Unicorns, glitter, rainbows, and big colourful imaginations – there’s something undeniably joyful about the magical world of unicorns. For kids, unicorns represent wonder, fun, and the freedom to be whoever they want to be. And what better way to enjoy all that sparkly energy than through music?
Whether you’re planning a unicorn-themed birthday party, putting together a fun classroom playlist, or just want a little extra magic during the day, unicorn songs are a hit with children everywhere. Packed with catchy tunes, cheeky lyrics, and energetic beats, these songs encourage kids to sing, dance, dress up, and let their imaginations run wild.
And the best part? Unicorn songs are for everyone – boys, girls, and anyone who loves music, silliness, and sparkle.
Here’s our list of the top 10 unicorn songs for kids, featuring magical music from Australia and around the world. From calm and melodic to high-energy dance tracks, there’s something here for every little unicorn fan.
Unicorn songs offer kids a chance to be playful, creative, and just plain silly. Whether they’re galloping around the lounge room, wearing unicorn headbands, or drawing their own sparkly creatures, music helps bring their make-believe worlds to life.
These songs can turn a regular afternoon into a magical dance party. They help children express themselves, get moving, and have a laugh—important things for growing bodies and minds.
So grab your glitter, pop on your best rainbow socks, and hit play on some unicorn tunes. Whether you’re into sparkly pop or bouncy sing-alongs, there’s a unicorn song out there with your name on it.
🦄 Let the sparkle begin – happy listening, happy dancing, and may your days be filled with unicorn magic and music!
Larrikin Puppets’ engaging and interactive Puppetry Workshop for Schools is more than just a fun incursion – it’s a powerful educational experience aligned with the Australian Curriculum in both the Arts and English learning areas. Our workshop caters to students from Foundation through to Year 12 and supports the development of key skills in creative expression, performance, literacy, collaboration and confidence.
Led by professional puppeteers Brett Hansen and Elissa Jenkins, students explore Muppet-style puppetry using 50 professional puppets and special “hand eyes” in a hands-on learning environment. Students learn lip sync, eye focus, walking, arm movement, character voices and emotional expression – culminating in an opportunity to perform on stage.
Below is a breakdown of how our workshop aligns with the curriculum at different schooling levels.
Foundation – Year 2: Exploring Expression and Oral Language
Curriculum Links:
• Drama: Students are introduced to role and dramatic action, using voice and movement to explore characters and situations (ACADRM027).
• English: Students engage in oral language activities, developing listening and speaking skills, including storytelling and performance (ACELY1656, ACELY1660).
Workshop Benefits:
At this level, our puppetry workshop helps young learners express emotions and ideas through character play. Manipulating puppets allows students to explore dramatic roles in a safe and imaginative way. The puppet becomes a playful intermediary, helping shy students gain confidence while developing verbal expression. The physicality of puppetry also supports gross motor skills and coordination, while the interactive performance encourages listening, turn-taking, and group collaboration.
Years 3–6: Developing Character and Communication Skills
Curriculum Links:
• Drama: Students develop skills in improvisation, characterisation, and the use of performance elements like voice, movement and space (ACADRM033, ACADRM036).
• English: Students refine their speaking and listening skills, understand dialogue in texts, and use performance to share stories (ACELY1689, ACELY1692).
Workshop Benefits:
Puppetry encourages older primary students to create characters and short narratives using visual storytelling and vocal techniques. They learn how to synchronise speech with movement (lip sync), and how eye focus can communicate emotion and intention. This aligns with both the Arts and English curriculum goals of interpreting and performing text. By creating and performing their own scenes, students build empathy, narrative skills, and presentation confidence.
Years 8–10: Refining Performance and Analytical Skills
Curriculum Links:
• Drama: Students explore dramatic forms, refine expressive skills and reflect on performance (ACADRM040, ACADRM044).
• English: Students engage with multimodal texts, evaluate spoken language, and craft presentations for specific audiences (ACELY1810, ACELY1813).
