Ali J. Eisner

Ali J. Eisner is a Canadian puppeteer, musician, and filmmaker who has performed for kids for nearly two decades. They performed on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock as Turbo Doozer, Balsam, and many others (including the puppetry for Jack Hammer). Ali also assisted and doubled for Karen Prell as Red Fraggle. Eisner is one of the first puppeteers to be transgender/non-binary and use they/them pronouns, the second one being Kira Hall. Outside of Back to the Rock, they puppeteered on Nanalan', The Let's Go Show (as Banjo), Kids Canada (as Mamma Yamma and score composer), and Mr. Meaty, to name a few. On the IMDb website, their bio states that they are destined to shine a light on the LGBTQ2S+ community through their broadcast work, whatever that means. Ali J. Eisner performed alongside many Canadian puppeteers such as Jason Hopley, Jamie Shannon, Marty Stelnick, Ingrid Hansen, & Todd Doldersum, to name a few. They must have been excited when they were selected to do Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock and also holds the record for being one of the two non-binary Muppet Performers. It amazes me how this one person can do a lot in two decades and win so much awards. Ali is probably one of the best (and probably the only) non-binary/transgender puppeteer. Eisner probably impressed the Fraggle Rock performers with their accomplishments. Let's hope the others don't find the they/them pronouns confusing, but I'm positive they won't. They returned to Fraggle Rock to do the second season just like they did in the first season. Ali J. Eisner, I say you've impressed the LGBTQ2S+ community without knowing it. Keep up the great work and you'll go down in history. Until then, Fraggle Rock is going to lead you to future Canadian Henson Company projects. Well done Ali. Peace out Eisner!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gordon Robertson

Image
Gordon Robertson is a Canadian puppeteer who has performed on and off with the Muppets for many years. His most notable work with them was on Fraggle Rock as the body of Pa Gorg and various other characters on the series. Gordon has also performed with the Muppets on The Jim Henson Hour, The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years, The Muppets Wizard of Oz, and more. Robertson even performed on the Sesame Street film Follow That Bird and it's Canadian co-production Sesame Park. His Creature Shop work has placed him on TNMT II, The Neverending Story, and Cats & Dogs. Outside of his work with the Muppets, he performed with Shari Lewis on Lamb Chop's Play-Along and The Charlie Horse Music Pizza. Apart from her, Gordon Robertson did various other shows, his most notable ones were Zoboomafoo and Groundling Marsh. He got to work alongside many performers such as Robert Mills, Trish Leeper, Stephen Brathwaite, and Wende Welch, to name a few. Perhaps his best known characters were Zobo
Read more

Amanda Glass

Image
Amanda Glass is a British puppeteer and costume maker who puppeteered on season 1 of Sooty (2011) as well as part of the third season. She also puppeteered on the Sooty video Sooty: The Big Day Out as well as making many of the puppets' costumes on the series. Besides doing Sooty, Amanda was also an additional puppeteer on Mongrels for three episodes. I personally think Glass should have puppeteered on a project by either the Muppets or the Henson Company (mostly in the Creature Shop). It's currently unknown what the performer looks like since the picture above either has her on camera or under one of the puppets. On both Sooty and Mongrels, other puppeteers she performed with include Iestyn Evans, Yvonne Stone, Simon Buckley, and Toby Olie, to name a few. Maybe someday Amanda Glass will have her chance to meet one of the Muppet performers in the UK or maybe she will learn about the Henson Company online. Nobody really knows whatever happened to her after 2018 when she did seas
Read more

Heather Quinn

Image
Heather Quinn is a British puppeteer, cosplayer, singer, and gossiper who did many puppet characters for social media. She is also the only puppeteer who does cosplay, in other words, dresses and acts like their favorite character from a show. Heather also has a love for anything vintage, which I personally find to be unique for a person to like things from the past. Quinn hasn't done anything Muppet-related in her life, in fact she's probably never even heard of the Muppets or the Henson Company. However she has puppeteered many times for social media such as TikTok and Instagram. One of her puppets resembles an Ewok from the Star Wars franchise, which could give a clue that she's a Star Wars fan as well. In addition to puppetry, Heather Quinn has been gossiping on her website about her activities, her travels, as well as her habit of drinking tea. She's also sung all of Sondheim's Company, Into the Woods, and Sweeney Todd, as stated by her on her own website. Ther
Read more