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Last year at Gen Con, I didn’t get into many of the games and workshops I put on my wishlist. This year, I totally cleaned up. I got into so many of my top wishlisted events…. including, finally, a puppetry class!
Many people are surprised to hear there are puppetry classes at Gen Con, a tabletop games convention. There’s actually an entire puppetry program! You could spend all four days at Gen Con doing nothing but puppetry. There are lots of other crafty classes on topics like sewing, wax moulding, origami (which I took last year), and circuitry (which I took this year and was fun, though I’m still not 100% confident in my soldering abilities). As I understand it, the dudes who went to Gen Con to play war-games brought their wives to Indianapolis, and those wives created a whole other convention-within-a-convention for themselves. Thank you, puppet wives!
My adventures in puppetry are becoming the B-Story of this newsletter. I crafted an emo puppet son and learned how to work a puppet for the camera. I’ve learned over the years that the quality of the instructor is directly tied to the quality of the class. So when I saw there was a class taught by Jennifer Barnhart, who plays Zoe on Sesame Street, it was an instant wishlist for me. Sesame Street puppeteers are the best of the best. It would be like getting a basketball lesson from a member of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. I want Karl Malone to teach me how to dunk or John Stockton to teach me how to throw the ball to the guy who dunks. So naturally, I wanted Jennifer Barnhart to teach me how to puppeteer.
The only awkward thing about the class was the timing. My friend Paul and I were Gen Con buddies this year. I put together our schedule with his input. “Ease Into Puppetry,” Jennifer’s class, was the opening class of the puppetry track, which meant it ended up being the first major thing we did at Gen Con. I’m on a puppetry journey, but this was Paul’s first Gen Con. He was coming for the board games and his work at Wizards of the Coast. So I was worried this would be a weird opening note for Gen Con. “Hey Paul, I know you flew over 2000 miles from Seattle because you love board games, but what if we gave felt objects the illusion of life instead?”
The class was held in a large ballroom at the Marriott, which I gathered was Puppet Central for Gen Con. There was a puppet building workshop on the other side of the room. When Jennifer came up to the front of the class and introduced herself, I could only think one thing: Jane Lynch. She looked a lot like Jane Lynch. Tall, short-haired, blonde with strong features, and her voice sounded exactly like Jane Lynch’s. They are not related (I looked it up afterwards), but I absolutely would believe they were sisters.
Before I grew a beard, people used to say I looked like Adam Corolla. A week ago, the cashier at Goodwill said I looked like Billy Mays. Not that I would rather look like Jane Lynch, but Jane Lynch is way better to look like than Billy Mays or Adam Corolla, in my humble opinion.
Jennifer opened with four wise words about what we’re trying to imbue into a puppet in a performance: Focus, Breath, Gravity, and Meaning. If the audience sees the puppet is focusing on something, it gives the illusion of inner thought. If the audience sees the puppet act out breathing, it gives us a sense of emotion. (ex. Are they breathing fast or slow?) If the audience sees the puppet has a center of gravity, it gives us the feeling that the puppet can move on its own. If the audiences sees the puppet make meaningful choices, then we can understand and relate to the character.
Then she threw puppets at us!
When I looked at the pink hippo I caught in my hands, my first thought was, “Where’s the mouth hole?” It turned out this wasn’t a puppet. No, it was a $5 stuffed animal from Goodwill she bought the day before class. So this is where I was confused.
This is where I admit to reading the description of the class too quickly. The class was called “Ease into Puppetry.” That’s what I’ve been doing for the past year or two. I liked the idea of continuing to ease! In the class description were the words “tabletop puppetry.” In my mind, I imagined working a glove puppet under a table, using the table as a makeshift stage. Wow! I was very wrong! Tabletop puppetry is similar to Japanese Bunraku, a centuries old art form where the puppeteer is visible and operating a doll-like puppet at waist height on a table. It’s a beautiful and intricate style of puppetry.
I was there to learn how to manipulate a stuffed animal in front of 25 other adults. How did I, a grown man whose interests include video games, theme parks, and the Muppets, sign up for such a childish workshop?
Jennifer gave us our assignment. We would have our stuffed animal puppet breath, then enter the “scene” of the table, where there was a balled up pair of white athletic socks. Our puppet would look at the sock, interact with it in some way, then leave the table. Simple enough.
