Tag: puppetry
Puppet Up Down Under 2014 – April 21, 2014 – Goodbye Melbourne
A day off.
Today we have a day off and it is our final day in Melbourne. I started the day by sleeping in pretty late. Later than I have in past days. I then got up and went down to the gym and ran on the treadmill and lifted weights. Afterwords, I went back up to my room to shower and get ready to go look for some food with Dan. Brian woke up and decided to join us so we went and had some lunch. After lunch I struck out in the city on my own. I walked around a bit, filmed a Vine or two with Uncle Interloper, and then went and picked up a few props I needed for an Uncle Interloper idea I’ve had for a while. Then I headed back to the hotel room for a bit.
Once I got back to our hotel, I decided to film the Uncle Interloper Vine that I had bought props for. Brian was on a phone call in his room, so I was glad that no one was around to see me film is Vine. Partly because of the position I had to get into to film it, and partly because whenever I film something like this I do a million takes. Take 2 was probably perfect, but I need to do a million of them because on little thing will be wrong in the shot. I’d be a horrible movie director. I’d be over budget the first day. At any rate, I am now one of those people who have spent way too much money on a six second Vine.
Finally getting the take right, I just spent some time in my room doing some writing and answering some email.
There was sort of an unofficial plan that everybody would go out to dinner around 5:30 PM, I had a Vine idea and I needed Brian’s help with it so we planned on leaving the hotel a little early to go film it. There is a street near our hotel called Hoiser Lane. It’s really neat and that all the walls of this, basically, alleyway, are covered with really impressive works of graffiti. So Brian and I went down there and we filmed an Uncle Interloper Vine in that alleyway. It was cool saying all the different kinds of graffiti all over the place. The alley was filled with a ton of other tourists who were all there taking pictures of all the different graffiti designs.
After filming the Vine and walking around for a bit, we went over to the restaurant. I was immediately not enamored with the restaurant. The maître d’ at the front door was extremely rude to me when I went up to put our name in for a table. . I brushed it off, but then when we went to be seated the maître d’ had told us he would get two booths instead we said nine people around one tiny booth. When I said that the maître d’ had told us we could get to booths the server said that was impossible. So then we sat down in this tiny little booth and looked over the menu.
This is a very, very hip restaurant. There’s lines out the door. But it’s one of those places where you don’t get a lot of food but you pay over $30 for the food that you do get. I can usually hang at places like that but this was one of those restaurants where there would be one ingredient that would throw the whole dish off. This is not an example from the restaurant but it’s the same idea: grilled chicken, with mashed potatoes, and squid sauce poured all over it. That’s kind of thing. So there was nothing really enticing to me on the menu. Patrick had to leave the meal early because he was meeting another performer from the comedy Festival, so I decided I would leave with him and find my own food.
I walked around a bit and then went to an Indian restaurant that I had gone to the first week we had gotten here. I had a great dinner on my own and just kind of enjoyed my last night in Melbourne. After that I just headed back to the hotel and started to organize my stuff for our departure tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow we had the Brisbane!
I’m going to miss Melbourne a lot.
Puppet Up Down Under – April 20, 2014 – Melbourne Finale
Before I get started on today, I forgot to mention something else about last night. After the pump it up show, then I went to go see another show that is part of the Melbourne international comedy Festival. We went to see a standup comedy show. Featured three comics from United States. I have seen a lot of standup so the show was not incredibly hilarious. The final comedian of the evening was pretty good and had me and Dan both cracking up.
This morning I woke up to the sound of Brian bustling around in our kitchen. He was getting ready to meet up with Dan because Brian has decided that Dan needs a haircut and the two of them were going to go out and get a haircut today. I got ready to go and leave with them, not to get a haircut but just to go get lunch.
As they were having their “spa day”I walked around the city and found a nice place to have lunch. Then I walked around downtown a little bit more and then headed back to the hotel. I did some writing, some email and worked on my song improv for a bit. Then I had to vacate the room so housekeeping could clean it. I sat down in the lobby and continue to write and then Dan and Brian arrived with their new haircuts Intel. Their haircuts are the top of the company.
