Tag: puppets
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 4 – What A Show!
Today began slower as I was getting a bit of a sore throat and I wanted to rest it a bit. So I slept in quite late and then just sort of lounged around my room. I made myself breakfast, watched the rest of the Apple Keynote I’d missed yesterday, surfed the net….you know, life of a puppeteer on the road.
Also spent some time searching for reviews of last night’s show. Found three really positive ones including a 3 1/2 out of 4 star review from the Globe & Mail. The response on Twitter & Instagram seems very positive as well. Toronto loves us!
I got out and went for a walk later in the afternoon. Lots of great shops, restaurants and more in this area of Toronto. I want to explore the city a bit more in the days ahead. It’s really got a great vibe. It’s sort of very bustley like New York but has buildings that give it more of a Boston feel.
We were called to the theatre to fine tune some bits and everyone seemed sort of loose and relaxed from their first morning off with no early call. There was definitely a relaxed atmosphere backstage before the show.
And that show….Now THAT was a show! From top to bottom it was a great show and the audience gave us amazing suggestions all night long. Select highlights were: An eyewitness scene where two concert goers watched Justin Beiber commit regicide, an amazing date scene, a hilarious audience participation bit about a bingo caller and a fantastic puppet variety show with a creepy bunny who just watched each act. The cast was on fire tonight and each scene was just as good as the next. We seem to be really great at playing off each other. A good combination.
The suggestion for Alien barbershop was: Astrophysics. As we got closer to the song I was putting together a really complicated rhyme about physics in space and the movie Gravity and I suddenly said to myself, “I have no idea what Astrophysics is.” ANd I just decided to go with that. So my rhyme was…
Oh astrophysics
Don’t mean shit to me
And that’s because
I have a theatre degree.
It killed.
Java tonight was really fun as well. It’s just such fun to puppeteer on a classic Henson piece and walk in some very big footprints.
After the show some of us go to the lobby to greet the audience with puppets. It’s always a fun time. Some new merch on this tour. Love the ‘evolution’ shirt. Also, the theatre knows a cookie maker who made cookies of the Hot Dog & Alien puppets. I may have to partake before this run is over.
Now I’m back in my room writing this. Need to turn in early because tomorrow it’s up for TV! I may be doing weather with the puppet. I think it’s streamed online, so keep an eye on my twitter feed for info.
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 3 – Opening Night
Yesterday I promised pictures of the lobby and here they are below! As you can see it really seems like the Puppets have taken over! Just the way we like it.
Today was the day of out big premiere. Very exciting. I did wake up with a bit of a scratchy throat so I went to get some tea. Seemed to do the trick. While sitting in my room I heard the sound of a voice talking through a megaphone or some other sort of amplification. I looked outside and right off my balcony, a street naming was taking place. No matter what else happens on the rest of this trip I can always say I was there when Macy DuBois Lane was named.
I spent the time before out 2PM call watching the apple keynote. Some good stuff there but it was all quickly forgotten when it was time to head to the theatre and get to work.
Today was a very tech heavy day. I’d love to say that it all went off without a hitch but our show does have some tech elements that really need to be tweaked. I will say our crew is the best and they take care of every detail. Between tour manager Juliana and production manager Greg, any issue gets squashed. They rock.
Our call was early because there were still some pieces we wanted to finesse and get nailed down even more securely than yesterday. We ran the set pieces and nailed down cues and crosses, tightening things for our opening night.
After a short dinner break it was back to the theatre to get into our ‘show blacks’ for curtain. The show was really great. The crowd had some great suggestions and I believe we paid them off pretty well.
I’m always in awe of my fellow puppeteers. Colleen is just an incredible improviser and it’s always fun to be in a scene with her. Ted is also brilliant and I always look forward to being in a scene with him. Our ‘spot’ scene about two airline pilots was a ton of fun. Michael Oosterom hit the second act opener ‘usher’ bit out of the park. His first time doing it and he rocked it. Same with Peggy who, did a great job with I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face. Especially considering the riser she was standing on was placed too far from the rail and she basically did the whole thing on her tiptoes in her giant boots. And Brian Clark is just crazy fun to be on stage with. His entrance as ‘Flamey’ a little ball of fire, in the Puppet Variety Show was hilarious. Totally ‘Hesnon.’
I had a so-so show. Felt a little flat in some of the improvs and Java, while going very well, had a small slip in it that will be corrected tomorrow, for sure.
I got to do the rhyme for the Alien Barbershop tonight and, while I think the joke was a little too predictable, it got a pretty good reaction. The suggestion was: Circumcision.
Now just hold still
And get a firm grip
Because if you don’t
I’ll take more than the tip.
Eh, so-so.
The finale will also need some tweaking on my end as well, to nail down the proper beats. I think, speaking solely for myself, things have been so technical leading up to tonight the ‘fun’ and ‘play’ of doing the show has sort of slipped to the back burner. Now that the tech stuff is nailed down, it’s time to really have fun.
Excited for tomorrow’s show. Excited I get to do this 13 more times. Grateful for every single second.
Ready for tomorrow.
Puppet Up Toronto Tour Diary – Day 2 – Practice Makes Puppets
Today we got to see the theatre for the first time and let me say, it is a really great space and, in my opinion, a really great venue for us. We’ve played in a lot of fantastic venues but sometimes big giant 1500-2000 seaters are just a little too big for us. The Panasonic Theatre holds about 600 and I think it’s just the right size.
And let me throw out a huge thanks to Mirvish Productions that own the theatre have done amazing work promoting the show. There’s uge banners that take up the entire windows of the front of the theatre. Inside the lobby (I’ll try to get pictures tomorrow) there are more posters and videos screens playing promos. It’s almost as if the Miskreant Puppets had taken over the entire theatre. Pretty cool.
