one would confuse my natural voice with Frank's). He's the only Muppeteer where i could do his full range of characters very well.

But of course my ability to do Muppet impressions has been altered by (a) age - one can do much more with their voice before puberty (b) living with chronic bronchitis. It's been 11 years since my first bout with severe bronchitis which nearly destroyed my voice that first time - it took a few years to rebuild it only to get very sick again a few years later and discovering that living with it on a permenant basis would be a part of my life now (though sometimes it's in remission and other times it acts up) continues to be a very hard adjustment for someone who has studied to be a singer and who uses singing as their biggest emotional outlet. As a result, i very rarely even attempt Muppet impressions anymore because i don't want to do anything that might further damage or hurt my voice. (Even today i'm spending the day as mute as possible because my voice and my throat needs the rest after some nasty coughing fits this week)

But having said that...sometimes though, you simply can't resist tossing out a Muppet quote in the voice of the respective character or singing something the way a particular Muppet might or something. So when my voice is in better shape and i can "play" with it more, i've lately found i do a really awesome Wayne (speaking and singing) - for a trained singer, Wayne is a whole lot of fun to do!

...not to mention my Sully is as spot on as one can get...

 

[beakerfan76]

Ever since i was a kid i've tried to do all the characters - of course at that age you're convinced you can do "everyone" brilliantly but of course there would have been stronger and weaker ones! Of course with me, it wasn't just the voices though; it was also the puppetry. My Muppet puppets were my fave toys, i was ALWAYS doing puppetry (you know how kids play at Cowboys and Indians? My best friend growing up and i played at being Jim Henson and Frank Oz!) I was considered a puppetry prodigy at a young age because i had done it almost immediately once i had the motor skills and constantly. My friend and i were determined to grow up to step in for the real Muppeteers when they got t0o old to do them. My first professional performing work was as a puppeteer at age ten but that eventually gave way to acting and singing (without puppets).

Many people say Frank's voices are the hardest but to me they're easiest - but i suppose that comes down to what your real voice is like...mine has that very strong quality that Frank's has (though no one would confuse my natural voice with Frank's). He's the only Muppeteer where i could do his full range of characters very well.

But of course my ability to do Muppet impressions has been altered by (a) age - one can do much more with their voice before puberty (b) living with chronic bronchitis. It's been 11 years since my first bout with severe bronchitis which nearly destroyed my voice that first time - it took a few years to rebuild it only to get very sick again a few years later and discovering that living with it on a permenant basis would be a part of my life now (though sometimes it's in remission and other times it acts up) continues to be a very hard adjustment for someone who has studied to be a singer and who uses singing as their biggest emotional outlet. As a result, i very rarely even attempt Muppet impressions anymore because i don't want to do anything that might further damage or hurt my voice. (Even today i'm spending the day as mute as possible because my voice and my throat needs the rest after some nasty coughing fits this week)

But having said that...sometimes though, you simply can't resist tossing out a Muppet quote in the voice of the respective character or singing something the way a particular Muppet might or something. So when my voice is in better shape and i can "play" with it more, i've lately found i do a really awesome Wayne (speaking and singing) - for a trained singer, Wayne is a whole lot of fun to do!

...not to mention my Sully is as spot on as one can get...

Yeah, strangely I've been able to do most, if not all of Oz's characters flawlessly, mainly Animal and Sam, though I'm getting better at Miss Piggy and Grover (Essentially the same with some differences).

As for fun ones, again, Animal is always fun to do, and everyone seems to know him, even if they have only heard of the Muppets rather than be a hardcore fan like myself. Beaker is fun too, but his screams can be difficult to do thanks to Richard's breathing in trick. It's mind-blowingly impressive if you pull it off just right, though I tend to sound like Whitmire's Beaker rather than Hunt's.