All About Muppets

Geoff Felix is a British puppeteer, puppet maker, and author who performed within several Muppet and Creature Shop productions since the 1980s. He was heavily involved with both the UK and French co-productions of Fraggle Rock, puppeteering Gobo and assisting Sprocket and Traveling Matt. Geoff has also did Muppet stuff such as The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, The Muppets Christmas Carol, and Muppet Treasure Island. Felix even did two projects by the Creature Shop, Labyrinth and The Storyteller. How come he stopped assisting the Muppets after 1996? He was probably to busy with his outside puppetry work. Geoff Felix is perhaps best known for being a Punch and Judy puppeteer and historian, penning many books starring them. His other outside puppetry work has been seen on Riff and Raff, Huva and Thing, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (to name a few). He got to work alongside puppeteers like Karen Prell, David Barclay, Mike Quinn and more. Geoff is yet another puppeteer to be involved with Punch a...

Ian Thom is a British puppeteer and clown who has worked in several Henson and Muppet projects. He started in the Creature Shop film Labyrinth, where he assisted Karen Prell and Ron Mueck on one of the 5 Fierys. Ian has also worked on The Tale of the Bunny Picnic, The Muppets Christmas Carol, and Muppet Treasure Island all as an additional puppeteer. Thom should have asked if he could perform a character while working with the Muppets. His outside puppetry work includes Little Shop of Horrors and on Spitting Image, both performing the characters to someone else's voice. I've read that other than puppetry, he is a professional clown. I also read that Ian Thom acted as a clown at the Punch and Judy Festival in Covent Garden. It appears he is yet another Muppet puppeteer to also be a clown, like Fred Garbo, Star Townshend, Genevieve Flati, and Sue Morrison. I wonder if he was a clown before he was a puppeteer or is it the other way around. Ian should get together with the Muppets ...

Barnaby Dixon is a British puppeteer who is best known for performing small, intricate puppets for his videos on YouTube. His only Henson Company project was on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance in episode 7. Barnaby performed the miniature puppets in SkekGra and Urgoh's puppet show, and yet was only credited for doing the miniature Gelfling. Dixon is probably the only puppeteer in the world who can perform small puppets with intricate appearances and special movements. He uses his hands and fingers for operating different parts of the puppet body, which must have taken a lot of practice. There just isn't anyone else in the world who can operate small puppets like him. Barnaby Dixon got to work alongside Damian Farrell and Olly Taylor when performing that puppet show on Age of Resistance. I personally think that he should work on more Henson Company shows or even guest star within one of them. I'll bet even the Muppets would like to see his act. Barnaby is also one of the...

Nozizwe Zulu is a puppeteer, vocalist, and actress who is best known for performing Kami on not one but three international Sesame Street co-productions. Those productions are Takalani Sesame, Sesame Square, and Techniques for Effective Teaching. Nozizwe puppeteers Kami as an ambassador for both UNICEF and The Lego Foundation (probably the only puppeteer to do that). Zulu traveled the world going into educational programs across Africa. Outside of her Sesame work, she puppeteered on Yo TV, Zoomie, and DoReMi-Land, not to mention voice overs for children programs and radio dramas. I have read that she is also founder and administrator of Tamuka Productions, responsible for workshops and performances across South Africa. Nozizwe Zulu must be proud doing all of that hard work throughout her years of puppetry. She is a kind-hearted puppeteer having performed for orphans with AIDS. She must have felt very generous performing for orphans. That's what other Sesame Street performers must d...

Constanze Schmidt is a German puppeteer who has performed Feli Filu on Sesamstrasse, the German co-production of Sesame Street. She inherited the role from Andrea Bongers from 2005-2007 when Feli Filu was retired. Constanze didn't have enough time to become well known for that character. Schmidt also performed on two other German puppet series, Kapt'n Blaubar and Hurra Deustchland (the German version of Spitting Image). She had the chance to work alongside various German puppeteers such as Iris Schleuss and Carsten Morar-Haffke. Constanze Schmidt has also acted on camera, appearing within Alarm for Cobra 11-Team 2 and other NDR series. I wonder why she didn't do any other Sesamstrasse characters while working on the series for about three years. She probably didn't have any confidence to perform more than one character. Constanze has got to be one of the many Sesamstrasse puppeteers to do only one character. Schmidt should continue doing puppetry on other German shows a...

