Something New
(UPDATE: Cuddles was listed on Wednesday, and before this article could post Cuddles was sold)
Recently we addressed the topic of your puppet making eye contact with people in the audience. We hope you have begun to work on the logistics of that in your act. There is also one additional topic on eye contact that needs to be addressed.
We have noticed that some Vents have a problem in talking directly to their puppet. The Vent will talk facing straight into his/her microphone, while the poor puppet either continues to look at the audience or turns and stares at the Vent while the Vent virtually ignores the puppet.
What really needs to take place is that when there is a short dialog between the Vent and the puppet, is that both the vent and the puppet need to be facing one another.
Think for a moment about when you have a conversation with someone who is standing/sitting next to you. Most of the time you will turn and face that person and they will do the same for you. This makes the conversation appear to be real to those watching.
Remember that the goal is for the audience to become absorbed in the “reality” of what is going on with you and the puppet.
Practice this technique and you will find that folks in your audience will enjoy the performance much better.
We will talk again next week.
Steve and JET