Sesame Street puppeteers are doing a great job
Sesame Street has become a part of the lives of many children as it has given fun, entertainment, and educational content for more than 50 years.
Among the most popular muppets are Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and many more. People behind these well-loved characters are doing a great job of creating performances even though they are not actually seen on camera.
Based on the article in Mental Floss, in a video from Wired, several puppeteers showed how they would control their muppets.
Matt Vogel (Big Bird), Ryan Dillon (Elmo), Martin Robinson (Mr. Snuffleupagus), Leslie Carrara-Rudolph (Abby Cadabby), and Frankie Cordero (Rudy) explain the work that goes into operating your favorite Sesame Street Muppets.
There are three types of puppets with different mechanics. One of the classifications is called hand-and-rod, examples of this are Elmo and Abby Cadabby. Other classifications are live hand and full-body.
Puppeteers stick their hand into the Muppet’s head to make it talk. Their other hand moves the attached metal rods to create the arm movements.
When it comes to live hand puppets like Cookie Monster and Ernie, puppeteers would insert their hands into gloves where the hands of the characters are. In this kind of muppet, grabbing items is much easier because the person controlling them can use their own hands. However, this is not the same case with other Muppets because their fingers are not moveable.
Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus are examples of Full-body Muppets. They are the most difficult to control. Matt Vogel wears a yellow suit and stretches his right arm above his head to move Big Bird’s mouth while is his left arm is used to move the left wing. Meanwhile, the limb also controls the right arm’s movements because the two sides are connected by a string.