Why Puppet Slams?

Listen in to leading puppet slam artists and curators who reflect on why puppet slams matter to them and join the conversation on our Facebook Page.

Playhouse Puppetry Slam #Glen Echo, MD - Pointless Theatre Co., 2011, Photo: Bruce Douglas

 I like to laugh at jokes that are on a more adult level of humor, whether it's bawdy, or sophisticated, it's still not for kids. Also I can't write a 45-minute puppet show to save my life, yet. But I can make vignette scenes that are beautiful, touching, funny, creepy, whatever. Short form puppetry happens to be my favorite sort.

- Valerie Meiss, curator

Wham Bam Puppet Slam #Asheville

Puppet Slams are the new Vaudeville. I think young people who can be labeled “hipsters” love the new puppet world. I think older folks who always loved theater can enjoy a slam. I think yes - the slam IS important but what needs to be emphasized is that yes - there is a scrappy nature to the show but there MUST be some attempt on the part of the performers to grow, rehearse, develop, refine. It can't always be scrappy- or the audience will turn away.

- Carole D’Agostino, 

Performer-At-Large #NYC

I feel like Slams fill a several important roles. It is great way to get your feet wet in the art form [of puppetry].  Other than doing full-length kid shows or doing videos online, there isn’t really another way to get started.  It is a way to try things out in front of audience and see what sticks. 

-  Beau Brown, curator 

the  Puckin’ Fuppet Show  #Atlanta

It’s been a great place to experiment and network.  Maintaining a space in puppetry for the adult imagination is really important as well. Though anytime I use adult and puppetry in the same sentence people just think sexy puppets. Of course its sexy puppets! (though mostly not).  Mostly I want grown-ups or anyone who feels they are too old for puppets to get excited about a cardboard box versus a Hollywood film, which does all the work for you.

- Gepetta, 

Performer-At-Large #Philadelphia

I think slams are a great way to introduce audiences to many different styles of puppetry and get them to realize that it's not just kid stuff.  Also, it helps audiences develop their palate.  If there is a short piece that sucks, maybe they'll learn that the piece itself was bad, not that all puppetry is bad.  Does that makes sense?... Also, I think Beau said this before, it is a good kick in the pants for artists.  Having a deadline forces you to work on that idea you've been kicking around in your head.  

- Jessica Simon, curator

Nasty, Brutish & Short: A Puppet Cabaret #Chicago

National Puppet Slam #ATL

Beau Brown hosts The 2012 National Puppet Slam at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta Friday August 3rd at 8:00PM and Saturday, August 4th at 8PM.  For more information, call 404-873-3391 or visit puppet.org/perform/nationalpuppetslam

Experience the beauty, ingenuity, and hilarity of short-form puppet theater in this showcase of puppet slam acts from across the United States. Nominated by their respective slams, then curated by The Puppet Slam Network and the Center for Puppetry Arts, the nation’s best slam performances will be presented for two nights only!  

 
The lineup includes: Travis Lope #Auburn #NY,  Katie McClenahan #Portland #OR,  Gregg van Lanningham  #Atlanta, Therese Schorn #Ossining #NJ, Carla Rhodes #Brooklyn, Leila Ghaznavi #Philadelphia, Gwendolyn Bonar #Phoenix, Lyon Hill #Columbia #SC, Honey Goodenough #Brooklyn, and Spencer Lott #Kansas City 

Marsian: Why are you excited about the National Puppet Slam?
Beau Brown: I am excited to have so many talented slam artists all in place for the public to see. It was great doing it at the Nationals Festival last year for the puppeteer community and this year we get to share it with the public. I think that having it at a important puppet institution like the Center for Puppetry Arts is a wonderful way to continue to legitimize short form puppetry. People who would come and see adult programming at the Center might not go to a smaller local slam.

Marsian:  Why have a National Puppet Slam?
Beau Brown: I think it important to recognize excellence in our field. Right now UNIMA and PofA don’t really take much notice of short form and it is my hope that, as the tradition of the National Slam continues, acceptance into the show is considered an honor and something that the artists should feel extremely proud of. It is the Oscars of puppet slam! Also doing it at the Center gives these artists a chance to perform on the main stage of the Center for Puppetry Arts which without doing a full length show is not an opportunity that these artists might otherwise get.

