Larrikin Puppets has been part of Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of The Jim Henson Company at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane this year, and being surrounded by Henson’s work has had us thinking back over the Henson-related experiences that have shaped our own puppetry journey. One of the most memorable was a trip to Wellington, New Zealand in April 2018 for The Jim Henson Retrospectacle, which as far as we can tell has never been recorded anywhere on this website. Wellington wasn’t where it started, though. Two years earlier, in 2016, we spent three months in the United States on an extended period of professional development, and there is a clear thread running from that trip, through Wellington, to where we find ourselves in Brisbane now. With Henson’s work on display in our home state, it seemed like the right time to tell the whole story properly.
2016: Three months of puppetry in the USA
In 2016 I (Brett Hansen) set out on an extended professional development journey through the USA, with Elissa joining me for much of it. We based ourselves in New York City for the full three months, and from there we made two trips that became highlights of the journey: a week in Denton, Texas for an advanced puppetry intensive, and a week in Los Angeles to spend time with two puppeteers whose work we admired. Along the way we trained, performed, attended puppetry events and met professional puppeteers working across television, film and theatre.
Our home base in New York was The Puppet Kitchen in Manhattan, where we trained and rehearsed under Michael Schupbach, who has worked with Sesame Street and The Jim Henson Company. The Puppet Kitchen was a busy hub for professional puppeteers, puppet makers and designers, and it was a great place to learn from people working at a very high level. Our time in New York wasn’t all training either. We performed with Troggg and friends at the Puppetry Arts Festival of Brooklyn and went to a whole range of puppetry and Henson-related events, including screenings at the Museum of the Moving Image and events at Kaufman Astoria Studios (where they film Sesame Street).
Morning with the Muppets
On 21 May 2016 we attended “Morning with the Muppets” at Milk Studios in Chelsea as part of the Vulture Festival. The event featured a panel discussion and Q&A with Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson, along with demonstrations and puppetry involving Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear and Animal. At the time Steve was performing Kermit, while Eric was performing characters including Fozzie Bear and Animal, and it was fascinating to watch them work and hear them talk about bringing those characters to life.
We brought Troggg along with us, and it led to a moment we still enjoy telling people about. We had the chance to briefly meet Steve Whitmire that day, and during our short conversation he had a look at Troggg, reached out and fluffed up his fur, and suggested that he should be shaggier rather than neatly groomed. It was a brief interaction, but it was the kind of small piece of professional feedback that sticks with you, and it became even more interesting later in the trip, which I’ll come to shortly. We didn’t manage to get a photograph together, so there is sadly no picture to go with that particular memory.
We also got to see Eric Jacobson perform in person, and Morning with the Muppets was the first of two occasions on this journey when we saw him perform his characters (which are largely characters originated by Frank Oz) live. The second was two years later in Wellington. We were in the same room as Eric both times, but we never got the chance to meet him personally.
Avenue Q
Back in the New York theatre scene, we were given a backstage tour of “Avenue Q” at New World Stages, Off-Broadway, by Henson puppeteer Ben Durocher. Ben was performing Princeton and Rod in the production and went on to complete a remarkable 1,300-performance run in those roles. Seeing the puppets, sets and backstage areas from the performers’ side, rather than just from the audience, was a real highlight.
A week at Beyond the Sock in Denton, Texas
Later in the trip we spent a week at the University of North Texas in Denton for “Beyond the Sock”, an advanced intensive puppetry workshop. There I received formal training under Martin P. Robinson (aka Marty Robinson), and Noel MacNeal, both highly experienced puppeteers who have worked extensively with Sesame Street and The Jim Henson Company. Marty is particularly known for performing Telly Monster and Mr. Snuffleupagus, while Noel is known for performing Bear in Bear in the Big Blue House. We also received puppet construction training from Pasha Romanowski of Project Puppet and The Moe Show. It was exactly what I had been looking for, because instead of learning puppetry from books and videos, I was working directly with people who had spent decades performing and building puppets professionally.
