Oobi came about when Josh Selig was watching puppeteers being trained to operate muppets. Before you are given a puppet, you are given a pair of ping pong balls on an elastic, each ball has a felt pupil. Put your four fingers through the elastic, put your arm over your head, point your fingers forward, center your thumb under the fingers to indicate the mouth, and recite the alphabet. Learn how to puppeteer one part of the puppet at a time, lip-sync and focus first. Simple but very expressive. Josh saw the value of a seemingly rudimentary puppet. I was called in because of my previous bare hand experience. Martin Robinson was called in because he is brilliant and someone with a varied puppet experience. Luckily we had acompany together!

So I’m Oobi.

Martin made all the beautiful custom eyes. I get a lot of letters from parents saying they like it. Thanks for those! I know the show is a little atypical, but the kids seem to love it.

This is probably the most unique thing I have ever done.