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So that's the challenge, you have a big technical aspect of what you're doing whilst you're creatively trying to improvise.
Brian Henson
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Brian Henson
Age: 61
Born: 1963
Born: November 3
Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Puppeteer
Screenwriter
Television Director
Television Producer
New York City
New York
Brian David Henson
Creatively
Technical
Challenge
Aspect
Challenges
Bigs
Trying
Improvise
Whilst
More quotes by Brian Henson
So while you're trying to improvise, you're also trying to puppeteer, you're doing everything that you need to do to perform a puppet in our style, for a camera.
Brian Henson
We're also irreverent, we have an irreverent attitude towards puppets, as well. So a lot of what we do is we're kind of making fun of the puppets for being puppets, even while we're doing it. And again, that all feeds into the absurdity of this show.
Brian Henson
At that point, I thought probably special effects, something like that, and indeed, the early days when I was working with my dad, after I left school, I only went to less than one year of college, and then I was transferring, and then I delayed my transfer, and I did a movie, and then another movie, and then I never finished college.
Brian Henson
The first big thing that I did with my dad was the bicycle sequence in The Great Muppet Caper, where Kermit and Piggy are riding bicycles in Battersea Park in London and that was a complex marionetting and cranes driving through the park, it was a complicated scene, and I did that with my dad.
Brian Henson
But curriculum-wise, I was drawn to the sciences and specifically to physics, and I really enjoyed it and I think for a little while there, I was really thinking my schooling would be in physics, that that was something I loved.
Brian Henson
I try to emulate his approach of really get the most out of people by allowing them to experiment and certainly allowing people to make mistakes.
Brian Henson
Patrick thought we should try to put an audience in front of one of the workshops, basically in front of the class and see how the performers rose to having an audience there, because he said, You know, it's a really interesting test, because sometimes it gets even funnier.
Brian Henson
Really, initially what I very quickly realized that I was loving about the show was, because it reminded me of when I was a kid and I would visit the sets where my dad was shooting with the other puppeteers.
Brian Henson
And my dad's answer would be usually something to the affect of, A, it came out better than he imagined, but also, he said, No, it would be impossible for me to imagine the way it will come out. He said, Yes, I story-boarded it, I had a plan, but then I work with an army of great artists and I want all of them to create inside that creation.
Brian Henson
And it was a whole lot of fun, and in many ways, what we've done with the show is just taken that part of my early memories of visiting my dad, shooting with the Muppets, and taking that and making a show that's really an expansion of that and presenting a show that's all that.
Brian Henson
The challenge is, well, there's a huge challenge, which is when you're improvising, you're meant to sort of clear your mind completely, just be open and funny, and paying, you know, paying attention.
Brian Henson
People would say to him, When you finish a movie, did it come out as good as you thought it was going to? Or, Did it come out the way you intended it to come out?
Brian Henson
And it should be something that only that group of people could've made with everybody invested.
Brian Henson
And that was always my father's favorite part about shooting as well. Often my dad would shoot very, very late, he was quite a workaholic, they would do 20, 20-hour shoots and stuff like that.
Brian Henson
We took a show to the Aspen Comedy Festival, called Puppet Up at that point, and in Aspen we just did three shows, and in Aspen, there was a producer from the Edinborough Fringe Festival, who said, Please come to Edinborough.
Brian Henson
Oh, well, I can't tell you it would be telling you the end. It's a one-character lip-syncing because in the early days, that's what my dad was doing.
Brian Henson
he puppeteers really responded to it. Patrick Bistrow really responded to it, it's great fun to do improve comedy with puppets.
Brian Henson
And then while she's lip-syncing, I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face, to this little head next to her, the head eats the cloth fabric and swallows it and it's sort of this weird, demonic character there, who then tries to eat the singer. But it's a lot of fun. So there's a couple of pieces like that.
Brian Henson
You get used to it, you look forward to the adrenaline of the stage fright before you go out.
Brian Henson
We wanted to premiere it in New York, because New York is sort of the home of the Jim Henson Company and it's sort of the tone and flavor, always, of the puppet work that we've done traditionally. And that's what brought us here and now we're here.
Brian Henson
