Puppet Kaos - where Kelvin Kao plays with puppets and tell random stories

After completing the beginning classes, it’s time for intermediate classes. Whether it was the TV or theater puppetry workshops, I’ve always enjoyed the intermediate ones the most and I expect this to be no exception. What I like in general about intermediate classes:

1) The group work aspect:
When you are not the only performer on stage / screen, you get to play off of one another in a scene. Many interesting things happen when multiple people work together, each bringing his or her unique style and input.

2) Smaller class size:
Since not everyone that signed up for beginning class will sign up for the intermediate class, the intermediate class tend to be smaller. More individual attention!

3) You are always up:
This is the result of both 1 and 2. Since you are always doing group work instead of taking turns doing solo performances, and also because the class is smaller, it’s likely you are always doing a scene, whether you are the main character or a supporting character. Either way, you are constantly doing something instead of seated down watching the others.

4) You already have the beginning class materials down / out of the way (to some degree):
And you get to polish things some more and introduce more nuances.

5) You’ve had the same classmates for weeks already:
Most likely, you are a lot more comfortable with your classmates by this point. I think performances tend to be better when the performers are comfortable playing against one another.

In Week 1, we did a little review of the homework (yes, we have homework) from the beginning class. Basically, we were doing the short choreography together as a group instead of taking turns doing it individually. Then we went over some space work. The tricky part is that you need to be aware of the other puppeteers around you and not bump into them, and that sometimes how fast the puppet travels is based on how fast the puppeteers travel (even though technically the puppet’s legs aren’t as long and steps not as big, this works in group choreography).

In Week 2, we started on the group choreography for a song. The song has several characters in it and they are randomly assigned to us by drawing names out of a hat. So we all did the song together. Each character will have his/her turn as the star and do that one section while the other characters react to it, and finally they join together and dance synchronized steps. We were coming up with some of the choreography as we went. I was pretty impressed with what we ended up with in just three hours. Sure, we could use more polish, but I thought it was quite good for three hours. And you are just going to have to take my words for it.

We will continue to work on this in Week 3. Looking forward to it!

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Before there were video games with fancy 3D graphics, there were 2D games like Super Mario Brothers. Before those 2D games, there were text-based games. How do you play those? Basically, the computer describes the settings you are in (instead of showing you graphics) and you type in your actions (instead of using a joystick).

Today, I read in this article that emacs, a text editor (available via Terminal on the Mac), contains such an Easter egg. So I gave the game a try.

It was amusing. See this transcript: (The lines that start with ‘>’ is what I typed in. The rest was provided by the game.)

kelvinkao$ emacs -batch -l dunnet

Dead end
You are at a dead end of a dirt road. The road goes to the east.
In the distance you can see that it will eventually fork off. The
trees here are very tall royal palms, and they are spaced equidistant
from each other.
There is a shovel here.
>pick up shovel
I don’t understand that.
>take shovel
Taken.
>walk
I don’t understand that.
>walk around
I don’t understand that.
>walk forward
I don’t understand that.
>dig with shovel
Digging here reveals nothing.
>go on dirt road
You can’t go that way.
>go east
E/W Dirt road
You are on the continuation of a dirt road. There are more trees on
both sides of you. The road continues to the east and west.
There is a large boulder here.
>climb tree
You manage to get about two feet up the tree and fall back down. You
notice that the tree is very unsteady.
>climb tree again
You manage to get about two feet up the tree and fall back down. You
notice that the tree is very unsteady.
>climb boulder
You can’t climb that.
>push boulder
You can’t push that.
>kick boulder
I don’t understand that.
>bomb boulder
I don’t understand that.
>go west
Dead end
>go east
E/W Dirt road
There is a large boulder here.
>use shovel
I don’t understand that.
>dig
Digging here reveals nothing.
>play piano
I don’t understand that.
>play flute
I don’t understand that.
>walk north
I don’t understand that.
>go north
You can’t go that way.
>go east
Fork
You are at a fork of two passages, one to the northeast, and one to the
southeast. The ground here seems very soft. You can also go back west.
>dig
I think you found something.
>pick up
I don’t understand that.
>take
You must supply an object.
>take thing
I don’t know what that is.
>dig
Digging here reveals nothing.
>take what i found
I don’t know what that is.
>take thing
I don’t know what that is.
>inventory
You currently have:
A lamp
A shovel
>use lamp
I don’t understand that.
>go northeast
NE/SW road
You are on a northeast/southwest road.
>walk
I don’t understand that.
>run
I don’t understand that.
>go northeast
Building front
You are at the end of the road. There is a building in front of you
to the northeast, and the road leads back to the southwest.
>enter building
You don’t have a key that can open this door.
>find key
I don’t understand that.
>dig
Digging here reveals nothing.
>knock
I don’t understand that.
>knock on door
I don’t understand that.
>find key
I don’t understand that.
>climb
There is nothing here to climb.
>climb building
I don’t know what that object is.
>ring doorbell
I don’t understand that.
>open door
I don’t understand that.
>open window
I don’t understand that.
>go back
I don’t understand where you want me to go.
>go southwest
NE/SW road
>go southwest
Fork
There is a CPU card here.
>take cpu card
Taken.
>use cpu card
I don’t understand that.
>go southwest
You can’t go that way.
>go northeast
NE/SW road
>go north
You can’t go that way.
>go northeast
Building front
>enter building
You don’t have a key that can open this door.
>use lamp
I don’t understand that.
>go southwest
NE/SW road
>go west
You can’t go that way.
>go north
You can’t go that way.
>where can i go?
I don’t understand that.
>go east
You can’t go that way.
>go south
You can’t go that way.
>go north
You can’t go that way.
>go west
You can’t go that way.
>go northwest
You can’t go that way.
>go northeast
Building front
>go southwest
NE/SW road
>go southwest
Fork
>take fork
I don’t know what that is.
>go fork
I don’t understand where you want me to go.
>go southeast
SE/NW road
You are on a southeast/northwest road.
There is some food here.
>take food
Taken.
>inventory
You currently have:
A lamp
A shovel
A computer board
Some food
>eat some food
I don’t know what that is.
>eat food
That tasted horrible.
>puke
I don’t understand that.
>throw up
I don’t know what that is.
>go southwest
You can’t go that way.
>go northeast
You can’t go that way.
>go southeast
Bear hangout
You are standing at the end of a road. A passage leads back to the
northwest.
There is a ferocious bear here!
>fight bear
I don’t understand that.
>punch bear
I don’t understand that.
>dig
Digging here reveals nothing.
>use shovel
I don’t understand that.
>hit bear
I don’t understand that.
>shoot bear
I don’t understand that.
>touch bear
I don’t understand that.
>look at bear
It looks like a grizzly to me.
>say hi
I don’t understand that.
>say hello
I don’t understand that.
>fight bear
I don’t understand that.
>punch bear
I don’t understand that.
>run away
I don’t understand that.
>inventory
You currently have:
A lamp
A shovel
A computer board
>use shovel
I don’t understand that.
>use lamp
I don’t understand that.
>start fire
I don’t understand that.
>look at bear
It looks like a grizzly to me.
>eat bear
You don’t have that.
>fight bear
I don’t understand that.
>take bear
You cannot take that.
>kick bear
I don’t understand that.
>hit bear
I don’t understand that.
>hunt bear
I don’t understand that.
>go southeast
The bear is very annoyed that you would be so presumptuous as to try
and walk right by it. He tells you so by tearing your head off.

