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

TV Puppetry Workshop With Michael Earl (U.S.)

Date: Six Saturday mornings starting November 14, 2009
Location: Los Angeles, California (More specifically, Sherman Oaks, which is right next to North Hollywood)

This is the class that I’ve been writing about for the last few weeks. Michael Earl is an Emmy-award winning puppeteer/writer that had worked on Muppets, Sesame Street and numerous other projects. He has been puppeteering for 31 years now, and of course, that’s lots of experience and knowledge on this topic. The beginning class will run for six Saturday mornings starting November 14th (this weekend). The class is for Muppet-type puppets. You will be taught to perform for the camera, while the monitors give you instant feedback on what the performance looks like. You will first learn the basics, like how to stand straight and how to walk. You will be taught different exercices for different aspects of the performance. You will lip-sync and dance to songs. And you will also do some improv. Very fun class. Everyone learned a lot. If you are interested in puppetry and are in the area, I highly recommend this class. For more information, check out the website at http://www.puppetschool.com.

P.S. In addition to the Los Angeles workshops, Michael Earl will also be doing a whole-day workshop (10am-5pm) on January 8, 2010 in New York City. Info about that workshop is on his website as well.

Puppet-Building with Naomi Guss (Australia)

Date: Six Saturdays starting January 23, 2010
Location: Melbourne, Victoria (More specifically, Northcote)

Want to learn how to build a puppet? Puppet builder Naomi Guss of Puppets in Melbourne will be teaching a puppet-building class in January and February of next year. You will learn to make the head and body (out of foam), cover it (making the skin) and dress it. You will also get your own copy of the pattern. And of course, at the end you can all play with your puppets. This is a class that I would’ve signed up for if I were in the area (but as you can probably tell, I am in Los Angeles), but if you are in that area and interested in puppet-building, take a look at the info on the website regarding the class. Check out http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au

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The National Puppetry Festival of 2009 is opening tomorrow (July 14, 2009) and will run till Sunday (July 19, 2009). The event is hosted by the Puppeteers of America, and will take place in Atlanta, Georgia. It will be packed with performances and workshops… and yep, it’s all about puppets.

While I am not going to be there, I am going to be following along online. Puppet-builder and friend Naomi from Puppets in Melbourne will be live blogging this event as it happens on her Natoinal Puppetry Festival diary page. She just landed in Atlanta yesterday after four flights and has already updated the page with some sight-seeing notes. And I am only expecting more interesting info to show up on the page once the event starts.

So let’s follow along! You can find all the updates on this page, or subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Also, on a totally unrelated note: I am writing a story to be posted here. It’s about a girl who is smart, and good at telling stories. She is also the daughter of the Prime Minister of some fictional country. As some of you already know, I don’t like coming up with names. So… anyone want to suggest a name for this smart girl? If I use the name you recommend, you will get brownie points, which are not actually redeemable for brownies. Some restrictions might apply.

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… for a fraction of a second, that is.

Remember back in May, I talked about a TV show, California’s Gold filming at the burger joint Apple Pan while we had lunch there? That episode just aired a few hours ago, and I spotted myself!

Yep, it was for only a fraction of a second, but it was fun anyway.

So in that previous post, I mentioned that Huell Howser was interviewing some customers in front of the place when we left. Well, that was not quite true. Turned out that those two people interviewed were not customers. They are the owners!! And we (my co-workers and I) happened to have finished our lunch and walked out the door. Sure we only appeared in the corner and took up 10% of the whole screen for a fraction of a second and nobody waved at the camera, but that was fun.

Haha, finally I can say that I’ve been on TV. It wasn’t a “cool, I’m now a celebrity” moment though. It was more like a “where’s Waldo” moment.

By the way, you should check out Apple Pan if you are visiting West LA. They’ve been there since 1947 and the burgers are indeed good. Oh, and what a coincidence. I mentioned my friend Jessika being on Without A Trace in that May post, well, tonight I saw the rerun of the episode of Cold Case she was in again. Somehow when I mention California’s Gold, I also mention her in the same post, though the two really have nothing to do with each other.

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Puppet Building 101 is a nine-week video course on building foam puppets. Over the duration of the course, students will receive video tutorials and handouts that take them step-by-step through the puppet making process. There are also going to be live video chats to answer question that may arise.

The course will be taught by Andrew, who is the founder of PuppetBuilding.com and PuppetVison blog, and has been building puppets and teaching puppet building for a long time. What I particularly like about it is that we’ll be shown how to make our own patterns based on what we want to make. I think while it’s good to follow patterns and make puppets, it’s even better to know why the patterns are the way they are.

Am I signing up for this? Yeah, of course I secured myself a spot first, haha.

Who wants to be my classmate? You have until June 13 to sign up. See this website for details:
http://www.puppetbuilding.com/puppet-101-course.html

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Last week, I had lunch with my co-workers at The Apple Pan, a local burger/diner place that’s been here in West Los Angeles since 1947. While we were busy eating burgers and fries, we saw someone with a camera filming the place. I thought, oh, maybe a local show is doing a segment or maybe someone’s making a documentary. Everybody seemed to be focused on eating too, and nobody really paid attention to them.

That’s when one of my co-worker pointed out to us, “Hey, it’s Huell Howser!”

Huell Howser is the host of California’s Gold, a program that shows regularly on several PBS stations in California. In the show, he takes the audience everywhere in California visiting interesting places, cultural events, old markets and diners, etc. I have seen the show before but didn’t watch it enough to recognize the guy, but my co-worker apparently knew a lot more than I did. So I guess they were doing a segment on The Apple Pan. That’s pretty cool.

When we left, Huell was in front of the door interviewing some customers. I think if we had stayed longer, we would probably have seen him in there sitting at the counter, talking to other customers, eating and commenting on how amazing the food is, cuz apparently that’s what he does. Don’t know when the episode is going to show, but we shall check the schedule again in June. Who knows, maybe we’ll spot ourselves way back in the background for a fraction of a second. (Or maybe that’s just going to be on the cutting room floor.) It would be interesting to watch the episode nevertheless.

Speaking of being on TV, a friend of mine, Jessika Van, was on last night’s Without A Trace. Too bad I don’t get CBS here with my lousy antenna. Got to track down that episode somehow.

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I received a call yesterday. I was at work at the time so I just let it go to voicemail. When I listened to it, I certainly raised my eyebrows because it was the talent management company telling me that I’ve booked a voiceover job. I sent out my recording for that particular job almost two months ago, so it was a surprise to even hear about it again. Anyway, extra income, yay!

So, I am going to be recording for them some bus safety instructions in Chinese. Basically I will be saying stuff like:
“Welcome to our bus. We hope you have a pleasant trip.”
“The fire exit is to your right.”
“Please ask the driver for the first aid kit in case of emergency.”
“The fire extinguisher is below the seat behind the driver.”

See? I don’t have to be a doctor to save lives.

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