If you’d like to take the kids along to see a puppet show these school holidays, here’s where to find Larrikin Puppets:

---

Saturday 24 June: The Woodford Show
Woodford Showgrounds
38 Neurum Road, Woodford
Puppet Shows at 9:30am and 11:15am

 
Feedspot Blog Reader have kindly listed Larrikin Puppets on their Top 75 Puppet Blogs and Websites for Puppeteers and Puppet Designers.
You can find the full list here at:
http://blog.feedspot.com/puppet_blogs/
And behold – the grand Puppet Blogs medal of honour – proudly displayed below.

Thank you very much to Anuj Agarwal (Founder of Feedspot), and all of the panelists who painstakingly sorted through thousands of puppet blogs and websites to come up with the top 75.
 
Brett Hansen Puppet Showreel – Short Version (2 Min, 45 Sec). This shorter version features clips from puppet shows, Vox Poppin’, Juiced TV, Cluck! The Web Series, Heart of a Thousand Souls, 5 for 35, Avenue Q, Thank Troggg You’re Here, The Hobble & Snitch Show, Murra Murra and The Late Nite Show.

Brett Hansen Puppet Showreel – Long Version (4 Min). While only slightly longer than the short puppet showreel, this version again features clips from puppet shows, Juiced TV, Cluck! The Web Series, Heart of a Thousand Souls, 5 for 35, Avenue Q, The Hobble & Snitch Show, Sam The Ham, Murra Murra, The Late Nite Show, Thank Troggg You’re Here, and Vox Poppin’.

Brett Hansen and his troupe of friendly and funny puppet characters, along with his wife and business partner Elissa Jenkins provide top quality entertainment and fun for childcare centres, festivals, birthday parties, libraries and all kinds of other events and venues in and around Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Gold Coast and the Moreton Bay Region.
To be one of the Top 75 Puppet Blogs means that people are reading all about our adventures. From the suburbs of Brisbane to the Queensland outback, and all the way across the ocean to New York, Los Angeles and Texas where we spent several months in 2016.

 

 

Our puppet shows and puppetry workshops are suitable for early childhood and school aged kids too, but there’s plenty of humour for parents, staff and teachers to enjoy too. Our puppet blogs showcase a lot of information about these things. Most of our bookings are 30 minute puppet show of songs, games, jokes, skits and comical interaction with the audience, performed in the puppetry style of The Muppets and Sesame Street.

 

And on your request, we can even incorporate educational content for our school and childcare shows – such as sharing, kindness, exercise, looking after the environment and healthy eating – Just ask us in your booking enquiry.

 

In most cases, our puppet shows are followed by an additional presentation lasting about 5 minutes where Brett (and Elissa at some of the larger events) demonstrates to the audience how all the puppets work. Then we do a 5-10 minute meet-and-greet were the kids can get their photo taken with Troggg the blue monster. All up it’s about a 45 minute performance. Some of our bookings have been found via reading our exciting puppet blogs.

 

For babies and 1-2 year olds, as well as children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) we offer an interactive show, filled with all the colour and musical fun of the regular show, but the puppeteer also emerges from behind the stage throughout the show with various cute and fluffy animal puppets for each child to see up close. We have also performed shows in hospitals for cancer patients, as well as shows in schools for the deaf, where translators perform sign language to explain what Troggg and his furry friends are saying. We try to cover these topics in our puppet blogs too.

 

On the day of any of our events, puppeteer Brett Hansen (and sometimes Elissa Jenkins too at some of the larger events or puppetry workshops at schools) arrives at the venue about 45 minutes before the puppet show’s starting time to set up the stage, sound equipment, props and puppets. The show (as described above) is performed, or the workshop is conducted to the class – complete with full participation using our 40 odd workshop puppets. The 30 minute puppet shows are followed by the 5 minute “how the puppets work” demonstration, and the 5-10 minute meet-and-greet and photo opportunity with Troggg. The puppeteer then packs up the stage and other equipment.

The puppet blogs here at Larrikin Puppets are all about sharing the good news and keeping everybody informed about all that we do. There are several puppet blogs written about our time living in New York City and all the puppetry events, workshops and performances we took part in, our visit to Los Angeles where we spent some time with a couple of puppeteers there, and the advanced intensive puppetry workshop at the University of North Texas called “Beyond the Sock”. All of this can be seen on our puppet blogs.

Brett and Elissa both have a current Blue Cards, and are fully insured, professional, and punctual. Thank you again for reading our puppet blogs. You may wish to enquire about a puppet show, workshop, puppet MC, or any of our range of puppet related performances we have on offer. Just have a look at the drop down menu items at this website. We will perform at all kinds of events and venues. Puppetry for all occasions.

