Some Other PUPPETS on the HPT Stage

 These TIGER puppets I designed and built in Wichita, Kansas in 1976. They were made for the original production of  IN WATERMELON SUGAR at the HIP POCKET THEATRE'S first home at Grissom & Friends compound on HWY 80. A decade later when we revived the show at Oak Acres I was finally able to perform with them myself...here in this publicity photo with JEFF FARRELL.

And here are THE SNOIDS! From the most famous ( or Infamous!) HPT show R.CRUMB COMIX.

I remember the first time I met Robert Crumb. I was sitting in the middle of the floor in the workshop behind Johnny & Diane Simons house on Fairmount Street in Fort Worth...surrounded by scraps of foam rubber and hot glue...constructing these very puppets based on Crumb's illustrations in the underground comics he was famous for. I looked up and there stood the Man himself, looking down at me quizically. To say it was a surreal moment is an understatement!

Crumb had seen his work animated before ( disasterously so) but I don't believe even He could ever have invisioned these demonic little creatures as Puppets...and What Puppets they Were!

KENNY WEBER and I operated them during performance. They had movable mouths and eyes, articulated arms and legs...and they were Anitomically Correct...if not Politically so.

If you have no knowledge of R. Crumb or his "Snoids" I suggest you Google him and find out. This production was not just a success it was a HUGE Success in 1985 and gained us national media coverage for the first time. Sharing the stage above are HOLLY NELSON and JOHN MURPHY, who played Mr. Crumb with uncanny similarity.

Check out the video of this show at http://www.youtube.com/user/HipPocketMemories