Peculiar Puppetronic Phenomena by Humble Wonder Theatre

Created by Lee Cookson, Tyler Klein Longmire and Joshua Dalledonne

Original concept developed by Lee Cookson

Consisting of three puppet shows:

The One and Only Stacy Laroo
The Butt Muncher
Cowgrrl Bea

Seen at:

  • Q the Arts with Fairy Tales Film Society and Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre, August 2013, Calgary AB
  • Old Trout Puppet Workshop Shop Party, June 2013, Calgary AB
  • Sled Island Music and Art Festival - Art Series, June 2013, Calgary AB
  • Calgary Spark Science Centre Adult’s Only Night, July 2013, February 2013, Calgary AB
  • Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s Brief Festival, November 2012, Calgary AB
  • Calgary Maker Faire, September 2012, Calgary AB
  • Calgary International Festival of Animated Objects, March 2011, Calgary AB
  • One Yellow Rabbit High Performance Rodeo, February 2010, Calgary AB

... among others.

Photography by Jeff Stevens

"Looking for a peek behind the velvet curtain? For a taste of the strange, the unusual, the sexual? Then come and witness, in live shadow puppetry, your choice of the most incredible, inexplicable, indescribable, not-so-true stories of racy curiosities of the (un)natural world! For nothing more than a toonie, pick a show, peek inside and get curious with this naughty puppetronic peepshow..."

Humble Wonder Theatre's Peculiar Puppetronic Phenomena (previous iterations were called "Beatrix P. Noseworthy Presents: Peculiar Puppetronic Phenomena", after the show's fictional proprietress) is a project that has managed to blend my interests in performance, animation, shadow puppetry, and machines. It is a theatrical vending machine - put a toonie in the coin slot, pop on the headphones and watch a dirty shadow puppet peep show, a live animation just for you.

The booth itself is modular - we designed it to be collapsible. It is four jointed flats and two side panels that can be set up in under a half hour, and it fits in the back of Josh's car to boot. It's portable design has allowed us to take it to places larger shows cannot, festivals, special events, apartments, broom closets, abandoned basements, parties, hotels, you name it.

The booth's sign is embellished with a string of programmable LED lights powered by an Arduino microcontroller.