For a long time I’ve thought that there are two types of puppeteers.

The first kind of puppeteer is the technical puppeteer. Technical puppeteers approach puppetry from the outside in. They concern themselves with the mechanics of the art form like creating realistic movement, proper eye focus, perfect lip-sync, etc. Character work often comes much harder to technical puppeteers because they have a movement-based, rather than emotion-based approach to their work.

The other kind of puppeteers are emotional puppeteers. Emotional puppeteers work the opposite way, starting on the inside with a character, thought or idea. Emotional puppeteers tend to be fun to watch even if they’re not technically very good puppeteers because they make a connection with their audience first and technical details are a secondary consideration.

There’s a great quote from an interview Ronnie Burkett gave a few years ago where he sort of alludes to the idea of technical vs. emotional puppetry:

“When I was younger, I really wanted to show technique to the audience, thinking that would make me some kind of virtuoso. And then I realized, all that does is makes you a virtuoso and clever. So if I can get beyond where I have to go and how many lines I have to memorize and what puppet walks in where, then I get to actually just act the thing. I get to focus on what it’s saying and time it and breath it so it appears that they’re thinking it for the first time. If I’m above the technique enough that the technique doesn’t even show, then I can go there. I can actually be those characters.”

Personally, I consider myself more of a technical than emotional puppeteer, but I believe it’s the emotional puppeteers who are ultimately capable of giving better performances. While almost any reasonably coordinated person can learn the technical aspects of puppetry with enough practice, it’s the emotional aspects that I think can’t really be taught. The same is equally true for actors, writers and comedians. You either have it or you don’t.

Of course few puppeteers actually fit perfectly in to either category, but most of us do tend to gravitate towards one approach or the other.

Those of you who are interested in this idea may want to read Michael Sporn’s very similar theory about animators.