So the subtitle of this blog talks about games, puppets, and video. Games and video might kinda go together – but what in the world do those things have to do with puppets? Well – the short answer is time and money. Got it? No? OK – well the longer explanation is going to involve a little more history (Oh no! Not again!) So, about eight years ago, I went to big multi-church youth gathering, where one of the featured activities was making very simple puppets out things like paper bags, and then doing impromptu performances. Of course it was all very silly and nobody was really good at it – but it was fun, and I don’t know – I guess I got bitten by the “Puppet Bug”. Or something.
So I persuaded my (too) trusting wife to help me put on a Christmas puppet performance with our youth group. In about six weeks. On top of my normal day job. Building a large stage and nine puppets. Real puppets – because we were too cheap to buy them, I guess. Puppet construction involves a set of skills that are found nowhere together in nature. Foam cutting with electric turkey knives. Foam assembly with brain-cell-obliterating industrial contact cement. And lots and lots of sewing – which of course my poor wife ended up having to do (I donated my few remaining brain cells to the cause). Oh, and someone told us that it was much harder to lip-sync with a recording, so we bought microphones and learned to operate the puppets while doing character voices live. Riiiight -that was easier… We actually pulled it off – which was almost a bona-fide miracle in itself. Of course our transitions between show segments were like five minutes long – instead of the recommended five seconds. But we did it. And I was hooked.
Then we moved to a different city and a new church, and picked up where we left off. The team grew to about 16 teens, and me. The sole adult coach. My wife had been forced to retire from the puppet scene, because we were beginning to realize that our youngest son was not only autistic – but was even more severe than his two older brothers had ever been. Still, we carried on. We upgraded our lights, then our stage. We bought new puppets (because I didn’t have time to make them anymore). I trained the daylights out of those teens (they called me “The Puppet Boss”) – but they loved it. And my older kids were two of the most accomplished puppeteers in the group. Especially my son Paul. Even though his Asperger’s sometimes causes him to be a little stiff in his mannerisms, no one on the team – not even the coach – could match the way he could bring a puppet to life.
And then I got the weird idea of mixing video and animation with the puppetry. Someone had donated a nice projector to the team, and someone else an 8 ft by 8 ft screen. We bought a copy of the Adobe Production Studio, and I plunged into learning Premiere and After Effects. I know – “Fools rush in…” and all that. Anyway, I wanted to be legit – so I learned all about securing the (five!!!) different rights needed to perform each song legally (that’s a post all by itself, right there). And our show morphed into a wondrous one-hour performance, with puppetry animation, and video which we took to various churches within a couple of hour driving radius. An hour performance sounds long, and it is – but we had adults and five-year-olds sitting raptly throughout the entire performance.
And I thought – there has GOT to be an easier way to minister and entertain with puppets than this. And I’ll tell you about it next time. 