Workshop Benefits:
For high school students in Years 8–10, our puppetry workshop supports more sophisticated storytelling and performance analysis. Students are encouraged to critically reflect on performance elements, collaborate on short scenes, and consider audience engagement. Puppetry also introduces them to career pathways in performance, voiceover, or film production. The workshop builds key transferrable skills in communication, improvisation and media literacy, while encouraging self-expression and resilience through creative risk-taking.
Years 11–12: Exploring Advanced Technique and Theatre Styles
Curriculum Links:
• Drama (Senior): Students analyse contemporary theatre practices, apply dramatic conventions, and develop performances for live audiences (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority – Senior Drama Syllabus).
• English: Students compose and deliver presentations, understand stylistic features, and reflect on purpose and audience (Unit 3 & 4, English General).
Workshop Benefits:
At senior levels, our workshop offers a professional-level experience in puppetry as a specialised performance art. Students gain insight into contemporary puppetry techniques used in theatre, film and television. They experiment with non-verbal storytelling, character development, and ensemble performance. The workshop also deepens their understanding of symbolism, metaphor and subtext through the medium of puppet theatre. This aligns closely with curriculum outcomes in devising and evaluating drama, oral communication, and multi-modal storytelling.
Why Puppetry Matters in Education
Beyond the curriculum, puppetry is a proven tool in education for enhancing student engagement and wellbeing. According to educational research, puppetry fosters creativity, boosts self-esteem, and improves verbal and non-verbal communication. It creates an inclusive environment where all students – regardless of ability – can participate and succeed. The collaborative nature of puppetry also encourages teamwork, empathy, and emotional intelligence.
Whether students are taking their first steps in performance or refining their craft for senior assessment, our Puppetry Workshop for Schools supports deep and meaningful learning through play, performance, and creativity.
Interested in booking a curriculum-aligned puppetry workshop at your school?
Contact us to learn more about our Puppet Performance Workshops as a school incursion across Queensland and beyond.
Between all of our private bookings at schools, childcare centres, disability organisations, and corporates, we have some PUBLIC events coming up! Join us in Mapleton, Annerley, Middle Park, and Chuwar! All welcome!
Since 2012, Larrikin Puppets has been bringing laughter, songs, and fun to kids and families everywhere! When we’re not performing at schools or childcare centres, you can find us at exciting public events like festivals, libraries, theatres, shopping centres, Bunnings stores, and even pubs. These shows are extra special because families get to experience the magic together—kids, parents, and grandparents all enjoying the laughter, songs, and zany puppet antics.
One of the big stars in our shows is Freerange the Chicken, who never fails to get the crowd laughing with his funny act! Freerange is a definite favourite, always keeping everyone entertained and on their toes. And of course, after each show, Troggg and Marina love meeting families for high-fives, hugs, and photos, which creates happy memories for everyone.
Our performances are packed with catchy original songs, like “Dance Like a Unicorn” and “I Know All The Things,” which families can also enjoy on Spotify and Apple Music. We secretly hope that our tunes become the soundtrack of the ride home, letting everyone take a bit of the puppet magic with them! And at Christmas time, our puppets perform many sing-along seasonal favourites!
After our shows, we love chatting with parents, grandparents, and carers. Hearing feedback and seeing smiles lets us know that everyone had a great time. We also like to share exciting news about our latest projects, like our upcoming TV series pilot, and invite families to join us online on our website, YouTube, and social media for even more puppetry fun.
If you’re in Mapleton, Annerley, Middle Park, or Chuwar, we’d love for you to join us at one of these upcoming public puppet shows! Bring your whole family for a fun, colourful experience filled with songs, laughs, and puppet friends. We can’t wait to see you there!
You can catch Larrikin Puppets performing at the 2024 Gympie Music Muster on the Mini Main Stage in the Kids Country Area. Sunday 25 August, 2024. Puppet Show at 10am, Puppetry Performance Workshop at 12pm, and then another Puppet Show at 2pm.
Our puppet show is a lively, interactive comedy packed with colorful skits, jokes, games, dancing, and original songs like “Dance Like A Unicorn,” which you might have heard on Spotify, Apple Music, Kinderling, or ABC Kids Listen. At the end, we reveal the magic behind our puppets!
