The Rise and Fall of Puppetry Club (Part 1)

At the end of this past school year, my first thoughts were "Where did I go wrong?" I used eye-catching promotional tools, had ideas that most were supportive of and a steady schedule that we could make reasonable deadlines with. But nobody cared. Nobody ever stepped up and said "Hey, this sounds cool. I'll stick by this, it could be fun." The Puppetry Club was nothing short of a spectacular failure no matter what angle you look at it from.

So what killed the Puppetry Club? Pour yourself some tea and I'll tell you the real story with a nice prologue and all!

I've always been an advocate of the saying "Each and every one of us has a quality that's different, we can either embrace that quality or hide it and become a face in the crowd." (I very well should be, that's a quote of my own saying) As my friend Minesh responded to that quote with (toward me) "You love puppets and are not afraid to show the world regardless of what they think and I respect that a lot." I've always been like that.

I suppose it all started with Sesame Street as a youngster. It was always my favorite show even after all my classmates ditched PBS for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (Disney Channel was not yet the powerhouse it was today back in 1998); I couldn't help but slip back to Sesame Street. Even as a near-18 year old that spends more time listening to Weird Al Yankovic music and watching 30 Rock (I haven't watched the newer episodes of Sesame Street since 2002), there's something that still entrances me about the Street. Maybe it's the fact that characters are far more appealing than, say, Barney, or the way the show has a sensibility that makes it stick out like a sore thumb, but the fact of the matter is that in my 17 years on this planet it is the only show made for pre-school children that doesn't make me want to blow my brains out.

If you remember back to 1998, Children's Television Workshop was underway with a huge marketing push for Sesame Street's 30th season on public television. Of the many products that came out was the non-fiction coffee table book Sesame Street Unpaved, which I received for Christmas that year. The book includes a chapter on the different types of puppets used on the show, behind the scenes candids and other little knickknacks that made this 7-year old boy go nuts for puppets on an all-new level. I can't remember when the "eureka" moment was, maybe it was seeing Muppets from Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland in theaters in 1999, but soon enough it led to me getting a professional puppet for Christmas in 2000. I still have that lamb puppet to this day, it's barely holding together but it certainly brings back memories.

In 2002, my puppet repertoire had built to four puppets from that same company (a lamp, a black boy, a green alien and a red "cartoon") and, inspired by watching re-runs of Jim Henson's early guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show (I'm probably the only kid in the 21st century who watched Ed Sullivan re-runs at 10), I did a puppet show in my elementary school's 4th/5th grade talent show. Then I returned as a 5th grader the next year and then did a puppet act in my middle school's 8th grade talent show, and then in 10th and 11th grade performed at my school's award ceremony (which always feels more like Monty Python's Flying Circus than the Oscars).

Through all of these performances I've been able to gain a small cult following at school. I'm known for being the puppet guy; it's what people associate with me the most. It was around this time I decided I was going to do something with it to create a legacy at school, something I could come back and see still functioning. A new generation of students would be able to keep the art of puppetry in good hands. I was going to start a club.