Something happened there that brought Morning with the Muppets right back to mind. Marty Robinson had a look at Troggg, fluffed up his fur, and suggested that he should be shaggier. It was almost exactly the advice Steve Whitmire had given us in New York earlier in the trip, and neither of them knew about the other’s suggestion. Two puppeteers who had each worked with Jim Henson himself, meeting Troggg in different cities and on separate occasions, had instinctively come to the same conclusion about our character.
A week in Los Angeles
The other big trip from our New York base was a week in Los Angeles, where we spent time with Grant Baciocco and Russ Walko, both experienced puppeteers and makers who have worked on numerous Henson productions, including “The Happytime Murders”. Both of them were generous enough to show us where they work, so we visited Grant’s office and studio and Russ’s studio, and seeing the spaces where so many puppet characters are created and performed was an amazing experience. It was great to see how Grant and Russ approached their craft.
We also made the trek out to The Jim Henson Company in Hollywood one day. The company wasn’t offering tours at that time, so we didn’t go inside, but we got a few photographs of Troggg standing in front of the Kermit statue out front, which was a fun way to mark the visit.
By the time we flew home we had spent three months immersed in professional puppetry, and we carried all of that experience back to Australia with us.
2018: The Jim Henson Retrospectacle in Wellington
In April 2018, Wellington hosted “The Jim Henson Retrospectacle”, a major celebration of Jim Henson’s life and work organised by Square Eyes Film Foundation and The Jim Henson Legacy. The program included film screenings, workshops, masterclasses and discussions, plus two major concerts at the Michael Fowler Centre featuring the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Bret McKenzie (from Flight of the Conchords, and songwriter for the films ‘The Muppets’ and ‘Muppets Most Wanted’) and characters from The Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock. We travelled over from Australia for the final week, and Frazzamatazz, our green monster with an orange nose and wild purple ostrich-feather hair, came along with us.
One of the first events we attended was This Frog: A Kermit Kompilation at the Embassy Theatre, a collection of Kermit the Frog appearances spanning his history from Sam and Friends through to Sesame Street and The Muppets. Kermit had been part of Jim Henson’s work from the 1950s until the late 1980s, and continues in newer productions and appearances to this day, so it was wonderful to sit in a cinema and watch that history unfold. Frazzamatazz enjoyed it too. Haha!
The main event was The Jim Henson Retrospectacle concert at the Michael Fowler Centre, where the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Bret McKenzie and a cast of Henson puppeteers brought characters from The Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock to life on stage with monitors and screen projection. It was funny, moving and magical, and it was a thrill to watch characters we had known for years being performed live on stage by the people who had worked with them on TV and film. We also saw Eric Jacobson perform again, which made it the second time we had watched him performing live after Morning with the Muppets in New York two years earlier, although we still didn’t get the opportunity to meet him personally.
Something unexpected happened afterwards. A number of people in the foyer wanted to meet Frazzamatazz. I didn’t want to steal any thunder from the Henson puppeteers, so I made it clear that we were visiting from Australia and that Frazzamatazz was not part of the cast, but people had just watched a spectacular puppet production and were keen to meet a puppet up close. Children and adults lined up for photographs, and some of those pictures later appeared on Instagram, including ones taken by New Zealand children’s author Liz Donnelly. It was a lovely moment that we certainly hadn’t planned.
Celebrating Jim Henson at Te Papa
The final event of the Retrospectacle was held the following day at Te Papa. The Celebrating Jim Henson panel brought together people who knew and worked closely with Jim Henson, including Arthur Novell, who was his public relations manager for much of his career, and Bonnie Erickson, the puppet designer, builder and creative director whose work includes The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. Craig Shemin, a former Jim Henson Company writer and President of The Jim Henson Legacy, was there too, alongside Karen Prell (best known for Red Fraggle), Carmen Osbahr (best known for Rosita on Sesame Street) and Dave Goelz, the puppeteer behind Gonzo and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. Sitting in that room and hearing people who had actually known Jim talk about his life and career was fascinating.