The 45-minute show is a big hit with younger children, especially those under 7, thanks to its engaging themes of kindness, creative play, and the joy of puppetry. It’s a crowd-pleaser that always brings smiles and laughter, and we reckon families at the Gympie Music Muster will get a big kick out of it!
Our puppet show was awarded “Best Kids Live Show” at the national What’s On 4 Kids Awards in 2021.
For older kids, our Puppetry Performance Workshop is a fantastic option. This hands-on workshop dives into Muppet-style puppetry, where students learn about lip sync, eye focus, movement, and character voices. With 50 professional puppets available, it’s a great way for students to build confidence, improve communication skills, and have a blast!
The 1-hour workshop starts with a short puppet show to demonstrate puppet performance and includes an educational talk about different puppetry styles. It’s engaging for ages 8 and up, and even teenagers find it exciting. Learning how to perform with Muppet-style puppets is a first for the Gympie Music Muster.
Our workshop won the People’s Choice Award for “Best School Aged Activity (Ages 5-12)” at the national What’s On 4 Kids Awards in 2021.
We have a jam-packed schedule of exciting public performances, and we can’t wait to see you there!
If you have family and friends with kids in or near Logan, South Brisbane, Gympie, Cleveland, Ipswich, Noosa, Stradbroke Island, Tamworth, Annerley, or Caboolture, be sure to let them know! Let’s make some unforgettable memories together!
Saturday 2 November, 2024: Family Fright Fest – Underwood Park Priestdale
Larrikin Puppets delivers an unforgettable experience with their vibrant and engaging puppet shows! Each performance is a captivating journey, bursting with creativity, humour, and interactive fun that delights audiences of all ages. Puppeteers Brett and Elissa bring to life imaginative, silly skits, lovable characters and catchy, original songs, ensuring that every show is a unique and fun spectacle. Attending a Larrikin Puppets show is not just about entertainment; it’s a chance for families to bond and create cherished memories together. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience the magic—bring the whole family to one of these public performances and let the enchanting world of puppetry spark joy and laughter in your hearts!
We’ve had the incredible honour of partnering with ROPE Inc, a remarkable non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering people with intellectual disabilities through education, life skills training, and community-based programs. Their mission to “Ignite the Courage to be Extraordinary” truly shines in everything they do.
Over the years, Larrikin Puppets has been privileged to join ROPE Inc at their annual camps at the Bribie Island Retreat and Recreation Centre in Woorim. These camps are always a blast, filled with themed puppet shows that bring joy and laughter to everyone involved. From spooky Halloween shows to delightful Willy Wonka-themed evenings complete with a chocolate fountain, each camp is a unique and magical experience.
One unforgettable moment was when Troggg the blue monster was the emcee at the ROPE Inc AGM, featuring the inspirational Olivia Hargroder from Change The Box as guest speaker. Olivia, known for her advocacy work and her appearance on the reality TV series Better Date Than Never, has been a beacon of hope and change.
During the challenging times of the COVID-19 lockdowns, ROPE Inc’s generosity and commitment to their community shone brightly. They continued to engage Larrikin Puppets for online Zoom puppet shows and even puppet-hosted Bingo games, ensuring that their clients stayed entertained and connected.
A special highlight was our appearance on the first birthday episode of ROPE TV, filmed at the wonderful studio of Trending Media Australia. Puppet characters Troggg and Marina co-hosted the episode, and Brett Hansen and Elissa Jenkins shared insights into how Muppet-style puppets work, making it an educational and fun segment for all viewers. We are grateful for our ongoing collaboration with ROPE Inc and look forward to creating more magical moments together! 🌟 #ROPEInc #LarrikinPuppets #DisabilitySupport #CommunityLove #PuppetryMagic #InclusiveMedia
Larrikin Puppets have returned to the Queensland Children’s Hospital for another fun episode of Juiced TV! Our puppet character Troggg the blue monster first appeared on Juiced TV way back in Season 1.
After few more appearances over the years, Brett and Elissa returned to the Queensland Children’s Hospital in February 2024 to film a brand new episode about how puppets work.