Beaucare in Beudesert said, “An absolutely fantastic puppet show! The children loved it, lots of laughter and excitement! Brett was very professional in his manner, extremely well organised and engaging with the children. Informative and educational show, the children were delighted to be able to touch the puppets and see how they are manipulated. I recommend Larrikin Puppets, incredible children’s entertainers!”
Sunkids at Burleigh said, “We had Larrikin Puppets attend our childcare centre last week and absolutely loved it! Brett kept all 106 children in the centre amused and laughing their heads off the entire time! They are still talking about the ‘cute’ and ‘crazy’ puppets! What an amazing show! Thanks Brett can’t wait to have you back!!”.
Zrinka said, “Seven of us – six adults and a 5 year old – had a wonderful afternoon multi-person birthday and anniversary party with Larrikin Puppets. I briefed Brett with snippets on each person and he incorporated them into the puppet performance with good humour and great sensitivity! There is no doubt the adults enjoyed the show even more than the children! Larrikin Puppets made our party a big success”.
Yosmery said, “My baby loves puppets so I decided to hire a puppeteer for his first birthday. I found Larrikin Puppets show on the Brisbane Kids website and contacted Brett. He was so approachable and professional from the beginning. The show exceeded my expectations. It was amazing. My son, his friends and everybody had lots of fun. Brett tailored it with my baby’s favourite songs. He even created a new one using my son’s name. Brett is flexible with requests. His show finished with a storytelling of our favourite book. If you want to give a special surprise to your loved ones, you have to contact Brett. This is a smashing show!!!”
Tullawong State School said, “What an amazing, fun, funny, enjoyable show. The children from Prep to year 2 had a blast. Laughing, clapping, cheering (very loudly), the puppets even had the children, teachers and parents dancing:) Everyone had a complete ball while learning all about bullying and healthy eating. Brett and his puppets made our day….”

 
 
For more information and updates about Larrikin Puppets and our work with childcare centres, please ‘Like’ our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/LarrikinPuppets
612 ABC Brisbane’s Spencer Howson wrote an article for Bmag about Brett Hansen and Larrikin Puppets. See it here.

Monitor puppetry is the style of puppetry developed by Jim Henson for performance on film and television productions. Unlike traditional live performance puppetry, the puppeteers don’t look at their puppets. They perform their characters up high above their heads, and watch their puppetry in a TV monitor. This enables the puppeteer to see if the puppet has good eye focus, good lip sync, and is able to walk correctly into a frame, and perform many tasks within that frame without looking stupid.
This is why the puppetry on The Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and all associated TV shows and movies look so good on screen. It’s because the puppeteers are able to see exactly how their puppets will look to the viewer at home. This is a perk that most actors don’t get to enjoy. A human actor must perform their scenes without ever looking at themselves on any monitor. Whereas puppeteers are blind on set if they have to crouch and hide behind tables and props without being able to see what they’re doing. The puppet is the star, and so the puppet (like human actors) still performs its scenes as normal. But the hidden puppeteer is the one controlling the puppet. So the puppeteer is allowed to watch their puppets on the TV monitor to make sure the movements are perfect. It wouldn’t be fair to expect the puppeteer to perform blind.
Monitor puppetry is a great way for puppeteers to practice their movements. From subtle facial emotions to wild arm movements, watching your puppetry skills on a monitor is a very good way to practice and improve.
 
 
Brett Hansen at Larrikin Puppets has been practicing and perfecting his puppetry skills since the age of three, and has taught many workshops in theatre, film and schools on the basic movements of Muppet-style puppetry. He even produced a live monitor puppetry improv show, where audiences could watch the cast of puppeteers at work, while also being able to watch a large screen displaying only the puppets being performed into the camera. This was a live example of how the puppeteers see their puppetry on the monitor, and then that performance is broadcast/displayed onto the screen for the audience to see.

But as there has never been any formal training in monitor puppetry in Australia, Brett’s only training has been both at The Puppet Kitchen in New York City (under Sesame Street’s Michael Schupbach), and at the advanced, intensive ‘Beyond the Sock’ puppetry workshop at the University of North Texas (under The Muppets and Sesame Street’s Marty Robinson and Noel MacNeal).
Brett now provides this kind of training through Larrikin Puppets for specially arranged class bookings.
Brett’s wife and business partner Elissa Jenkins also received some training at The Puppet Kitchen in New York, and this was her first training. She has since continued to practice her skills and has also started joining Brett as a secondary puppeteer at some of the larger events (such as Woodford Folk Festival and Paradise Resort Gold Coast).
So here now is a hilarious outtake video where Brett (as Troggg) and Elissa (as Flossy) are practicing some monitor puppetry, and working on the challenges that arise, such as trying to avoid heads and arms appearing in shot. Lots of laughs during this quite challenging activity. It’s certainly not as easy as it looks. But it’s definitely as fun as it looks!

– 2016 started with a series of school holiday and vacation care puppet show performances.
– The Richard Bell film I performed puppetry in (“5 for 35”) screened all Summer at GOMA as part of the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8).
 

– I provided puppetry training (and puppets) for ImproMafia’s “Not 4 Kidz” at the Brisbane Comedy Festival.
– A new puppet character, Frazzamatazz, joined the Larrikin Puppets cast in February.
– I began sewing lessons in preparation for the puppet building component of the upcoming intensive puppetry course I was enrolled in at the University of North Texas.
– I performed MC duties (hidden under a table – Troggg was the MC!) at the official Ipswich Festival media launch. Troggg got to introduce Mayor Paul Pisasale to the stage. I also performed puppet shows at the actual Ipswich Festival, and was informed by several friends in the lead up that they noticed big roadside billboards with Troggg on them!
 