Rocio Lara is a Mexican puppeteer and writer who is best known for performing Lola on Plaza Sesamo, the Mexican co-production of Sesame Street, which she is also a writer. She also performs Lola within other Latin American productions. Rocio must be super proud to develop a character that was able to survive a show being dropped. Lara has also operated Bad Andy in Domino's Pizza commercials for the Mexican market. Jeff Conover and Allan Trautman operated him for American commercials while she and Alejandro Benitez did him within Mexican commercials. I wonder if she had difficulties being both a writer and puppeteer like Joey Mazzarino. I've read that in 2004, Rocio Lara traveled to El Salvador to record three PSAs with Lola encouraging kids to attend school. It was the very first time a Sesame character visited the country. I wonder if other international Sesame Street productions have characters travel on location to other countries. Rocio is probably still performing Lola on ...

Herve Villechaize was a French dwarf actor who portrayed Oscar the Grouch's legs on Sesame Street in the 1970s. He mainly did Oscar in scenes where the Grouch was needed to be mobile. Herve met Caroll Spinney at a very strange play at Manhattan's La Mama Theater. Spinney has described Villechaize as a very intellectual, thoughtful, and artistic man. Outside of Sesame Street, he is perhaps best known for portraying a character named Tattoo on a show called Fantasy Island. His film work has included the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (as Nick Nack), Seizure, Forbidden Zone, Airplane II: The Sequel, to name a few. I've read that Herve Villechaize has a brother named Patrick who directed episodes of the French co-production of Fraggle Rock. I wonder how he learned to speak English upon acting in Fantasy Island and other films. Herve must have been pretty lucky to work on Sesame Street, even though he was just performing a pair of legs for occasions only. Villechaiz...

Mat McCoy is an Australian puppeteer who is best known for performing in theaters within Australia and internationally. His well known Henson Company project was on Farscape where he manipulated Rygel and Pilot alongside John Eccleston and Graeme Haddon. Mat also puppeteered on the Henson Company show Me and My Monsters for 6 episodes. McCoy should have assisted the Muppets when they were performing live in New Zealand. But I guess he was happier doing what he did. Outside of those two shows, he puppeteered on The Wiggles (Series One) and The Upside-Down Show where he played a character simply called Puppet. I've read the Mat McCoy is also the artistic director of The Shadow Factory, which is something even I don't know about. Some of the live shows he did included Dinosaurs, Avenue Q, and many unknown shows that were international. He at least got to work with puppeteers who did do Henson Company projects such as Emma de Vries, Alice Osborne, and David Collins, to name a few. ...

Jackson Barretta is the son of Bill Barretta who assisted his father for two television appearances. He did the hands of The Swedish Chef for The Disney Family Singalong: Volume II and the hands of Dr. Teeth on The Late Late Show with James Corden. I wonder if Jackson is ever planning on assisting his father in any future Muppet projects such as their latest show Muppets Now. Barretta is another child of a Muppet performer who has assisted their father, the others being Jack Vogel and Phoebe Rudman. I personally think that for some Muppet performer families, puppeteering runs within them. I wonder if Jackson Barretta had any difficulty being the hands of two Muppet characters. Especially since he had to crouch down out of the camera. I'm sure he had own father teaching him to assist his two Muppet characters. I hope that someday, Jackson will become an assistant Muppet performer within the outside world and maybe someday travel across the world performing live with the Muppets. Bar...

Efrat Gonan is an Israeli puppeteer whose only puppeteer credit was on Rechov Sumsum, the Israel co-production of Sesame Street. She mainly performed Sivan, a wheelchair-bound Muppet from 2009 to 2013 before the character was moved to another production. Efrat should have played other characters while she was on Rechov Sumsum for four years. Gonan could have also puppeteered on outside Israel projects, but I guess she was most comfortable playing Sivan. It must be hard performing puppet in a wheelchair. I think her character is probably her best and only puppet she has worked with. Maybe she could find another show that involves puppetry and audition for a role. Efrat Gonan doesn't have to stop puppeteering just because Sivan was replaced by another puppeteer in a different country. I believe that there's a chance for her to get back into puppeteering. It might not happen today, but someday Efrat will find another Israel puppet production. Gonan must have had training from Noel...