Punching Nuns and other fighting puppets

Posted by hil

Now it looks to me as if my fighter pens might be part of a longer tradition:

If you google for boxing puppets, the one that comes up most often is the Punching Nun. I suppose there is something intrinsically funny about peacable or unlikely figures fighting. The punching nun and similar puppets – and there are a bunch of them – are bigger than the fighter pens, being about 30cm tall. They also have a springy neck so that they appear to duck and weave as they box. I haven’t seen one to look at closely, but here is a nice discripton from American Science and Surplus:

‘Maggie In A Habit
AKA “The Fighting Nun”. A nun puppet in full habit with two arms ending in boxing gloves. The puppet is mounted on a stick which you can hold in your hand (dare we say under her habit??) leaving two fingers free to work the controls for the spring mounted arms. A flick of the finger and she unleashes a swift left or right jab, fighting for the right!! We know she is fighting for the right, because under the habit is the face of Maggie Thatcher, as you can tell if you peek. Seems a manufacturer got stuck with the doll mold and a zillion heads just when she was ousted as PM. An entrepreneur bought up the works and created the fighting nun. Somehow, we think Maggie would approve. As will you.’

Where you find the Punching Nun, you are likely to also find these versions: the Devil, a Rabbi, and an Amish, and, less commonly, skeleton, alien, dinosaur, and kangaroo punching puppets. There are also a couple of punching puppets related to the “Lunar” gaming series, anime figures called Ghaleon and Alex (links not available anymore). And these punching puppets are being sold as items to go in a photographer’s bag of tricks to make people smile. Perhaps they are Moe and Curly from The Three Stooges?

The Punching Abe Lincoln puppet is not the only punching politician. Here is Ronald Reagan duking it out with Mr.T. Mr. T and Rocky from the film Rocky III appear as a set, too.

Going back further, it looks as if this idea may have originated with puppets of real boxers. A few weeks ago Ebay sold a set of Mohammad Ali and Howard Cosell boxing puppets for US$19.99, described as follows:

“The puppets have a company logo that appears to be the letters S.Y.C. (the Y might be a V) inside an oval, and they are marked Made In Hong Kong. I cant find a date on these toys, but they appear to be younger versions of both men. They are wearing boxing gloves and have on red robes with white rope sashes. Iside the robes are two levers to control the punching action. Both of these puppets are in excellent condition, with very little, if any wear, although there is a bit of on the ends of the rope sashes. The boxing action on both puppets is in great working condition. As stated above, I am not sure of the name of the manufacturer of these puppets or when they were made, but if you are a boxing fan and remember the friendly antagonism between Ali and Cosell, you should appreciate and value these unique collectibles.”

And at Mr.Punch’s Old Toys, there is a 1970’s African-American boxer punching puppet, ‘undoubtedly inspired by boxing legends such as Ali and Frazier’.

And what directions for the future of punching puppets? The Character Shop mentions the Duracell boxers characters created for a Duracell commercial, which have animatronic movements of heads and arms.

And The Intelligent Machines Design Lab has a page of final papers decribing an intreguing range of robots. One of these details ‘Sister Roboto’, a robot designed by Phillip Thomas, which uses a punching nun mechanism which has ‘servos to position it for optimal punching’. ‘It seeks out targets in need of a pummeling and attempts to destroy them by punching them repeatedly until they are knocked over’. If she is successful in knocking over her target ‘ she celebrates by spinning around, if she is unsuccessful she shakes back and forth’ before moving on the find another target.’

Kangaroo Boxing Pens

Posted by hil

A few months back someone gave me two kangaroo boxing pens. They are unwieldy to write with of course, but as gag puppets they are fun and surprisingly well made. They have two levers in the back which you operate with your thumb, so the kangaroo can box with each arm individually.

Now these aren’t the only fighting pens on the market!

For a start, these relatives of my kangaroos don’t look as amiable as mine. They have more arm muscle, and if they didn’t have such long ears could be mistaken for dingos. But they do have see-through torsos, and it would be cool to be able to see the mechanism working inside without having to take it apart. (Been there done that, broken pen). And they come in brown, russet, grey and tan.

Then today I discovered that my pens are part of a larger family of fighter pens made by My Chance, a Taiwanese company ‘devoted to plastic injection items, all in-house manufactured’. Take the link to pages 2, 3, and 4 of their pens section, and you strike gold :-P! I had seen the frog and smilie (they call it a ‘ha-ha’) before, in this clip of them doing battle. But there are also squadrons of fighting pig pens, horse pens, unicorn pens, and hippo pens! Most are available with round pen caps, or caps which look like shoes. Possibly even more exotic, there are Halloween pumpkin, ghost and witch fighter pens, and Christmas elk, Santa and snowman fighter pens. For peace on earth, presumeably.

Hiram Terrazzo’s Lounge of Leisure

Posted by hil

Some new season’s dates for Hiram Terrazzo’s Lounge of Leisure, which features puppetry, magic, music, site acts and kooky acts:

New seasons dates : Fridays 19th March, 23rd April, 21st May, 18th June 2004
Where : Dante’s Fitzroy, cnr Gertrude and Napier, Fitzroy, Melbourne
Show starts : 8.30pm

Mention this poster for a smile and a wave at the door.

Puppet making workshops with Gary Friedman

Posted by hil

Gary Friedman, who is an internationally renowned producer, director and puppet performer, with over 30 years of experience working on educational puppetry programs throughout Africa, Canada, Australia and Europe, is running some puppet making workshops in the middle of the year.

