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!
Larrikin Puppets will be taking the stage at Big Little Fest! We are national award-winning Australian children’s entertainers, and will be bringing our colourful and exciting puppet show to Coorparoo Square at 12.00 noon Saturday 23 March, 2024. Interesting Fact! We received training in the USA under Jim Henson puppeteers from The Muppets and Sesame Street. Mark your calendar and prepare for a great day.
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).
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.
** We are ON TOUR and have a big July lined up! ** June 28: Childcare Centre Puppet Show @ Kids Choice Granville in Maryborough, QLD.
June 29: Festival Puppet Show @ Festival of the Bazaar – Peace Archery, Depot Hill, Rockhampton QLD. 11:15am.
July 1: Library Puppetry Workshop @ Gracemere Library in Rockhampton QLD. 10am.
July 1: Library Puppetry Workshop @ North Rockhampton Library (Berserker) in Rockhampton QLD. 2pm.
July 2: Library Puppetry Workshop @ Mount Morgan School of Arts in Rockhampton QLD. 10am.
July 2: Library Puppetry Workshop @ Rockhampton Regional Library (Southside Library) in South Rockhampton QLD. 2pm.
July 4: 2 x Library Storytime Puppet Shows @ Maryborough Library, QLD. 9am and 10am.
July 4: 2 x Library Storytime Puppet Shows @ Hervey Bay Library, QLD. 2pm and 3pm.
July 6: Marina’s Marine Adventure Puppet Show @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 10am.
July 6: Puppetry Workshop @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 3pm.
July 6: Roving Puppetry @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 6:30pm.
July 6: Family Comedy-Variety Puppet Show @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 7:30pm.
July 7: Roving Puppetry @ Hamilton Island Airport Departure Lounge. 11:30am.
July 7: Roving Puppetry and How the Puppets Work Demonstration @ Hamilton Island Kids Fun Zone. 3:30pm.
July 7: Adult Comedy-Variety Puppet Show @ Hamilton Island Staff Bar. 7:30pm.
July 8: Marina’s Marine Adventure Puppet Show @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 10am.
July 8: Puppetry Workshop @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 3pm.
July 8: Puppetry Workshop @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 7:30pm.
July 9: Roving Puppetry @ Hamilton Island Airport Departure Lounge. 1:00pm.
July 9: Roving Puppetry and How the Puppets Work Demonstration @ Hamilton Island Kids Fun Zone. 3:30pm.
July 9: Roving Puppetry @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 6:00pm.
July 9: Family Comedy-Variety Puppet Show @ Hamilton Island Resort Centre. 7:30pm.
July 11: 2 x Puppet Shows and 2 Puppetry Workshops @ South Bank Parklands, Brisbane QLD. 9am, 10am, 11am, 12pm.
July 16: Childcare Centre Puppet Show @ Kidz Magic, Heathwood QLD
July 17: Childcare Centre Puppet Show @ Tarragindi Child Care and Development, Tarragindi QLD.
July 18: TV Puppetry on a music video shoot in Brisbane QLD.
July 20: 2 x Puppet Shows @ Kids FUNderland Children’s Festival – Aussie World, Palmview, Sunshine Coast QLD. 12:30pm and 3:30pm.
July 21: Birthday Puppet Show for a 5th birthday party in Salisbury QLD.
July 24: 2 x Childcare Centre Puppet Shows @ Kids Academy, Hope Island, Gold Coast QLD.
July 31: Childcare Centre Puppet Show @ Miami Community Children’s Centre, Miami, Gold Coast QLD.
Australia – In celebration of this land, Larrikin Puppets are about to embark on a tour of Guppy’s Early Learning Centres to perform our Australian themed puppet show. We’re travelling around this hot, brown land to bring laughter and fun to a whole chain of Queensland childcare centres in the lead up to the 26th of January and a little bit after it as well.
Troggg and his puppet friends love performing at childcare centres so we’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in having one of our colourful and fun puppet shows at your childcare centre. Here’s a 30 second video showing all the fun and excitement of a Larrikin Puppets show!
