Tag: jim henson
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 16 – Home
Up early today. Well, earlier than in past days. Our van to the airport arrived and we bid farewell to our home for the past two weeks. Upon arrival at the airport we all dealt with the pleasures of air travel: Checking in, paying excess baggage fees, customs, security check. Once through everyone was a lot less stressed out. Brian and I had a nice breakfast/lunch. I had been starving because i hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before.
Soon we were boarded and winging our way back to Southern California. Did a lot of writing on the flight and checked out the rest of World War Z and watched most of Pacific Rim on the flight. After landing we hopped a shuttle back to where it all began, The Jim Henson lot. Goodbyes were said and I believe the general feeling was this was a really successful string of shows. Some tech bumps in the beginning, but soon it was smooth sailing. It was ALL fun.
Big thanks to our crew who do amazing things to make us look so good on stage. Juliana keeps us all on schedule, Greg gets us up and running, Brandon who got our video up and running and the local Toronto crew who kept us looking and sounding good the whole run.
Thanks to Dan Ring, our music man. Missed dancing with you as much on this tour Dan but always fun to hang out with you. Let’s compare laptops when we get them!
Big shout out to Amanda for being the besets puppet wrangler and here’s to finding a new friend! As I said before, always incredibly nice to meet someone who has that level of passion for puppetry. Thanks for all the kind words you said. Hope we meet up again soon, and I’m looking forward to seeing YOU perform sometime.
Thanks to Arnold of Westbeth Entertainment for believing in the show and always seeing to that we’re taken care of. Big thanks to Brian Henson, without whom, the show would not exist.
To my fellow puppeteer freaks, I love each and every one of you and am grateful for those laugh moments we shared…
Colleen – Our Squirrel scene will live on in the Puppet Up Hall of Fame
Ted – our pilot scene early in the run was great but you managed to pull off the most amazing puppet effect I’ve ever seen during that last Bond improv.
Peggy – Always a pleasure to be ‘out there with you.’ Loved our Flashback fun, each and every time. Never before have Kidney Stones made me laugh as hard.
Michael – Two words….List Them. Your non-sequitors during the Bedtime/Spooky story were always hilarious.
Brian – “We’ll deal with you later French Canadians” – You are an inspiring improviser to watch, so loose and free. You always kept me on my toes during the Bedtime/Spooky stories. You are a good friend. Appreciate all our talks. And thanks for introducing me to Indian Food.
Thanks to all the amazing Toronto audiences. Your suggestions, laughter and kindness will long be remembered by this Puppet Upper. I truly do hope we are back very soon.
Finally, to Patrick. Amazing director. Amazing teacher. Amazing friend. Thank you for letting Leslie Carrara-Rudolph talk you into taking a chance on me, a non-improviser, limited puppeteer, way back in 2007. These past 6 years (6 YEARS!!!) have been an incredibly journey and the most fun I’ve had….ever. Grateful for all I’ve done and hopeful there will be more/ Will gladly follow you into improv battle any day of the week.
It was an absolutely perfect trip.
Well, that’ll wrap it up for this tour. Thanks, so much, for following along with this tour diary. Feel free to stick around to see my mostly-irregular ramblings or we’ll see you back here next time there’s a tour I’m on. If you want to keep in touch with what I’m up to you can…
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Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 13 – Amazing Show
November is here! So shortly after midnight I began my novel. For those that don’t know, November is National Novel Writing Month where people attempt to try and write a complete novel in 30 days. I’ve attempted before and never completed it, but I have stated things that have become bigger projects later. The goal is 50,000 words in total by December 1, which works out to about 1666 words per day. So last night, again after midnight, I got about 1100 words down and then turned in for the evening.
In the morning, I got a tweet from Tyler Stewart, drummer of Barenaked Ladies replying to my query about where to find good Barbacue in Toronto. He told me of a few places, one of which was Stockyards, where Brian and I went last week. I looked up the two other places he mentioned and decided on Barque. I figured out how to get there on the subway and was off for some barbecue.
