Q: Are you available for birthday parties?
Q: Does your show have a theme?
Q: Where do you perform your shows?
Q: What are your fees for your shows?
Q: May we preview one of your shows before making a decision whether to hire you?
Q: Did either one of you go to Clown College?
Q: Then what place did you go to learn clowning and puppetry?
Q: Tell me more about your puppet show.
Q: What kinds of puppets do you use in your shows?
Q: Do you make your own puppets?
Q: What kind of a puppet stage do you use?
Q: What do you do for kids who are afraid of clowns?
Q: Do you ever perform outside of Nassau or Suffolk counties/off Long Island, New York?
Q: Do you offer anything else besides clowns and puppets? How about costume characters?
Q: What forms of payment do you accept?
Q: How would I go about booking a show with you guys?
| Q: Are you available for birthday parties? | |
| A: Birthday parties are our specialty! At each birthday party, your child is the star! The same is true for first communions, or any other party that celebrates a special moment in your child's life. | |
| Q: Does your show have a theme? | |
| A: Our shows have an appeal to a general family audience, the focus of which is the audience. Again, the birthday child is the star and the theme of many of our shows. We invite and encourage audience participation, so everyone has the opportunity to be part of the show, instead of just a passive viewer. We use and perform a variety of illusions, skits, sight gags, props and story lines from our huge repertoire, allowing us to tailor our show to a specific theme (i.e., safety, holidays, the environment, etc.) should your event or program center around one. | |
| Q: Where do you perform your shows? | |
| A: We perform wherever people hire us to within Suffolk and Nassau counties. We have performed in all kinds of venues -- hospitals, auditoriums, theaters, parades, private homes, clubs, stores, and many other types of places. | |
| Q: What are your fees for your shows? | |
| A: Our fees vary, depending on what kind of show and services you are looking for, distance from our base in Southampton, size of the audience, how long we are expected to be there. Our fees start at $100 for the first hour for a simple walk-around by one performer, consisting of meeting-and-greeting, at an event held in one of the places: Southampton, Hampton Bays, Sag Harbor, Riverhead, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, Amagansett, Westhampton Beach, Quogue, East Quogue, and Springs. Montauk and towns further east than Riverhead on the North Fork incur an extra charge, as do towns further west in Suffolk and in Nassau. A full-scale presentation of magic, sight gags and skits is additional, as is a puppet stage show. | |
| Q: May we preview one of your shows before making a decision whether to hire you? | |
| A: Only at events that are open to the public. You can see us in such events on a regular basis, including the Independence Day parade in Southampton, where we have appeared annually for at least the last 10 years, and at the Clownfest parade held every September on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Other public venues we have appeared in include the Astrodome at Circus Circus, Las Vegas, Nev.; World Clown Association's parade in Lowell, Mass.; guest appearances for the past seven years at Cole Bros. Circus' show in Southampton; Chabad of Southampton Jewish Center; Southampton's annual Rag-A-Muffin parade; Westhampton Beach library, St. Anthony de Padua's fair, St. Patrick's Day parade in Montauk, the Parrish Art Museum, the United Cerebral Palsy Festival of Lights in Nassau County, Pricilla Mooseburger's Clown Camp's public show in Maple Lake, Minn., and many, many others! If you would like to know when and where we will make our next public appearance, check the What's Going On? page of The Waldo Tribune. And of course, references are always available upon request. | |
| Q: Did either one of you go to Clown College? | |
| A: While we did not attend Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College (closed in 1998), we have had the great privilege and honor to study under the expert tutelage of several masters of and living legends in the fine art of clowning, among them Glen "Frosty" Little, the former director of RBBBCC; Leon "Buttons" McBride; Jim Howell; Mikhail "Coco" Polakov; Jackie LeClaire, who had appeared in DeMille's Greatest Show on Earth; Karen Bell, Tricia "Pricilla Mooseburger" Bothun, all of whom had clowned in RBBB Circus. We have also learned and honed our craft from many others who either clowned in other shows, or whose venues were completely outside the circus, such as stage shows, hospitals, school shows, charities and fundraisers, public fairs, private parties, etc.. | |
| Q: Then what place did you go to learn clowning and puppetry? | |