You can find out more details about our childcare puppet shows here:
Brett Hansen and Elissa Jenkins, along with their troupe of friendly and funny puppet characters provide top quality entertainment and fun for childcare centres and kindergartens in and around Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and other parts of South East Queensland.
For our general comedy-variety puppet show, having the two puppeteers (Elissa and Brett) means more gender balance with some female puppet characters and more audience interaction. If that doesn’t suit your budget, the solo shows (just Brett) with “Troggg” and the gang are just as dynamic and exciting.
Please note: Shows with themed, educational content (Australia, Healthy Eating, World Environment Day, Book Week, Kindness and Anti-Bullying) will require both puppeteers.
There is an initial 50% deposit to lock in the booking.
This ensures that the chosen booking time is yours, and we’ll knock back others wanting the same date and time. And then the remaining balance can be paid in cash on the day of the event, or via direct deposit afterwards. Details of Payment Methods here.
Description:
Suitable for early childhood, with plenty of humour for the staff and teachers to enjoy too, this is a 30 minute puppet show of songs, games, jokes, skits and comical interaction with the audience. The style of puppetry is a bit like The Muppets and Sesame Street.
Educational content – such as sharing, kindness, exercise, looking after the environment and healthy eating – can also be requested in your booking enquiry. In most cases we are booked to perform our regular fun and exciting puppet show which promotes creative play!
The show is followed by an additional presentation (lasting about 5 minutes) where Brett and Elissa demonstrate to the audience how all the puppets work. Then a 5-10 minute meet-and-greet were the kids can get their photo taken with “Troggg” the blue monster and his little sister “Marina”. All up it’s about a 45 minute performance.
We also offer Story Time with Larrikin Puppets at childcare / kindy, which is a segment in which Elissa reads a children’s book by an Australian author, while Troggg, Frazzamatazz and friends play along with the story. More details about our story time segment here.
For shows where we have been requested to incorporate content on healthy eating and food allergies, this information has been sourced from consultations with expert naturopath and nutritionist Lauren Stark BHSc from Naturally For You Health & Wellness.
On the day:
Puppeteers arrive at the childcare centre 1 hour before the puppet show’s starting time to set up the stage, sound equipment, props and puppets. The show (as described above) is performed for 30 minutes, followed by the 5 minute “how the puppets work” demonstration, and the 5-10 minute meet-and-greet and photo opportunity with Troggg. The puppeteers then pack up the stage and other equipment.
Inclusions:
30 minute puppet show of songs, games, jokes and comical interaction with the audience.
5 minute “How the puppets work” demonstration.
5-10 minute puppet meet-and-greet / Photo opportunity with Troggg the blue monster.
Time allowance for travel to and from, set-up and pack-up of the puppet stage, props, puppets and sound equipment.
Rehearsal time prior to the event.
Quality characters.
Quality puppetry.
Professional Development and Formal Training:
Brett and Elissa have completed three months of professional development in the USA, which included advanced, formal training with Jim Henson puppeteers from The Muppets and Sesame Street.
Blue Card and Insurance:
Brett’s Blue Card number is 1161011/2, Elissa’s is 690261/2. We have public liability insurance through Duck For Cover Entertainers Insurance.
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!!”. 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!” Larrikin Puppets will also perform at public events at the childcare centre, like centre open days, fetes, and Christmas break up parties.
For more information and updates about Larrikin Puppets and our work with childcare centres, please ‘Like’ our Facebook page. 612 ABC Brisbane’s Spencer Howson wrote an article for Bmag about Brett Hansen and Larrikin Puppets. See it here.
Larrikin Puppets are visiting the Banana Shire as part of the First 5 Forever program, a State Government initiative. They are performing in Biloela at the “Family Fun in the Park” event (14 Sep), and in Baralaba (11 Sep), Moura (12 Sep) and Taroom (13 Sep).
The First 5 Forever program aims at developing literacy in the under 5s, the program motto is “Talk Play Sing Read”.
Our first show in the Banana Shire was at Baralaba State School on Tuesday, 11 September 2018. Students from Prep to Grade 2 at the school, plus visiting kids from playgroup and kindy and their parents came along to see the puppet show and had a great time!
