Theatre Preview: Pulling a John Malkovich

By Kyle Francis

The word “puppeteer” conjures to mind many different images for different people. Some think of a megalomaniac using his evil automatons to further plans of world domination, but normal people tend to find themselves drawn more toward the image of a greasy guy dancing a marionette up and down the sidewalk with a hat upturned beside him.


Philip Huber is neither an evil genius nor an unemployed street performer–he’s a well dressed and clean cut puppeteer who has devoted his career to smashing puppeteer stereotypes.


“[Puppetry] speaks to the innocence in all of us,” exclaims Huber, heart audibly swelling up. “It’s the very basic feelings and emotions evoked by theatre or performance. It can be universal because it can be pure movement.”


Huber’s parents bought him his first hand-puppet when he was three to help with his shyness. It gave him a way to project his personality onto an external entity without being the center of attention himself. This “projection of self” has always been the inherent appeal of being a puppeteer, according to Huber and inspired his obsession with the craft.


After amassing a sizable collection of hand puppets, Huber switched his specialization to marionettes, and has been working with them ever since. His mad puppet skills speak for themselves, but the reason why Huber is so renowned in the puppetry community is largely due to his work on the film Being John Malkovich.


“It was a unique film, and amongst puppeteers, it was a watershed movie because it reintroduced marionettes into the mainstream,” recalls Huber of his work as the films puppet advisor. “The group I’m coming to Calgary with–The Festival of Animated Objects–searched for me because of Being John Malkovich.”


It stands to reason the festival would seek him out, as the groundbreaking work Huber did on Being John Malkovich practically re-defined the word “marionette.” By making all sorts of innovations and improvements to the puppet formula Huber enabled his puppets to do the ridiculously intense acrobatic moves the filmmakers needed for certain scenes.


Huber’s innovation and creativity doesn’t stop at his motion picture debut, however. Most people look at puppeteers as illegitimate acts for children’s birthday parties and refuse to show the artists the respect they deserve.


“There’s a private club for Magicians called ‘The Magic Castle,’ that I was absolutely begging to play at forever,” groans Huber. “Eventually they grudgingly gave me an audition, but at the end of it I got a standing ovation from the panel of judges and they told me I could perform there any time. So just like that, there’s another venue that’s open to puppeteers.”


Huber claims he meets similar adversity wherever he does a series of performances. When playing on cruise ships, Huber recalls the opening nights would often be sparsely populated, but attendance would steadily improve as word spread about what an amazing act it was. With performances such as this, Huber hopes to become the image conjured up in the minds of those daring to evoke the word “puppeteer.”


Something about dolls gives them a certain universal appeal. Be it children who escape reality momentarily by vicariously becoming Superman or a super model, be it adults finding themselves drawn to the eerie perfection of a porcelain face, inanimate people speak to almost everyone on one level or another. Phillip Huber makes a living playing with dolls and has for over three decades. He’s worked on everything from cruise ships to Being John Malkovich, and now he’s the star act in the Festival of Animated Objects.


Puppeteering has been around since before the written word and continues to hold a certain attraction for children and adults alike. After thirty-five years of entertainment, Huber has become a veritable puppet master­–a man who can take a mundane wooden doll and infuse it with glorious movement and life.

32 comments

  1. Fantastic post however I was wondering if you
    could write a litte more on this topic? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further.
    Bless you!

  2. Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the pictures
    on this blog loading? I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
    Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

  3. Have you ever considered about including a little bit
    more than just your articles? I mean, what you
    say is important and everything. Nevertheless just imagine if you added
    some great images or videos to give your posts more,
    “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and video
    clips, this website could definitely be one of the best in its niche.
    Amazing blog!

  4. You are so cool! I do not believe I’ve truly read something like this before.So good to find someone with a few original thoughts on this subject.Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up. This siteis one thing that is needed on the web, someone with a bit of originality!

  5. First off I want to say fantastic blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you
    do not mind. I was interested to find out how you center yourself and
    clear your mind before writing. I have had trouble clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out there.

    I do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes tend to
    be wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or tips?
    Appreciate it!

  6. I have been browsing on-line greater than 3 hours today, yet I by
    no means discovered any fascinating article like yours.
    It’s lovely value sufficient for me. Personally, if all
    webmasters and bloggers made excellent content material as you did, the web will probably be much more useful than ever before.

  7. Ahaa, its nice discussion about this post at this place at this webpage, I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting here.

  8. Thanks, I have recently been looking for information approximately this topic for ages and yours is the best I have discovered so far. But, what about the bottom line? Are you certain concerning the supply?

  9. Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this,
    like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of
    that, this is wonderful blog. An excellent read. I will definitely be back.

  10. I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great.I do not know who you are but certainly you’re going to a famousblogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!

  11. Hello exceptional blog! Does running a blog similarto this take a lot of work? I’ve absolutely no understanding of programming however I washoping to start my own blog soon. Anyway, if you have any recommendations ortips for new blog owners please share. I know this is off topichowever I just needed to ask. Thanks a lot!

  12. Excellent post. Keep posting such kind of information on your blog.
    Im really impressed by it.
    Hello there, You’ve done a great job. I’ll certainly digg it and in my opinion recommend to my friends.
    I am confident they will be benefited from this website.

  13. It is in point of fact a nice and useful piece of information. I am satisfied that you simply shared this useful information with us.Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.

  14. hey there and thank you for your information – I have definitely picked up something new from right here.

    I did however expertise some technical points using this
    web site, as I experienced to reload the web site lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly.
    I had been wondering if your web host is OK?
    Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will very
    frequently affect your placement in google and could damage your high-quality score if
    ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS
    to my e-mail and could look out for much more of your respective exciting content.

    Ensure that you update this again soon.

  15. Piece of writing writing is also a excitement, if you be acquainted with after that you can write or else it is complicated to write.

  16. I got this web site from my buddy who informed me regarding this websiteand at the moment this time I am visiting this site and reading veryinformative posts at this time.

  17. Thanks for your personal marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you
    will be a great author. I will remember to bookmark your blog and will often come back very soon. I
    want to encourage you to definitely continue your great
    posts, have a nice weekend!

  18. you’re in point of fact a excellent webmaster. The website loading pace is amazing. It seems that you’re doing any unique trick. Moreover, The contents are masterwork. you have performed a magnificent process on this subject!

  19. I believe everything said was actually very reasonable.
    However, think about this, what if you were to create a
    killer title? I am not suggesting your information is not solid., but suppose you added a headline
    that makes people want more? I mean Theatre Preview:
    Pulling a John Malkovich – Gauntlet's Archive is kinda plain. You ought to glance at Yahoo’s front page and see
    how they create article titles to get viewers to click.

    You might add a video or a pic or two to grab readers interested about
    what you’ve written. Just my opinion, it could make your posts a little bit more interesting.

  20. Do you have a spam issue on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; we have developed some nice methods and we are looking to swap
    strategies with other folks, why not shoot me an e-mail
    if interested.

  21. Hi! I’ve been reading your web site for some time now and finally got
    the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from
    Humble Tx! Just wanted to mention keep up the great work!

  22. Usually I don’t read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very compelled me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, quite nice post.

Leave a comment