The trip out was easy and the place was easy to find. Nice little walk through the neighborhood where the restaurant is, lots of interesting shops.
The restaurant was a little trendy looking, but nice. Took a seat at the bar and was given a bucket of popcorn while waiting to order. It was the lunch menu, and if you know me, I like to order combos, but I finally decided on a brisket sandwich and then some pulled pork. I thought the pulled pork would come on the side, but they put it on the sandwhich. Didn’t phase me one bit. The barbecue was good and I had a pumpkin mousse for desert. Good stuff! Then I was back on the subway and back to the hotel to wallow in my meat coma.
After a bit I got up and continued on the novel. Another 771 words which puts me ahead. Just got to keep it up.
After writing, I practiced a little with the I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face track to get the beats down. I popped over to the theatre early to get some practice time in with the puppet too.
Tonight’s show was just absolutely amazing. The best show of the run and Patrick said one of the best shows ever. It really was a fantastic night. Backstage we could almost tell that it was going to be amazing because of the energy of the audience. Their laughter was infectious. Seriously. They were laughing, we were laughing. Everyone shone tonight and, more importantly, we shone as a team. That team included the audience as well.
So many funny sketches. The ‘What if’ of the War of 1812, the life story of Rob Ford (Toronto’s Mayor), a hilarious game show sketch, a scene where the first line was ‘Nice Pants!’, a great Bond song, the Hot Dogs recreating Annie….every sketch was just the tops. The improv was great, the puppetry was funny. Just a classic night and one I was so honored to be part of.
Alien Barbershop was okay, the suggestions was The History Of The Universe. Someone had also shouted out Easter as well and Patrick said, “Bonus points if you can work in Easter.” So my rhyme was:
There was a Big Bang
The universe started to fill.
And because it did,
We dye eggs in April.
Got an okay laugh. Not the strongest rhyme of them all, but I got them bonus points.
And tonight was just amazing because I got to do the Lady Singer in I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face and Big Java in Java. I cannot describe to you how that makes me feel. I still have a lot to learn on both, especially Face, but I got a great reaction on Face and look forward to developing it further.
After the show we took in some pub food and just basked in a really great show. We will go out there tomorrow night and try to recapture it again.
I love doing this show. Don’t want to do anything else.
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 12 – The Storm
It is a rainy Thursday here in Toronto and the Puppet Up crew has a day off. Our final day off of this run. After today it’s one show Friday and then two shows on both Saturday and Sunday.
Normally, about this time in the run, I’d be getting ‘end of tour blues.’ You see, I’d LOVE it if this continued forever. As I’ve said before, this is THE most fun I’ve had and I’d gladly keep doing it for as long they’d let me. However, the blues haven’t set in yet because I’ve just been told I’lll be performing the ‘Lady Singer’ in the recreation I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face. One of the signature pieces of the show! And I have some pretty big shoes to fill! Allan Trautman, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Alison Mork, Peggy Etra and Sean Johnson have all performed the role in the show. And, oh yeah, a guy named Jim Henson originated the role. Just a little pressure. But I’m VERY excited about accepting the challenge. Let’s do this!
Today is Halloween and the cast is planning on heading out to Church Street here in Toronto tonight to celebrate. I’m not much of a party person but I’ll tag along, at least for a little bit. I do have a costume. It’s one I’ve worn before but it was easy to pack and bring along to Toronto. It’s Jamie Madrox, The Multiple Man from the X-Men/X-Factor comics. Easy costume, I’ve worn it before.
Headed out for a great Indian Food lunch with Brian. It was fantastic. Afterwards we went shopping for Brian’s Halloween costume. I also needed an eyeliner pencil to make the Mutant brand over my eye that Madrox has now.