Marsian: How do you see this selection showcasing where this movement going?
BB: I think that the lineup truly reflects the diversity in slam performances and puppetry styles. Just like the National Slam last year it shows that puppets slams aren’t just “naughty puppets”.

Marsian: It sounds like people are coming from all over the country...
BB: I have! It is so exciting to see members of the puppetry community making the trip. I am putting up some of them at my place and other members of the Atlanta puppet community have stepped forward to host some out of town guests.

Lets take a closer look at the performers...
 

Travis Lope #Auburn #NY

Travis Lope is a performer, puppet designer, and a costume designer and technician. Favorite credits include working with Dr. Cosby on Cosby, Lewis Black in Black Humor and Lorenzo Lamos in Dracula. Travis particularly enjoys building larger than life puppets. Ranging from dragon heads and dinosaurs to a 31-foot tall, cable controlled Giant for Ronald Dahl’s BFG. Travis’s work has been featured in commercials for the Connecticut State Lottery and Bob's Discount Furniture.  He recently finished graduate school at the University of Connecticut. The Enchanted Vanity Set has been performed in four different states.

Katie McClenahan #Portland #OR

Katie's love affair with puppets was sparked by a certain green, Balinese sea captain puppet named Captain Clamp. He and Katie were part of a roving pirate, puppet rock opera band consortium called Jollyship the Whiz-bang. After years of touring, Katie departed the high seas to find her land-lubbing ways were far more productive. Currently residing in Portland, Oregon, Katie runs Beady Little Eyes, a puppet event company that specializes in keeping adult short-form puppetry alive in the Pacific Northwest. 

Gregg van Lanningham #Atlanta

Gregg Van Laningham is a puppeteer who got his start in the world of puppet slams. He has written and performed dozens of shows over the course of the past two years, and currently works as a freelance puppeteer in Atlanta with a specialty in science education. Gregg often collaborates with his best friend and creative partner Qate Bean, and together the two of them have performed for audiences ranging from a 4-year-old's birthday party to a crowd of hundreds at Dragon*Con. Gregg earned a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Therese Schorn #Ossining #NJ

Therese Schorn is a NY based puppeteer, clown and designer. She most recently performed in Puppet Art Attacks. She also performed and taught at the 2011 International Yunlin Puppet Festival in Taiwan. She is a 23 year veteran of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care bringing puppetry music and clowning to hospitalized children. Shows include A Village of Fools (Theater for the New City) and Peaceable Kingdom ,a puppet and physical theater play with a cast of 2.4 children. She also constructs and performs with giant puppets for Nyack’s Halloween Parade.

Carla Rhodes #Brooklyn

Carla Rhodes has been practicing the art of ventriloquism since the age of 9, after seeing Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop on television and to her absolute delight, was later mentored by her hero. Throughout her teens, Carla performed all over her hometown of Louisville. She has been living and performing in New York City since 2004, at such legendary venues such as Joe's Pub. Recently, Carla performed a full-length rock'n'roll ventriloquism show, The Continuing Story of Carla Rhodes. Time Out New York proclaims the show “is an idiosyncratic neo-retro blend of ventriloquism, rock music and comic storytelling" and she “throws her voice like a curveball, bringing old-school ventriloquism skills to new-school puppets (including one of Keith Richards).”  

Leila Ghaznavi #Philadelphia

Leila Ghaznavi is an actor, puppeteer and playwright currently based in Philadelphia. She has been featured as an emerging artist at The National Puppetry Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and her original multi-media puppet work, Silken Veils, received five stars and was nominated for best new work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Silken Veils has been featured on the Leonard Lopate Show, BBC Persia, and Voice of America. Her featured work, Remembrances was presented at 2011 Puppetry Festival, UNIMA Day in NYC, and the Puppet Pandemic Slam in Philadelphia. Leila Ghaznavi has an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts.

Gwendolyn Bonar #Phoenix

Gwen is a second generation puppeteer who started puppetry as soon as she was able to walk and talk. A professional puppeteer from the Great Arizona Puppet Theater, she has performed all around the state of Arizona as well as numerous guest performances at theaters around the country. She has also had the pleasure to perform internationally, including Kazahkstan this Fall. 

