The Jim Henson Company has a brand new bag called Stuffed and Unstrung, a new live show where six puppeteers and host Patrick Bristow create new comedy every night.
Bristow is the co-creator along with Brian Henson, the son of the late Jim Henson, as well as being the director and host. This master improviser has appeared in many television shows such as Ellen, Seinfeld and Friends. His film credits include Twilight of the Golds, Austin Powers and Showgirls, among others.
Windy City Times went to meet the host with the most, who plays on our team.
Windy City Times: Hey, Patrick. Did you grow up loving puppets?
Patrick Bristow: As much as any kid did with the Muppets, but I never thought I would be working with puppets—let alone with the Henson Company. When the chance came to teach some improv classes to the puppeteers, I thought it would be fun. I knew I would have to match up improv skills with the limitations of what a puppeteer does. For an improvisation teacher who was with The Groundlings for years, this was a new area for me to explore.
WCT: Who came up with the idea for this?
PB: It was very organic. Originally Brian Henson brought me in to teach about six weeks of improv classes to a group of puppeteers who he hired on a regular basis.
As it got to the end I thought it would be fun to do a little lunchtime performance on the lot. I wanted them to get used to audience response. Next thing I know he decks out a soundstage and invited an audience of two hundred. There were microphones, sound equipment and video monitors. The show was magical with standing ovations.
We were invited to the Aspen Comedy Festival to perform when we weren't even a show yet. It was the most accidental and organic project I have ever been involved with in my life. It just happened because of demand.
WCT: Walk our readers through what happens at Stuffed and Unstrung. Do they write down suggestions?
PB: No, they don't have to prepare anything. They don't have to bring a No. 2 pencil! What they need to do is check their inhibitions at the door and we will take it there from there. What they are going to be in store for is basically an adult puppet variety show with about 60 percent improvised content in it.
We explain the show at the beginning, where people can watch on projection screens the puppets they are used to on TV. [They can also] avert their glance a degree down to the stage to see how they are actually manipulating the puppets.
As the host, I come to the audience before the improvised bits and ask for a location or ask them to explain for example why a character is in trouble. The audience shouts out suggestions and I try to take the first one I hear. If it is at the same time I put it up to a vote. It becomes a psychotic puppet party!
If an audience member is not sure what they are in for then within about five minutes of the lights going down, they are with the program.
WCT: It was great exposure on Celebrity Apprentice, so many people may know about it now.
PB: Yes, there is a cultural point of reference for us now as we go into cities all across America.
WCT: What does the term "Miskreant Puppets" mean?
PB: The puppets that we use are not the Muppets. Those are a finite amount of puppets owned by Disney that were developed over decades by Jim Henson.
These puppets are culled from a variety of Jim Henson's projects that were not Jim Henson's projects. Some are custom built for our show so you get a total artistic vocabulary in these 90 puppets. A few look like real woodland creatures, others are abstract, some look like plants, some are robots and [there are] even blue-skinned ladies.
It is a very eclectic mix and we looked for a name for them so Miskreants was born; then changing the spelling to a "k" even stuck. This is the new adult stable that is not dedicated characters, by the way. They are meant to always have the possibility of being a new character. That fish could be a Mafia boss or, the next night, a beauty contestant.
WCT: They could play into recent news topics. You might get NATO in Chicago.
PB: Before we do a series of shows we have to bone up on what is going on in the world. We don't want to get caught with our pants down. If we go into specific cities, then we learn about that town. Someone in the audience might shout out a suggestion, but if we hadn't done our homework we wouldn't know what they are talking about.
WCT: So study up on the Chicago Cubs here.
PB: If someone asks me about sports, then I know nothing. I might have to look at a puppeteer and make sure they know about it.
WCT: Are there gay puppets in the show?
PB: There are some that I suspect…
The puppets don't have anything from the waist down. We have had people do gay characters with the puppets though and we have had both straight and gay performers do that. Sometimes it is a little bit politically incorrect but always in a light-hearted way. I have never taken a cast member aside and corrected them about that subject before.
We want our characters to be likable so we are not going to do anything that will make people uncomfortable.
WCT: Let's talk about you a bit.
PB: Well, I am completely gay—some say overly!
WCT: You have had a partner for 16 years, I read.
PB: We just passed our 18th anniversary.
WCT: Are you going to do something big for the 20th?
PB: Probably just make him cook!
WCT: You have done so many television shows and movies. Wasn't there a musical version of Showgirls?
PB: There is a sock-puppet version. I went and saw that. That was hilarious. I am all about Showgirls awareness. I saw a drag re-creation number in San Francisco with the volcano scene. I am all over it.
I have had a lot of exposure in TV and I just did a Michael Bay movie called Painting Game, where I play a Christian gun-store owner.
WCT: That sounds like a stretch!
PB: When you think about it, no. A slightly effete, nerdy person who is in the wrong place—that is pretty much me.
WCT: Does your experience performing on the television show Who's Line Is It Anyway? help with Unstrung?
PB: That show really depended on being wit-driven. My background is more character-driven. With "Who's Line," you had to be wicked funny just by being yourself. I always needed to hide in a character a little bit.
In rhis show the puppeteer disappears in [his or her] character and it is short-form improv. The stories are about three minutes, with a beginning middle and end.
WCT: So it's a different kind of improv.
PB: Yes; there are all different kinds. My improv company, Improvatorium, is working with the Old Testament, very scratchy beards. It's a very small company, under the radar, and [I'm] just having fun with it right now.
Improv has exploded since I got into it in the '80s with The Groundlings. Improvisers, in particular, will enjoy this show because it takes four to five years to be at the level where Henson will put you onstage. They are doing it without any eye contact because they have to look at the monitors. That's why I don't do it. It's too hard—but I make them do it!
WCT: "Puppet up" is the catchphrase, right?
PB: That is the battle cry. It used to be called Puppet Up when it was a more bare-bones show. I will tell the puppeteers to go get their puppets when I say "puppet up."
WCT: Have you ever felt the show went too far?
PB: Yes. We push the envelope but we don't want to be shock jocks or go for cheap humor. We reserve the right because it is adults that it may go blue. Very rarely does it go over the line. It is literally one out of a couple of hundred shows.
WCT: I wonder if the audience can bring drinks into the theater?
PB: Depends on the venue. I will be at the bar in the lobby having drinks before it even starts!
Stuffed and Unstrung runs June 12-17 for eight performances at the Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St. Visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com for show times and ticket information.
