WEBVTT - Can You Make a Puppet Out of Ice? 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.160 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:24.120 and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Mary? 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:25.080 What's that Mango? 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.840 Do you know? One of the most famous French puppets 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.880 in history was created by a nineteenth century dentist as 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.000 a way to distract his patients from their toothpain. 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.320 Did he also treat their toothpaint or what? Did he 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.400 just put on a puppet show and send them on 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.040 their way? That's unstandable. 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.640 That part's unclear. The dentist puppeteer in question was this 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:50.199 man named Louren Morga, and he lived in Leone in 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.199 the early nineteenth century. And Morgay worked a series of 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:57.560 odd jobs before becoming a dentist. And he almost certainly 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:02.440 didn't have any formal medical training because back then dentistry 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.959 mostly just involved pulling teeth, which I guess anyone could do. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:08.760 It wasn't considered a full fledged medical practice. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.640 Wow, you know, I do love the diy, but not 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.959 when it comes to dentistry. That must have hurt. 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.280 Yeah, I think so. But in eighteen oh eight, more 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.680 Gay created a puppet named Guinyall. And this is a 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.640 working class every man. It was loosely based on himself, 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.280 and he performed for his patients and he used Guenal 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.679 to drum up new business, so I guess it was 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.520 great marketing. At some point Morgay must have realized he 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.080 was a way better puppeteer than dentist, so in the 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:43.920 eighteen twenties he quit dentistry to focus on puppetry full time, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:48.400 and it actually became this family affair. Morgay had sixteen 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.840 children who helped spread Guenioll puppetry across France and these 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.800 shows became a sensation. Other puppeteers started putting on Guiniall 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.440 shows and at one point the French police even tried 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:00.480 to put a stop to them. 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:01.720 Why what was the problem. 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:03.320 I think I had something to do with all the 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.320 slapstick violence the show's featured, but also gen y'all lampooned 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.960 authority figures and the wealthy, or you know, maybe the 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.320 police just hated puppetry. It could have been that too. 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.600 Either way, the censorship didn't work and gin y'all survived, 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.000 and if you go to France today, especially the young, 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.960 you can still see gin y'all puppet shows to this day, 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.680 and you have one mediocre dentist to thank for it all. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.680 But we've got eight more surprising puppet facts waiting backstage, 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:55.639 so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.799 Part Time Genius. I'm Mongus Articular and today I'm joined 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:04.040 by producer extra Ordinaire Mary Philip Sandy. And over there 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.920 in the booth is the man who literally pulls the 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:11.040 strings on this show. It's our pal and producer Dylan Fagan. Hey, Dylan, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:12.760 maybe you can make me stop waving at you now? 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:14.880 My arm is getting tired. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.640 Dylan. Well, speaking of getting tired, my gosh, have you 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.480 ever heard of wyang kul It? It is a type 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:27.519 of Indonesian shadow puppetry whose performances can go all night. Traditionally, 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.320 these shows start at midnight and they run until dawn. 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.679 It sounds like it requires quite an attention span. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.200 Well, fortunately, it's not considered impolite for the audience to 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.440 come and go as they please. It's kind of like 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.280 a festival atmosphere. It's not like you're sitting at the 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.320 opera and you can't get up and move around. But 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.840 what's really impressive is that during the whole performance, the 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.040 puppeteer never takes a break. 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.920 Wait, that's insane, So it's not even like an intermission. 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.160 Nope. And the whole show is performed by one puppeteer 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:58.840 called a DeLong, and the DeLong sits in front of 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.200 a screen manipulating all the puppets, which are usually made 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.880 from water buffalo hide and mounted on sticks. A single 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:10.400 performance might involve hundreds of them. Now, Wyanmkulit is an 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.840 ancient art form. It dates back to the eight hundreds, 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:16.080 not the eighteen hundreds, the eight hundreds, but it's evolved 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.440 a bit to cater to modern taste. These days. Some 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:20.240 of the shows are just a few hours long, you know, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.039 because our attention spans are shorter, and to appeal to 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.320 younger audiences, delongs have begun to mix in some pop 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.800 culture references like Superman, or they'll dress the characters in 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.320 modern clothes, you know, like sneakers and beanies. 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.599 I love that beanies are like modern clothes, well. 