  

Lyon Hill #Columbia #SC

Lyon takes his inspiration from comics, animation, pop up books, view master reels, and other graphic arts. In his work, he combines these diverse mediums to create new hybrids.  Supine is a nightmare experienced by his wife. Small paper puppets are projected large scale to tell the surreal story of a woman being chased through a desolate city by a shadowy figure.

Honey Goodenough #Brooklyn

Honey Goodenough is a New York City based puppeteer, producer, costume designer, educator, clown, and magician. She earned her MA in Educational Theater from NYU. She has produced many puppetry related events including the premiere of Puppet Rampage (Puppeteers of America Festival Documentary film). Honey has co-curated Emerging Artist Theater's Laugh Out Loud: Clown and Puppetry Festival in 2009, the Voice 4 Vision Puppet Slams hosted at The Theater for the New City in 2011, as well as the UNIMA USA: Celebration of World Puppetry, hosted by Teatro Sea. She is a three-time recipient of the Puppet Slam Network grant to produce Puppet Pandemic, a showcase of puppetry works developed during The National Puppetry Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, which supports the Alumni Scholarship, to help artists create more short form puppetry. Honey has been touring from Brooklyn to Brookline, Austin to Boston and throughout the Puppet Slam Network for the past four years. 

Spencer Lott #Kansas City

Spencer Lott is a freelance puppeteer. He develops and produces commercials and online video content as well as live stage productions. This summer his work was on display at the Springfield Art Association and his original puppet shows The Bicycle Brothers from Ohio and Bigfoot’s Magical Moped are now in development. Recently Spencer has performed in Puppet Slams in Kansas City, New York City and Chicago. After the National Puppet Slam, Spencer will return to Kansas City where he will act in Theatre Gym’s adaptation of The Miser by Moliere.

Fabulous Failures & What Can We Learn?

What can we learn from our mistakes?  Leading puppet slam curators and artists open up to reflect on some fabulous failures and spectacular slam disasters and what can be learned. Have you had a fabulous failure at a slam? Join the conversation on our Facebook Page and share your story! 
 

Austin Puppet Incident #Austin
Amanda Maddock, Jessica Simon & Caroline Reck, 2011, Photo: Chris Owen

Alissa Hunnicut, guest curator of New Brew #Brooklyn

Mostly you learn that it's live theater and anything can happen.  So think on your feet when there are technical glitches and be honest in your performance.  You also learn pretty quickly what doesn't work in a slam context when you have no control over what comes before your performance..

I don't think any of them have been disastrous. Some of them have pieces that are "less successful" than others partly because it might be a less curated slam or a slam that really welcomes less experienced performers, but that's the good part about a slam.  

Everyone can try something out and if it doesn't really work, the audience is on to a new thing pretty quickly. Like we all say, "too short to suck."

Gepetta, Performer-At-Large #Philadelphia

I think I count on failure or at least making mistakes to some degree. A lot of my stories are very wordy, more poetic than funny, and I often forget my lines, though if I can quip with the audience its okay.  A lot of mistakes graduate into being essential parts of the show.  Recently, I lit my hair on fire during a performance at a crowded loft. That wasn’t at a Slam, though I think it would have gone over better if it had been.

Roxie Myhrum, Curator of Puppet Showplace Slam #Brookline 

I once put together a slam with a lot of artists who typically did shows in all different styles of puppetry, but somehow I overlooked the fact that the pieces they wanted to do for the slam were all shadow puppet acts. Oops. After that I implemented a more thorough tech form. We also once had a speaker fall on an audience member. Now we warn people who sit in the front row.   

