I am working on props for a production of Avenue Q. Anyone have any tips on how to make the mouth mechanism? My attempts havent been so hot!

Thanks so much!

There is no "mouth mechanism" really.  They are simply hand in mouth puppets.   Do you have a pattern you are using?  The easiest and fastest way for you to get results would most likely be to purchase one or two of the Project Puppet patterns. I know there are other resources out there and many of them free but I get the feeling that you may be in a time crunch.  Also since you said you are working on props for the show that makes me think that your the props person for the show and the director or producer has assumed that a puppet is just another prop. I don't mean that as an insult to you by know means but I do think that with the patterns and the back ground that most  props masters have you should be able to fulfill the task. 

Duh.... I really should read and pay attention to the subject of a post.   You mean this don't you? http://spseffects.com/avenueq.htm 
 
It is kind of hard to see the mech on the images on the site above but I did find the video over at YouTube that has some amature made box puppets in it. They really are quite clever. The look to be simply cardboard boxes with have moons cut for a mouth. More then likely the mouths have elastic on the inside to keep the mouth in the closed position. You can see the string off the top of the mouth that opens them up.

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https://youtu.be/eIWI0T8lCnQ

Some where there are some post with puppets that have mouths that would be similar to the mechs used in the original but I can't find them. Can't really remember what the puppet was, only that it was a flat two dimensional puppet so the mouth slide up an down which is the concept of the originals.

We made some for a production recently, so I will try and draw a picture to explain what we did and post it on for you

They really are quite clever. The look to be simply cardboard boxes with have moons cut for a mouth. More then likely the mouths have elastic on the inside to keep the mouth in the closed position. You can see the string off the top of the mouth that opens them up.

My son just taught me how to make something similar - I am still working on how I am going to use it in my act, but one thing he showed me is to just tie a loop in the string so it could actually be operated by the same hand holding it. That would be easy to do with that design too!

file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/paint.jpg

heres a thing i quickly sketched out,
the red is the mouth and the green is a spring/elastic

you hold the handle(yellow)
and pull the string(blue) to open the mouth

i dont no how well it would work, i just made it up off the top of my head

its in my gallery

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-Puppets-Trading-as-As-We-Grow-Learning-Toys/132764980118234

Above is the design we made up for the box puppets and the link is a short viedo of them in action!
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!