“Hey Everybody! Here is this week’s episode of In Like Cyn. Come into Jack Pullman’s puppet making workshop with me and hear some great Hollywood Hillbilly music too! Your ears will thank you!” – Cynthia Troyer
In Like Cyn – Season 1 Episode 12
Black Banty
with Jack Pullman
Published March 5, 2015
Get some of Jack Pullman’s Music here!
Check out more of Jack’s puppets — on Jack Pullman’s blog.
IN LIKE CYN – SEASON 1 – EPISODE 12
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In Like Cyn – Season 1 Episode 12
Black Banty
with Jack Pullman
Published to YouTube February 26, 2015
[KEY: Cyn: Cynthia Troyer; JP: Jack Pullman]
All Music used in this episode was created by Jack Pullman
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Cyn: Hello, hello and welcome to another episode of In Like Cyn. And today, we are visiting with Jack Pullman in his puppet lab. Let’s go to the puppet lab.
TITLE: Cynthia Troyer
TITLE: Black Banty
ANNOTATION: ALL MUSIC BY… JACK PULLMAN
TITLE: IN THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS
Cyn OS: So when you get a client and you need to conceptualize the pieces that you’re going to make, what kind of process do you go through with that?
JP: They usually know a certain amount about my skill set and what I’ve done in the past. They know that they’re not like going to get a muppet style puppet, or anything. Well let’s see I had a – had to make some shadow puppets for a show in Long Beach a couple of weeks ago.
CUT
JP: I had no idea what it was going to – look like behind the screen basically. And they gave me this real elaborate storyline after Romeo and Juliet takes place. Hypothetically that Romeo didn’t die as well that his poison was bunk. At the end he just couldn’t bring himself to kill himself again. And they just said they wanted a couple of – one Elizabethan and one Victorian era. So I was looking a lot at this. She’s a Balinese shadow puppet.
Cyn OS: Cool.
JP: That this guy made.
ANNOTATION: This show is all shot on my iPhone.
JP: And here we have a Japanese shadow puppet on the wall.
Cyn OS: Very ornate.
JP: Yeah. Of course, I didn’t use colored buffalo hide I just used cardboard. That style of really simplistic figures. I don’t know if you can see –
Cyn OS: Oh yeah.
JP: They don’t have a whole lot of range of movement. Because he’s like an older Romeo. And we’ve got the younger Romeo which is supposed to be Elizabethan style. And this one is a little more Victorian.
Cyn OS: A little more Victorian.
JP: I work a lot for the theater. Different theater companies. Primarily the Rogue Artist Ensemble. Most shows already have an aesthetic involved. A lot of them are trying to design within that aesthetic. I wish I had a good example — actually this was something I did for them. A bird. From a show. I didn’t make this, but I had to figure out how to make them more permanent and durable and they wanted to kinda keep the cartoon-y aesthetic but add more of a folklore-ic – ah folk art feel to it. And I used this material, this paper clay. A process of boiling newspaper, shredding newspaper, letting it soak, boiling it and then mixing it with wood glue. It’s sturdy. It’s just plywood and it gives it more a relief feel, and then using more browns and painting – that’s the process.
CUT
JP: Um, in working with the Rogue – um – I have an opportunity to work with a lot of great puppet builders. And LA – And a lot of members of the LA Guild of Puppetry. So I get to learn a lot of like – you know – there’s kinds of puppets that they don’t even have names for yet. They’re – you know – innovating new ways to make life-like movements and stuff, so. You know how there’s marionettes and glove puppets and rod puppets and whatnot, but – then there’s other things they haven’t come up with names for yet.
CUT
JP: I’ve been working on this cast of characters for a while. Starting over here… the light is.. paper clay… paper pulp. Paper clay. Um, and these I did back in North Carolina. Punch and Judy style. I did a Stagolee puppet show about the blues character Stagolee. He’s very similar to Punch in that he manages all of his displeasures with excessive violence. This guy – ah – He gets – basically sells his soul to the devil for this magic hat that he can – the magic Stetson.
CUT
JP: Everything he shows up in – it’s only to be shot.
