Not So Frequently Asked Questions #1

Hello Muppetfans, we're all like sportsfans, just.... You know... Muppetfans... *cough* I'll continue.
Over at the Muppet Central Forum, I have a thread in the WEB section, entitled "Sesame Street or Bust" - which makes sense.
I checked on it tonight, and low and behold some people actually responded! With some great questions asked by a couple of people, I have decided I should do my best to answer them.
And also, for those of you who want to know more background on me, and my love for puppetry, how I got into contact with Matt Vogel etc, I shall post a blog very soon on that. And, as I have stated, I will catch everyone up on how I've been chasing the goal so far. Being a new blog, I'm just trying to find my feet.

Question 1: Do you want to work for Sesame Workshop, JHC or The Muppets (owned now by Disney) Good question. As you can see by the title of the blog, it's "Sesame Street or Bust", which means ultimately I'd love to be working on that show as a puppeteer. I am of course not ruling out working with The Muppets, but that's not my prime goal at this time. As I mentioned in my last post, I went to the Sesame Street set in December of last year. I've always been a huge Muppet nerd, so being on the set was great in that respect. But I got a huge sense of "You know what? This is where I wanna be forever" after I'd looked behind the scenes, met the puppeteers and watched them work. PS - The episode I watched them film was the Y-Knights, you can see the episode description on the Sesame Workshop site.

Question 2: You mention being an Australian puppeteer. Are you based in Australia or have you moved overseas? I am based in Australia, I live about an hour out of Melbourne in Victoria. But I am more than happy to relocate for the duration of filming at my own expense to work for Sesame Street. The show films it's majority of scenes and sketches within around 12 weeks over November, part of December, January and February. As I said, I'd happily temporarily relocate, having enough time over the holidays to return for Christmas etc.

Question 3: Would you be content working for the Creature Workshop (on things such as the potential Farscape webisodes etc.) Yes and no. While yes, it'd be a fun experience and a great time, I'm more inclined to work with the Sesame Street catalogue. It's mainly my love and respect for Sesame Street and Jim Henson that leads me to want to work for them, and I have never been a huge fan of the Creature Shop products (although that is due to never really ever being exposed to them)

Question 4: Would you be willing to work for an international version of Sesame Street? Or just the American one? I'm not going to rule anything out at all. We have an Australian Muppet, Ollie, who hosts a few inserts on Nickelodeon, and I would happily work with a character like this, and perhaps heading to another country for a small time to work on their production, but as I've mentioned, I'd ultimately like to end up working for the American Sesame Street.

Question 5: What about digital puppetry, Henson's new 'toy'? It's a possibility. Working on shows such as Sid The Science Kid etc would surely be great practise and experience. As I said, I don't want to rule anything out at all!


So, that was Not So Frequently Asked Questions #1 - meaning that there will be more! I realize you guys need to get to know me so you can care about my goals, and I am more than happy to answer ANY questions you guys have what-so-ever. Someone has also asked can you see the audition tape? The answer, at the moment, is no. I will put up some screenshots of the tape though, and explain at some stage the tapes contents.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment, e-mail me (my e-mail address SHOULD be in my profile) or head on down to Muppet Central's Forum.
And a huge thanks to Ryan from The Muppet Mindset for linking to me!
Until next time (tomorrow I should assume)
Cheers
Jarrod