When the panel finished, everyone involved in the Retrospectacle mingled around the room, and that was when we got to meet several of the puppeteers. We met Matt Vogel, Peter Linz, Carmen Osbahr, Jeremy Dillon and Karen Prell. Matt performs Kermit the Frog to this day, along with The Count, Floyd Pepper and Big Bird. Peter performs Ernie and Herry Monster on Sesame Street and Walter in The Muppets films, and Carmen is the performer behind Rosita, among many other roles. Jeremy is a New Zealand puppeteer known for “The Moe Show”, and at the Retrospectacle he was also an additional puppeteer performing Grover, Sam the Eagle and some flying bats above The Count. He was kind enough to give Elissa a stuffed toy of Moe from The Moe Show.
Karen Prell and Frazzamatazz
Then there was Karen Prell. She is best known for performing Red Fraggle in Fraggle Rock, and her work also includes The Muppet Show, Sesame Street and Labyrinth, where she performed characters including the Junk Lady, Firey 2 and the Worm. When Karen saw Frazzamatazz she said how great he looked and pointed out that he had Fraggle hair. Hearing that from the puppeteer who actually performed Red Fraggle was a very special moment. We got a photograph of Elissa and me with Karen and Frazzamatazz, and it remains one of our favourite photos from the trip.
A thread through the years
Looking back, there is a lovely little thread running through these stories. In New York, Steve Whitmire fluffed up Troggg’s fur. In Texas, Marty Robinson did the same. In Wellington, Karen Prell spotted the Fraggle hair on Frazzamatazz. For us, these moments mean more than simply having met well-known Henson puppeteers, because each one was direct feedback and encouragement from working professionals about characters we had created ourselves.
2026: Back home in Brisbane
Now, in 2026, we find ourselves part of a Jim Henson exhibition in our own backyard. Make, Believe, Magic: The Worlds of The Jim Henson Company at QAGOMA has brought an extraordinary collection of Henson’s work to Queensland. We attended the opening night gala, and on Saturday 26 September 2026 Larrikin Puppets had the great honour of performing our Kids Comedy Puppet Show twice as part of the exhibition program, along with a Meet the Puppets activation where visitors could see our puppets up close and chat with us about puppetry. Standing there with our own puppets inside an exhibition celebrating Jim Henson’s work, after a road that began in New York and passed through Texas, Los Angeles and Wellington, was a very special feeling.
Image credit: Family Fun Day at GOMA, Brisbane, September 2026 / Photograph: C Callistemon, QAGOMA
There is more to come. We return to QAGOMA on Sunday 24 January 2027 for another day of puppet shows and Meet the Puppets activities, and we’re excited to announce that Larrikin Puppets is also part of another major event in the exhibition program.
Henson Heads: The Big Puppet Game Show takes place on Saturday 24 October 2026 at 7.00 in Cinema A at the Gallery of Modern Art. It is hosted by Aimon Clark (IsoTriv) and comedian Emma Holland (Have You Been Paying Attention?, Thank God You’re Here, The Cheap Seats), with special guests Ranger Stacey (Agro’s Cartoon Connection, Totally Wild), comedian Zachary Ruane (Aunty Donna) and Larrikin Puppets. It’s part pop quiz, part comedy and all puppet mayhem, in the spirit of classic panel shows, and you don’t need to know your Skeksis from your Snuffleupagus to enjoy it. Tickets and details are available through QAGOMA, and we’ll share more about the night in a separate post.
It has never been only about watching The Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth for us. It has been about learning the craft, meeting the people who have dedicated their careers to it, and taking what we’ve learned to create our own puppet characters and shows. Sometimes it has also meant taking our own characters along to meet the Henson heroes who inspired the creation of Larrikin Puppets in the first place.
