Can you tell me how to get back to the subway from Avenue Q?

Princeton and I ,goofing around.

last week , I went to NYC, to see Avenue Q, had not seen the show since it Opened 6 years ago. I was Lucky enough to work on the show For Rick Lyon's Company, "The Lyon Puppets", It came at a great time since I had just finished doing some work on "Crank Yankers" and was dealing with my first year of "Freelance" puppet building. I had done some work with Rick here and their over the years , on weekends , when i was off from my job as a puppet builder for the Jim Henson Company.

Avenue Q was great a great experience. Not only is Rick a accomplished performer, and Puppeteer, he is a wonderful Puppet designer as well, and Avenue Q really showed that.It was a Honor to be part of what truly was a Ground breaking Theatre experience, and it not often that Puppet Builders get their names in Playbill.

Thanks and Congratulations to Rick Lyon, and Avenue Q for 6 amazing years on Broadway.

read carefully , I'm in their somewhere :)

off to see some Futbal.

getting ready to go see the Concacaf Gold Cup Final here in NJ, its the USA vs. Mexico, should be a good game, to bad my seats are in the nose bleeds.

heres a few puppets i worked on with Monkey Boys Productions for a Sony Bravia Commercial in Mexico. I did the original Concept Designs, and built several of the puppets .was a great trip, i got to visist another country and play with my friends,That doesn't happen often.

Why are Chickens so Funny?

Seems like they are an International Punchline, sort of sad when you realize that they have some genetic ancestry with animals like the Tyrannosaurus , and Velociraptor.No denying that they make great puppets though. The Muppet's are probably just as well known for the Chickens that populate the Back stage of the Muppet theatre as they are for Kermit and Piggy.

Back when i was working for The Jim Henson Company , i spent several weeks Refurbishing chickens that had seen better days , Ultimately, Re-Building the original Camilla for a Made for TV Christmas Special. I'm glad i spent so much time on her since in the end in true Muppet fashion one of the old Basic chickens was used as Camilla for most of the film, and the new rebuilt hero Camilla was sent into the background. Gonzo apparently cant tell the chickens apart either

Along with Chickens it seems like Ducks are a much maligned species as well, But again fun to build, These two where built for "Mop A Tops shop", To replace the old Muppet Show ducks,My supervisor Tim Miller told me to have fun with it, and wasn't concerned with Replicating the original Muppet ducks, so i spent a couple of weeks making new patterns and individually gluing feathers and hackle pads to fleece and fur that i used to make these guys, I'm still very happy with the results, i wonder if they will ever see the light of day in another production some where down the line.

All this time spent Building and re-building Chickens and other avians proved very useful a few years later. In late December 2006 i got a call from a Production company , They needed 3 chicken puppets for a short series of TV adds For the restaurant chain Ruby Tuesdays, by the time we had finished emails,and phone conversations, i had about a week to build all three puppets. We shot on a Horse Farm in Long Island on a thankfully warm January morning.

here are a few images from that production.

My very Rough Sketch and the First Mock Up head

The girls nearing the finish line.

Stuck in a net

Ready for their Close ups,

Its always a good idea to hold on to your patterns, you never know when you might need them again. 2007 seemed to be my year of the Bird. a large project came up , that i new was beyond one builders ability,Several of my puppet building colleagues had just formed a puppet building company in Pa called, Monkey Boys productions, (see the post below for link). i talked to them and we started work on the build in March, One of the main Characters was a Brightly colored bird with polka-dots, and a Guest on the Pilot episode was a Partridge (also called a prairie chicken) so with some minor alterations i was able to bring the chicken pattern out and put it into service once more.

here are those puppets from the pilot episode of "Planet camp"http://www.planetcamp.tv/

Dolly Partridge Built By myself and Ozone the Bird Built by Mike Latini, and Myself

wow This was along post with lots of Pictures, Here is link to the chicken video to close it all out , I hope you enjoy !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtrAd8HwXHE

ok, So I didnt keep my word, on the new blog updates

So I guess i should add some stuff to the old Page,

This year has been sort of busy, not as busy as i would like, but busy.I have had a few fun Freelance projects, Nothing steady(i do miss working with my Puppet building colleagues), but I am thankful for the projects I have had. here are some of the more recent puppet projects.

I had a lot of fun with these two projects , hopefully I'll get to work on some more videos with these guys soon.

Pot Cookie Monster,
Clearly a Parody of the old "On The Wall" segments from Sesame Street , My first Job with College Humor, Designed and built the Puppets as well as Lead Puppeteer. My Right hand man (Literally) was my friend Rei Padilla


Pot Cookie Monster










Here is Project number Two

A very ambitious and Fun project , this was a Parody of the Classic Disney Film, "The Little Mermaid", along with Hints of the Production Style , and Scope of a "Muppet Show" sketch, I designed and built all the puppets . Puppeteers are Myself ,Rei Padilla, and Frankie Corderro, along with some help from the production crew.

Kiss the Girl...Continued