Cyn [LAUGHS]
JP: These are stock characters of like commedia dell’arte and – you use the same characters to tell whole ranges of stories. This cast of characters. Kind of a Sasquatch man. But ah- he’s like a wiseman of the woods. Space man. The Devil’s Grandmother. She doesn’t have any clothes yet. A Princess character. Kind of one of the Gods, in space time. Space Alien. El Muerte. A Jedi figure, I’m not even sure what’s his deal yet. And the sun. And I’m toying around with moving mouth puppets. The Alligator is an important character in the Punch & Judy world. Paper pulp. It’s a different process. So I – you got wood [SNAP] –
Cyn OS: Um hum.
JP: Just like plywood boards for the mouth and I built up around it and on top of it. Foam, and then mâché-ed over that and then sculpted and the pulp on top of that. And these are just foam. They can’t actually do any harm. And this is Clovis I did for a show – fund-raiser show – a singing cowboy act, ah harmonizing with a buzzard. Someone else is actually operating him. And I’m singing and playing the banjo. For a puppet company it’s called Feed The Puppets Fund-raiser. So as the singing cowboy I came in all heartbroken. I couldn’t keep a gal if it would save my life, and then my buzzard buddy comes in and he’s trying to control me and speaks about the girl. And convinces me that I shouldn’t – didn’t need a lady anymore. I can have puppets.
Cyn OS: So you say you’ve been working on this cast of characters – is there – do you have like an end – like have you written a puppet show that you’re going to put them all in, or – ?
JP: Yeah. Well, they’re theoretically available for any show that I might need. And this is the witch and football player.
CUT
JP: Yeah.
Cyn OS: So you’ve also been doing some little puppet movies, right?
\
JP: Um hum. Yeah. Yeah.
Cyn OS: Tell us about those without giving anything away – that shouldn’t be given away yet.
JP: I’m a big folklore – amateur folklorist that’s how my professor said I should say it because I was having trouble putting it into words but – yeah – Well specifically American Folklore – the stories that are all diluted stories from all around the world that come through, since we’re really like a mutt country. A timelessness –
RIPPLE CUT
JP: I usually have a – um – many projects going at the same time. It’s a bit of a dead zone, but I’m editing that music video with a puppet allegory. A timeless tale of finding what is important and transcending earthly lures and ultimately soaring through space on a rocket ship.
RIPPLE CUT
JP: For Evolution Vic I am making all of these that have a cosmic sensibility – even though it isn’t overtly about space travel – but a feeling of it. I’m making all of these bolo ties for merch to sell at concerts.
CUT
JP: This is another thing in the works for a couple of months. You know, I do like a thing or two on him every now and again. Slowly he’s coming together.
CUT
JP: Yeah, that’s the un –
Cyn OS: This is more like the classic papier mâché.
JP OS: Yeah.
Cyn OS: And then this what you call –
JP OS: The paper pulp – yeah.
CUT
JP: All sorts of fun scary things – and give out – basically the assignment was – the clue they had for the design was Dick Tracy villain.
RIPPLE CUT
JP: And this – things that aren’t normally made into wearable objects.
RIPPLE CUT
JP: This is another commission.
CUT
JP: Kafka, trying through various occult means – he learns to make his bed fly.
RIPPLE CUT
JP: Super hero. Real cool.
Cyn OS: Oh cool, so she wears this on stage while she’s performing music?
JP: Yeah.
Cyn OS: That’s a totally cool cape, tho.
JP: Yeah.
RIPPLE CUT
Jack puts on a cockroach mask – scurries around like a cockroach – making COCKROACH SOUNDS.
JP: Traffic cones make a great tail.
CUT
Jack tries on a blue mask, then a tan mask and makes OLD MAN SOUNDS.
JP: I’ve been working for too long.
CUT
Jack puts on a robot mask.
JP: So she had the whole superhero thing going on and we were her robot army.
RIPPLE CUT
Cyn OS: And then you have a little bit of a second creative skill – and that’s music, right?
JP: Yeah.
Cyn: So we’re gonna listen to a little bit of Jack’s music. He’s going to play the banjo for us, and here we go –
JACK PULLMAN sings one of his original songs and plays banjo.
Cyn: Whoooohooo
JP: Thank you very much.
Cyn OS: Thanks for inviting me into your puppet lab, Jack, and getting an insight into your creative genius.
AMISH BUDDHA FILMWORKS
Cyn VO: Join me every Thursday for a new In Like Cyn.
OUTRO
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END TRANSCRIPT
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