Garan Grey
New Member
- Joined
- May 8, 2023
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 4
It was years before I could find myself in the scene because I was cropped out for old square TVs. Now I'm not hard to find.Where do I begin? I was a 20something living in NYC and already familiar with Rowlf and the Muppets when the series began to air. I had a Muppet Show poster on my bedroom wall and was not far from the Henson Company townhouse that served as their headquarters. A fairly nondescript building with some fun stuff in the upper windows, it felt like walking by the Wonka factory, you could only imagine the magic inside. When Muppets Take Manhattan started filming in town, I happened across the whole core Muppet gang trudging down a street with Jim, Frank, etc underneath on a big dolly. I knew not to disturb them and had to be somewhere, so I didn't linger. Not long after, a casting call went out for extras. When I went in, the same casting director who'd used me in two other movies announced that she would not be deciding who was cast, and the Muppet people would be choosing. She said "If you don't get cast, you're just not Muppet material." I wanted it badly, so I tried to "Think Muppet." Sitting up straight and wide eyed, probably looking eager and game, a Muppet guy came by pointing to people "...and You!" I was chosen! I was there a whole day for the college audience scene. Jim explained what their jobs were like, "Everybody put your arm up over your head..."
I'm in LA now, where the Henson studios has the same Wonka Factory vibe when you walk by. A couple months ago Brian's Puppet Up! Improv show was done there and I was in the front row. Brian's appealing personality came through as he explained their history and repeated my thought about their headquarters feeling like the Wonka factory. My Muppet interests began to surge and after looking for a practical Rowlf and Fozzie, I fell into collecting Whatnots. The current goal is to make short videos to amuse my 100 year old father who's 3000 miles away. I'm looking for whatnot outfits and have been buying workshop kits looking for eyes, noses, etc. I've figured out how to remove stains and residual Velcro fuzz. My plan is to clean up the puppets, keep four and sell off the extras. I'm particularly interested in carefully removing the eyes, nose and hair of a custom whatnot so I can rearrange it like the others.
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