Posts

Brian Moffatt

Image
Brian Moffatt is a Canadian actor, comedian, puppeteer, and writer who served as one of the additional Muppet performers on the film Follow That Bird. That was the only Sesame Street project where he did his puppetry skills, in fact, that might have been his only known production he did puppetry on. Brian mostly did scripts and comedy, and with Peter McCowatt (who also did the film), they formed a comedy team known as The Norm. Moffatt did The Norm team before Follow That Bird, and they later starred in their own CBC Radio series from 1986-1988 before breaking up. Later in his career, he co-wrote the CBC Radio comedy series Six Days That Shook the Walt and its sequel World Wide Walt, with Muppet writer Tim Burns. It's a shame nobody knows what happened to him after the 1980s but at least there's a lot of missing information that has recently been found. Hopefully in the near future, Brian Moffatt will get interviewed for his comedic skills and fantastic writing he contributed t...

Scott Johnson

Image
Scott Johnson is a puppeteer and puppet builder who is best known for working with the Creature Shop and the Muppets since 1995. For the Muppets, he was a lead puppet specialist for The Muppets (2015), worked in the Muppet Workshop for Muppets Tonight and the last two films, and was floor captain on a couple movies. For the Henson Company, Scott was a fabricator for several productions like Where the Wild Things Are, Me and My Monsters, and The Happytime Murders, to name a few. Before working at the Creature Shop, Johnson worked at Disney Imagineering for many years, creating character costumes for Disney on Ice and also did Nickelodeon shows such as Cousin Skeeter, Mutt & Stuff, and Yo Gabba Gabba. As for his freelance puppetry and design credits, he worked on Greg the Bunny, Angel, That 70's Show, and more, though it was mostly puppet building he did. He should be proud to work on numerous shows over the years either with the Henson Company or away from the company. Scott Joh...

Robert Smigel

Image
Robert Smigel is an actor, puppeteer, comedian, and filmmaker who is perhaps known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" shorts and as the performer of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He's also well known for writing feature films starring Adam Sandler like Leo, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, & the first two Hotel Transylvania films. Robert created Triumph as a foul-mouthed dog puppet who mocked celebrities and others since his debut appearance in 1997. Smigel performed the dog in a cameo role on It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, in which he conversed with Kermit the Frog on the phone for one scene. As a writer, he wrote for Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, even serving as a producer for both talk shows. Comedy Central even made a series of TV Funhouse where he puppeteered various characters. As a filmmaker, Robert Smigel wrote, produced, and/or directed on many films such as the ones mentioned above, as well as The Week Of ...

Philip Tan

Image
Philip Tan is an actor, stuntman, and occasional suit performer who performed one of the gorillas in the Creature Shop-effects film George of the Jungle. Since the 1980s, he has acted in numerous films and a few television series, with his feature film debut in The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu. Philip later did a walk-on on Doctor Who and henchman roles in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Return to Oz, and Batman. Tan's first gorilla suit performance was in Greystoke which led to Congo and Planet of the Apes (Tim Burton version). While on Return to Oz, he got perform alongside several other puppeteers & suit performers like Mak Wilson, Timothy D. Rose, Swee Lim, Peter Elliott, and even Brian Henson himself. It's a shame though that he never did any other productions by the Creature Shop since they've done numerous effect films over the years, he was probably not that interested. Other films Philip Tan acted on include China Cry, Lethal Weapon 4, Big Momma's H...

Francine Woods

Image
Francine Woods is a Northern-Irish puppeteer who was one of the assistant puppeteers on Pajanimals, the only known show she did. There's hardly a page nor information about her on the Muppet Wiki and online as well. Even though Francine only did Pajanimals, she worked with many puppeteers from the Henson Company like Beccy Henderson, Paul Currie, Sarah Lyle, Olly Taylor, and Josh Elwell. Woods should have done more projects with the company like on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, since many Pajanimals performers worked on it. She should also have information about herself online such as a self-portrait, the picture above is a different female puppeteer. This makes her yet another puppeteer with hardly any information about herself, which is a problem on Muppet Wiki if you ask me. Others have included Rhonda Gdasi, Brian Knatchbull, Paula Everett, and more, making Francine Woods not the only one on this blog to be unknown to the public. Even though it's acknowledged as a po...

Gabrielle Miller

Image
Gabrielle Miller is an Australian actress, musician, puppeteer, and mime who is perhaps best known for appearing in advertisements for Trivago, a Germany-based hotel website seen 'round the world. Starting her career at the age of 20, her early projects include WunderWagon, If You Want Blood, Baba, and her swing-jazz band Zap, this info she stated herself. Gabrielle brought ingenuity to both stage and screen through puppetry, physical theatre, mask, music, and dance, a.k.a. what she does. Miller has had lead roles on screen as seen on The Outback Motel, Adventurados, Rosenkind, and Underbelly: Razor, just to name a few. Some of her theatrical performances have involved using the skills mentioned above as seen on What Happens in the Dark, Rolling, Hot Mess, and more. She appears to be an incredibly good performer, though it's a shame she started performing in the 2010s, way after the Henson Company did projects in Australia. Then again in 2012, Gabrielle Miller did move to Germa...

Elizabeth Luce

Image
Elizabeth Luce is a puppeteer, designer, and puppet builder who is known for doing freelance work over the years of her career, including at Snapdragon Puppets. She has worked for many companies such as the Disney Company, Fox Television, and Phoenix Productions before heading into puppetry. Elizabeth worked alongside the founder Roger Mara at Snapdragon Puppets for years, putting on shows focused on themes for kids, like fairy tales. Luce should maybe think about visiting the set of Sesame Street and see how the Muppet performers enact certain themes for their shows. I wonder what production she was doing in the image shown above because it looks like something involving painting. Although she didn't perform on Sesame Street, she entertains children with themed puppet shows, almost similar to the style of Sesame Street. Snapdragon Puppets must be the best place for Elizabeth Luce to work at since she's got a great partner and maybe other co-workers as well. I wonder what shows...