From: "Mark M" <marknyc-AT-hotmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 18:02:43 -0500
Subject: [Puptcrit] "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" puppeteering


Hi all,

I'm the webmaster for The Unofficial Kuklapolitan Webpage, and Leslie 
mentioned to me that there was an interesting KFO dicussion going on here, 
so I thought I'd join!

People have commented on the lack of Ollie's lipsync over the years, and 
it's true that Burr never seemed to put too much effort into it.  But I 
think that has to do with how he worked: all his attention was focused on 
the interplay between the 12 or more characters that he had to bring to 
life, not on the details that only close scrutiny exposes.

You can see the instense concentration it required.  If you watch the show 
closely, you will notice that when there are two characters on stage 
(apparently the Kuklapolitans felt that three was a crowd), the character 
who is not speaking usually goes "dead."  It appears that in order to be 
able to switch so quickly and so completely from one character to the next, 
Burr had to focus all his attention on the one that was speaking.

For me, the true genius of Burr's work was that it relied on only three 
things: a carefully crafted persona for each character (John Steinbeck once 
said that Burr's creations were like his own: they could never do anything 
out of character), a completely distinct voice for each character, and 
convincing movement.

The puppets were crude, the sets virtually non-existent, details like 
lip-sync were ignored, and yet the entire cast becomes real if you watch 
more than a few episodes.  Any regular viewer will tell you: the 
Kuklapolitans were real people.  They may have been made of cloth, but there 
was no doubt in your mind that they were alive.  I remember when Burr died; 
it felt like a dozen of my friends had all been lost in a plane crash.  Not 
only would I never speak to Burr again, I would also never hear from Buelah 
or Fletcher or Kukla, etc.  It may sound silly, but it really felt like a 
mass death had occurred.

I never knew what a masterful puppeteer Burr was until I started making 
RealVideo clips for my website.  I found that I could lower the image 
quality and the sound quality if I needed to make the file sizes smaller, 
but if I limited the motion, the puppets died.  Without Burr's surprisingly 
unnoticeable changes in the movement of each character, they were no longer 
alive.  Ollie's twisting head movements, Buelah's contortions, Madame O's 
breasts vibrating when she held a high note - all these were as essential as 
Burr's vocal skills in convincing us we were watching friends, not puppets.

I think the limitations of Burr's presentation (no sets, no effects, poor 
cameras, etc.) only prove how brilliant he was.  Take a look at the clips at 
my site and see if you agree:

http://users.ultinet.net/~kfo

Best,

Mark M.


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