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:41.080 Compared to the eight hundreds. My gosh, the beanies in 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.799 Indonesia in the eight hundreds, so you know, they're bringing 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.720 it up to modern times. In one DeLong even did 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.200 a show where he added a Barack Obama character. This 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.920 was in twenty twelve, and of course that's because Obama 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.320 spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, and you know, 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.479 so the DeLong wanted to celebrate that, but he also 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.880 took the op opportunity to poke fun at some of 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.599 Obama's policies in the show. He suggested that the president 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.760 should be spending less on the US military and more 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.800 on the arts, of which puppetree, of course is one. 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.200 So a lot of puppet traditions incorporate really topical political 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:19.960 commentary and satire and something I hadn't really picked up 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.680 on until we started this episode. But in Nigeria, the 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.840 a Bibio people practice a highly satirical form of pop 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:32.720 tree known as ekon or ekng. Ekon was huge during 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.560 the country's colonial era. So if you're thinking about like 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.479 from the eighteen nineties through the nineteen sixties, and the 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.920 puppeteers skewed everyone from local criminals and neighboring ethnic groups 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.160 to Catholic missionaries and British colonial officials, and they really 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.080 did not hold back. There's a mid century econ puppet 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.760 at the Smithsonian that depicts King George of England wearing 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.520 a crown and holding his arms out to the audience. 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.800 Yeah, okay, well God isn't really making fun of him though. 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.280 Yeah, but he's also completely naked from the waist down. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.520 Okay, there it is, there it is, I gotcha. 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.839 So during the British occupation, Econ performances attracted crowds of 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.880 up to one thousand people at a time. Their popularity, 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.360 combined with their controversial subject matter, meant that being a 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.160 puppeteer could be dangerous. In fact, it was so dangerous 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.440 that the identities of puppeteers were generally kept secret to 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.320 protect them from backlash, which is pretty amazing. But in 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.080 a way, this could explain why puppets are so perfect 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.080 for political speech. The puppet provides anonymity. It's a buffer 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.000 between the performer and the audience, so you can kind 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:41.120 of be whoever you want to be. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.640 Yeah, that makes sense, And actually that is the exact 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.200 principle behind my next fact. Because puppets aren't just for 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:52.240 theater and storytelling anymore. They're used in classrooms, therapy, and 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.279 even wildlife conservation. 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:55.360 Huh. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.360 There's a wildlife center in Wisconsin called the International Crane Foundation, 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.159 and it's using puppets to help the endangered whooping crane. 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:09.080 Are they putting on political theater for these birds? No? 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.200 No, that would be amazing. No. So what it is 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.880 is the ICF breeds whooping cranes, right, they raise the 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.040 chicks and then they release them back into the wild 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.800 to help the population grow. But there's a problem. Baby 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.200 whooping cranes imprint on whoever is raising them, which in 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.960 this case is humans, and if that happens, basically they 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.440 won't know they're a crane and then they won't know 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.800 how to function in the wild. So employees at the 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.600 ICF started wearing these big white suits that completely cover 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.720 their bodies, and they use hand puppets that look like 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.960 cranes to interact with the chicks. Oh wow, And they 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.120 take the puppeteering part of this job really seriously, Like 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.640 if they hear a loud noise, they'll cock the puppet's 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:52.800 head toward it in a crane like way, or if 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.360 they see something, you know that could be a threat, 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.920 the puppet will freeze. And as a result of this, 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.400 the chicks actually learn how to be brains. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.920 That is both really cute and a little unsettling, right, Like, 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:07.560 I mean, how would you feel you found out one 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:08.600 of your parents was a puppet. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.320 Yeah, I don't know. Maybe maybe teenage whooping cranes have 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:13.720 to go to therapy. I don't know. That could be, 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:15.560 that could be part of the part of what they're 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.640 working on. But apparently crane puppets make really good parents. 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.680 It actually works, and this helps prepare the babies for 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.360 living independently in the wild and surviving. 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:27.800 I love that. I love the idea of someone going 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.960 to school to become a wildlife biologist and then they 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:32.800 ended up running around with a crane puppet. 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.600 Right. I did not get a PhD for this. 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.839 But speaking of weird puppet careers, Mary, how familiar are 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:42.120 you with emo music? 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.319 Well, you know, I never wore eyeliner, if that is 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.120 what you're asking. But uh, you know I had a 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.480 couple Jets to Brazil CDs in college. I mean didn't 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:52.320 we all right? 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:52.800 Sure? 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:54.520 No, you were cool, you liked hip hop? 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:54.920 You did not. 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.120 You were not dealing with this sort of thing, were you. 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.280 You know, my cousin produced the US to Brazil album. 