Puppet Up!
Puppet Up! is a completely improvised Muppet type Show for adults only performed by The Jim Henson Company. The Jim Henson Company of puppeteers, which began with Jim Henson in the 1950s and are perhaps most famous for Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Since Jim’s death the company has been taken over by his family. Jim’s son Brian was the main puppeteer in this troupe and when he speaks you can’t help but think of his father and of course Kermit, who he has voiced since his father’s death.
The host of Puppet Up! however is actor Patrick Bristow. Camp as Christmas, you might know him as Peter Barnes in Ellen or Troy on Mad About You and he’s also popped up in Curb your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Friends and Who’s Line is it Anyway. He was an excellent host for the show choosing the impro challenge for the puppeteers, taking the suggestions from the audience and keeping the energy up throughout. Sort of like a gay, less formal, Drew Carey on Who’s Line.. but with more fun interaction with the audience.
The Puppets, as expected were gorgeous. Expressive, humorous and as cute as buttons. As well as human based puppets there was a crab, a beaver, an orang-utan, fish, a squirrel and half a pound of sausages. I grew up with Jim Henson’s Muppets and have always preferred hand puppets to marionettes.
If you’ve ever wondered what shooting The Muppet Show would have looked like, here’s your chance. Puppet Up! is really two shows in one. The first show is about the puppeteers and what goes on below the camera line. The performers were walking around with Puppets on their arms, often two actors are manipulating one puppet, so you could see how it is done. The second show was about the puppets on screen. Like the real Muppet Show the puppeteers were performing to a camera and watching how it looked on a monitor. Behind them were three large screens where only close ups of the puppets appeared and you could see what it would look like on TV. It was just wonderful to watch the performers move in and out of screen and create effects by moving forward and back on stage and see the intricate facial expressions they were producing.
Being an improvised show, the success of it does rely heavily on the input from different audiences each night. This can be a bit risky, but these performers are all so talented and the puppets so heart-warming, I cannot imagine an audience going away disappointed. And please don’t be put off by the “Adults Only” tag. Yes, it is not for children (The Muppet Show was never meant to be a kids show either), there is some swearing and lewd themes are encouraged but no more than any other show at the festival. The audience member shouting Guantanamo Bay as a workplace shocked the performers more than Gynaecologist (which was hilarious and involved a beaver Muppet).
One of the best improvisations that stretched the performers was reporting on how England won the cricket. “We are Americans and have no idea about cricket you realise?” pleaded Patrick, but the audience just nodded and giggled and the puppets did their best to describe a game of cricket. I loved the fact that Patrick would warn the audience to stay away from the hackneyed choices and things they had done before. For example when asking the audience to pick a famous person Patrick said “Please don’t say Paris Hilton, I think we’re all sick of her”. The Troupe was as keen to entertain themselves by trying fresh things each night as they were keen to give the audience an exciting night. Of course this can backfire when they ask for a nationality and someone shouts Malta and they realise they have no idea what a Maltese accent sounds like!
I had a ball seeing the masters of hand puppets at work and you should not miss the opportunity to see this fabulous, hilarious world class event.
‘Puppet Up’ runs Tuesday through Sunday until April 15. Further details and tickets are available through the comedy festival website.