 

– I also performed puppet shows at the Paradise Resort in Surfers Paradise, the Redcliffe Sails Festival, a Bunnings store in Warwick, an Indian restaurant, a nursing home and several childcare centres, schools and birthday parties.

– Elissa helped me run some puppetry workshops at a few schools, including a full week (three workshops a day) at Belmont State School.
 
 
 
– We went down to Adelaide to visit Shannon Cooke at The Puppet Workshop.
– We lived in Brooklyn, New York for three months. We saw lots of live theatre in NYC – including many puppet shows for adults, improv comedy and “Avenue Q” off Broadway (with a backstage tour thanks to puppeteer contacts).

– Much of my time overseas was spent networking with other puppeteers, which included frequent visits to The Puppet Kitchen for monitor puppetry sessions run by the awesome Michael Schupbach. Between there, several puppet shows/events and a few Muppet screenings at the Museum of the Moving Image it was really great to meet, perform and practice with so many great NYC puppeteers and fellow Muppet fans – including Marcelo Bottaro, Arlee Chadwick, Musa ‘Fuzzy Beard’ Bradley, David Bizzaro, Zach ‘Wackiman’ Woliner, Nicola ‘Callie & Izzy’ McEldowney, John Papovitch, Kevin Hale, Tau ‘Being Elmo’ Bennett, Christina Rodriguez Stone, Matthew Soberman, Sam ‘Mo Monster’, Tania Lopez, Tim Young, Erin Finnegan, Spencer Cohen, and so many more amazing people!
– I performed my full puppet show at the Puppetry Arts Festival of Brooklyn (yes, I transported my whole puppet stage and all the puppets to America).
– Troggg guest starred in an episode of The Fuzzy Beard Show.
– We attended a convention called “Morning with the Muppets” starring Steve Whitmire (with Kermit the Frog), Eric Jacobson (with Fozzie Bear and Animal) and Peter Linz (assisting). I asked a couple of questions during the Q&A, and was lucky enough to have a brief chat with Steve Whitmire afterwards. He fluffed up Troggg’s fur as he spoke to me about a trip to Australia they were taking soon.
– We spent a week in Los Angeles, staying just off Hollywood Boulevard. We walked to the Jim Henson Company and checked out the big Kermit statue out the front.
– We spent a day with Henson puppeteers Grant Baciocco (whom I’d met in Brisbane a couple of years earlier during “Puppet Up!” and stayed in contact with) and Russ Walko. Troggg of course came out on all of these puppet-related excursions in both New York and Los Angeles.
– We spent a week in Denton, North Texas where, at the University of North Texas, I received advanced, intensive, life changing training in film & TV monitor puppetry from Henson puppeteers Marty Robinson (Telly Monster, Mr. Snuffleupagus) and Noel MacNeal (Bear in the Big Blue House), and a puppet construction component lead by Pasha Romanowski (Project Puppet, The Moe Show). Elissa came with me to all the casual nights of drinking and chatting with the puppeteers. She also attended the special performance night we did on the final day. The whole thing was an unforgettable experience. This kind of training simply doesn’t exist in Australia. I was so happy to not only get some of my existing skills validated, but also to learn so many valuable new skills, and better ways to perform my craft from the best in the business – my heroes!
– Since returning to Australia, I performed both puppet characters in a short comedy film called “Kev”, plus shows at schools, childcare centres, festivals and parties every week!
 
 
– There were more shows at the Gold Coast’s Paradise Resort, and even a few shows at New Farm Cinemas, which included some Larrikin Puppets cinema advertising before screenings of “Moana” and “Sing”. I even got to perform my first puppet show at the famous Brisbane Powerhouse!
– And we spent the final week of the year performing three shows a day, every day at one of Australia’s biggest festivals – the Woodford Folk Festival.
It’s been an absolutely huge year! Here’s to more puppet fun in 2017!
Brett Hansen

New Announcements:
Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Fortitude Valley have booked a puppet show for the kids on the 9th of March.
Troggg will be the MC at the official media launch of the 2016 Ipswich Festival in March, where he will be introducing Mayor Paul Pisasale. A month later, we’re performing two puppet shows at the festival.
Larrikin Puppets will be performing a family puppet show at the Chrome Street Fiesta – A free community festival held in the Salisbury Industrial Estate on Saturday, 12 March.
After the success of recent seniors’ puppet shows at two Probus Clubs, Troggg and the gang will be performing at St. Paul’s Villa Hostel, Rainworth in April.
For all gig listings, please visit our Gig Calendar here: https://test.larrikinpuppets.com.au/gig-calendar/
And follow the drop down menus for details on how you can book a puppet show or puppet MC for YOUR event! 🙂

Here’s a great article from toughpigs.com about the recent “Celebrity Photobomb” segment from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. It stars the Muppets of Sesame Street. Watch for the look of wonder in the eyes of the kids later on in the video. Priceless. The magic of puppets!