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.760 Sorry okay man. 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:13.439 But in twenty fourteen, this comedian named Brentley Hilbrun formed 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:19.000 an all puppet emo band called Fragile Rock Finno is 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.120 kind of based off of fraggle Rock of course. Of course. 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.160 Wow, you know that's one of those puns where I 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.520 hear it and I just kind of get mad because 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.600 why didn't I think of that when I was in college? 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:38.480 Brizill, that's really funny. Anyway, Hilbrun was going through a 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.560 rough to Wars at the time, and he decided he 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.079 needed a musical outlet, so he teamed up with a 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.040 group of musicians and puppeteers to bring Fragile Rock to life. 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.560 The band is made up of five puppets and their 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.560 respective puppeteers who sing songs with titles like wake Up 0:09:55.600 --> 0:10:00.079 to the Breakup and I Am Sad and so Am I. 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:04.800 The band has played at music festivals. They even had 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.600 their own NPR Time Desk concert, which I did not 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.360 see but I need to go back and look at now. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.840 And at one point they tried their luck on America's 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.960 Got Talent, but apparently they were bowed off stage and 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.640 the segment never aired, which only feeds into their emo 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.800 NEAs I think you but Brentley wrote about the experience 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.719 on the band's website in a post titled I was 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.880 an emo puppet failure on America's Got Talent. 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.360 You know what, that doesn't need to be a blog post. 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.720 I would watch an hour long like TV documentary just 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:37.480 about that. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.000 One hundred percent. I would too. But my favorite thing 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:45.480 about Fragile Rock is that its members have developed complex 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.240 backstories for each of their puppets, and their backstories are 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.319 pretty quirky. They mostly involved dramatic romances and breakups between 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.680 the band members. There's even a whole love triangle involving 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.280 the actor Elijah. 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.680 Sure you know what. I take it back. I did 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.760 not mean TV episode or documentary. I mean series. I 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.960 mean a limited run Netflix. Please get on this right now. 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:13.000 It is so wonderful and bizarre. I love it. And 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:14.840 you know, like you were saying, I think getting booed 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.079 off stage is a lot more emo than winning America's 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:18.600 Got Talent. 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.600 You know what, You are absolutely right. If the Fragile 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.679 Rock folks are listening, I hope they take comfort in that. Okay, 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.160 we have to take a quick break, but when we 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.440 get back, we've got an Indian puppet tradition that goes 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:34.600 back centuries and puppets in water. Please don't go anywhere 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.160 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're answering all 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.680 the questions you didn't know you had about puppets. But 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.280 you know, if you have any questions about other things 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.640 or a fun rabbit hole you think we should be down, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.760 send us an email at high Geniuses at gmail dot com. 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:10.040 That's Hi Geniuses at gmail dot com. You can even 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.720 send us a voice memo if you'd like, and we 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.880 might use it in an upcoming episode. So, Mary, I 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.120 know we've got to go back to puppetown in a second. 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:19.800 But are you a fan of puppets? 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:22.120 I am, and you know, I think I've mentioned this 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:23.800 on the show before. I have a deep dark history 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.120 as a theater kid. And that first category of puppetree 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.920 we spoke about the Indonesian shadow puppetree. I have a 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.319 little experience about. My college actually had a gamal on. 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.960 Of course, the really the Indonesian orchestra that typically performs 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.240 with the Indonesian shadow puppetry, and so we did actually 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.720 some performances that incorporated principles of Indonesian shadow puppetry. So 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.560 this is not my first go round. I know I 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.200 made it sound like this was new to me because 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.480 I wanted the audience to feel like I was not 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.600 as big a nerve as I am. I'll tell you now, 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:57.680 in the second half after the ad break, I knew 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:58.280 all about it. 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.720 That is amazing. I had no idea. I feel like 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.040 my puppetry understanding really like ends. So I have a 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.880 little bit of marionettes and muppets, and like, you know, 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.960 I've always been like fascinated with puppets, but it's not 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.040 something I've ever really played around much with. 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.240 Yeah, because you were cool and listening to cool music 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.319 with your cool producer cousin while I was being a 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.640 theater That's why I don't feel that you should feel 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:22.120 good about this. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.000 But you know, I did see I saw the pee 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:29.880 Wee Herman documentary on HBO this weekend, and one it's 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.959 really good and fascinating his whole career and how ambitious 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.800 he is, the way he had these identities that he 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:42.600 lived in. But they also showed how the puppet cherry worked, 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:44.880 you know, that chair and like how there was like 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.600 a little monitor in there, and how the puppeteer was 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:49.760 working in it was like, it's kind of amazing. 