Looks like Troggg had a great time in Baralaba too! Here he is talking about it:
Our second show in the Banana Shire was at Kianga Memorial Hall in Moura, where we had 63 kids from local playgroups and kindys come along with their parents! Everybody had a fantastic time watching the puppet show and we had lots of positive feedback from parents during the meet-and-greet. Our third show in the Banana Shire was at Taroom Library where we performed our Story Time With Larrikin Puppets show for all the families and kids under 5 in the community. So many happy little faces and lots of laughs from parents and kids alike. Our story of the day was ‘Too Many Teddies’ by Australian author Glenn Martin.
The audiences absolutely loved Troggg’s little sister Marina at this show! They were all very delighted to meet her and Troggg after the show for high fives, chats and photos.
Here’s Troggg on a lonely stretch of road between Taroom and Banana to tell us his side of the story:
One of our adult volunteers during the ‘How the puppets work’ demonstration at Taroom Library invited us up the road to visit the Paddock to Pool Swim School for chats, hot chips and a few photos of the puppets. Here’s a little video they posted on their Facebook page of Troggg and Flossy behind the counter: https://www.facebook.com/767603440078163/videos/1959326007693127/ Our final day in the Banana Shire was the performance of two puppet shows at a special First 5 Forever family fun day at Melton Park in Biloela. We performed our story time puppet show first at 9:30, followed by a combination of our festival show and childcare show at 10:30. Lots of parents with their little ones, as well as playgroups and childcare classes came along to enjoy the puppet shows, petting zoo, face painting, arts and crafts and a jumping castle. We had lots of positive feedback from parents and teachers afterwards. Such an epic and time consuming set up and pack down on a very hot day, but worth it for all the smiles and laughs during the puppet shows. That’s why we do this!
And so we said our goodbyes to the Banana Shire and headed off on the long drive to our next overnight stay, which was in Jandowae. Here’s Troggg reporting from our accommodation there just before we headed off to our next destination – Toowoomba – to run two puppetry performance workshops for Shoebox Theatre Company.
YouTube sadly cuts Troggg off at the end of this video – but he’s about to tell us about “The Bureau of Magical Things” – Episode Eleven. I (Brett Hansen) worked as a puppeteer on that episode of the show. Full video Troggg’s Jandowae report can be found at this Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/LarrikinPuppets/videos/327369644497049/
Thank you for having us, Banana Shire! We hope to visit again! 🙂
After performing in Hervey Bay at the Teddy Bear’s Picnic – a community family fun day organised by Condy Park Kindergarten, we set off on our journey to our next destination – Boyne Valley.
We travelled on unsealed dirt roads to our accommodation in Ubobo last night, then headed to Nagoorin State School first thing this morning.
We found Boyne Valley to be very peaceful. Hot during the day and quite chilly at night and in the early morning. According to the video above, Troggg describes the weather as ‘crisp’. Nagoorin State School was just lovely! The teachers and principal Nicki (she lives at the school) were very nice. And the students were amazing as well! The whole school consists of just ten students between Prep and Grade 3. For our puppet show today we had some visiting students join us as well from a neighbouring school and a kindergarten.
This video of Flossy at Nagoorin State School talking with us about Boyne Valley just before our puppet show went live on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LarrikinPuppets/videos/2148957252093205/
It worked out well that the school found us because we are booked to perform a week of puppet shows in the Banana Shire (Biloela, Baralaba, Moura and Taroom), and Boyne Valley was on the way. Country schools like this rarely get to see live performances, so our puppet show was very well received today. Everybody had a great time!
Says Nagoorin State School in a Facebook post: “This morning we had a visit from Larrikin Puppets. It was so much fun and very entertaining. We even had willing volunteers that helped out with the dance number. Then we had volunteers to be right-hand puppeteers (definitely adding this skill to my resume). There was lots of singing, dancing and jokes. The students have lots of ideas for their puppet shows now. I can’t wait to see them ?. Thanks so much to our P&C for providing this great educational experience.”
Here’s Troggg on a lonely stretch of road between Taroom and Banana to tell us his side of the story:
