A Brand New Year is upon us and there are a few things to put on the “To Do List”.
Lets think of Safety First. This has nothing to do with puppets, but it does have to do with keeping Ventriloquists safe and healthy. Every year on the first or second of January, we always practice changing the batteries in our smoke detectors and Carbon Monoxide detectors. There is nothing magical about the date, but if you don’t have a date to do this, then before you know it the years pass and when you have an emergency nothing will alert you to it until. . . . We don’t want to hear stories about you not getting out of a fire until it is too late. So we like the first of the year to just change those pesky little batteries and then we can all sleep better till next New Years.
Second, for the same reasons that we like to change batteries on the first of the year, we like to remind all of you with soft puppets that it is time to maintain your friends. You rely on them to be in peak form every time you need to use their skills for your act, but friendship has responsibilities.
Take your friend out of his/her storage compartment and look him over very carefully. Look for any loose threads. Examine all the moving parts such as shoulders and hips. You don’t want any surprises in the middle of your act. Take a piece of blue painters masking tape and “blot” him all over to remove any lint particles that may have gotten on him during his travels.
Then take another piece of blue tape and using scissors, cut a piece that will cover each of his eyes. Then, only when the eyes have been protected with the blue tape, take a can of “Scotch Guard” and hold it about 6-8 inches away from your puppet and give him a freshen up spray down. This will continue to provide a protective barrier for his “skin” and keep stains and spots from becoming a problem.
Once he has thoroughly dried out, (about 20-30 minutes) carefully remove the blue tape from his eyes. Take careful note that your character even looks more happy and content.
Now before you put him away, take a little while to put him on your knee. Have a good conversation with him and talk about old times or about plans for the future. Just like each of us, we all like it when someone we care about takes a few minutes to show us some special attention.
Thats all for now folks,
Steve and JET