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.600 Yeah, it's incredible. I mean, it really combines all of 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.600 these things that are great about puppetry. There's art, there's craft, 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.920 there's a little bit of subversiveness a lot of the time, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.679 and it can create something really magical. But we do 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:03.320 take it for granted because we grow up with this 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.840 stuff on TV, and so it seems silly or childish. 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:09.679 But I mean there's actually a lot of really complicated 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:12.960 and rich history to puppets, which is why we wanted 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.320 to do this episode. And there's also some really novel 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.280 ways of approaching puppetry. Right, it's not all happening on 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.320 a stage. For example, I want to tell you about 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.120 this next fact, which is Vietnamese water puppetry. It takes 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:28.600 place in a pool of water. 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:32.040 I'm so excited about this, Yeah, tell me more so. 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.400 I know you might be thinking that this would be 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.680 a feat of incredible physical strength, right, Like if the 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.560 puppeteers had to be treading water the whole time, that 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.640 would be very difficult. That would be more like water 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:43.560 polo puppetry. 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:44.520 That's not what this is. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.480 No, the pool's only about waste deep. But what it 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.280 does is the water gives the illusion that the puppets 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.240 are moving or swimming on their own. And that's because 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.560 the puppeteers are behind a screen. They're completely hidden from 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.160 the audience, and they control the puppets using polls and 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.840 strings that are attached underwater. And the puppets themselves are 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.400 made of buoyant fig wood, so they float on the water, 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.080 and naturally they tend to be aquatic themes. So you 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.040 got a lot of fish and fishermen and boats, and 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.720 from the audience's perspective, it looks like the puppets are 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.720 swimming and splashing around completely independently. There's all these cool 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.520 effects they do by having the puppets dive down under 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:23.960 the surface of the water and then re emerging. 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:25.880 Do you know how they came up with this method 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:27.280 of performance. 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:31.360 Of course I do. It was invented by farmers in 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.240 the Red River Delta about a thousand years ago, and 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.040 every year farming villages would hold a big festival at 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.440 the end of the rice harvest, and at some point 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.600 they came up with the idea to hold puppet shows 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.360 in the flooded rice paddies. Right, there was already standing 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.320 water there, so they thought, let's put puppets in it, 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.840 and so water puppetry was originally this really local tradition 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:57.440 tied to farming and the agricultural cycles. But unsurprisingly something 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.840 that cool it grew in popularity started to spread across Vietnam. 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.560 Today there are specially made water puppetry stages even in 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.560 major cities, so you don't even need to have a 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:08.560 rice patty anymore. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.320 That is really really cool. I can't wait to check 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.840 it out. Okay, So for our next fact, we are 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.080 traveling to India, where puppeteer is known as knots or 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:22.400 bots have carried on a puppetry tradition called Cutwucki, and 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.920 this has happened for nearly four hundred years now. Cut 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:30.040 puckly puppets look a bit like Marionette's with strings attached 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.760 to their head and arms. But one of the things 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.360 that makes them really unique has to do with the 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:40.480 way that the puppets communicate. They speak their own puppet language, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.960 which the puppeteer evokes using a bamboo whistle called a bowlie, 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.480 So none of the dialogue in performance is in language 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.160 the audience can understand. It's a little like adults in 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:52.760 a Peanuts cartoon. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.680 So the audience can follow what's going on through the visuals. 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.200 Or what there is a narrator there who helps the 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:04.000 audience follow the story and translates the puppet language and 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.639 explains what's going on. Traditionally, the bots were semi nomadic, 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.840 so families of puppeteers would travel together during the dry season, 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.679 then return to their own villages during the rainy season 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.080 to farm their crops. Nowadays, some of the bots are 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.560 still nomadic, but others have settled in cities in search 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.520 of bigger crowds. In New Delhi, there's even a neighborhood 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.840 that's home to many of these puppeteers. It's called the 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:29.360 Cuthputley Colony. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.879 Wow, I wish there were more puppeteers in my neighborhood. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:40.320 I mean, you can move to Brooklyn, dear. Really yeah? Wow? 