That
Christmas my wife Vicki got me a book called hand puppet magic by Ian Adair and
it gave me loads of ideas from set ups to routines which really helped me
decide on everything I was going to do.
The next
thing to decide on was where I was going to get a rabbit puppet from, I had a
look on Google and lots of versions came up but they were children’s toys and
didn’t look how I imagined it would. They were also not practical and too
small. For a while I considered getting a wooden head version like in Punch and
Judy but decided to keep the two separate. I asked friends in the entertainment
business and they recommended a few puppet makers and let me tell you a professional
puppet is not cheap. Yes, it is made of just material but it is a specialised
skill, I got quoted £2701 by one maker. I looked around and came across two
people whose puppets stood out to me their work was unique and I liked that, they
were professional and friendly. Sadly, one was out of my price range so went
with the other company but I didn’t regret it.
Here is an example of why collecting puppets can be an expensive hobby. This Fizzgig puppet from Jim Henson's Labyrinth sold in the region of £8,000 - 10,000
What was this character going to look like?
I already had a cartoon rabbit on my website and promotional material. At the
time I needed something that said I did magic in an image so drew a rabbit in a
hat simple. I gave the designer this picture as a starting point and told him a
few specific things I wanted the puppet to have and left him to it. The maker
kept me up to date on the building process because I am intrigued in how it is
all done and after a few trial and errors on his side it was done. Now I am
getting excited.
While the puppet was being made I held a
competition on my Prof Dan Facebook page to try and find a name for this new
character one of the suggestions was Mr Cuddles but in the end we went with
Coco short and simple. Now all we had to do was wait for him to arrive.
Entertainer
Professor Dan Slater
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