Characters featured include Scrambles, Freerange the Chicken and Erse.
Juiced TV is a children’s infotainment program that benefits the health and wellbeing of sick kids and their families in hospital. Filmed at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, the show features many children from hospital as presenters and airs on the patient’s TVs. Troggg the blue monster co-hosted an episode of the show in 2015. The end of the episode featured Brett demonstrating how Troggg and some of our other puppets work. A couple of years later, Troggg featured as an interviewer on location at Juiced TV’s Paddle For Kids event at South Bank Parklands. And in 2021 Troggg and Marina appeared on a special Christmas storytime episode of the show.
If you’d like to see us on those other episodes of Juiced TV plus many more appearances on film, TV and music videos, you can see all of that here: https://test.larrikinpuppets.com.au/videos/
Not shown on this particular episode (S11, E10) are some short “Feel Good Friday” episodes which will air over the coming weeks and months starring Troggg and Marina telling a series of funny jokes. These segments were filmed on the same day – which was Thursday 29 February, 2024.
It’s always very rewarding to visit the Queensland Children’s Hospital not only to work on cool, fun TV episodes like this, but also to bring smiles and laughter to the children who are there with illness or injury and need all the joy they can get during such a difficult time.
Travelling can be lots of fun and really interesting too! Every country has their own culture, and many have different languages too. The other difference is often the weather. In December 2023 we took a break from the Summer heat and humidity of Queensland, Australia to experience a European Winter Christmas and New Year. We stayed in six different countries and 10 different cities, with day trips to even more cities! It was really interesting to reflect on a snowy Winter climate verses a hot, humid climate. Here’s Troggg checking in on us enjoying a magical snowy day in Zermatt, Switzerland.
We made a few of these videos comparing the discomfort of Summer heat, humidity and sweat with the wonder and whimsy of Winter ice and snow. It’s important to remember that those who are used to the cold climate will often crave an escape to a warm Australian beach. It’s really just what you’re used to. This is us at a school vacation care performance in the early part of the 2023 Summer Christmas holidays, followed by us just a week or two later in Zermatt, Switzerland.
Even Scrambles wanted to check in on us! He makes mention of the songs we sing at Christmas time about sleighs and snowmen and reindeer not really making much sense to us here in sunny Queensland, Australia. But over the course of our trip, even beyond our time up in the Swiss Alps (as shown in this video), we did discover horse drawn sleighs with jingling bells, and we even made some snowmen. Santa’s warm Winter coat made much more sense in Europe as well than it does in Australia.
After finally getting used to the colder climate, and enjoying being able to rug up in Winter coats and thermals, we soon made friends with a little puppet dog named Piccolo Como who joined us on our holiday. We found him at the Christmas Markets in Como, Italy and he spent the rest of our trip reporting from lots of different places around Europe. Here he is on the night we found him!
In Venice, Italy we were able to enjoy a ride in a gondola – which is the thing everyone must do in Venice. Everywhere we went we enjoyed local food and culture. Here’s Piccolo Como in Venice.
It wouldn’t be a holiday of discovery and wonder for puppeteers if we didn’t check out some puppetry stuff wherever possible. So in Ljubljana, Slovenia we went to the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre (Lutkovno gledališče), which is the premiere Slovenian theatre for puppetry. Sadly, as Piccolo Como points out, tickets for the puppet shows were long booked out many months in advance. But we at least got to see the building and then ride the funicular (just next door) up the mountain to Ljubljana Castle.
The great news is – at the top of the mountain within the castle itself was the Ljubljana Museum of Puppetry. And it was open! So we went inside and got to enjoy displays of many puppets of different styles. We even got to have a go of some marionettes. Naughty Piccolo Como went inside a shadow puppet theatre as well.
Piccolo Como sure had fun in Ljubliana, Slovenia. That’s where we celebrated Christmas in 2023. In many parts of Europe, particularly in Slovenia as we discovered, the magic of Christmas seems to last much longer than in Australia, with markets and celebrations taking place right up until the 7th of January! Even on Christmas night and the following night also – the streets were packed with families all having a great time.
