Puppet Radio

Spent an enjoyable afternoon doing what I love – putting on silly voices.

I’ve been a part of Joy Puppet Theatre before – when we took a Christian show around Auckland schools last Easter. Today however I was fulfilling a very long-standing promise to record a soundtrack for them.

Hence, Jasher and I found ourselves standing in front of Tim Harrison’s microphone, with a couple of puppets, taping the vocals for a puppet version of The Good Samaritan.

What we didn’t have was a horse. (of course) Having made 26 episodes of The Awesome Budgie-Man back in the UK however, I was keen to improvise, so fishing around outside I found a pair of flowerpots thatwhoa back up there a second – we were recording the soundtrack? With the puppets there? What – so that the puppets could talk into the microphone?

No, no, no, of course not, we could never be that silly.


Oh stuff it, why did I post that there?

Oh all right, the thing is, when the soundtrack is played at a performance, the speed that Jasher and I have spoken the dialogue at will govern how quickly the puppeteers will open and close the puppets’ mouths. If we deliver the lines too quickly now, then at the performance the puppeteers may not be able to keep up.

The solution is for us to also operate the puppets at the time of recording their dialogue, so that the puppet governs the speed of our delivery.

That’s right – so once again it is the puppets who govern what we do.

It’s what they call a puppet government.