Evan O'Television, host of Blood from a Turnip #Providence

One of Kristin McLean's occasional collaborators was the director of The Revolving Museum - an organization that curated site specific shows at various different locations all around Boston.  The director of the Revolving Museum had set up a show for First Night (New Year's Eve) Boston that he populated primarily with Puppet Slam performers.   He asked me to perform at it.  It was at the Cyclorama in Boston and there was a very cool set, and we were all in different rooms of a mocked-up house.  People were encouraged to wander around and it was definitely a very cool set up if you were a more interactive performer.  But the problem was that I was performing a 15 minute version of the "Ex Machina" show I described earlier.  And this piece also now included an audience-plant routine.  The biggest issue is that my pieces are narrative and definitely require the undivided attention of an audience.  Here, we were playing a venue where people would essentially wander through look at what we were doing for about 2 minutes and then move on. Because I perform with a recording it's difficult to stop or start over and nearly impossible to improvise.  So we just kept performing it over and over, often with no one in our space and just me and my friend and collaborator Mark Myatt (who was my audience "plant" originally intended to blend in with the never-constant audience).  Most of the time we were performing for no one, or else for people who took a brief interest akin to viewing animals in a zoo.. After performing in this show I have always taken pains to clarify that any show I am booked at is organized as a theatrical performance and not an "installation" style environment.

Alexander Winfield, curator Pirate Puppet Cabaret #London

I can’t say I’ve ever been to a disastrous Puppet Slam, sorry! One slam I did attend was a bit awkward: it emphasized audience participation, insisting space be left for the public to contribute to the work. Unfortunately it underestimated the audience’s bravery, leading to long passages of awkward silence!

Kat Pleviak, curator of Puppet Meltdown #Chicago 

I was in a slam at a puppet festival and we were asked to bring two pieces, one of which was cut because the slam went to long. The piece we did show was too small for the space to be seen by anyone in the venue so no one got to enjoy it.   

A note to producers: Your slam performers are your guests and it should be your number one goal to help them succeed and have a great experience. A note to performers: be true to your work. If you walk into an event and can see your piece won't work, pull it. It does not help you to do a piece that disappoints based on a technicality. Know your work and show it to it's best.

Enda O. Breadon, curator Kolohe Puppet Slam #Honolulu

Well, just this week I feel like I’ve experienced one of my biggest failures to date.  Between what felt like the great success of the first slam in February, I ran into some problems.  As I’ve said, I just directed Inspector General for TAG, a show with live actors and two different kinds of puppets that play minor characters.  Literally, the night Inspector opened several of TAG’s board members complained that sock puppets have no place on the TAG stage and are “not to the quality of what we do.”  The poster and all the promotional material used had the sock puppets to promote the show, but apparently that somehow got past the attention of some board members.  And they apparently hadn’t talked to the Artistic Director, who’d been talking excitedly about the puppets for around six months before the show ever went into rehearsal. At this point, I must take pains to again thank Brad Powell, TAG’s Artistic Director.  He went to the mat to defend both the puppets in Inspector and to defend the slam to his board.  But after some of the longest days I’ve ever experienced, it was clear that it was not in the best interest of the slam or of TAG to hold a puppet slam at a theatre where there were hostile board members. . .

A friend and fellow artist here in Honolulu gave me a “buck up” talk the other day saying that this was a lesson about focusing on the kind of work you want to do and making your own opportunities.  I guess that’s as good as a lesson as any.  This is all just in the last week, maybe after a few months of reflection I’ll have a real good perspective about what the moral of this tale is.  

Again, if there are other curators who have walked through similar experiences please, please, please email or call me.   I’d love to hear how others handled it so I can properly reflect and learn from the situation.

Lana Schwarcz, curator of Slam Noir #Melbourne

Hmmm... I think we've had a couple of pieces go longer than five minutes, and that was tough. I don't feel comfortable to name names or even describe these shows, but sometimes new pieces (which is what they are for the slams) can drag on a bit - the fat needs to be cut from them.  If there is one thing I have really learned from Pam Arciero (and by gosh there were many many things learned from that Hawaiian goddess) it's that things really have to be too short to suck.  So I think in the future, we really stick to that 5-minute rule. If it doesn't fit in 5 minutes, it doesn't go on. It makes the artist really think about what absolutely needs to be in there. Although sometimes that still gets ignored....

Beau Brown, curator of the  Puckin’ Fuppet Show, 

The Puppet Slam at DragonCon and the National Puppet Slam  #Atlanta 

Never try and simulate the sound of someone’s pelvis cracking by breaking celery into a microphone. It won’t work. 

