Ever since I can remember I have had a love for puppets. I remember when I was young my parents would have to stop me several times at dinner from acting out scenarios with my silverware. To me, everything I touched was a puppet. Spoons, knives, forks, bottles, paper, pipe cleaners, my toys, you name it! Because I was home schooled for a few years of elementary school, my days were spent at home playing with my toys. I was not allowed to watch t.v. besides on the weekend, and I didn't really have many friends to play with during the day because they would still be in school by the time I was finished. I played with Lego's, G.I. Joe's, other action figures, and many stuffed animals. I would act out stories and make the toys come alive. I felt like my toys had feelings and emotions and I would bring them to life. Before I had a dog in the house my stuffed wolf, Max, was my pet dog. I made him come alive and we would play and wrestle all of the time. I truly believed that Max was real and making him act like a pet dog made me not even really need a real dog.
I've held on to those memories of my toys and I still love making random objects that you wouldn't normally think could have a pulse move, jump, and play. When I was in high school a friend of mine and I put on a magic show for our annual talent show. A certain trick I wanted to do called for an animal of some sort to be placed in a box, disappear, and reappear in another box across the stage. I, having no small game license, resorted to using one of my stuffed animals; a squirrel. I pulled him out of a cage and had him squirming out of my hands, running all over my body, and attempting to jump out of my hands, only to be caught just before landing in the audience.
I have seen many performances of different styles of puppetry like ventriloquism and marionette. But my favorite performance has got to be The Muppets. The Muppets was one of my favorite shows to watch when I was younger and I still love the show. The humor is even funnier now that I get the jokes. Back then it diddn't matter what the puppet was saying, it was amazing simply because there were puppets! It's these memories that have made me so in love with puppets today. I want to know everything there is to know about this amazing species and learn to breath life into them so that other people can love them as much as me. I hope this blog inspires you and helps you grow as much of an interest in puppetry as myself. Enjoy!
