Say, you know what we haven’t done around here lately? A run-down of Michael Jackson puppet acts!

Let’s get started after the jump…

#5 Scott Land’s Michael Marionette

Michael Jackson always seems to be a popular act for marionette puppeteers to spoof and with good reason. Have you ever tried to make a rod puppet moonwalk? (early in my career I had to and I don’t recommend it unless you have a lot of patience). Probably the best Michael marionette you’ll ever see is performed by Scott Land. He’s a really amazing, old school marionette puppeteer who does cabaret shows in the style of legends like Tony Sarg, Frank Paris and Rufus and Margo Rose (it probably helps that he studied under other marionette masters like Tony Urbano, Albrecht Roser and Phillip Huber).

I would love to see this live.

#4 Mini Michael

This is one of the smallest Michael marionettes I’ve seen and it’s performed by a puppeteer in (I think) Comoros, which in case you didn’t know is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa.

…and don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of Comoros before, I had to look it up on Wikipedia myself!

#3 Malaysian Michael

Another thing that Michael Jackson puppet acts seem to have in common is that they’re really popular in Latin America and Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines and Malaysia for reasons that I don’t completely understand). This act from a magic convention in Malaysia isn’t that great, but I give the performer full props for actually singing rather than just lip syncing to a prerecorded track.

#2 Terry-Fator-as-Michael

You know who doesn’t need to lip sync either? Terry Fator. Now intricate, complex manipulation isn’t really Terry’s thing (he’s more of a straight Ventriloquist/impressionist) but, who cares? Is there a better or funnier celebrity impressionist working in puppetry today? I seriously doubt it.

#1 Damon Scott’s Michael Monkey

Our last act is Damon Scott, who nearly won the first season of Britain’s Got Talent. This is a video of his first appearance on the show and watch how he actually makes Simon Cowell grin and laugh out loud. Just accomplishing that alone should win you a cool million on that show!

One of the most popular puppets on YouTube has got to be Achmed The Dead Terrorist, a creation of Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. Achmed is a brilliant idea for a character – even if Jeff’s humour is sometimes questionable (see previous post) – but what I think really makes audiences respond to Achmed is the way Jeff performs him, especially the way he creates the illusion of thought and focus.

Jeff’s performance of Achmed is pretty minimalist. He doesn’t do much with the puppet, but what he does he does incredibly well. When you watch the clip above, pay close attention to what Jeff does with Achmed’s head and eyes. Achmed’s focus is only on two things – Jeff and the audience – and he alternates between them with almost perfect timing.

Like most Ventriloquists, Jeff relies a lot on mechanisms in his puppets to get laughs and when he’s moving Achmed’s eyes or eyebrows to get a laugh he’ll usually keep the rest of the puppet very still. This is partially for practical reasons – it’s very difficult to operate multiple mechanisms simultaneously on most Vent figures – but also because by not moving the rest of the puppet the gag movement is exaggerated and draws a bigger laugh.

By making very specific choices about where Achmed looks, Jeff subtly communicates to his audience where their focus should be at any given moment in his act, like a magician masterfully misdirecting his audience on stage. Watch Jeff’s performances with a critical eye and I think you’ll learn a lot.

With all the worldwide media attention heaped on Susan Boyle during the latest season of Britain’s Got Talent, a really talented Ventriloquist on the show has somewhat overlooked – Gareth Oliver. He debuted on the show with a really unique act – throwing his voice while performing martial arts – and wowed the audience and judges with a spoof of badly dubbed Kung Fu movies. In the second round he switched gears and performed an opera-singing puppet named Pav (built by previous Britain’s Got Talent contestants the Gluvets). Gareth almost made it through to the finals and actually received enough public votes to get into the top three, but was cut when the judges had to break a tie between him and singer Shaun Smith.

Even though Gareth may not have won the competition, appearing on Britain’s Got Talent is already boosting his career. The website of E3 Group (the firm that represents Gareth in the UK) have reported record traffic on their site since his appearances and say that hundreds of people have been inquiring about his availability. He’ll also be making extensive promotional appearances for ITV in the UK, so it looks like it will be a happy ending for him after all.

I’m not sure when or how it happened, but a Ventriloquist has become America’s favourite comedian. At least that’s what Slate Magazine says about Jeff Dunham and they make a good case for it:

“Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special, which aired on Comedy Central in November, was the most-watched broadcast in the network’s history. His previous concert film, Spark of Insanity, got the best reviews of any DVD on Amazon.com in 2008. And according to the concert-industry watchers at Pollstar, Dunham was last year’s highest-grossing stand-up act in North America, with $19.2 million in tickets sold.”

Jeff recently did a video interview with Punchline Magazine (link via Ventriloquist Central). In it he explains that one of his keys to success was realizing early on that Ventriloquism by itself is a novelty act with limited appeal. He recognized that if he wanted to be successful he had to not just be a great Ventriloquist, but also a great comedian. There is an excellent lesson in that for all puppeteers; puppets on their own aren’t enough. If you perform live you have to be a great entertainer. If you produce puppet videos you have to be a great filmmaker.

Ultimately, puppetry is not so much about the puppets as it is about creating great characters and telling interesting, engaging and entertaining stories.

Just for the benefit of PuppetVision’s Canadian readers, here in the Great White North the Comedy Network will be airing ventriloquist Jeff Dunham’s holiday special Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special this Saturday, December 20th. Encore presentations are scheduled for December 22nd and 24-25, check your local listings for air times.

