The Magnificent Muppenators: May 2015

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Muppeteer Adventures, Part 2

Welcome back to my Muppeteer Adventures blog post series. Today, I want to share my interview with Peter Linz. This interview took place at the Beyond the Sock workshop finale on May 23rd. Peter was really funny and did you know that he has twin daughters? I'm a twin, too (in case you didn't already know that)!

So, here's the summarized interview ...

Ruby: How did you get involved with Jim Henson?
Peter: I watched Sesame Street when I was little and I always wanted to work for him.
{And then, we started talking about Sesame Street and how we both grew up with it and then I went on the next question.}

Ruby: How did the creation of Walter begin?
Peter: Actually, Walter was the inspiration of Jason Segel. Jason wrote The Muppets movie, along with Nick Stoller. Jason Segel's first puppet's name was Walter.

Ruby: What's it like being a Muppeteer?
Peter: It is a dream come true. I wanted to be a Muppeteer since I was 10 years old.
{And then we talked about how I want to be a Muppeteer, too, and Peter said that there aren't very many girl Muppeteers and that I could maybe come up with a character of my own!}

Ruby: Which Muppets are your favorites?
Peter: Well, growing up with Sesame Street, I always loved Cookie Monster. And on the Muppet Show, I loved Animal and Crazy Harry.

Coming up, my interview with Noel MacNeal! Stay tuned.

If you met Peter Linz, what would you ask him. *Comment below!

*comments are moderated and may take some time to appear on the blog

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Muppeteer Adventures, part 1

Yesterday I went to the University of North Texas in Denton for the final performance of the Beyond the Sock puppet workshop and guess who was there?

Peter Linz & Noel MacNeal!

Beyond the Sock is a five day puppet workshop. This is the third year for the workshop. This year, the theme is monkey puppets. All the participants made their own monkey puppet! Then, they learned to puppeteer on camera. I got to attend the final workshop performance. I'll tell you more about that later. Peter Linz and Noel MacNeal and some other people were the teachers.

Peter and Noel were the emcees. They used lots of different puppets in between the acts. It was really awesome to see them perform!

AND.....

This is how I felt last night
⬇️

... Let's just say, I felt like Walter meeting the Muppets.