You are dead.
You have scored 0 out of a possible 90 points.

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Remember that I mentioned puppeteering in a video last July? Of course you don’t. Anyway, here’s the finished product. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/4EiKRJG4D28

The music is by Replaced With Robots. I played the orange guy in most of the shots, with the great Heiko Obermöller performing the blue puppet. (And we were still using the lyrics as inside jokes this past weekend.) Kevin Burnstein and Diana King directed the video.

More behind the scenes stuff to come!

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Let’s face it. There aren’t enough puppeteering jobs around, so most puppeteers cannot make a full time living doing puppeteering alone. These days, a puppeteer is usually also a puppet builder, an actor, an animator, or waiter on the side. Diversified, multiple streams of income is the way to go these days, but did you know that in the 1870s, the most popular side job for a puppeteer is typewriter salesman?

I was reading an article by Dr. Conroy Gibson, a professor of American Studies at Cambridge, and he had this fascinating find:

By going through census data from that period, we found a remarkable number of puppeteers selling typewriters door-to-door. They would show typewriters to housewives interested in getting a job doing secretarial work. And then they would encourage the potential clients not familiar with keyboard layout to first try typing words that can be spelled out using just the first row of keys of the typewriter with QWERTY layouts. A well-known one is TYPEWRITER, but there are also words like PUPPET and PUPPETEER that can be typed using only the first row. While the women tried out the new product, the salesman would keep the children occupied with puppets.

Try typing those words! Interesting, isn’t it?

I guess we are past the period of time where we sell typewriters door-to-door, and it’s quite a different world now. Imagine allowing someone into your home to sell you on something AND have them play with their kids today!

Interesting research nevertheless. To read the full text, go to their website by clicking here.

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In week 6, we added more elements to the practices we regularly do. This time, in addition to the walking, turning, looking, sitting stuff, we also added some kneeling and jumping onto a bench. For the kneeling stuff, you really need to get a feel for the weight distribution of the puppet in that particular posture. This is because you most likely need to let go of the tension in the leg string if you want to do any hand gestures. At that point, you are going to want to have left the puppet in a way that it’s propping itself up. Jumping onto a bench is tricky too. You want to jump just high enough so that the feet don’t get caught, but you don’t want to jump too high either since that will most likely prevent you from landing its feet at the right spot. Tricky, but fun stuff.

The day before the week 7 (and final Beginning level) class, one of the knee joints fell apart so I had to give it a knee surgery (with duct tape!) The shoulder strings went out of alignment during the process, somehow, so I cut the strings and redid them. Not sure if I did the repair correctly, probably not since the way the new strings were felt different. I wasn’t using the right strings either so it would be a temporary fix that just need to last one day.

In week 7, we had the final exam (of sorts). Basically we did a random drawing of who would be doing which homework assignment (each a short choreography) in front of everyone. It is hard to wade through Hollywood traffic during those hours and make it to class on time so I am often late. When I walked in, everyone else had just finished theirs so I was told which one was left as soon as I walked in. And then I just did it. It was the one that was just assigned last week so it was the one I had the least practice in. I did pretty well, I thought. Maybe it helped that I did not have time to over-think the performance.

Afterwards, it was more of a Q & A, where we got to ask whatever we wanted. We got the opportunity to learn more about the way it was behind the scenes since our classes had been more focused on techniques and drills. I was also able to ask about how to string the puppet. For this kind of puppet, the shoulder strings should be the primary ones supporting the weight. The head strings should not be totally tight, like mine are right now. However, they cannot be too loose either since that would make the neck twist incorrectly. So it will be a tricky thing to do. I am basically doing the shoulder strings last while they should be done first. With that in mind, I shall think about how to do the strings again.

A few more weeks until the intermediate class starts!

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