Where Do You Find Inspiration?

If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, what makes these leading slam artists sweat?

 

Nasty, Brutish & Short: a Puppet Cabaret #Chicago - Davey K, Ian Fullerton, Stephen Lieto, 2011 Photo: Links Hall

Deborah Hunt, curator of Sobre la Mesa #SanJuan

The shortness of time inspires me. To create a succinct piece that adds to an evening’s intrigue gets my juices going.

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

beauty, chaos, unfinished stories in my head, songs, friends of mine, relationships, odd facts I recall from history class... anything and everything!

Alissa Hunnicut, guest curator of New Brew #Brooklyn

For me it almost always starts with a song.  Something that when I hear the song I "see" something, usually a moment, a single image that becomes the jumping off point visually.

Lana Schwarcz, curator of Slam Noir #Melbourne

I was inspired by attending the National Puppet Slam in Atlanta when I visited in 2011. I saw the great work that was created by the themed slams in the US and the strong community that it created, and I started to feel upset that we didn't have that same sense of community here in Australia. 

Alexander Winfield, curator of the Pirate Puppet Cabaret #London

Inspiration can come from many sources: a banal occurrence seen while walking home, a dream, a piece from a history book. Who knows? Inspiration is a funny beast.

Carole D’Agostino, performer-at-large #NYC

Different things. One of the most common questions I get is “What style do you work in?” This depends on the story I need to tell. I have a peacock marionette that was inspired by a trip to a sculpture garden. My shadow show about science was developed at the Puppet Playlist, so music inspired that one. My old show about Icarus was inspired by my father's death. It's all life based, like anything. I won't just throw a piece together for nothing though. All of my shows are storyboarded, well rehearsed and have something valuable to offer the audience.

Beau Brow, curator of the  Puckin’ Fuppet Show  #Atlanta 

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. 

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

I wish I knew where my ideas came from so that I might burn a fire under them and become magically way more prolific.   Most of my ideas are about situations I can imagine the TV and I struggling with onstage.  If you have seen any of my performances, it's pretty clear that they are all built around a some performance goal that is thwarted or that the TV and I ultimately become distracted from in some way, or ultimately fail at. 

I also always like to play with breaking the audience boundaries and pursuing new ways to interact with the audience, because the more I do that, the less restricted and trapped I feel by the fact that I am performing with a recording.  Finally, in recent years, I have looked for new ways that circumstantially or plot-wise my live-performer character can sometimes get the upper hand or grab some power from the TV, because the Evan on the television is so often the more charismatic comedic star of my show.   I like to occasionally have the straight-man win one 

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

I'm inspired by (and a bit jealous of) Connor Hopkins and Carolin Reck down in Austin [hosts of Austin Puppet Incident].  Not only are they creating awesome long-form work, but they've created a great little puppetry community that works together creating short pieces for their slams.  From what I understand they host regular open shop nights and anyone who wants to can come in try something out.  I'd love to have a regular workshop time for people to collaborate.  There is somewhat of a community here in Chicago, and it's growing [with Puppet Meltdown], but I'd love to mix it up even more and have a dedicated time and place for people to come together.  

Special thanks to Paul Eide from Puppetry Journal for helping to edit this entry.

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...

Down Under with Lana Schwarcz

Lana Schwarcz is a Melbourne-based multi-disciplinary performance artist who prefers the medium of puppetry. She is one half of the Slam Noir team and the current secretary for UNIMA-Australia.  In her work, Lana straddles the line between comedy and "narrative that can challenge", all the while embracing the love of the utter stupid.  Her signature piece, Minute Exhibit Boxes are one minute shows for audiences of one.  She often combines character work with her puppetry in her longer stage shows, so is rarely seen in puppeteer’s hood (although she did admit to owning a couple during this interview).

Lana Schwarcz & Hamish Fletcher, 2011

Marsian: So you are hosting Slam Noir this month?

Lana Schwarcz: Yes it's very exciting!! We're so happy to be the first official Slam in Australia!  We had the first one in November last year, which was packed to the rafters! And we also hosted another one at the Inaugural Tarrengower Puppet Festival in Maldon.  

M: How did you get started?

LS: I was inspired by attending the National Puppet Slam in Atlanta when I visited in 2011. I saw the great work that was created by the themed slams in the US and the strong community that it created, and I started to feel upset that we didn't have that same sense of community here in Australia.

M: Is the vibe you got at the National Slam is similar to that of the Melbourne puppet community?

LS: The puppet community here is very different, and we hadn't really bonded through a united sense of fun and work.  It's quite amazing really how the slams, even in this short period of time, have managed to help unite a community.  It's understood that the works are created for the night or are works in progress, so no one expects seamless performances, but already a few pieces have grown and developed out of the seeds of the slams and I am super proud of that. 

I also blame Beau Brown. Inspiration or "persuasion" - it's a fine line. Basically, he backed me into a corner, asked me whether I would prefer being fed to the fishes or strung up like a marionette, and I caved when he showed me how he had strung his last victim. Phillip Huber would have been proud, but it just made me scared. Beau Brown is Puppet Slam Mafia. Just sayin'. It's a FINE LINE BEAU!!!

