Lost Puppet Designs Final

Last, but not Least is a design that remained close to my heart for decades. I had tried to introduce the TRAPEZE MONKEY into the last season of SANTA'S MAGIC CIRCUS..it seemed a  natural, since it was supposed to be a Circus Show.

We had Pony Riding Clowns and a Tightrope Walking Clown along with a variety of other interesting acts ( see my post on the OPERA SINGER and the ICE SKATERS  and  CHRISTMAS BALLET FINALE ) but we were a bit short on actual Circus Themed Numbers.

Anyway, in order to perform this trick in the large scale required for a  Full- Stage Show we would have had to add a second platform rig to the tour, and there was no additional money in that years budget...so...no TRAPEZE MONKEY. The platform to elevate the puppeteer was needed because the rotating controller was HUGE and the Puppet had to completely drop down to twice it's size during the trapeze act.

All was not lost. In the 1990's I finally built this puppet, in a slightly different style and costume, for BOB ABDOU...MR PUPPET as he is nationally known...for his travelling show.

 The photos below show that puppet...smaller and with a much closer controller to be performed cabarat style.

The Hands and Feet as strung in a continuous thread so that the puppet can swing by it's Hands & and then drop and swing from it's Feet from the trapeze. It is an act as old as the hills, but it thrills audiences every time. I added a separate set of head strings so that the grinning monkey could turn to the audience after each trick and seem to say, ' Hey! Look What I Done!".

Bob is still performing with this puppet today. Every now and then he sends me an EMail to let me know how well it's act goes over. I'll soon post some pics of  other marionettes I've built for Bob...but up next will be the very fruitful enterprise of Character Costume Work I did during my last years in Wichita, Kansas.....just before I returned to Fort Worth and my stint with the HIP POCKET THEATRE in the late 1980's.