Hey everyone,

We are going to be performing this Saturday as part of a Puppet Slam in Brookline. We have decided to expand on one of our videos we had made and to perform it live.

We have several ideas of our own on how to expand on it. But I would like to open it up to a discussion here as to what you guys think.

Seriously your opinion matters. I would really appreciate the views of some fellow puppeteer on how to expand the performance to be ready for this Saturday's live performance.

You can watch the clip here ---->

Push it further, monkey gets closer and more intrusive as time goes on. Green guy starts out polite, getting more exasperated, says something like, may I help you, monkey responds, oh no, I'm fine. Continue in this way until monkey is hanging over the green guys shoulder to get a look at the paper as green guy has totally turned his back on the monkey. Think about that person on the train that just refuses to keep in his own space, exaggeration is the key.

Sounds like fun.

Love it, maybe work the monkey's hand into it?  That way he can be checking his nails  or fixing his hair when he's pretending not to be looking. 

Maybe on the last one he has his chin on the green guy's shoulder and is hugging him.

Maybe in the end the monkey ends up with the newspaper and the green guy has to sneak a look at it, making the monkey nervous.

Then it rains and the monkey has the newspaper to protect him and the green guy doesn't.

Both the puppets are so cute!!  I can't wait to see how you expand it PLEASE post a video for us!!

I would think about finding a reason why the monkey wants to read the Newspaper and where they are (place) (establish it through mime and soundeffects not props), maybe a background sound effect such as waiting at a bus stop or a subway or a park.  I like it but find it lacks a reason for wanting to read the newspaper and what are there relationship (strangers, friends angry at each other or whatever).  Then ending it in a natural way...I find the video you did was more the middle climax of the bigger picture.  I like the video just think you need to establish more details at the beggining and end to enhance the already established video. 

Just my thoughts......

Daryl H

I don't know what you try to transmit!

I guess, one of the best way to transmit something without anybody see you is puppets (Most of that is because gain a lot attention to people). But, show the main idea of something that make sense!

Miguel!

I think this has great potential, but the execution is a little weak. Daryl is right about needing to establish what the characters want. To me this seems like a classic comedy set-up; the Green Guy wants to read his paper and the monkey is an obstacle to that.

Maybe instead of the monkey reading over the green guy's shoulder, he could do that once (action "A"), then do something more annoying (action "B") and finally something really over the top (action "C"). This would allow the tension between the characters to build organically through actions A-B-C as the sketch progresses. Also, the ending will be funnier if the Green character's frustration slowly builds during the sketch and finally explodes. Right now his anger seems to me sort of tacked-on for the sake of an ending and doesn't feel natural.

I think there is an old Mr. Bean sketch where he takes an exam that has a segment similar to this. Maybe look up "Mr Bean exam" on YouTube for ideas and inspiration?

With this sort of non-verbal comedy timing and staging is very important. The puppets have to be staged in a way that visually conveys whatever is going on in their heads (Swazzle usually does this really, really well).

The other thing I would suggest is to make the movements of the puppets more specific, especially the monkey. His movements seem very tentative. Even if that is supposed to be his character, his tentativeness doesn't "read" properly to me because his head kind of wobbles around and his eyes don't focus on one thing. Eye focus should always go from one specific thing to another and not "wander" in between (there are exceptions to that rule, but generally you want to master basic eye focus before making things too complicated).

You're really on to a great idea with this sketch. I'm just not sure it's being effectively communicated (yet). Please do post a video of whatever you end up doing, it would be great to see what you guys come up with!

You could have the Monkey advise the green guy on all of the days news before he gets to read that section of the paper. As the skit goes on the green guy works out what's going on and starts to fold up the paper.
This result's in the Monkey coming in from another angle like over the shoulder or from below. This way you get heaps of banter between the two verbally.
You could throw in a couple of Sonny's Popsicle jokes and walla an instant masterpiece.

PS: Your on a winner.

Boy there are some great ideas here!

Heres an easy way to lengthen it. Mature audience only.

Keep it as is, just add the monkey returning, grabbing the whole newspaper, storming off out of scene. In the distant you hear a door slam, few seconds later you hear a toilet flush. The monster then pick up an aerosal can of air freshener and begins to spray the air around him. Make sure you set pauses between sound effects.

Good Luck
Sonny

I think combine the last two posts by Henry and Sonny. The monkey talks through the events of the paper to frustrate er, greenie and get the paper to go to the toilet.

But the sketch could work both with sound and without, Andrew pointed out in his recent staging posts on the Puppet Vision blog about staging not requiring sound.

Reminds me of a Bert and Ernie sketch???