Brian is a blast to shop with and we were all over several stores as he created his costume. He found a big giant spider at one store and said he was going to buy a big gab of spiderwebs, cover himself with them and then put the spider on his head. He then found a box of little battery operated lights that when you pressed a button flashed light lightning and the sound of thunder played from a little speaker. He then decided he was going to be a ‘Storm.’ So it was then off to the dollar store to buy a cheap plastic white table cloth to be the cloud and yellow glitter paper that he could cut lightning bolts out of. His costume was a hit!
We then donned our costumes and headed up to Colleen’s room who was having a Halloween party. It was a blast. Everyone showed up and we sat and talked, people played poker, ate snacks and candy and just had a generally great time. The costume rundown was:
Me – Jamie Madrox
Brian – The Storm
Dan – Spider Victim (yes, Brian convinced Dan to use his first idea. Dan was wrapped head to toe in spiderwebs.)
Peggy – Spirit of Halloween
Patrick – A creepy, creepy, homemade pig mask. It was creepy.
Michael – Burglar
Colleen – Ziggy Stardust
Amanda – Nico
We then headed out onto a drizzly Church Street to join in the Halloween reverie. The street was packed with tons of people in all types of costumes. We walked to one end and then back up. It was a lot of fun. Found a few fellow mutants to take pictures with. Actually saw someone dressed as Guardian from Alpha Flight but I didn’t get to snap a photo with him.
One hilarious thing we saw was, in the middle of all this Halloween debauchery, one store was putting up their Christmas decorations. WHILE the Halloween pxarty was going on. So funny, Amanda our puppet wrangler, had to take a photo in front of it.
Then is was back home to the hotel. Time to relax. Time to chill and get set for tomorrow and our return to the stage. And my debut as Lady Singer.
Can’t. Wait.
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 11 – A Walking Tour
In the quest to try new and exciting foods here in Toronto, Dan has got it in his head to get Steak Frites. So he found a place and shortly after noon Dan, Brian and I hopped a cab to a cafe about two and a half miles away.
We had a nice meal at a tiny little french inspired cafe down in the fashion district. After we took a walk to the CN Tower. I used the opportunity to film some Uncle Interloper stuff for Vine and Tout as well as snap a few photos along the way.
After our walk about Dan wanted to take the Subway back to the hotel and Brian and I decided to walk. We then walked most of the way through the large underground mall that’s downtown Toronto. It goes on for blocks and blocks and really has just about every kind of store you’d want in a mall.
When the mall ended we surfaced and continued out nice walk back to the hotel, chatting as we took in the sights. Once back I relaxed, picked up my shirts form the laundry, and caught up on email. Just generally relaxing before tonight’s show.
The goal for tonight it to listen. Focus. Have a really great improv night with super strong puppetry.
It’s amazing how small puppetry movements can get big reactions. Earlier in the run I was doing a scene with Colleen and she made a comment in an improv and I thought, “My character would be nervous about that.” so I just had my puppet take two small steps backwards and look nervously at Colleen’s character. This got a huge laugh from the audience and it was so simple. That same night there was another instance where I made a character do a move and it got a laugh. These two experiences really drove it into me that the puppetry can be just as funny as any witty line of improvised dialogue. Since then I’ve really been looking for those moments in scenes to make those simple puppetry movements.
Tonight’s show was really a lot of fun. Fantastic laughs, great suggestions. I really focused on listening and responding and it worked. Also found some fun puppetry movements as well. Really fun show. Everyone was on and the crowd was great.
The suggestion for alien barbershop was Online Banking. I was much more relaxed tonight and easily came up with a rhyme. During the intro to the song though my punchline got scooped. Instead of panicking, I remained calm and quickly came up with a rhyme that, actually, I think was better than the original.
Oh online banking
Make me forlorn.
Cause when I login,
I see how much I spent on porn.
Got a nice laugh with that one. And totally not true. Totally, not true at all. Totally.
After the show, and meeting the crowd in the lobby, Patrick, Peggy, Brian and I went to a place called Spring Roll right near the theatre and the food was delicious.
Tomorrow, a day off for Halloween and then it’s a straight sprint to the end! The end…boooo.
