Video: Sesame Street Puppeteers Talk About Puppets

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Matt Vogel, Ryan Dillon, Frankie Cordero, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, and Marty Robinson talk about how their jobs and the puppets work:

Great stuff! I'm really glad I finally know how Snuffy's snuffle moves. Also, there's some great behind the scenes pictures and footage.

 

[D'Snowth]

Holy crap . . . if I didn't know better, I'd think Ryan and I were twins separated at birth.

But I hadn't heard about little magnets inside the hands being used as a technique to have Muppets grab/hold things, but that's really interesting - I'm guessing those would have to be really strong magnets to be able to attract through fabric and such.

 

[gravy]

Hm. Kevin was briefly mentioned. Cool.

 

[Schfifty]

Funny that it's already gotten a bunch of comments complaining that the magic is "ruined". Well, duh, that's gonna happen when you see behind-the-scenes footage.

But I hadn't heard about little magnets inside the hands being used as a technique to have Muppets grab/hold things, but that's really interesting - I'm guessing those would have to be really strong magnets to be able to attract through fabric and such.

I had wondered about that before, and it seems like they've done that for quite a while. When I saw one of the episodes with Betty Lou's dolly posted on YT a while ago, I wondered if the doll or doll head was attached via magnets, or if was just pinning.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've heard certain things such as, depending on the size/shape/weight of the prop, that usually the bending the fingers (which have wire in them) into a grip around the prop is enough of a grasp to hold it into place, and if not, a little double-face tape is added as extra ensurance.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I wanna know who the red-haired woman is who was filling in for Leslie in one of the behind the scenes pictures.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I wanna know who the red-haired woman is who was filling in for Leslie in one of the behind the scenes pictures.

It was Peslie, her evil Irish doppelganger.

 

[Oscarfan]

It could just be Leslie in a wig; she's prone to doing quirky things.

 

[gravy]

It could just be Leslie in a wig; she's prone to doing quirky things.

Yep. That's what I also thought at first.

 

[D'Snowth]

When I was a kid in school, I used to clip my pens to the templepiece of my glasses, and nobody really thought anything of it (because they already thought I was a weirdo anyway).

A few weeks ago, I happened to have a pen in a grocery store and did the same thing for the first time since I was a kid. Needless to say, I was getting quite a number of strange looks and double-takes from other shoppers and employees.