Rob Gardner

Rob Gardner is a puppeteer, puppet builder, and puppet wrangler who worked on numerous Muppet and Henson productions over the years. After he first met Kermit Love at a puppet festival, the former got to work on Sesame Street for 4 years as puppet wrangler and production assistant. Rob has even served as a "valet" for Big Bird, helping take care of the costume, helping Caroll Spinney get in and out, and occasionally standing in as the bird for still photos. Later in the 1990s, Gardner received credit as both a puppet designer and builder in the Muppet Workshop on several projects. The projects were mostly on The Secret Life of Toys, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, and Bear in the Big Blue House. Outside of Muppet and Henson, he served as a puppeteer and puppet wrangler for countless projects featuring Muppet crew (puppeteers/designers/etc.). Rob Gardner worked on Eureeka's Castle, Between the Lions, MATHmatazz, The Puzzle Place videos, and Blue's Room, to name a few. It's a pity though that with all of his credits, there isn't a self portrait of him online, well not yet. The picture above has him on the far left while taping a Sesame Street episode. In addition to Spinney, Rob worked with numerous people like Ceili Clemens, Joey Mazzarino, Lynn Hippen, and Noel MacNeal, to name a few. Gardner must be a really busy man to have done all of those projects featuring puppetry and across America too. Let's hope he's still working today because nobody has heard from him for a while. I'm sure he enjoyed being a personal helper for Caroll Spinney back in the 1980s. Rob Gardner, you were wonderful at building, wrangling, and performing puppets on all of those projects throughout your career. The 1990s-2000s were probably your big breakthrough in my opinion. Keep up the wonderful work and maybe someday you'll get interviewed for what you did. Peace out Rob. Until next time Gardner!

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