It was a drizzly day here in Toronto, but we were inside for most of it, so that’s fine. Today was a big rehearsal day. As I may have mentioned, there is a new finale in the show and it is sort of tech heavy so we wanted to get it up and running as quickly as possible.
One cool aspect of the finale is that two new puppets were built for it and I’m super grateful, and honored, that I was asked to puppeteer one of them. I even jokingly gave them names and they’ve seemed to stick. I won’t say anymore because it’d spoil them, but it’s pretty cool. I will again say that I’m eager to see what folks think of this finale. It is a feat of tech and puppetry and as someone said the first time they saw it, “That’s the darnedest thing I’ve ever seen.” Let’s hope Toronto thinks the same.
Besides finessing the finale time was spent on the ‘set’ pieces of the show. These are the non-improvised segments. So we ran through the opening, closing, Windy, Java and I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face. I’m feeling confident with playing the Big Java now. There’s some tricky puppetry but I’m using it to push my skills further and I really think I’m getting it. It’s to the point now where I’m getting to the point I can sort of put my own ‘take’ on it. Though, I’ll say my take is trying to emulate Bill Baretta’s take on it. I’ll never forget the first time I saw Bill perform it in San Francisco. It was like seeing it for the first time.
After rehearsal, I walked around Toronto a little with Colleen, then retired to the room for a bit. Then Brian Clark, Ted, Dan and I struck out for food. Lots of interesting to eat here in Toronto, though it reminds me of just about any downtown metropolitan areas.
We wound up at a place called Urban Food that had a Asian flare to it. I was going to get a salad, but decided to go outside my comfort zone and get crispy chow mien with chicken. It was okay, but nothing I’d write home about. Dan said it wasn’t the best he’d ever had, so maybe not a good benchmark for me to judge it by. Next time I’ll get a salad.
Tomorrow we have an early call and out first show. I can’t wait. This show really is the most fun thing I’ve ever done in my life and I’m ready to do it again. Having never done a drug, I’m thinking this is what addiction is like. Nervously waiting for that next ‘fix.’ It comes tomorrow!
S&US Tour Diary – April 19, 2013 – Back home & Tour Wrap Up
Friday morning, April 19, began relatively early as we were headed to the airport to head back to Los Angeles. It’s always a little bittersweet on the mornings after a tour because after so many days of traveling together, we start splitting up one by one. Brian got himself a rental car to head back to Orlando and go to Animal Kingdom (yeah, he’s a jerk like that), Tyler was staying in Florida to visit family, Greg, our production head, was headed back to New York, Sean Johnson was headed to San Francisco to meet his family and our awesome tour manager Julianna was staying an extra day to make sure the puppets got to where they needed to go. So, early in the morning we had to began to say goodbye. Luckily Patrick, Cameron (our lighting guy), Peggy and Dan were all still traveling together so there was still some remnants of the tour.
I will tell you this, this tour was filled with nothing but laughs. Nothing. There were no arguments, no fights, just laughs. Even during the tough times (the cataract bus, the Austin hotel, tech issues) we were all still always laughing. The perfect example was the emergence of Ed Wynn impersonations during the seven and a half hour bus ride to Hamilton, Montana. There were so many memorable funny moments on the tour. Even on the way home yesterday we had a layover in the Atlanta airport and just sitting waiting for the next plane there were several, laugh out loud, wipe away a tear moments.
Take this for example, on the plane flight back to Los Angeles, Cameron and Patrick sat next to each other and I sat across the aisle from them. Patrick gets a sandwich on the plane and, for no reason, using the paper from the sandwich and the labels that held it together created a partition to keep Cameron off his side of the row. Hilarious. Well, it was to us. Perhaps we’re just punch drunk from all the travel.
Once we landed in Los Angeles, it was a short shuttle ride to the Henson Company Lot. Even THAT ride was filled with laugher. It’s just a great group of people.Soon after we were all off on our separate ways.
This was a really fun tour. I had a simply amazing time. I got to swap into HDPS and I’Ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face, two things I love and always want to do more of. I got to lead the Alien Barbershop all eleven shows. I had so many funny scenes with ALL the members of the cast. Allan and I did a great slide show. Ted and I did a great Narrated Story. Peggy and I had a memorable New Choice scene. Sean and I graduated to recreations together with Face. Tyler and I did uproarious Bunny Talent show bits together and I loved playing his body when he did HDPS. Brian and I did a hilarious spot scene where the suggestion was ‘Deliverance.’ As in the film. I love working with every single one of these performers and would jump at the chance to do it again.
Let’s not forget Patrick, our fearless leader and my improv mentor. He’s incredibly important to me and, still to this day, I learn new things from him. I will forever be grateful to his time and teachings. He’s the best.
Julianna, our tireless tour manager. Den mother. She’s incredible. She gets us to where we need to be and tackles any problem head on. So grateful for all her work. The success of this tour is as much a result of her work as it is our. Perhaps even more.
Greg, our Production Manager, and Cameron our lighting guy. These guys are the best. They’ve seen every show and if they come up to you and say something worked, you can take it to the bank that it did. We’d be nowhere without them. And to ‘Bobo,’ our newbie tech guy. He fit right in with our insanity and we were so glad to have him along.
I love the facts for this tour that Cameron put together…
We travelled through all four time zones.
We played in seven different states.
We played in places where it was snowing, raining and pushing 90 degrees.
We logged over 8,200 miles.
We did eleven shows.
All of this in 16 days.
It could have gone ten more.
Thanks for following a long on this journey. It was fun to bring it all to you. Here’s hoping there’s more in the future and I can continue. For now I’ll just be dropping back to my regular Wednesday Words posts for the time being. Thanks again!