Valerie Meiss, curator of the Wham Bam! Puppet Slam #Asheville

Oh wow... maybe my reluctance to say means that the wound is still fresh? . . Lets just say, technical requirements and Murphy's Law make wretched bedfellows. I have learned to cope with technical disasters in fun and friendly ways, to curb egos in a non-defamatory manner, and to (most importantly) take control of a situation (which is easier said than done), but I have certainly learned its importance

Oh, also, don't ever ever use a smoke machine!

Carole D'Agostino, Performer-At-Large #NYC

I succeed and fail at each event. I now always travel with my own tables, tape, extension cords, light bulb replacements, shadow screen replacements, scissors, sharpies, wipes, etc etc etc, because at each and every venue there has been something wrong or missing and I don't want my performance to suffer because the venue or I am ill prepared. Professionalism can only come by learning from failures.  

 

Jessica Simon, curator of Nasty, Brutish & Short Puppet Cabaret #Chicago 

[taken slighly out of context]  I got a bruise on my head from a flying piece of chocolate at the National Slam in Atlanta...

Geeking out on Puppet Slams with Beau Brown

In our latest Lives of the Slam Artists series, PSN interviews Beau Brown, curator of Atlanta’s Puckin’ Fuppet Show, The Puppet Slam at DragonCon and the National Puppet Slam. 

Beau has been involved in Puppet Slams for the past decade. The Puckin’ Fuppet Show is one of PSN's more prolific slams, clocking in at eight slams per year. Recently, Beau curated the very first National Puppet Slam, showcasing some of the best Slam pieces from the PSN, at the National Puppetry Festival. The next National Slam will be August 3^rd – 5^th , 2012 at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

photo courtesy of Beau Brown

Marsian: So, when did you start performing at Puppet Slams?

Beau Brown: My first puppet slam piece was when I fresh out of college and had just moved back to atlanta from Dallas in 2002. It was at the Puppet Slam at Dad’sGarage Theatre. It was called Beef and it was about a small army of steaks liberating some other steaks from a cow.

M: Sounds like a serious political piece... And what are some other Puppet Slams you have performed at? 

BB: We do some many slams here in Atlanta.  I have no idea how many I have done now. I have performed in Slams in Atlanta, Asheville, New York City, and New Jersey. I have had some of my videos and films screen in other cities. I suppose New York City is the furthest I have physically gone. I think the most rewarding was the first National Slam at the Puppet Festival last year. I have received such great feedback from both other puppeteers being inspired to start their own slams back in their cities because of it, and from the older generation of puppeteers who had never really understood what Puppet Slams were about, thinking it was just a bunch of cussing puppets with no real artistic merit. I think they got a better understanding of the short form puppetry format and that Slams aren’t just “Potpourris.”Just being able to bring together some of the most talented puppeteers out there and get them all on stage together was a real honor.    

M: Where did you get the idea to host Puppet Slams?

BB: Lucky Yates at Dad’s Garage Theatre in Atlanta started one of the oldest slams in the country [after Great Small Work's Spaghetti Dinners - running since 1985]. That and another show at that theatre called Late Night Creepy Horror, which was more of a variety show that was heavy on puppets.  I had never had any real formal puppetry training and sort of cut my chops at his shows for many years. It was a really supportive fun environment that focused more on comedy rather than “high puppet art.” That slam was four times a year and it really gave me a deadline and a reason to write shows.

It was at the slam that I created the piece that would later become my web series The Sci-Fi Janitors. About three years ago, Caroline Masclet started The Puckin’ Fuppet Show, which was a competitive slam with cash prizes.  After a few shows she moved to France and asked if anyone wanted to take over and keep the show going.  I volunteered.  At first I didn’t host the show.  I just organized it and had local actors, puppeteers, and stand up comics host it.  It was after hosting at the National Festival, where I had such a good time that I started hosting my own slam.  The Slam at Dad’s Garage was a sort of best of Atlanta’s puppeteers getting together to put on a show.  The Puckin’ Fuppet Show is much more like a loose open mic amateur hour type event where new people are encouraged to give it a shot.  Like I say at the show, “Atlanta has a lot of really incredible puppet art, this isn’t it” I usually have no idea what the show is even going to look like until about an hour before it starts and everybody who is going to perform has shown up. Which is really stressful and nerve wracking but I just try and remind myself that it always works out.

