[Puppeteering Fast Facts]

By Janet Bougie

Did you know?

 

Puppeteers are members of ACTRA and they get paid better than actors. They get paid for the art of puppeteering as well as for the voicing. The more they do, the more they get paid. Voicing, singing, dancing, puppeteering, acting – they’re all different disciplines and they get paid for doing each of them.

 

Keogh makes her puppets out of reticulated foam – it’s the stuff used for speakers and filters in furnaces. She starts with a huge block and uses an electric carving knife to create the basic shape. She uses small scissors when she gets into more detail.

 

There were five different Muffy’s on Today’s Special. One was ‘scooter Muffy’ – a full bodied puppet attached to a scooter which Keogh operated by remote control.

 

“Here’s Muffy going up Avenue Road in the lane at rush hour. And there’s no one around. These cars are coming up and all they see is this little tiny mouse on a scooter! There was one scene where she rounded the corner too fast and she just fell over.”

 

Puppeteering is physically demanding. It sometimes requires a puppeteer to get into some pretty tight spots.

 

“Sometimes you’re put in a trunk and there’s a hole in it where your hand goes up because the puppet has to sit on top of the box with its legs over the side, and it’s the only way to really hide you.”

 

The tightest space Keogh’s had to squeeze into?
“I had to get into a trunk with Muffy when I was eight and a half months pregnant!”