One after the other, my classmates got up to perform. The thing that amazed me was how varied and richly detailed the performances were. People made very interesting and entertaining choices. One classmate with a stuffed cat stalked the sock ball, then pounced on it, knocking it off the table. It got such a strong reaction from the crowd, even when another person did essentially the same routine. I really enjoyed the performer with the stuffed bear who picked up and hugged the sock. It was surprisingly sincere and even heartfelt.
As I watched, I practiced moving the pink hippo in my grip. The arms and legs were very short, but I was determined to make meaningful choices with this puppet. My skepticism for the class quickly faded to perfectionism as I imbued my pink hippo with personality. I noticed my classmates weren’t making much out of the initial walk-on. The personalities of the puppets were coming through when they interacted with the sock. I wanted this hippo to enter with finesse! In fact, I thought so long and carefully about who the elephant was and how I was going to operate it that Paul nudged me and was like, “When are you getting up there?” Paul went on before me with a stuffed rhino. He stormed at the sock ball with a stampede motion and head butted it. Jennifer complimented Paul’s natural flow and I agreed. He did great!
Then it was my turn. I had decided my pink hippo was cool. He struck me as a potential logo for a street wear brand. When I got to the table, I placed the sock ball in a specific spot near the end of the table. My precision futzing got a small laugh. The hippo and I took a simultaneous deep breath. Then I worked the elephant to bob its head with my right hand and tap its foot with my left hand in rhythm, as though he were listening to a sick beat. Then I had the hippo strut across the table to the same rhythm, keeping up the head bob as best I could. When the hippo reached the sock ball, he tapped on it with his foot a few times, then I had him use the sock like a ledge and do a parkour type flip backwards into the air. When I landed him, I had him strut off the table… only I didn’t think about how the sock would still be directly in the hippo’s walking path. So once the hippo reached the sock again, I had him place his tiny leg on the sock again and slide it backwards off the table, so he could finish his strut.
Jennifer really liked the performance! She gave me kudos on the hippo’s personality and rhythm. But. BUT! There wasn’t a moment where the hippo acknowledged the sock ball. A furtive look that said, “I’m gonna do something cool with that clothing item.” In my mind, the hippo tapping his foot on the socks was supposed to be that moment, but it didn’t read.
I felt very mixed about my performance. Once again, I was in a large puppeteering class with over 20 students. I had one chance to perform solo and I didn’t quite make the grade. But I immediately countered that feeling by looking at my pink hippo. I remembered that I was walking a stuffed animal in front of a group of adults and I laughed to myself. If I’m going to do more puppetry, I have to lighten up about it.
There was one moment in the class I’ll never forget. The last student to go was a young woman in a full body Jean Gray spandex costume. I’m guessing she was about 16. I could tell “Jean” was shy by the hesitation in her voice and the way she clutched her stuffed bird. When Jennifer called on her, Jean thought about it… but refused the invite. With some encouragement from Jennifer and the class, Jean made her way through all of us and next to the table. She was about to start, but then Jean quietly said she couldn’t. It was hard to see from the middle of the crowd, but I think she broke into tears. Jennifer came over to her with a stuffed animal of her own and offered to join her. Jean nodded in approval. The two of them worked their puppets together. By puppeteering for each other, more so than the audience, Jean made her way through the performance. We applauded. And that’s the kind of moment that makes a performer like Jennifer such a genius. Theory, practice, and prep are important. They build the foundation for a great performance. But nothing tops the magic of being so present as a performer that you can make adjustments in the moment, not just for the benefit of the scene, but for the benefit of your scene partners. It was extraordinary.
We had time for one more exercise. Jennifer lined us up in groups of five. We created a scene where our stuffed animals passed the sock ball between each other. I paid close attention to the partner on my right, who treated the sock ball as if it were very heavy. I had my small hippo help him lift it, as though we were moving a sofa together, which got quite a few laughs.
After the workshop, I asked Paul what he thought. I braced myself for the worst. This wasn’t even puppetry. It was playing with stuffed animals!
Paul said he had a terrific time. Though he couldn’t help but marvel at how much Jennifer looked and talked like Jane Lynch. I was relieved he said something.
🎲 Your Turn: Have you done something recently that made you feel silly or self-conscious? What was it? Did it work out? Do people consider your art strange? Have you done any great thrifting lately? I’d love to hear from you! Reply directly to this email or leave a comment by hitting the orange button below.
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