No Strings Attached

Wednesday night, Comedy Bar held a Puppet Explosion (a "puppet slam") where 8 troupes of puppeteers had about 7-8 minutes to put on a skit. The MC for the evening, the blue Cyril Sneer-esque Frank Feltman, kept the proceedings moving along with his acerbic wit. At one point, he improvised current events (being a news anchor) based on audience suggestions. Keeping him from being too cynical was his tiny, effervescent co-host Puppet What What.

The evening started with a funny skit from Michael Harding (Applefun Puppetry) about the going-ons at a farm. Seems that a squirrel has been dropping nuts on Chicken Little, prompting some over-the-top "The sky is falling" antics from the hen. Jamie Shannon was next, animating a sadly frayed, abandoned, old puppet known as "Happy Bunny". Well, the bunny wasn't too upbeat about his upkeep.

Unfortunately, there were more misses than hits. TAAPA's (The Actors Academy For the Puppetry Arts) two skits: an ad-lib exercise (though without audience input) and lip-syncing to Weird Al tunes had long stretches of awkward silence. Bricoteer's "Fill Me Up" about a lonely martini glass in a dance club filled with other glasses (Pick-up Artist, Curvy Mama, Local Celeb) was DOA until the end when there was winking innuendo about battery-powered cocktail whisks.

Others did better: Banjo Puppets sang an uplifting folk song with Randy Carrot; Puppet Tamer interacted with his ventriloquist Parrot and a disembodied head (the Scottish Angus); and Unraku had their sleek and suave brown rabbit groove bunraku-style to "You Can't Touch This".

I think there was some mismatched expectations. Because of the setting, the audience was expecting more comedic material, possibly a little blue. As a "slam", close cousin to open mic night, you are going to get more experimental and amateur performances.

Frank Feltman and Puppet What What, even though they were ostensibly there in secondary roles, were the outstanding act. It could be fun to have them host other Comedy Bar's improv shows such as MonkeyToast or Catch 23. In fact, have the stronger puppeteers join in with "human" performers in improv sketches.