M: When do Puppet Slams go wrong? 

BB: I have been at some slams that have done a great job of pushing the envelope only to have been criticized for it. The idea of censoring a puppet slam goes against every bone in my body. No one ever got sued for doing a puppet show. That is a really unhealthy and unsupportive artistic environment and not what the Slam Network grant is for at all. I am very fortunate to be my own boss with my Slam and I don’t have to answer to anyone else with it. Some other slams are tied up in the politics of their local puppet community and don’t have the kind of freedom.   

M: Tell us about a fabulous failure and what you've learned from it.

BB: Never try and simulate the sound of someone’s pelvis cracking by breaking celery into a microphone. It won’t work.

M: The more you know! Now why are Puppet Slams important to you? What gap do they fill that is not filled by other forms of puppetry? 

BB: I feel like Slams fill a several important roles. It is great way to get your feet wet in the art form [of puppetry].  Other than doing full-length kid shows or doing videos online, there isn’t really another way to get started.  It is a way to try things out in front of audience and see what sticks.  For me it was crucial to have a deadline. I would love to be the kind of artist who is inspired to build puppets and write shows because it just came to me, but I’m not.  I have to sit down, usually with someone else and say, “Okay we need a show.”  The structure of the slams gives me the kick in the pants and I need to write something.  Since puppetry is the synthesis of all art forms (visual art, voice, and movement), it opens so many doors to so many different kinds of artists.  Puppetry allows us to tell any story we can imagine… ANY. The possibilities are truly endless. The only other art form that I think allows that is animation.  I would love to have the patience to do animation, but I don’t.  So puppetry allows me to tell those stories. However most of those stories aren’t an hour long.  So how else can I get them front of a live audience? Puppet Slam.   

M: Do you have any upcoming slams you plan on performing at or organizing? 

BB: The 2012 National Puppet Slam is coming up August 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th at the Center for Puppetry Arts. All of the slams in the network will be nominating their best pieces. The Puckin’ Fuppet Show will continue to chug along with its eight or so slams per year. I plan on performing in the new Spork in Hand Puppet Slam in Columbia, SC, and I am going to try and make to the Wham Bam Puppet Slam in Asheville NC. Then there is the Puppetry Track at DragonCon, which is a beast unto itself. It will be like a mini puppet festival inside a 50,000-person convention. I am really excited about that.  

M: Where do you find the impetus to do a Puppet Slam piece? 

BB: A deadline, a song, a pun, a visual gag, half-awake/half-asleep thoughts, wanting to experiment with a new style.

M: Which Puppet Slam artists inspire you?

I really love Madison J. Cripps - we have a bromance. His process is so completely different than mine. He makes a puppet first and then writes the show around the character and I start with the story first and make the puppets from that.  I think I would really like to try start from a character place first.  I would also like to try my hand at marionettes, which I have never done.  I really love Honey Goodenough’s work. I would love to get some tears out of the audience sometime.  Dr. Gregg vanLanningham is an incredibly witty dialogue writer. I would love to write with him sometime. 

M: What pieces do you have in circulation to perform in puppet slams?

BB: The Moon is about the real transmissions from NASA’s first touch down on the moon. In Doris and the Orifices, Doris and her a cappella band cover Don’t Stop Believin. In A Man and his Gay Horse, a cowboy helps his faithful horse understand himself and they both learn about friendship.

M: I’ve seen that! It’s very Broke-back-I’m-not-sure-what… Anywho, what are you looking forward to?

BB: As a performer I really like traveling and performing at other slams and would like to do more of that. As a producer I really look forward to discovering new talent out there and giving artists opportunities to perform and get recognition.

M: Where would you like to see the Puppet Slam Network in the near future?
BB: I would really love to see the tour show idea come together, but I can see why it is hard to get together. I defiantly want to continue with the National Puppet Slam. I think it is really awesome and important for the best of the Puppet Slam Network to get recognized and to put all of those people together in the same room.

