In 1964, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Don Sahlin, and Jerry Juhl were sitting around a dressing room at The Jack Paar Show, bored. They opened up a utility closet, saw a bunch of pipes, and decided to turn those pipes into creatures. So they went back to their office, got some supplies, came back to the dressing room, and drew faces and googly eyes on the pipes, adding hair and beaks to them as well. The result, the muppet pipes — ancestors to the more famous muppets Henson would go on to create for shows like Sesame Street — survived the next five decades in a closet (that, until recently, was in Max Weinberg’s dressing room). Earlier this week, NBC added the pipes to the NBC tour, having knocked down the dressing room and given the former closet a glass front. Frank Oz, the only surviving member of the foursome, spoke with Brian Williams about the pipes and the muppets’ spirit of “affectionate anarchy.”

Comedian Larry Miller joins new puppets from the Jim Henson Co. for the late-night racy game show ‘Late Night Liars’ premiering Thursday night on the GSN channel.

I highly advise you to check out the list of performers and workshops lined up for this years Puppets Up! Festival in Almonte Ontario. Every year the festival seems to get bigger and better…if that is possible!

Workshops are running a little different than prior years. Instead of workshops going on the days prior to the festival; Workshops are now spread out through the weeks leading up to Puppets Up! You’ll find the workshops very economical, and are all facilitated by amazingly talented people. Sign Up for a workshop(s) now before it’s too late!

Here is Episode 3! Pretty short episode on how to glue the foam pieces together. Pretty simple tutorial.

Stay tuned next week when I begin building mouth plates!

Tom Vandenberg of T.V. Puppetry is looking for an apprentice to work with him this summer.  The person will be tasked with puppet/scene and prop building as well as acting as “roadie” for some shows, some performance may or may not be required.  This is a paid position.

Tom is looking for is a senior high school or college student with an interest in art/performance/sculpture etc.  A person who has their transport that can get them to Tom’s place, which is just north of Pickering (East GTA).

So if you know of a likely candidate have them contact Tom directly at: puppetree@sympatico.ca

Okay so I was training for a running race these last couple of weeks and finally ran it yesterday…whew! It was about 30 degrees outside so it took me longer than usual as I had to stop to make certain I was properly hydrated.

So now I’m going to start posting on a regular basis!!! Yaaay! LOL

 This morning I spotted a commercial for a company called Bathfitter…pretty funny…the puppets were made by a company called “Puppet Rentals” and seem very well built.

Unraku has just released a funny remix of Neil Cicierega’s “The Mysterious Ticking Noise”, made using hand crocheted finger puppets. This was originally shot as part of a demo for a “The Puppet Building Podcast” series they were developing in early 2009, but ultimately didn’t produce. Great fun and well crafted puppets.

Yesterday marked the 20th Anniversary of Jim Henson’s death.
I was 16 when it happened and I remember it (20 years later) like it was yesterday. Wow!

Here is a segment from the Jim Henson memorial. Michael Frith’s words are very endearing and capture the spirit of the man Jim Henson. Thank you Jim Henson…thank you.