A Mad Puppeteer introduction
As this is my first post here I guess a brief introduction is in order. I always describe my day job as “Standard Nerd”, but then again that’s not what I’m here for. Over the last twenty/thirty years...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Carl
Today, November 9th, would have been Carl Sagan’s 78th birthday. This year Carl Sagan Day will be celebrated on Saturday (11/10). We like Carl around the lab. So, of course we’ve celebrated Carl...
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The Biological Plausibility of (Puppet) Dragons
My fellow labbers would have you believe that Dragons are biologically implausible, but I’m here to say that (Puppet) Dragons are not only plausible, they’re real. I start off using a Project Puppet...
View ArticleCooking with Puppets
If you wish to create an apple pie from scratch. First you must watch this cooking show. There are more than a couple names you might recognize in those credits. And now for something completely...
View ArticleGraveyard Shift
It really is hard to find good help: The latest Death By Puppets video went live last week and I forgot to post it as usual. This is some of my favorite stuff we’ve done. When we filmed it I had real...
View ArticleRockets, Shams, and Placebo adventures
I may not have “forgotten” to post them as much “been so busy I never remembered at the right time”, but the results are the same: not enough Puppets in The Lab. I shall remedy this now. The July 1st...
View ArticleDeath By Puppets and DragonCon
We felt this little video was appropriate to release right before DragonCon. There are going to be a lot of zombies at DragonCon, and a lot of cosplayers. Zombies, you need to remember; just because...
View ArticlePuppets and Astronomers
Due to my shoddy memory, and thinking I had other posts mostly ready to go, I forgot to post the latest Death By Puppets video in October. The good thing to come out of this is that now you get two new...
View ArticleNew year, new puppet videos
Once again I failed at getting the December release from Death By Puppets shared in a timely manner, so once again you get a twofer puppet video post. For me there has been a journey in both the craft...
View ArticleRejected!
A number of my fellow puppeteers on facebook have been commenting on, and posting about, their rejection letters from Sesame Workshop today. A couple months back there was an open call for people to...
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Preserving a living folk artistry
At my Puppetry Guild meeting last night Annie Katsura Rollins discussed Chinese Shadow Puppetry, and her work studying it. One of the things she mentioned, mixed in with a fascinating history lesson on...
View ArticlePuppet Evolution
No, I’m not writing about the evolution of puppets (hmmm, maybe I should), OR about the evolution of my own puppet designs (that post is on the list though). No, the Ham on Nye event just happened to...
View ArticleDead Lines
The title of this piece is “Dead Lines” though the post could legitimately be subtitled “How Charles can be even more embarrassingly amateur at puppetry”, though maybe that wouldn’t fit in the title...
View ArticleFairy Godmother Incorporated
UPDATE: Bonus Video added! It’s the beginning of the month, usually known as “Charles forgets to post the puppet video” time. But not this time! This month’s video has had a long tale of filming and...
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New Puppet Webseries and Workshop
This has been an interesting year for me creatively. A few years ago we started Death By Puppets and it was almost entirely a series of short films for youtube, but filming and editing takes time and...
View ArticleTim Vortex: The Last Spacemaster
As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a new Death By Puppets series. We are, not surprisingly fans of Doctor Who. But, just because we love something doesn’t mean we won’t take great pleasure in...
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Show Us Your Ugly Things: Theatre Prop Edition
* There is a bonus Death By Puppets trailer at the end of the post. Recently I was asked to make three “large hell hound head” type puppets for a production of The Tempest my son was in. I’ve made a...
View ArticleTim Vortex: Episode 2
Death By Puppets presents the next episode in our series Tim Vortex! The Last Spacemaster. This was the piece we performed for the DragonCon Puppet slam this year, and was also performed as part of...
View ArticleTim Vortex: Episodes 3 & 4
With the new year rolling around I apparently forgot to share our latest Death By Puppets videos here. Revenge of the Odlids represents, I think, a bit of a jump in the post production work our editor...
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Show Us Your Ugly Things: Doodle Edition
This year many of my facebook friends started a “Doodle a Day” project on January first, but as I wasn’t planning ahead for it I waited till February to start myself. When it comes to performance art...
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