M: What advice do you have for puppet slam performers just starting out?
BB: DO IT! Start a slam! Crash an open mic night with your puppets! Make videos! Keep throwing stuff at the wall till it sticks! Something will and it will be awesome!

Beau has a degree in Theatrical Design and works at the Center for Puppetry Arts. He has a taste for Buffalo wings, He-man, and comics. His dislikes include: throw pillows, listening to people chewing, and people using his birthday as an excuse to eat cake. 

  

As a puppet filmmaker, Beau created the web series, The Sci-Fi Janitors  and also collaborates with The New Puppet Order, which produces puppet shorts seen at several film festivals. Beau’s Puppet Slam at the DragonCon convention in Atlanta was such a success that the convention asked him to program the Puppetry Track, a full range of puppetry events including a slam at the 2012 convention. Stay tuned for details!

Lives of the Slam Artists: An Interview with Valerie Meiss

In our latest profile of Puppet Slam Artists, PSN chats it up with Valerie Meiss, curator of the Wham Bam! PuppetSlam in Asheville. When not hosting Puppet Slams, Valerie tours the country with a band of musicians and puppet shows. Valerie plays accordion and novelty instruments such as the saw, ukulele, or toy piano. She lives and works in her studio known as “The Vaudeville House” in downtown Asheville.

2011, Photo: Zen Southerland

Marsian: What was your very first Puppet Slam experience?

 

Valerie Meiss: I've been performing in puppet slams for a little over two years. My first slam experience was one I was not puppeteering in, my band was asked to perform our strange puppet musical stage show, The Hellblinki and Cripps Puppet Spectacular (with Madison J. Cripps of Cripps' Puppets), for the South Eastern Puppetry Festival in Wilmington, NC. It was my first exposure to the Puppeteers of America, The Puppet Slam Network, UNIMA, and nearly every professional puppeteer I know. There, Madison and I took full advantage of our complementary puppet festival badges and became immersed in the festival. The rest of my band, I do believe, went to the beach. At the regional festival, we met Beau Brown, who became not only a fast friend, but also our biggest supporter and colleague in putting on puppet slams - which we would be doing in the near future.


M: In all the slams you have performed at, what was the freakiest show you have seen?

VM: I've performed or been involved with five or so puppet slams, mostly in the Asheville area, and Atlanta. The freakiest show I've ever seen would probably have been Keith Shubert's “Chair” piece. It was in the 2011 Wham, Bam! Puppet Slam, it was 4 seconds long, and consisted of: Returning from Intermission. A scream. Lights up. Keith, still screaming is naked, strapped to chair, and a puppet, that is where his unmentionables ought to be, is waving around a collapsible lock blade knife. Lights out. It was sensational, and caused some controversy, but the audience loved it! And it served its purpose beautifully.

M: What was the worst puppet slam you’ve been to?  

VM: I have been lucky to have not been in any disastrous puppet slams. Though the worst slam I've been at was probably a couple years ago, it was a fine slam with many wonderful pieces, but it was too long, and the audience seemed to have been misinformed that it was an adult show with adult content. We discovered later that many of them had come to see a specific piece and didn't understand the nature of the show as a whole. This was a fantastic learning opportunity and now I feel when promoting a slam, nearly half of my publicity is putting out a disclaimer.


M: What is the Wham Bam! Puppet Slam like?

VM: I am one of the coordinators, along with Madison J. Cripps and Keith Shubert (Toy Box Theatre). Wham, Bam! is not so much unique as it is ours. It's in Asheville, a thriving arts community that needed it, and has embraced us. We are trying out various formats for the slam as well, we've done fancy multiple show runs with it, but on National Day of Puppetry, we'll be trying to do a one-off quick and dirty, low tech show, to see if we can involve more people in Asheville who are not professional puppeteers, per say.


M: Are you part of a slam circuit of nearby cities to perform at?

VM: The closest city that has a regular slam is Atlanta's Puckin' Fuppet Show, and we're about to be a part of the first puppet slam in Columbia, SC, Spork in HandPuppet Slam. I feel more and more a part of the Puppet Slam network since the first National Puppet Slam at last year's Puppet Festival in Atlanta, also the Slam Symposium workshop let slam coordinators, participants, and potential colleagues meet and share ideas, strategies, and just network and make new friends.