Then, after housekeeping was done, it went back up to our room. Brian continued working on his project well I took a nap. And then we got ready to get over to the field
Tonight was our final show in conjunction with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It was another fun show. The hotdogs went skydiving, we took a carpool trip to Tipperary, I saying my jamboree song about monkey, I guy in the front row who was wearing a Robin (from Batman) style mask. it went pretty well. I got a few more laughs and then last night. Excited to work on it even more in front of a crowd and get it even. and of course the aliens saying their barbershop song, this time about leg waxing.
I wax my legs
They look good in a skirt
It’s really worth it
But it fucking hurts
After the show, we went out and took Facebook photos with people in the lobby. then, sadly, it was time to pack up all the puppets and starts taking down the set getting ready for our trip to Brisbane. I’m really happy that we get a day off tomorrow in Melbourne. It’s kind of like an extra chance to say goodbye to this amazing city.
After getting her stuff back to the hotel, a group of us met up and went out for dinner. We then went to a place called the Hi-Fi for the closing night party for the festival. They had a DJ playing music and everyone was having fun. Then all of a sudden the lights went out and the band took the stage. There was sort of a Quentin Tarantino team to the party and the band was called the Tarantino’s. They played only songs from Quentin Tarantino movies. While I admired the concept, they totally killed the vibe of the party so, Patrick and I left.
And that will bring to an end our penultimate day here in Melbourne.
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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Thank you, thank you, thank you and…
PUPPET UP!
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 10 – Off
Whenever I’m on one of these Puppet Up Tours I am always eternally grateful. I understand there are a ton of people who’d love to be able to do this job and I’m extremely thankful that I get to do it. As such, I do my best to keep a positive outlook on the show and the travel aspect of bringing this show on the road. I look at things like bus rides with half blind drivers and 4 hour bus trips that turn into 7 hour bus trips as adventures. Look, I could be stuck in an office somewhere instead of stepping onto a stage with a puppet on my hand. So, I very rarely complain. I try not to complain at all, again, because I know I’m lucky to be here.
This trip has been great in that after the first day flight, there hasn’t been any travel. It’s been city living. Sure the wifi in the hotel and the wifi at the theatre are spotty, but I’m not here to surf the web. I’m here to do the best puppet improv I can. That’s my job. No complaining.
And this isn’t a complaint. I will simply say that housekeeping here at the hotel, love to do their job. Either that or they get paid by the number of rooms they clean a day because the Housekeeping staff here will not let any Do Not Disturb sign hinder them from doing their job. In fact, if that sign is up, they will call the room just to make absolutely sure you really, really mean ‘Do Not Disturb.’ That is dedication. Again, not complaining. It’s all an adventure.
Speaking of a having a job to do, today was the return to shows! Patrick is a great director and great at changing up who is in what improv and even the improv structures to keep things fresh. He sent out an email earlier in the day listing a few of the changes coming this week and it’s going to make for some really fun shows.
Tonight show was a decent show. The audience had a great time and in the lobby after, they were really complimentary. I will say it wasn’t my best show on this tour. Just off a little. Maybe sleeping in too long today put me in a low key mood. I’m not sure. I started off pretty good with a New Choice scene with Colleen that really did well, but after that I just sort of felt out of it.
For alien barbershop I just could not think of a rhyme. I was trying and trying but I couldn’t think of anything. I finally settled on something and the MOMENT I began singing I came up with another rhyme that would have been better, but by then it was far too late. Anyway, the topic was ‘Setting Things on Fire.’ My rhyme:
I set thing on fire.
I create my own hell.
The flames are so pretty.
(then here I had my alien sniff a little bit.)
What is that smell?
The joke being something was on fire. Ugh. I don’t know, it was poor. The whole rest of the show I just seemed off. Gotta get my head in the game tomorrow, for sure!
After the show, Dan and I went out to the Chinese Dumpling place next door. I ordered Pineapple Chicken and was just not thrilled with it. Ate there twice and officially ruling out a return trip.
That was the adventure of today. Looking forward to tomorrow and to stepping up my improv/puppetry game. And, as always, more than grateful that I get to do this.