M: Oh Dear! Are there any other puppet slams or cabarets happening in Australia?

LS: Not that I know about.  I am running a rogue slam event this Thursday for Melbourne Comedy Festival called Set Up, Punch - a comedy focused slam event.  It sits outside of the Slam Noir series because it will have a stage and will be lit with tech, not torchlight like the others. Plus the only theme is Comedy, which isn't really a theme, so it's a once off event for the Festival, which is happening now. I do believe another super lady is wanting to organize one in Canberra, but this has yet to eventuate. I understand that Beau blackmailed her as well, but I have no idea how he got that horse's head to Canberra.

M: Did you perform at any slams when you were in the US?

LS: No I WISH!!! Oh hang on. Actually, yes, I did my Minute Exhibit peep box at the O'Neill Puppet Pandemic, so I suppose then yes I have.  But I'd love to come back with the new piece developed for one of the slams here, you know, so more than one person at a time can see it.  If money can be raised to get me there from Melbourne, that'd be awesome.  That's a hint (if you didn't get it by now)

M: Rewind: your slams are torch lit?!?

LS: ..Most of our slams are no tech, and we ask the audience to bring torches to light the artists.  It's slightly shambolic but a really great way to present the night and the audience stays engaged and interactive.  I'd love to say it was my idea, but really, it was only my idea in that I decided to steal it - from a midnight fundraising cabaret we used to do in Winnipeg Fringe.  The torches actually mean that we can set up anywhere, in any found space, AND because they can be focused anywhere around the room, we can have two or three (or more) performance areas so that artists can reset while another one is playing - therefore no delay and the acts flow nicely from one to the other without the host needing to fill time. It does mean the audience misses out on the throwing of candy, but we're cool with that. Shhhhh... Don’t tell them they're missing out they still don't know.

Slam Noir #Melbourne

  "..we ask the audience to bring torches to light the artists.."

M: How do you find acts for Slam Noir?

LS: Generally we ask them directly, but we also receive submissions. I have no idea, but somehow word seems to get around and acts come to us. Our last theme was dance, so our acts made shows based on that theme. Except for one or two who didn't realize we had a theme. Oops...

M: How do you define yourself as an artist and performer?

LS: Oh god. I have no idea how to answer that question. I don't feel experienced enough to call myself a puppet artist, although I work with puppets. To everyone else, I am a puppeteer, because somehow it seems easier to put a label on it and leave it at that. But in truth, I have no idea what I am. I write. I perform. I make films. I make simple puppets. I make people laugh. I find venues and produce. I explore. I pretend I can do things and then I fail. I fail a lot. A LOT!!! That's the one thing I completely succeed at.  But that's cool, caus I try to embrace the clown, and embracing failure is a big part of that. I am also really good at procrastinating and avoiding. Which, if you are astute, you will see I have done that really well, and completely not answered this question at all. I should have been a politician.

M: Any memorable failures you’d like to share?

LS: 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....

M: What is the funniest, freakiest, edgiest, or weirdest slam piece you have seen?

LS: Hmmm.... I think I was pretty impressed seeing Spencer Lott in Atlanta. His piece made no sense whatsoever and I *loved* that. Liz Hara is also my hero. Awesome! And Honey Goodenough's marionette just killed me.

M: Why do you think Puppet Slams are important?

LS: At the last slam, I made a new piece called Sir Dancealot, especially for the Dance theme. I NEVER would have created him otherwise - as I never would have thought to explore a dance-based character.  Sir Dancealot is now my new favorite piece.  I love him. This would never have come about without the slam.  I was worried that people wouldn't have the time to create things outside their usual work.  But they have flocked to this.  They MAKE the time, and it's a fun event. And did I mention completely shambolic?  The slams seem almost random, although they are, of course, completely planned. They also serve to unite the community in the non-judgmental creation and viewing of new work. 

M: Would you say in Melbourne that you are part of a slam circuit?

LS: Unfortunately, Australia is huge, with no cities between the cities like you guys have in the USA or in Europe/UK. Our closest cities are a day's drive away at least, and we have only just started the slams here in Melbourne. We'd LOVE to do national tours, but funding is scarce. It's something for the future, for sure. The only way I think I personally could go on a slam tour would be in the US. Another hint.

M: What are some misconceptions about the Australian puppet scene?

LS: ..that we have some of the most dangerous puppet wildlife in the world.. ..that all the puppets here will kill you.. ..that's a complete myth and misconception. You only have to worry about the redback - They can hide under your chair and bite you when you least expect it. But they're easy to spot with their red backs, and the arm attached to the puppet, so you shouldn't be scared to travel here.

M: Thanks for the travel advisory.. Any other misconceptions?

LS: Other misconceptions - that it's a raging and huge scene.  It's not.  I wish it was, but it's not. It's tiny. It's also difficult to find training in - our one puppet training facility at the Victorian College of the Arts was discontinued due to some reshuffling at the university, and there is a real need for good training. .  . Also, Aussies will tell you about Drop Bear puppets and how they are dangerous for a laugh. Don't believe them. A Drop Bear puppet is a Koala Puppet. They're just taking the piss.

M: You've been warned!