An entertaining evening of information and anecdotes
with one of Britain's most experienced TV puppeteers.
Currently Bookaboo the lovable rock puppy in Bookaboo
on CiTV, and Milky Cat in the MIlkshake Show on
Channel Five. Marcus has a career spanning twenty plus
years, many Films and over sixty children's TV series.
He tells stories of his time in television, the
theatre, at the fringe and with the Jim Henson's
Company and more.
This is an evening not to be missed, full of chills
and thrills, some spills and a great deal of TV
Puppetry information.
Suitable for audiences aged 16 & over.
Read more about this event. here Duration 1hr. 30
minutes.
About The Puppet Maker ShowA
Live half hour quirky mix of Novelty, Puppetry, Stand
up Comedy and Cod Ventriloquism.
The plan was to develop and experiment with an Adult
Stand Up Comedy Act and Show featuring Puppets,
incorporating various adult Puppet Comedy ideas I had
been developing. It was to be provisionally entitled,
Marcus Clarke is 'The Puppet Maker'. It would be a Show
that would develop what Adult Comedy writing, performing
and producing talents I had.
Pre - Production.
Being for want of a better description a Novelty Act
the running time I felt had to be no more than a half
hour.
Most Stand up
Comedy Acts are at least an hour. And the Show once
written had to be developed and honed before a real
audience. Half a dozen Puppet characters seemed about
right with a mix of Audience Interaction, Story and Gag
led comedy material combined with some Novelty and Cod
Ventriloquism. Cod Ventriloquism is that done deliberately very
badly for wholly comedy effect.
Cat just tells
a few simple Gaggs. Click his picture right to see how.
Venue
The Free festival The Laughing Horse at the 2007
Edinburgh Festival was decided upon with a Half hour
slot and all booked and arranged in February 2007 along
with the associated advertising.
Production
First performance 6.10pm on 4th August at 'Berlin' a
nightclub and new Fringe Venue started off a pattern
that repeated itself over the next 3 weeks and 19
performances. I performed the Act, always testing out
new things and with each Show I gained in confidence,
getting ever better at dealing with my stage fright and
improving my comedy timings. The Act was then re-written
starting every evening after the show then re-learnt the
next day and performed again that evening. I wrote quite
a few new short or one liner jokes on the fly which I
was able to put straight in to the Act and test out.
Most had a strong visual element as in this early
example delivered by Cheesy Puppet.
Cheesy Joke
Outcome
Creating this Show in this way, has been both one of the
hardest things I've ever done and one of the most
rewarding.
Throughout all of the Shows I performed my audiences
laughed and reacted with great generosity. They
applauded well and always commented on the Show
favorably afterwards to me. I enjoyed creating the Show
and performing it for them and I learnt a great deal
about Comedy too.
By the last week I think I had a rock steady and very
funny Adult Comedy Stand up Show featuring Puppets.
Which is what I had set out to achieve.
What I learnt from doing this will definitely inform
positively all of my future Adult Comedy TV writing,
production and development work and some solid Media
Products resulted directly from it.
Recommended ?
I would do it again and recommend putting together a
'Stand Up Show' to anyone serious about Writing,
Performing and Producing Adult Comedy in Film,
Television, Games or Interactive Media. But its not
suited to everyone and really not for the faint hearted.
Funding I self funded which put me back a bit I
can tell you.
Act
clips
Listen to that 'Cod Vet' part of the Show here.
Recorded Live 17th August 2007 at Berlin
Listen to 'Cod Vent'' part again
in one of my very early Shows. Recorded Live 8th August
2007 at Berlin.