Three Men who inspired me to get into puppetry

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on the reasons why I became involved in puppetry. There are a lot, but today I’d like to focus on the people who inspired me to give it a try: Jim Henson, my son Josh, and Adam Kreutinger.

So, everybody knows Jim Henson. He created the Muppets, and I grew up watching Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, numerous other Muppet movies, the Fraggles . . .the list goes on. These shows sparked a lot of imagination in my brain, but up until I was 48 years old the thought never crossed my mind that I should pick up a puppet and give it a try.

One of the things that I loved to do any chance I got while I was with Josh during his last three years alive was to make him laugh. It wasn’t hard to do, even with everything that had happened to him, or happening to him at the time and the odds he faced he always kept a good attitude. He had a better attitude than I even did. Inside, I was super angry and sad that all of this was happening to him, but I knew I had to stay upbeat for him, and he made that easy with his positive attitude.

What was I writing about? Oh yeah, puppets. After Josh passed away, I knew that I needed a new way to express myself. I had been watching a lot of YouTube and starting to think that maybe I should try starting a YouTube channel. It was the summer when I decided to order my first puppet. My family gave me a $100 Amazon gift card for Father’s Day, and while I had looked at a number of things that looked cool, finally I decided that I needed to get something that was totally different. And, I think I needed a hobby that maybe Josh would have fun with, but that was completely brand-new so it didn’t directly remind me of him. And, it is a true and tested fact that people have a hard time being sad around puppets. I found that performing with a puppet helped me because I could express a wide range of emotions through the puppet even though I might not have felt them all at the time.

So, when I’m working on a puppet video, I ask myself it it would have made Josh laugh, and I think they would have. If not, he might have frowned and shook his head, and these days I would settle even for that. I also make them for Elijah, who is currently my biggest fan and critic.

As I was deciding which puppet I should get with my $100, I started to do research on the world of puppetry, because I knew that getting a puppet would just be the beginning of a longer process. I discovered a puppetry community on Reddit via a search, and one of the posts mentioned Adam Kreutinger, a youtuber who had produced a huge library of video tutorials talking about building puppets, and the techniques for performing with puppets, all of the exact information that I was looking for.

But, that was around the time that Adam announced that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer. For me, I knew what that could mean because my son had brain cancer. I joined Adam’s group on Facebook, and I watched a number of his videos. I’m don’t have the skills to build a puppet, but I found his lessons on how to build to be fascinating.

Eventually, I ordered my first puppet and applied what I learned from Adam. Two years later and I’m still exploring puppetry, trying new things, and turning back to Adam’s videos for tips.

I also followed updates on Adam’s health and noted the similarities with my son’s story. I prayed that things would turn out better. Last week, Adam Kreutinger passed away. I only knew him through his YouTube videos and published articles, but the world has lost a first-class teacher, artist, and puppeteer. And I send my condolences to Adam’s family.

Life is a bit like one continuous train ride. People board as they enter our lives, and then when its their stop they get off. It can be sad, but, what matters is the time you spend together. Jim Henson definitely left his mark on the world, and I’ll cherish the time that my son was in my life. And I’m grateful for the helpful nudge via YouTube from Adam which helped me to get started in puppetry.