Hello Puppeteers!

Thank you to Connor, Jessika, Lynnette, Sabrina, Kathryn, and Morgan for writing in to my blog and for being fans of my puppet projects.

Lynnette had a great question from her teddy bear puppet, Kim! Kim asked how I thought of making the Convert-a-Bear Puppet. Well Kim, when I was in high school I was very interested in making patterns for my puppets. One of the ways I would figure out how to make them was to take apart old teddy bears. One day, instead of taking my teddy bear apart, I put a mouth inside the teddy bear and it became my new puppet. Today, if I need to make a quick puppet for a gift or for a character in my live shows, I run to the toy store or look through my collection of inexpensive teddy bears. I always make sure, however, that it is okay to convert the bears that I find. I wouldn’t want to take apart someone else’s bear without asking first. You can see some of my favorite bears performing at Activity TV in their own Convert-A-Bear Skit.

Thanks, Kim and Lynnette!

I’m very excited about my two latest puppet skits, The Dirty Spoon Food Adventure and The Toe Jamboree. They come from my new projects, the Dirty Spoon Puppets and Filthy Feet Puppets. I hope you have fun making and performing these puppets and any of my new gross creatures: The Black Cat Sock Puppet, The Mummy Rod Puppet, The Bulging Eyeball Puppet, and The Up-Chuck Jug Puppet. Let me know what you think of them.

As you probably know I have been a puppeteer for television and films for over 20 years and I’ve been really busy lately performing puppet characters all over the country. One of my favorite new projects is called Pajanimals for PBS Kids Sprout, but I’m currently working through the holidays on Sesame Street. If you get a chance, watch me perform an elephant for the Elephant Dance Song.

I hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday season. Speaking of Holidays, if you would like to make your own holiday puppets take a look at all of the cool puppets I have to offer. There is the Santa Mitten Puppet, The Dancing Snowman Puppet, The Kwanzaa Corn Puppet, The Chanukah Dreidel Puppet, and more. Of course you can perform along with The Elves That Saved Christmas Skit and Sonny and the Snow Dancers.

Don’t forget to have an adult helper around when you try making my puppets, and keep me posted on any new characters you make or questions you have.

Keep making puppets!

JK

Hello Puppeteers!

Thank you for being a fan of my puppet projects. I’ve had so much fun reading your comments and now, with the ATV Blog, you can ask me your most important puppet questions and I can answer them. I am very excited about this because when I was a kid I always wished I had someone who could help me with my puppets. Also, I would love to hear about the puppets you have been making. I found my voice as a performer through the voices of my puppet characters so if your puppet friends would like to ask me something that is okay too.

Speaking of friends, one of my favorite ways to have some summer fun is to host a puppet camp. Invite your friends over to make some puppet crafts and perform them for your family and friends. Activity TV puppet projects are a lot of fun and they come with skits that you can perform along with when you’ve finished your puppet. One of my favorites is Banana Buddy. You can make you own cool banana character then perform The Banana Bread Man skit that I wrote specifically for this puppet project.

Don’t forget to have an adult helper around when you try making my puppets, and be sure to tell me about the puppet character you make in the comment section.

Keep making Puppets!

JK