We had a nice, quaint and quiet break from the bustling crowds once we got to Osijek, Croatia. A friend of ours who lives there showed us around this lovely town which is not very touristy. We visited war memorials, local restaurants and shops, enjoyed a delicious home cooked fish dinner, and also got to check out the Christmas markets. Piccolo Como came along too, of course, always “having a nice time” wherever he goes.
What a nice adventure he had as we travelled between countries. Unlike every other travel day between countries where we wrangled luggage between buses and trains, our trip from Osijek, Croatia to Budapest, Hungary was a lovely car ride.
By the time New Year’s Eve came around we were enjoying several days in Budapest, Hungary. We went on so many funiculars up mountains during our five week holiday, and this next video was filmed up another one which took us to the grounds of a massive castle. It was also fascinating to find Christmas well after Christmas Day. We found a magical Christmas market on New Year’s Eve in Budapest, which messed with our minds a bit because we were about to ring in a new year, and yet we were surrounded by carols and tinsel and lights and a lovely big tree.
It was so nice to experience falling snow in Europe on a few occasions. We found ourselves surrounded by snow covered pine trees and filled with wide eyed wonder in the Winter Wonderland of Hallstatt, Austria, as seen here with Piccolo Como.
We stayed for a few nights in Vienna, Austria where Piccolo Como is seen here enjoying the Prater Amusement Park, which is open for all to enjoy every day and night of the year, even in Winter.
Innsbruck was a very beautiful town in Austria. We both wish we could’ve spent more time there. Lovely colourful buildings (we stayed in one of those!) with looming snowy alps behind them. The town itself was filled with very old medieval buildings, some with dates from the 1300s and 1400s written on their front walls! Such beauty there, particularly the natural environment. Stop eating the snow, Piccolo Como!
We started our holiday in Milan, Italy and that’s where we ended it too. And on one of the days we went on a day trip to Saint Moritz in Switzerland for some more snow fun (including a frozen lake) and a ride on the Bernina Express red train that goes through the Swiss Alps. Here’s Piccolo Como having a nice time in Saint Moritz.
And then we wound down in Milan, Italy and psyched ourselves up for the epic 40 hour transit back to Brisbane, Australia via two Middle Eastern airport stopovers – Muscat and Doha. Here’s Piccolo Como’s last video in Europe before heading home.
Travel is very enjoyable, and videos like this are a fun way for children to learn about what other parts of the world we can discover that are different from our own. It might inspire them to think about travelling overseas someday too.
You can find even more videos of our travels – minus the puppet – on our Larrikin Puppets TikTok account – https://www.tiktok.com/@larrikinpuppets (TikTok handle is @larrikinpuppets).
It’s been a massive year for Larrikin Puppets, full of live performances, workshops and touring.
2023 began with final puppet footage being filmed for the HILARIOUS 8-episode comedy series “IT’S A CULT!” by Cheeky Moon. Our own Brett Hansen performed the puppetry of Professor James Gilmour in one episode, plus a singing, dancing end credit sequence. The series premiered in a movie length screening at New Farm Cinemas in early February. It’s such a funny, quirky and heartwarming series (and we’re not just saying that!). Well worth a watch.
Our puppet shows and workshops for the year began with some Vacation Care/OSHC visits in January before Term 1 kicked off with several Childcare Centre visits.
Our first short tour of the year was in early February. A trip down to Coffs Harbour to run a Puppetry Performance Workshop for the CHATS Productions Inc. cast of Avenue Q. The CHATS (Coffs Harbour Amateur Theatre Society) production of Avenue Q was the fifth one we’d worked with. We always really appreciate when theatre companies look to puppeteers to provide training for their cast of actors, many who haven’t used puppets before. Puppetry is a type of acting and deserves to be done well.
While in Coffs Harbour we performed our puppet show for kids and families at Bunnings Coffs Harbour. We’ve performed at many Bunnings stores over the years, so it was great to treat the locals in the area with a fun puppet show while we were passing through.
