Subject: PUPT: RE:S.A.A.P.?
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 14:43:12 -0400


Those who also frequent the PofA Bulletin Board may wonder who the -AT-#$%^ is 
this Jeff Danger who's proposing a Puppet Protection Act for Massachusetts 
and staging a protest on July 9th at our State House - ten days before he 
does another show in a pocket art gallery in town.  Jeff Danglo is a 
Cambridge-based magician/juggler specializing in family entertainment with 
quite a respectable reputation in the area.  When I was doing community arts 
a decade ago, I regularly hired him for events.  About three years ago he 
called the Puppet Showplace, where I serve as the Technical Director, asking 
about puppets.  As a board member of the Boston Area Guild I invited him to 
come to our next meeting and gave him various references.   Not hearing from 
him for about a month, I made a followup call and was told "I've ordered 
some puppets from California".  Soon thereafter his ads featured puppetry, 
as do other clowns, storytellers, and musicians in the area who compete in 
the party business.  BAGOP encourages puppetry in all its many niches; some 
of these entertainers drop in for a Guild meeting or event now and then, but 
most don't spend much time on their puppetry, sad to say.
     In this last year, Jeff's extensive promotions have included a one-man 
"crusade", S.A.A.P., ( "Stop Attacks Against Puppets") featured on one of 
his not particularly funny Websites.  One can only assume that the man 
suffered one or more of those unfortunate incidents when  misjudgment of a 
young audience plus failing to prepare them to watch a puppet show combined 
with lack of adult supervision to result in an "attack".  It happens.  But 
blaming the kids suggests a fundamental misperception.
       As a magician and juggler Jeff must be used to face-to-face contact 
with his audience, directing their attention and playing with their 
responses.  Pretending to be invisible "bent down behind my curtain 
manipulating a sewn collection of cloth", to quote from his response to 
criticism posted on the S.A.A.P. Website, suggests that he's distancing 
himself as the puppeteer from the event.  Having done parties and 
celebrations myself for more than a quarter century in this area - I don't 
claim to be "The Finest" just the senior Punch Professor - I can attest that 
anomnimity for today's audiences doesn't work in many cases.  Children have 
seen and talked over too much anonymous entertainment on TV.  A live 
performer needs to be live. Puppetry isn't a magic trick, though 
handpuppetry was practiced by many stage magicians in this country over the 
years as an extra added attraction.  Some were quite good at it; many were 
just doing a routine.  The magic is not in bringing inanimate objects to 
life, as in a stage illusion, but in giving life to the performance.
     The  only conclusion to be drawn from Jeff's continuing need for  
S.A.A.P. is that he's not yet a particularly good puppeteer, even if his 
manipulation skills have developed and his material is funny.  The latter 
may be part of the problem.  Standup comedy invites heckling, even from the 
younger set.  It takes time to develop a sense of how children relate to 
these imaginary beings we call puppets.
     The basic problem some of us have with Mr. Danglo's promotional tactics 
- which include using copywrited images on his webpages - relates to Steve 
Kaplin's remarks about no respect as well as the extended discussion last 
month about training.  Jeff's Websites seem  rather puny efforts which 
essentially disparage puppetry, despite some rather sensible comments in 
minuscule green type about children's parties on his  primary page. Asking a 
comedian to take something seriously may be a bit of an oxymoron, but 
still...   Representing himself as a spokesman for puppeteers, to the point 
of  filing a bill to protect them and other variety artists, without having 
any real constituency,  is mendacious at best.  No one else has asked for 
protection.  The last thing we need is regulation of birthday party 
performers and the like.   Ordinary contract law or the small claims court 
can take care of any real damages.  And given  various fiscal crises, there 
are more serious things to protest, like slashed funding for the arts in 
general.
     But decide for yourself.  Enter "Jeff Danger" in Google advanced search 
and see how many hits being web-savvy can get you.  Check out his pages.  
Evaluate his promotional strategy. Send him E-mail.  He's asked for 
responses.




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