What type of puppetry is your favorite?

[Buck-Beaver]

I tend to work mostly with hand/rod puppetry, but I love bunraku-style puppetry and Czech-style black light puppetry - the real full-size stage black light puppetry, not just "Muppetry" puppets made from black light material that a lot of Christian groups seem to use.

 

[Phantom]

Black light puppetry is awsome (any style).

I like hand and rod, however, I've been building stick puppets lately and I think they're cool.

 

[scarylarrywolf]

I admit, hand/rod and live-hand puppetry works like none other for me too. I think it's part of my surrealist bent -- they can be visually as unnatural as you like, but dramatically believeable. Somehow, while I can appreciate the representation of a puppet that has no mouth movement, something about them just seems dead to me.

Although my preference is hand puppets, I have to admire mariontetters and ventriloquists. I've tried 'em both and I just haven't gotten it yet! I'll keep trying though.

By the way, can anyone confirm who was the first to combine hand puppets with rod puppets? Live-hands puppets? Was it Jim?

--"Scary" Larry Wolf

 

[doctort13]

Hands Up!

I like working hand/glove puppets since I feel that I can make them "come alive" more than other styles of puppets.

I enjoy watching marionettes, although I am not very good with the control stick.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

By the way, can anyone confirm who was the first to combine hand puppets with rod puppets? Live-hands puppets? Was it Jim?

That's generally accepted, that Jim was the first to combine hand puppets and rod puppets. Not sure about "live hands".

It's very possible that some other lesser-known puppeteer was doing it before Jim. Many of the "firsts" attributed to Jim's early work in puppetry were actually done years before by other less-famous puppeteers. Using monitors and "platforming-up" sets are two examples of this.

 

[DivaKat]

I have to say I enjoy Bunraku the best, but I seem to be an odd bird. I like large puppets that fill a stage and become very choreographed like a ballet. I enjoy the blending of dance and puppets, its very magical to me.

Kat

 

[buckshot]

hand, hand/rod, and vent are my favorite styles. i feel the most comfortable w/ hand and hand/rod, but ventriloquism always gets a fun reaction.