Coming Soon: PUPPET POWER

I'll go ahead and tell you now: remember for the past couple of years or so, I've been talking about wanting to do a television series with Steve, Bethany, and The Squirrely Squirrels? I was going to call it STEVE D'MONSTER & COMPANY (well, it originally was friends instead of company, but I decided company worked and sounded better)? It was going to be a half-hour series with short segments in each episode of the different kinds of escapades they would get into? Steve and Bethany doing their own little thing, and The Squirrely Squirrels pestering them along the way? Steve and Bethany were going to have a little clubhouse for themselves, while The Squirrely Squirrels would live in a hole in a tree, completely furnished and everything?

Well guess what? Steve's new TV series is FINALLY going to happen! Except for a few things: it's not going to be called STEVE D'MONSTER & COMPANY. It's not going to be a half-hour series with short segments in each episode of the different kinds of escapades they would get into. It won't have Steve and Bethany doing their own little thing, and The Squirrely Squirrels pestering them along the way. Steve and Bethany aren't going to have a little clubhouse for themselves, while The Squirrely Squirrels won't live in a hole in a tree, completely furnished and everything. In short, it's NOT even going to be the show that I wanted to do. At all. I really don't want to talk about it, so, if you're really just itching to know just what Steve's new TV series IS going to be... well, then just make sure you're subscribed to my YouTube channel, because I'll be uploading the episodes of this new show there eventually anyway.

So, what is this particular post all about then? Well, I AM excited to announce a project I'm working on the side this year! Now, who else besides me, of Generation Y, is familiar with the old Nickelodeon cartoon, KaBLAM!? The "new kind of cartoon show", that was like a televisual comic book: different cartoon shows in a cartoon show, all in different styles of animation: hand-drawn, stop-motion, Chuckimation, etc.? Earlier in the year, I got to thinking that such a concept would work well with puppets, especially considering many people out there, who aren't necessarily followers of puppetry, tend to think of the Muppet style as being the only style of puppetry there is, when that is pretty much not the case. YouTube has been a wonderful tool for puppeteers, like myself, to showcase their work in puppetry, and I know there have been a few of these puppets who have expressed interest in some kind of a special project that would bring all of our different work together in one video, so I believe this is exactly scratching everybody where they itch. In short, this is going to be different puppet shows in a puppet show.

PUPPET POWER, as it is currently entitled, is going to be a half-hour webspecial, hosted by Steve D'Monster, featuring the work of various different YouTube puppeteers. My goal for this special is to not only help gain more exposure for myself and other puppeteers who post their work on YouTube, but to help spark more interest in the art of puppetry in general, and let people know that not all puppets are just like the Muppets. Who knows, if this does well, there may be more PUPPET POWER specials in the future.

At the moment, I haven't set an official release date for the special, but I'm thinking I'll aim for a late summer/early fall release. So far, three of my fellow YouTube puppeteers are on board for the project, and I'm really looking forward to seeing their submissions, and I certainly hope this will be a most excellent program.

So, keep your eyes peeled, and make sure you're subscribed to The Joseph Scarbrough Universe On YouTube!