| A: For over 12 years, we have attended a variety of forums dedicated to promoting, preserving and improving the fine arts of clowning and puppetry, starting with Clownfest clown convention in the early 1990s, which is hosted by the National Clown Arts Project, and held annually in Seaside Heights, New Jersey; then other conventions and programs, such as Circus Magic convention held annually in Williamsburg, Virginia; Advanced Studies directed by Leon "Buttons" McBride in Hendersonville, North Carolina; Clown Camp in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada; World Clown Association's (of which we are members) convention held in Lowell, Mass.; Clowns of America International's (which we also belong to) conventions in San Francisco, Calif., and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Moosecamp outside Annendale, Minn.; Great Clown Adventure hosted by Pricilla Mooseburger in Las Vegas, Nev., among others. We consider our education in the fine art of clowning to be a continuing, lifetime process, rather than a finite one. For that reason, we make it a point to attend at least one or two conventions, schools, or camps each year. No matter how accomplished one may become in one's craft, there is always more to learn. | |
| Q: Tell me more about your puppet show. | |
| A: Rather than one big, long drawn-out puppet play, we break up the show into several parts, like a variety show format, so there is always something for everyone. Some of our sketches are sing-alongs, others are good-natured spoofs on classic fairy tales, and still others are some bits we came up with ourselves. As with our clown and magic shows, we can tailor our puppet shows to a specific theme (i.e., safety, the environment), if your event is focused on one. Our puppet shows typically last about 30-45 minutes, depending on the age range of the audience. And of course, audience participation is always encouraged! | |
| Q: What kinds of puppets do you use in your shows? | |
| A: We employ a variety of cloth hand puppets ranging in size from about six inches tall to over two feet long! Our characters include a policeman, a little frog, a big frog, a small frog, a sheep, two pigs, an ostrich, a wolf, a princess, a king, a rabbit, a turtle, and many others. | |
| Q: Do you make your own puppets? | |
| A: No, we collect them from a variety of sources, mainly from suppliers who specialize in providing props and other goods from clown acts. | |
| Q: What kind of a puppet stage do you use? | |
| A: Our puppet stage is beautifully handcrafted of PVC pipes and canvas, with hand-painted details, and measures about seven feet wide by seven feet high by seven feet deep. Because it is packed flat, we set up the stage once we arrive at the venue. For everyone's safety, and to prevent delays, we do not allow anyone backstage. | |
| Q: What do you do for kids who are afraid of clowns? | |
| A: We are always very gentle in our approach to all audiences. If it becomes obvious that someone is afraid of clowns after we arrive at the gig, we back away from that person if we are in costume, respecting that person's need for space, no matter how old or young he or she is. If we are told before accepting an engagement that the birthday boy or girl is afraid of clowns, then we steer the party booking the performance toward hiring us as comedy magicians or puppeteers instead. | |
| Q: Do you ever perform outside of Nassau or Suffolk counties/off Long Island, New York? | |
| A: Generally speaking, no. On the few occasions we do perform off Long Island, it is because we are attending a clown convention or other training program for clowns that happens to take place outside Suffolk or Nassau counties, in which performing is part of the training. If you need a performer for a location that is neither in Suffolk nor Nassau County (off Long Island), contact us by phone (fastest way to reach us) at (631) 287-1749. Or, you can e-mail us at waldoandtulip@optonline.net. Chances are we may know of someone in your area whom we can recommend. You would then contact that person directly, and inquire about his her fees and availability. | |
| Q: Do you offer anything else besides clowns and puppets? How about costume characters? | |
| A: For costume characters, we can offer visits from Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and a bear. For Santa and the Easter Bunny, we offer photo opps., meeting-and-greeting, jelly beans (from the Easter Bunny), small stocking with small toys (from Santa), appropriately themed magic and story-telling. Due to physical limitations, the bear is only available for meeting-and-greeting and photo opps. We do not perform as licensed characters, i.e., Elmo, due to potential legal issues. | |
| Q: What forms of payment do you accept? | |
| A: We accept cash, checks or money orders. All checks or money orders should be made payable to "Puppetime Players". | |
| Q: How would I go about booking a show with you guys? | |
| A: The fastest way to contact us is by phoning us at (631) 287-1749. We will be happy to discuss your event with you, our rates and availability. | |
Did we answer your question(s) fully and to your satisfaction? If not, please call us at (631) 287-1749 (fastest way to reach us) or e-mail us waldoandtulip@optonline.net.