Gary has conducted puppetry and visual theatre workshops in a number of interactive environments. In the early 1980s, he produced and performed socio-political live performance satires such as Puppets Against Apartheid. He is also known for his puppetry programs, such as Puppets Against Aids, Puppets in Prison, Puppets for Democracy, Puppets Against Corruption, and Puppets Against Abuse. In 1994, he formed African Puppet Television, and later developed and co-produced a children’s educational series, in six local languages, in which he performed a character that travelled the country discovering children and their cultures throughout South Africa. Gary immigrated to Australia in 2002 and is now based at the Seymour Theatre, University of Sydney.

In collaboration with AFTRS, FTI, and Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, Gary will be conducting workshops in Fremantle, WA, from 5-9 May 2004. These include workshops on Puppetry-in-Health, Education and Community Development and an Introductory Workshop on Puppetry for Television.

Gary will also be holding a Puppetry-for-Television Workshop during June and July 2004 at the Seymour Theatre, University of Sydney.

Details of these programs can be found at Unima Australia, or by contacting Gary:

Gary Friedman Productions : Seymour Theatre,
University of Sydney, PO Box 1125, Bondi Junction, NSW 1355, Australia
Office : 02-9351.7948
Mobile : +61-401-038.985
Email : gary@africanpuppet.com
Web : africanpuppet.com

Kinetic sculptures : ‘Wood that Works’

Posted by hil

Wood that Works is a portfolio of beautiful wooden kinetic sculptures by David C. Roy who works out of Ashford, Connecticut. My favourite is Variations, but there is something about the unexpected timing in Migration, that is very attractive too. Each of the sculptures is powered by a constant force or Negator spring which you wind up to start the motion, and the movement lasts from 2 to 18 hours, depending on the sculpture.

Roy recommends one book for its great mechanism drawings: Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown (copyright 1868, 1896). Actually, I like its full title from the seventeenth edition of 1893 even better:

“Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements, Embracing All Those Which Are Most Important In Dynamics, Hydraulics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Steam Engines, Mill and other Gearing, Presses, Horology, and Miscellaneous Machinery: and including Many Movements Never Before Published and Several Which Have only Recently Come into Use”

Starr Kempf’s Wind Sculptures

Posted by hil

A net friend of mine pointed me to Starr Kempf’s amazing steel wind sculpures which are in a canyon out of Colorado Springs. These are kinetic too, and while the canyon is sheltered, they do set up a hum at times.

Zarafamania

Posted by hil

The ‘true story of a young Giraffe’s travels to France in 1826’ byline in the Sydney Puppet Theatre’s flyer for their show Z for Giraffe piqued my curiousity. Amazon lists four books telling the story of the giraffe, who was called Zafara. Two are picture books for 4 to 8 year olds: The King’s Giraffe by Mary Jo Collier and Peter Colier, and The Giraffe that Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton. (Incidentally, I wonder why the latter is commanding prices between US$100 and US$200?). A Giraffe for France by Leith Hillard, is for children a little older, 9 to 12.

Zarafa: A Giraffe’s True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris by Michael Allin seems to be the most complete account of how Zafara (a present from the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt intended to distract King Charles X while Egyptian forces invaded Greece) took France by storm, causing Zafaramania, as this review of Allin’s book by Leonard Gill relates:

‘Parisians, being Parisians, immediately saw spots, on textiles, wallpaper, crockery, soap, even furniture, and went to extended lengths to capture her profile in everything from topiary to coiffure. With hair piled fashionably high a la Girafe, women took to the floor to fit themselves and their towering creations inside carriages, and men took to learning the intricacies of tying the “giraffique” cravat to go with their “giraffique” hats. “Belly of Giraffe,” “Giraffe in love,” and “Giraffe in exile” were the season’s colors. And that winter, a new strain of influenza, “Giraffe flu,” hit the city.’

(The price for copies of this one starts at US$0.95 …)

Gardner Puppet Theatre

Posted by hil

In Victoria people are doing individual things to celebrate World Puppetry Day this year. Lorrie Gardner, Australian president of UNIMA, has received some coverage in a local paper for the day and her plans to celebrate it:

Maroondah Leader, March 16, 2004 : Puppeteers have own special day

“Ringwood East puppeteer, Lorrie Gardner, says next week’s World Puppetry Day will be a celebration of puppetry and its contribution to the arts. Gardner, the Australian president of the Union International de la Marionette, said the day aimed to raise awareness of puppetry.

“The idea is to call attention to the art form of puppetry to the general public,” Gardner said.

Gardner, who has been involved in the field for more than 30 years, said the world puppetry day would grow. “This is only the second year we’ve had the World Puppetry Day, so it’s just getting started,” Gardner said. “Last year, unfortunately on the day, we went to war so it overshadowed it.”

To celebrate the event, Gardner will perform on Monday, March 22 at Catjump Pre-school, Doncaster. For further details on World Puppetry Day phone 9870 8998.”

Sydney Puppet Theatre: ‘Z for Giraffe’

Posted by hil

Sydney Puppet Theatre is presenting performances of Z for Giraffe to celebrate World Puppetry Day. The shows will be at The Rocks Puppet Cottage, on Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st March at 11am, 12:30pm and 2pm.

‘Z for Giraffe’ is based on the true story of a young Giraffe’s travels to France in 1826. There will also be short demonstrations of puppets that families can make at home. Over the last few weeks SPT has been advertising the day at the Cottage and encouraging kids to make their own puppets. They have been asked to bring their puppets to show when next they visit.

Contact : Sydney Puppet Theatre, P.O Box 520, PETERSHAM NSW 2049, tel/fax 02 9550 6457