this my 5 minute review of FREAK NATURE puppets ! i live in los angeles now and I haven’t done much with this blog since i moved.
I saw them perform tonight! i really cranked it on my bike home to keep up with Jimmy and Jessica on their tandem, and i just had this idea and now am following through with it.
the show was fun and cool and weird, and made me want to be a clown puppet FREAK. i think im close, but like not all the way.
My big takeaway from the show was: when you have an idea but its kinda half baked and doesn’t like ‘tie it all together’ , or it doesnt ‘make sense’ you should just do it. and play it off like WHO CARES!
There was a bug that fell in love with a hand that was trying to swat it. I’m not sure why they kinda spontaneously fell in love after being in a fight, but i hope that was the point. then the bug died, the hand was sad and almost killed itself but then couldnt do it. THE END!
The robot’s girlfriend was killed in the plane crash, she was the propellor. Savy the robot needed to get back on the scene because he/she/they were ‘desperately single’ (so said the flight attendant / amusement park ride attendant) . Kiss cam and ‘kiss me’ by sixpence none the richer played. robo kissed audience member, but no chemistry! Then randomly another robot showed up and they fell in love. why not!
spinning head guy’s crank arm (cornelius rankman or crankman) was cursed to forever spin, but he stopped spining and the world kept going.
Its so fun to tap into that totally uninhibited side and just go with it and it doesnt matter if it makes sense or was not thought out all the way, doesnt have a poetic ending (or an ending at all!)
Fabulous review and superb takeaway! We should all be less afraid to execute inconclusive crazy creations and puppetry is a great medium for practicing doing that bc at the end of the day, even if the “plot” is “lost” (or nonexistent) the audience still gets to see funky puppets getting it awwwn, which is a more premium form of sit down-and-watch entertainment than 99.9% of the other options out there. Plus puppets sometimes go rogue and engage with audience members, which criterion collection simply cannot offer!
I am cursed to Crank 🙁