Jeff Dunham is one of the world’s leading Ventriloquists. He’s risen to fame on the internet largely because of his popular character Achmed The Dead Terrorist. If you haven’t seen Jeff before – or if you have and want to again – tonight is a great night to stay in and laugh. Comedy Central in the U.S. is running a Jeff Dunham marathon tonight featuring his TV specials Spark of Insanity, Arguing With Myself and Comedy Central Presents Jeff Dunham beginning at 9 p.m. (check your local listings).

You can also check out encores of his holiday special Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special Friday, December 19th at 9 p.m. and on Christmas Day at 7 p.m.

Via Ventriloquist Central.

Terry Fator might be about to lose the nice guy image he cultivated on America’s Got Talent last year. He’s being sued by his ex-manager John Raymond, who alleges that Terry is trying to avoid paying him an (estimated) $20 million commission on his huge Las Vegas contract. Raymond had a 5 year deal with Terry that wasn’t set to expire until 2010, but he claims Terry found him “too nice” and fired him because he needed a manager who was “a bastard.” None of the allegations have been proven in court.

It’s not unusual for entertainers to fire the managers who helped them get started once they finally reach “the big time” for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the huge commissions their managers earn (it’s also not unusual for managers to sue once they’ve been kicked to the curb). Although though Terry has a $100 million contract to play Las Vegas, by the time income tax is deducted and the lawyers, agents and managers get paid (or not) he’s probably only keeping about 25 cents of every dollar he earns. It’s also worth noting that according to the lawsuit documents, Raymond was taking a 20% commission from Terry, which seems a little excessive (the industry norm is usually 10-15% and it’s actually illegal for an agent to charge more than that in some jurisdictions).

I guess if nothing else, you really know you’re a famous puppeteer when gossip sites like TMZ start giving you coverage.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist is huge on YouTube. Seriously.

Occasionally (like once every few months) I do a quick search on YouTube to see what the most popular puppet video is. I checked yesterday and was surprised to discover that it’s a clip of Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Achmed is a bearded skeleton with a turban that seems to be have become of one of veteran Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham’s most popular characters. In the last year or so the crazy little guy has racked up well over 50 million views on YouTube.

I first saw clips of Jeff performing Achmed late last year and to be perfectly honest I didn’t post them here because while I admit I laughed really hard at some of it, I thought it was an act that skirts line the line between humour and racism (and occasionally crosses it). But while I found some of the act a little distasteful, Lindsay Campbell seems really offended by it, calling it “a fear mongering depiction of Muslim culture,” and has been devoting time to the issue on the popular video podcast MOBlogic:

So is Achmed really racist, really funny or a little bit of both?

Audiences like to be able to laugh at something that scares them and terrorism – to borrow a phrase from Achmed – scares the crap out of most Americans. At the risk of over-analyzing, I think that by embodying terrorism in the form of a funny little wisecracking skeleton Jeff gives his audience permission to laugh at their fears and make light of serious subjects like Muslim extremism and the war in Iraq. It also helps that Jeff Dunham is one of (if not the) most talented Ventriloquists in the world today and the act is, you know, pretty funny.

The mistake that Jeff makes with Achmed – or at least what leaves him vulnerable to criticism of being racist – is that some of the humour is about (and reinforces) racial stereotypes instead of the character. Achmed’s a funny puppet with some great catch phrases (“Silence! I kill you!”, “Holy crap!”, “You racist bastard!”, etc.) and the war of terror is a prime target for satire so there’s no need for Jeff to resort to lame Arabic/flem jokes to get his act over with a crowd. Those are cheap laughs and Jeff Dunham too talented a performer to have to resort to them, especially when he’s got a concept like Achmed that’s so loaded with potential.

You can learn what other people have to say about this in the video responses to Lindsay’s MOBlogic video (seen above) on YouTube.

Terry Fator – the amazingly talented Ventriloquist/impressionist who won the reality TV series/talent show America’s Got Talent last year (see previous post) – has just signed a deal that’s reportedly worth $100 million over the next five years. Terry will be performing nightly at The Mirage Casino and Resort in Las Vegas in a theatre that will be named after him. The deal is reported to include an optional extension of another five years, which makes the entire deal worth over $200 million. That’s two hundred million dollars. Not too shabby for a puppeteer who not so long ago was playing half-empty shows at county fairs.

Terry recently appeared on Oprah with Simon Cowell, who called him “two of the most talented people on the planet. You can catch him on TV again tonight; he’s scheduled to perform as a guest on The Late Show With David Letterman.

If you’re not too busy trimming trees and decking halls over the holidays here’s some fun Christmas puppet stuff to check out:

• The final installments of the Save Xmas Now podcast have been posted. You can check out all of them here. Also, the stars of Save Xmas Now helped Henson.com Podcast host Grant Baciocco last week with his 2007 Advent Calendar Podcast (thanks to Sean for sending this in).

• Ventriloquist Terry Fator (see previous post) has posted some special Christmas videos on his web site (via Newsy Vents).
• Duck Walks in to a Bar has some Christmas greetings to share in typical, not-safe-for-work fashion (thanks to Kevin S. for writing in with this).
• Some Rockin’ Holiday Greetings from Paul.
• Tough Pigs live blogged Elmo’s Christmas Countdown, the Sesame Street Christmas special that aired on ABC in the U.S. last night.
• Chase Woolner – the awesome teenage puppeteer who runs a great little puppet club at Canton High School in Canton, Michigan – teamed up with some other people in his school to produce a video they call A Non-denominational Holiday Dinner.
• Gloomy Roomies has posted part two of their Nightmare After Christmas holiday special.

Posting will probably be a little light here for the next week or so, but if this wasn’t enough holiday cheer for you then try browsing PuppetVision’s posts of Christmas past for great holiday videos and links that have been featured here previously.

Merry Christmas everybody!