By mid February, the primary school bookings had begun for us, so we spent the rest of February visiting many primary schools and childcare centres, plus one birthday party. Receiving positive feedback makes our hearts sing!
“That was hands down the best incursion I’ve ever experienced.” – Year 1 teacher
March was similarly full of school performances, but with the addition of a very special performance at The Brisbane Synagogue at The Jewish Festival of Purim. This was our first time visiting a synagogue, where we were given a lovely tour before the puppet show. We also did our annual day of performances at South Bank Parklands for Kids Collective, with hundreds of children and families attending. Such enjoyable shows there.
We went on a short break in late March/early April down to Melbourne to enjoy the Melbourne International Comedy Festival before immediately starting back upon our return with Easter puppet shows, more vacation care/OSHC performances, a library performance and a huge festival called the ImagiNation Children’s Festival at the Kingston Butter Factory Cultural Precinct. At the festival we performed our puppet show inside the Butterbox Theatre, which is the same theatre where we performed our production of Hijabi Girl: A Musical Puppet Show in 2022. We LOVED performing in the theatre and the audience was NEXT LEVEL wonderful. We even had a Dad and his kids return to see us there after seeing us perform the week before at a library!
In April, for the first time ever, we launched our Film and TV Monitor Puppetry Workshop for High School students! The first school to enjoy this workshop was Tamborine Mountain State High School on Tuesday 18 April, 2023. And then we presented the same workshop at St Eugene College in Burpengary on Monday 17 July, 2023. We received our film and TV monitor puppetry training in the USA, and now we teach film students here in Australia. We would like to run these workshops in more high schools, as well as universities and TAFE colleges. Most Australian film makers have not been trained to work with monitors for the filming of puppets, so that’s where we come in.
Throughout this year, we’ve worked with music producer Aaron Shanahan from Imagine Music (formerly Sunny Island Music) to record two new songs – “Party Hat” (written for us by Liam McAlary from Yeah Nah) and “I Like How I Look, Think, Feel” (coming soon to Spotify).
This has been a year where we’ve been pretty popular at special schools – Goodna Special School, Maryborough Special School, Logan City Special School and TWO visits to Western Suburbs Special School (Inala). These kids are so much fun and we find these gigs very rewarding.
In Stanthorpe, we had a RECORD SET by one of our fans! One 4-year old girl and her father attended our show 5 times over 3 days! It was so surreal! We also had another 9-year old girl attend a 3rd show because she kept missing the first 5 minutes of our show. Her Mum said we were the only reason they came back on Day 3. So fun.
For the first time in a good few years, we presented our two-day Island Puppetry Workshop & Play Jam on Bribie Island where we’re based. And once again, folks came from far and wide to learn puppetry for stage and screen, and to jam and have a great time with puppets on the weekend of 17-18 June, 2023.
While the workshop was attended mostly by adults seeking professional development, we were particularly excited about 12 year old Sam joining us. He was so very talented and passionate. We hope he keeps up his puppetry skills! Sam saw us perform at a corporate Christmas puppet show in 2019 and has been hooked on puppetry ever since.
Months and months later, people on social media are still talking about our school holiday puppet show at The Village Redcliffe. The retirement village in Rothwell invited all of the grandchildren and great nephews and nieces to join the residents for a jolly good time in the community centre dining room. Much fun was had by all!
In addition to our tours to Coffs Harbour, Rockhampton and Stanthorpe, we also performed some shows in Dalby, Childers and Gin Gin, as well as an EPIC three week tour of puppet shows in Central and North Queensland throughout late September and early October! Beginning with shows in Hervey Bay, Maryborough and Bundaberg, we travelled all the way up north to perform shows in Cairns, Townsville, Burdekin (Ayr), the Whitsundays (Bowen, Collinsville, Cannonvale, Proserpine), and Mackay. Every audience on our tour was so unique and so special to us. We even made a new 2 1/2 year old fan from Townsville who apparently can’t stop talking about Troggg and his friends – and has been practicing her puppeteering ever since!
