(no subject)

[puppetmaker]

I WILL BE COMPLETELY HONEST FOR 24 HOURS... You can ask one question;Any question, no matter how crazy, sinister, lewd or wrong it is. I will answer no matter what and you will have my FULL honesty; So don't ask if you don't want to know the answer.

If you ask, then you MUST put this in your Lj and see what questions you get...

(One caveat: Anything under a Non-Disclosure Agreement either previous or currently enforced will not be answered due to legal issues)

Comments

[wide_worlds_joy]

Besides motherhood, what is your absolute favoritest project ever of all time?

(and we still talk about the skit you did with the characters from Smallville doing the Charley Brown Halloween.)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Boy Howdy that's a hard one since there are many that I am proud of that I have been part of. Probably "The Warrior Ant" which I work on back during my time at the Yale school o' drama. It was directed by Lee Breuer and music was by Bob Telson. It was a wacky production that still brings a smile to my face when I think about it.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

I always wanted to ask, but thought it horribly rude to know, what is like raising a child in an interfaith family? I'm fascinated by how people balance two vibrant cultures, do they choose one, expose them to both or such? If it's too personal, please feel free to ignore it, I just adore your family and try to learn from you about raising kids.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

It can be a bit of a balancing act.

Caroline knows she is of Jewish heritage but that she is a Catholic. We have exposed her to both. She has gone to services with Peter and Ariel and I have gone too on occasion. She was there for Ariel's bat mitzvah. Peter and Ariel were there for Caroline's baptism. Caroline thinks it is cool that she is related to Jesus. She has started religious school this year so there are more questions but so far we have balanced it.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you guys are really making it work and I must add my admiration that you all share in your religious traditions together and I think it will make Caroline a much more open minded person.

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seriously considered being a literary agent? If not, why not? If so, why haven't you become one? (okay, that's three questions, but they're at least related...)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I gave it some thought but I know a lot of people who do the job better than I can and have the connections needed to really get the job done. I have, on rare occasions, helped people get their manuscripts in front of the right people and gotten some artists ins so that they have a chance to get some work.

I don't know if I have the right kind of personality to be a lit agent. I honestly would be most happy if I could get another editing gig like the one I had at Del Rey.

[queenanthai.livejournal.com]

What's the one thing you've always wished you could do and haven't yet?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Work for either the Children's Television workshop or the Muppets or for Henson. I would love to be a builder for any of those groups.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Which famous person you know is the most different in private to their public image?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Well this sort of skirts a little bit into NDA territory but Harlan Ellison came to mind first.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

How so? Obviously I understand if you can't go into too much detail, but curious minds want to know!

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Well there are all the Harland stories and his public feuds and lawsuits over the years and then there is Harlan that I know who has had my back in some rather tricky situations and has helped out people without anyone knowing that he had a hand in it.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

A good friend indeed. From what little I know about him, he strikes me as the kind of person who doesn't suffer fools gladly. That attitude tends to polarise people.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I'll add that, on balance, I've long been far more impressed by the people who are friends with Harlan than those who are enemies with him.

(P.S. A guy I know just told publicly a story about almost being arrested because of a woman reacting badly to Harlan. The story is a thing of beauty. It's here (http://cortandfatboy.com/sites/default/files/December_1st_2009.mp3), near the end of the 65-minute-long podcast. Harsh language involved, because the guy I know is all about the harsh language, and Harlan's a poet at using it...)

P.S. this (http://cortandfatboy.com/podcasts/tuesday-december-1st-2009) may be the better, more thoroughly explained link. It's an episode of the daily podcast by fired Portland DJs Cort and Fatboy (http://www.cortandfatboy.com). They're also people I know and like.

[lilia2000.livejournal.com]

Since you do have privilaged information, has there ever been a time when you've had so much in your head, that you accidentaly let something out? And was it something major or minor?

(you don't have to say what it was, just if it's ever happend)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

So far No.

I tend to err on the side of caution about things because I am so far ahead on somethings that I am not sure what is current knowledge. I have had to prove that it was no way it could have been me for a leak that turned out to be a whole other group that was working on a parallel project.