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.719 I mean you know, I do love living Uptown, but 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:44.560 I can say we do not have a lot of 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:46.600 puppets unless there's a puppet scene that I just am 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:48.600 not tapped into, in which case, if you know anything, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:55.160 hygeniuses at gmail dot com, tell me Uptown Manhattan's puppets scene. Okay, Mango, Well, 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.080 I told you about water puppetry in Vietnam, but now 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.240 I'm going to tell you about something a little differnt 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.439 and that is solid water puppetry. 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.000 Solid water this is this is like ice puppetry. 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.080 Yeah, exactly ice. So in twenty sixteen, a French theater 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.879 company called Teatre de Lantruvert premiered a show called Anywhere, 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.800 starring a puppet made of solid ice. 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.400 Which sounds amazing, But wouldn't that melt? 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.680 Yeah, and that was the point. The play is based 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.159 on the novel Oedipus on the Road, which tells the 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.920 story of the mythological king Oedipus well on the road 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.959 after he's been exiled from Thebes, and it's all about 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:37.360 his internal struggle and metamorphosis. And by making the Oedipus 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.840 puppet out of ice, the playwright Elis vig Neuron wanted 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:45.080 to show those interior transformations happening physically, so the puppet 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.119 changes shape over the course of the play as it 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.080 gradually melts. Of course, this does mean they have to 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.200 make a new puppet every time they perform the show, 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.600 and it is a whole process. Oedipus is a marionette, 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:01.000 and ice marionette. Think about that. With articulated wrist, elbow, 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.520 and knee joints. Every piece of the body has to 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:05.520 be frozen in a separate mold and then they put 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.359 it together very very very carefully. 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:13.720 Wow. That sounds both really beautiful and like so much work. 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.720 I'm kind of glad I'm not a French ice puppet performer, 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.280 Like I didn't you know that was a thing. I 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:20.879 don't want to be. 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:26.359 We're all about learning unexpected things on this show. Okay, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:28.639 man hit us with our final puppet fact. 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:31.119 Do you know we have a puppeteer to thank for 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.280 one of our most iconic Thanksgiving traditions? 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:39.080 And what tradition is that? Over eating, having uncomfortable political 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.760 conversations with those relatives you only see once a year, 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:42.240 Thank god? 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.680 What what is it? Neither of those? Unfortunately or fortunately, 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:51.440 I'm talking about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. So puppeteer 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:56.119 named Tony sarg designed the original Thanksgiving Day parade balloons. 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:58.879 Oh I guess those are kind of like skypuppets. 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:01.800 Yeah, that's exact what they are. So the first parade 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.560 floats didn't even float. They were filled with oxygen instead 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.320 of helium, so Macy's employees had to carry them through 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.000 the streets of New York City. But this guy, Tony 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:15.680 Sarg was an extremely influential puppeteer. He's actually sometimes referred 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.240 to as the father of modern puppetry in North America. 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.040 But he used his puppetary skills in some really idiosycratic ways. 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.159 Yeah, like designing parade floats for a department store. 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:29.080 That's kind of weird, but also pranks. So he once 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.840 orchestrated an elaborate hoax in Nantucket where he tricked locals 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:36.000 into thinking there was this sea monster on the loose. 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.640 He staged all these fake sea monster sightings and had 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.760 his daughter plant giant footprints in the sand, and in 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.400 the end he revealed that the sea monster was actually 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.480 one of his Thanksgiving Day parade floats. 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:51.760 I love that he got his daughter in on this too. 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.280 It was like he had to implicate his child. 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.960 And that he's still promoting Thanksgiving Day parades like he's 0:20:59.040 --> 0:20:59.919 really dedicated. 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:02.440 I love it. It all comes back to that, well 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:06.960 Tony Sarg, shout out to you, master puppeteer, master prankster Mango. 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.520 I am so thankful you shared that fact that I'm 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:11.280 going to give this episode trophy to you. 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.160 Well, I am thankful for your thankfulness. 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:21.320 You know what I'm thankful that you're thankful for my thankfulness. 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.359 I feel like we're gonna get stuck in a gratitude loop. 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.600 We should wrap things up right now. So that is 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.120 it for today. We'll be back next week. Be sure 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.280 to subscribe on your favorite podcast app if you haven't already, 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.119 And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend. 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.600 Nothing says I'm thinking about you like a bunch of 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.240 fun puppet facts. Is that right, Mary? 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:43.920 That is absolutely right. 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.720 This episode was written by the wonderful Anna Green. Thank 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.119 you so much, Anna, and from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, 0:21:51.240 --> 0:22:08.080 and myself, Thank you so much for listening. Part Time 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.920 Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.959 is hosted by Will Pearson and Me Mongish Heatikler and 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:20.320 research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:23.359