One of our biggest achievements of this year was presenting a TEDx talk at TEDx Brisbane. TED conferences (Technology, Entertainment, Design) are huge conferences where influential people make inspirational speeches about their areas of expertise and big ideas. TEDx conferences are independent versions of TED, which are run all over the world. In the lead up to the big event, billboards with the image of Elissa and Troggg were displayed all over Brisbane. We presented our talk about puppets on Saturday 14 October, 2023. A video of our talk will hopefully be released online in 2024.
As I write this, we are in our final week of performances for 2023, as we are heading to Europe to enjoy a snowy Winter Christmas. A once in a lifetime opportunity to get away from the Queensland Summer heat and humidity to experience the magic we hear, see and read about in all the Christmas songs, movies and books.
We didn’t do any major collaborations this year. You might remember we’ve worked with such high rollers as Regurgitator, Todd Sampson, Chef Jason Roberts and Illy. But we have some great experiences lined up for 2024. We can’t wait!
This has been a really action packed year that has felt very quick! Thanks to all who supported Larrikin Puppets this year!
Much of our focus this year was on final preparations, rehearsals and the big launch performances of “Hijabi Girl: A Musical Puppet Show“. This show was three years in the making, with some challenges and road blocks along the way, and a total of thirty collaborators who helped us make it happen – plus the generosity of our Patreon doners.
We had three successful performances at the Kingston Butter Factory’s new Butterbox Theatre in Kingston, QLD. While the original book’s authors, illustrator and publisher (who all flew from interstate to attend) absolutely loved this adaptation, along with the audiences of school groups and families who attended, this production took a huge toll on our mental and physical health. So, with a heavy heart and much deep discussion, we made the difficult decision to put the show to bed rather than tour with it. As a grassroots, husband and wife micro business, the scale and weight of the show was much bigger than we could cope with.
While we’re sad the show won’t be continuing, we are comfortable with the tough decision we’ve made and are grateful for the experience. We learnt a lot about ourselves and look forward to bringing audiences more puppet fun into the future whether that be for stage or screen – probably something less complex to execute next time!
We thank David Granato from Polygranate Films for coming along to the launch show and filming it, and we look forward to the filmed version existing in perpetuity online for you all to enjoy at your leisure. Keep an eye on our Larrikin Puppets YouTube channel and our other social media for the release of that video.
But the big dreams don’t stop there at Larrikin Puppets! We have some great new music and TV ideas we’re working towards. Stay tuned.
We’ve been working with a fantastic song writer, Liam McAlary from Yeah Nah on some new puppet songs. To give you an idea of the top quality song writing we’re going for in our next release, you can hear Liam’s awesome kids album “Are We There Yet?” here.
As you know, we always love the opportunity to perform puppetry on TV. Our next large project focus will be on a new TV series pilot. In the meantime, we had a great time on TV this year with three episodes of Shake Takes for Channel 10 which aired nationally, and an episode of ROPE TV for disability organisation ROPE Inc.
This year we also got to work with Aussie rock icons Regurgitator for a third time, performing our puppet show as the opening support act for their Pogogo Show performance for kids in a very packed out Princess Theatre!
Touring to regional, rural and outback communities is something else we always enjoy doing. So after a couple of years of cancelations due to COVID complications like lockdowns, road closures and illness, we finally hit the road to the “back o’ Bourke” and nearby towns Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge (all in outback NSW) to perform for local communities of indigenous kids and families, visiting schools and childcare centres, celebrating 10 years of the “Did Ya Know” Program, run by the NSW Outback Division of General Practice Ltd. And in recent weeks as we approach Christmas, we’ve brought our show to Cairns, Maryborough, Newcastle (NSW) and Montville, as well as all the usual South East Queensland locations we visit, like Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay Region, Ipswich, Logan and Gold Coast.
Elissa has even started a series of videos on TikTok called “From the Grassroots with Larrikin Puppets“, which shows some of the work and challenges behind the scenes as we venture out to a new venue or event each day. On TikTok you can find Larrikin Puppets at @larrikinpuppets, and Elissa’s behind-the-scenes account at @wide_eyed_wonderer.
A massive thank you to each and every one of you for your ongoing support of Larrikin Puppets and grassroots performing arts.
