Category: Blog
True life adventures of my real true life.
The story behind Unfriend.
The Dudley Disaster
I was in a CVS last week and, of course, being a week out, there was Easter merchandise everywhere. Enough yellow, pink, green and blue to beat the band. I started getting nostalgic for Easter celebrations gone by.
Usually, our Easters were spent in Klamath Falls, Oregon with my Mom’s side of the family. We would dye Easter eggs with my cousins, the Palmers. It was a tradition that was passed down from my cousin Brent to my brother Brandon to my cousin Brittany, that the egg dying wasn’t complete until the youngest had taken a big swig or easter egg dye, coloring their entire mouth.
Remembering these warm times, I remembered that, as a kid, we would get Easter Egg decorating kits and my favorite was Dudley brand because of the wacky characters they’d have on the box and decorating supplies. To my supreme delight, this CVS had Dudley egg decorating kits! To my absolute horror, this is what Dudley looks like in 2015…
What?! Part of what I remember so fondly about Dudley is that he and his friends always had a hand drawn look about them that was reminiscent of Jay Ward designs from Rocky & Bullwinkle. I was so perturbed by this overly cute, seemingly computer generated, Dudley that I did what anyone who is seeing their childhood tarnished, I turned to the internet. Within an hour I had purchased a classic Dudley Shake-an-Egg kit from eBay.
Friends, this is Dudley…
And, because his appearance changed a little even within the package, this is also Dudley…
My friends, either one of the two examples above are, to me, way more charming than…
Right?
All the vintage packaging just has an air of being handmade. As if Dudley and his pals created each box by hand. Take a look…
To me, that is a thing of beauty. As a kid, I looked at, not only the box, but all the details of each of the contents. I fondly remember each little character on each of the bags of dye! Here’s what Dudley boxes look like today…
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Another thing I loved about these Dudley kits as a kid was Dudley’s wacky group of friends. Clyde, Klara, Tedley and Elwood. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with this group…
I went by the Dudley website today at http://dudleyseaster.com and wanted to see if Dudley, at least, has the same group of crazy friends and what their designs looked like now.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Who are these creatures?!
Meet Emmi, Oggy, Gus, Petals (the butterfly), Dudley and Phoebe. The new Dudley gang. They all have backstory now and relationships. You can read them for yourself here http://dudleyseaster.com/about/?Dudley-Gang-2
Knowing nothing, this redesign seems to be an attempt at getting a TV show. This section of the website reads like a pitch bible that you’d make if you were pitching an animated series. I don’t know about you, but I’d rater watch this show…
Happy Easter.
Puppet Up! Tour Diary – March 21, 2015 – Kirk Douglas Closing Night
And so it begins. The adrenaline fades away, and all I’m left with is the feeling…the NEED t do more Puppet Up! shows. Singing the final lines of the closing song make me the happiest and saddest I can be. Doing this show is my absolute favorite thing to do. Even when I do shows, like tonight, where I feel I’m a little off my game.
I think it was because I didn’t get enough sleep that I felt a little off tonight. Even with the afternoon nap I had. Anyway, I just felt a little off my game. That being said, tonight was a fantastic show. The crowd loved every moment and a lot of fun was had.
I got to puppeteer and improvise with some of my favorite people, Allan, Colleen, Ted and Peggy and got to do my first show with Jordan Black, which was awesome. There were some really, funny moments in the show. Peggy, Colleen and Jordan did a fantastic carpool scene. Allan’s Usher is always inspiring and Ted’s Biography is Pia Zadora was hilarious.
For me, personally, the highlight was performing I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face. The first time I did the show after the recreations were added, I really wanted to do Java. Face was a second choice. But now that I’ve done both, Face has really become something special and I just live to do it. I will say that when it’s done, I feel like I’ve just come off the sports field because I really do strive to get every little move right. It’s a pleasure to do always and was especially fun to do tonight on the World Puppetry Day.
As far as being off my game, I just didn’t feel that I my improv was as strong tonight as it could be. My Jamboree song, though funny in spots was not as good, in my mind, as the previous two I’ve done. And my improv in the few scenes I was in, wasn’t as good as I would of hoped. I just didn’t feel like I was in the groove as much as I normally in while in these shows. At intermission I spoke briefly with Patrick about it and he sort of gave me a challenge for the second act that was really spot on and it brought me out of the funk I was feeling and allowed me to have some fun and feel better about the improv.
The crowd was amazing. Their suggestions ranged from really funny to things I would never type here, lest they become preeminently part of some google search engine and therefore permanently attached to my name. The Puppet Up crew, Cameron, Aaron and Sean were incredible, as always, for the full run. The Kirk Douglas Theatre is a great theatre to run in and the crew is top notch. It’s fun place to perform and hopefully we’ll be back soon. Finally, the crowd all four nights were incredible and we had an absolute blast performing for them.
Part of the reason it’s always hard to close Puppet Up is that we never really know when the next run of shows will be. That’s true in this case. Hopefully, world will come soon and we’ll be back creating the puppet anarchy we all know and love in the not too distant future.
Puppet Up! Tour Diary – March 18, 2015 – Kirk Douglas Opening Night
Puppet Up returned, once again, to the Kirk Douglas Theatre for four shows in March of 2015. I was lucky enough to be cast in two of those four show, the opening and the closing. As, I’m sure, you know, I love being in Puppet Up. It’s, really, my favorite thing to do, so to say I was excited was an understatement.
Since it was opening night of the show, our call time was early because there was a little bit of tech to go through. I never mind tech because it does give us a little chance to practice technique and our crew, and the crew of the Kirk Douglas Theatre, are fantastic, so it’s never a chore.
Once we we sure all the tech end of things was running smoothly, we broke for dinner and to get changed into out ‘puppet blacks’ for the show. Eight o’clock rolled around and the Kirk Douglas was packed with folks ready for some puppet anarchy. There was an empty seat or two, but the place was pretty full, especially for a Wednesday night.
The show was a big ball of fun. The suggestions were ‘out there’ and that made it even more fun. Right off the bat someone shouted pro-wrestling as a suggestion. Glad I was in that scene. Some other suggestions were a carpool in a smart car from Texas to Uzbekistan, sex toy gumball machine, and a scene that had to end with the line ‘Pull my finger.’
We did the mini puppet variety show and Colleeen’s host was as wicked as ever. The suggestion for the first act, that Allan Trautman, Tim Blaney and myself were performing with bunnies was ‘Mid-Air Contortion’. What followed was pretty funny with Allan, Tim and I trying to find ways to put make the puppets appear they were doing mid-air contortion. It devolved into us basically throwing the puppets back and forth to each other. The audience loved it. The next act was Allan and Peggy doing Jazz Dancing and they nailed it. It’s pretty hard to describe what they did, but those puppets were Jazz Dancing for sure! Finally, was the Alien Barbershop. The suggestion was Necrophilia. My initial thought was to do a verse that rhymed ‘wife’ (of formaldehyde) with the word stiff. But then I tried to come up with a rhyme for formaldehyde. The result, for Necrophilia was:
I love the smell
Of formaldehyde,
Because that means,
I’m going for a ride.
I actually liked this one a little better because in my mind, it left the audience to connect the dots of what I mean meant by ‘going for a ride.’
The highlight of the night, for me, was performing I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face with Ted. I’ve done this before but especially now, while reading Jim Henson’s biography, the piece took on a little more meaning. And Ted and I agreed that last night’s version was probably the best we’d ever performed it.
So, a wonderful opening at the Kirk Douglas, we got a standing ovation. I cannot wait to do the show again Saturday!
Puppet Up!