M: What was it like hosting your first Puppet Slam?

VM: The first slam I was a major driving force in was last year's Wham, Bam! Puppet Slam. It was thrilling, challenging, fun, teetering on the edge of chaos, but just coming round to be a spectacular show. I loved it, I learned from it, and I am ready to do it over and over again.


M: Tell us about a fabulous failure and what you've learned from it.

VM: Oh wow... maybe my reluctance to say means that the wound is still fresh? . . Lets just say, technical requirements and Murphy's Law make wretched bedfellows. I have learned to cope with technical disasters in fun and friendly ways, to curb egos in a non-defamatory manner, and to (most importantly) take control of a situation (which is easier said than done), but I have certainly learned its importance.  

Oh, also, don't ever ever use a smoke machine!


M: Why are Puppet Slams important? What gap do they fill? Who cares?

VM: Well I care, for one. I like to laugh at jokes that are on a more adult level of humor, whether it's bawdy, or sophisticated, it's still not for kids. Also I can't write a 45-minute puppet show to save my life, yet. But I can make vignette scenes that are beautiful, touching, funny, creepy, whatever. Short form puppetry happens to be my favorite sort.


M: Are you hosting any upcoming slams?

VM: On April 28^th, The Wham Bam! Puppet Slam presents The National Day of Puppetry: Quick & Dirty Puppet Slam! It's a lengthy title, but there was so much information to get out.


M: What inspires you to create a puppet slam piece?
VM: beauty, chaos, unfinished stories in my head, songs, friends of mine, relationships, odd facts I recall from history class... anything and everything!

M: What other Puppet Slam artists are you are inspired by?

VM: Lyon Hill did a piece for us last year called Supine. It was very technical, but worked fluidly and an audience member even said, that it was “worth the price of admission.. The rest was icing on the cake”, I am all right with being icing on that cake. It was like live animation, paper puppets painted in watercolor, filmed and simultaneously projected onto a screen, it was stunningly beautiful. I work with watercolor and paper puppets, but not like this, it was inspiring and I am trying to think of ways to learn from it.


M: What pieces do you have in circulation to perform in puppet slams?
VM: Thirty Centimetres, is about a controversial preserved penis in a Russian museum. It is rumored to belong to Gregori Rasputin. It was an odd bit of trivia that I've known about since grade school, so I made a puppet show out of it. Finding a small pink party favor novelty penis at a thrift store didn't hurt either.

Doom & Gloom is about the end of the world, it's a self-contained suitcase show, where Madison J. Cripps and I try to sell “Doom and Gloom” insurance. It was inspired by a song we made up walking down the street about zombies and other doomy gloomy things.

I'm Just a Fish (and nobody loves me) is a cute bit about a fish (a head puppet) that is looking for love. It is the most pathetic song I could write about fish and play on the ukulele. It was supposed to just be a short distraction piece (so puppet shows could set up or tear down behind me) but it has developed a life of its own.

M: Where would you like to see the Puppet Slam Network in the future?

VM: I would love to see a puppet slam tour, it would be a feat to find time when enough people were available to do it, but a week or so touring up a coast or the Midwest, or somewhere, putting on puppet shows and maybe workshopping in cities to help them start puppet slams would be a really lovely endeavor.

I also like the idea of encouraging slams to get video projectors and screens and have a system where slams can show other slam's work, either as filler, if it's needed, or to show some brilliant show that just happened in Seattle to the fine folks of Asheville, because how else will they get to see it?


M: What advice do you have for up and coming slam artists who are just starting out?

VM: Do it! Do it now! And promote it, and promote it as an adult show, so you don't have to deal with upset people. (It shouldn't be a big deal, but sometimes it is.) And have fun with it! And send me an email if you have questions, I feel like I'm able to help out sometimes! And I've asked a bunch of questions myself, so I know whom to recommend.

M: One last question, what’s the story with your photo?!?

VM: Its a still from street performing with Thomas Butler as a can of Beef Ravioli, and Madison J. Cripps in his Walking Theatre Project - a day in the life.