Review: Puppet Up! Uncensored

Ever imagined what sort of jokes and lines came out during outtakes of Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock? Ever wondered what would happen if someone popped the 'G' rating off the Muppeteers' mouths?

Enter Puppet Up! Uncensored, the new hour-long improv comedy show from the Jim Henson Company. Hosted by occasional Whose Line Is It Anyway? performer Patrick Bristow, the show features puppets and puppeteers performing improvised sketches based on suggestions shouted from the audience.

Puppet Up! breaks "the fifth wall": the line between the puppets' bodies and the performers who animate them. Unlike previous muppet offerings, the show deliberately shows the puppeteers under the cloth. Whether they're Muppet veterans like Brian Henson (Puppet Up!'s executive producer), Tyler Bunch, Drew Massey and Allan Trautman, or newcomers like Julianne Buescher, Ted Michaels, Paul Rugg and Victor Yerrid, these performers are obviously having a ball making their puppets doing bizarre things. The puppeteers go after the suggested storylines with gusto, whether it's improvising an opera about fake breasts, hot dogs getting drunk, a game show called "How to Catch a Train" (the winner doesn't have to kill himself at the end) or a bedtime story about killing a dog.

This show is still in the teething stages. At the start, the host deliberately pointed out that the puppeteers watch the floor-level monitors only so that they can properly frame the scenes: "They're not getting prompts from any joke writers."

Bristow also pointed out that the occasional head or arm may accidentally show up in the framed scene, since they are improvised on camera. These "mistakes" add versimilitude to a show that revels in its casual nature.

Because of this, Puppet Up! has its flaws: the sign of a show that hasn't quite found its feet. The performers aren't totally comfortable with each other yet; some of the improvs seemed tentative. Puppet Up! isn't sure how to showcase the puppeteers: are they featured performers in their own right, like Wayne Brady and Ryan Stiles in Whose Line, or are the puppets (don't call them muppets!) the real stars of the show? The puppeteers are often mentioned by name, but the audience isn't introduced to them until the very end of the show. While we're at it, and the constant repeats of "Puppet Up!" got mildly annoying after a while. But these are mild quibbles about what promises to be a fun show, once the quirks get worked out.

Is Puppet Up! Uncensored future hit like The Muppet Show, or will it become an underappreciated cult classic like Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal? Only time will tell. But if Puppet Up! Uncensored can maintain the quality of its improvisation, then I would have no qualms about recommending it to anyone who grew up watching the controlled anarchy of The Muppet Show. It ain't for kids, but it's definitely for the kid at heart.

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