There are fun aspects like when the edict came down that no photo cover for the Lord of The Rings books could show an Ent. The art director asked me what an Ent was. I told him to avoid any photo with a tree. He then had me go through the photo disk he had and flag all the photos he couldn't use. So I saw the Ents pretty early on.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Yoose a brave girl, Charlie Brown.
The closet holding my skeletons is nailed firmly shut.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Ever feel like just making stuff up? "Well there was the naked skydiving into Venice, but all those alleys, perfect places to hide if you just manage to land in one, oh and also I once aided in a practical joke that the CIA did to show it has a sense of humor, you may have heard of it, it's called Twitter*..."

Okay, I'm running out of invention. Oh, well.

---

* Hey! I just had a cool thought! What if someone did something like a numbers station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station) but did it using Twitter? IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW...

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Ah but no one knows where I buried mine so I don't expect them to come up. *grin*

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Semi-fluffy question (I don't feel like asking big questions tonight):

Of the stuff that USED to be covered by NDAs and isn't any longer, what in your opinion was the coolest thing you got to know long before the rest of the world knew it?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately the coolest I can't talk about to this day. I figure I am going to have to carry that one to my grave.

Of those that I can talk about probably what happened to Jamie and Siren's Baby followed by the return of Layla Mller in X-Factor which I knew almost a year and a half before the issues were published. Reading the comments and guesses from fans as to what was going to happen was fun because no one figured out where Peter was going with it.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Why can't you talk about stuff? Is it non-plot related? Question worded badly due to baby

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

On a number of things I have worked on over the years, I signed a piece of paper called a Non-disclosure agreement saying I would not talk about what I was viewing, reading or working on. In terms of Peter's work, I am covered by his NDAs since we work for the same company.

I have also worked with Magicians from time to time and have signed papers saying I would not reveal how a trick or illusion was built or performed. Sort of the Magicians Code as it were. That is the thing I can't talk about.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I had the baby feeding at the time and I couldn't type properly to phrase what I wanted to say coherently! That's really what I was curious about - I know why you wouldn't be able to talk about plot things or behind the scenes behaviour but the magician stuff hadn't occured to me and I completely understand why you wouldn't be able to tell people the secrets. Mind, I know how a lot of mentalism works and even when you tell people how it's done, some people swear blind it's still psychism! A bit different though to giving away the secret of how to make an elephant disappear when everyone knows that's a trick.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

What's your biggest regret? Similarly, is there a project you turned down and wish you hadn't? One you didn't and wish you had?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Regrets, I have a few...

It is interesting that some stuff that I greatly regretted at the time turned out to be a boon that it did turn out the way it did. Probably my biggest was not trying harder to get a job at Henson while Jim was alive. I had some chances but didn't take the leap I would have to succeed.

I turned down a build job once for a project that would have been a good stepping stone to some other interesting work. I gave them the name of a buddy of mine who has been doing quite well in the film industry since.

I agreed to work with a director that I swore I would never work with again but got talked into working with him one more time since I was the only person who could keep things sane. I lost a lot of sleep over that one.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

*nods* It's often the way that things work out for the best long term even if it doesn't seem like it at the time. Working with Jim Henson would have been really cool though.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Actually here's a really obvious question that I should have thought to ask sooner given my daughter's love of puppetry - what advice would you give to someone looking to break into the industry?

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that my advise now would be totally different than that of even 5 years ago. With the internet, it has become easier for puppeteers to communicate with each other. What form of puppetry is she interested in? Are there any local groups she can work with? Does she want to perform or build or both?

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

At the moment she's 5 but she's always making puppets and then doing shows with them, so I'd say that she would be best off with both. It's the kind of thing I'd really like to encourage in her because she gets so much pleasure from it and she's a very creative person who gets a lot out of channeling that energy. She's mainly got hand puppets but I've just asked her which ones are her favourites and she said the ones on strings (which is fortunate because that's her main Christmas present!).