Lessons Learned at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame

I'm in Cleveland for a Puppet Ministry Summerfest. Since I had a little extra time this morning I decided to visit the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. It was pretty cool, though there were some disappointments...No photo rule!?!?? How un-rock n roll can you get?

The museum houses a lot of classic instruments and memorabilia such as costumes and stage props. One of the things that was interesting to note about so many of the outfits that rock legends wore in concerts, in videos, and on album covers is that they really don't look all that impressive up close. You can see the flaws. You can see that they're made out of the same junk your wardrobe from Wal-Mart is made of.

The Hot Dog you see above hangs in the loby of the Hall of Fame (which is the only area where photos are allowed), it was used in concert by the band Phish. When you look at it from above you can see inside the bun and I noticed that it's made out of some of the same materials I've seen many a puppet prop made out of.

This all got me thinking that we always hear that those of us in children's ministry and puppet ministry can't compete with what the entertainment industry puts out. Why even try, right? Wrong!! Guess what, they work with the same materials we do. Same scrap fabrics, same goofy looking sequins, same spray paint, same chicken wire. The only difference is that folks like Beyonce and Prince are nuts enough to pay millions for it.

What I've Learned from the Muppets: Rapunzel

Recently I blogged about how Hulu now has several classic Sesame Street clips available for viewing on their website. Since these clips can also be embedded on other sites, I thought it was a cool new opportunity to do some "What I've Learned from the Muppets" posts with the full videos available for viewing in the post. So, here is the Sesame Street News Flash segment "Rapunzel" along with an analysis done via web cam...sometimes it's just easier to talk it than write it. Enjoy...

I-Fest Ventriloquist on Oprah

Apparently Oprah has been searching for the world's "smartest and most talented kids." Well I just received word this morning that a show about this will be airing today, and one of the people that will appear is ventriloquist Megan Piphus who has been a regular attender at the International Festival of Christian Puppetry and Ventriloquism. Megan has been a part of the Ventriloquist Dream Team at I-Fest several times and she is an awesome ventriloquist.

Part of the video she submitted is online at Oprah's website here. Congratulations Megan!

World's Most Interesting Olivetians

Recently, Olivet Nazarene University had a bit of an election on their website. People were invited to vote for the "World's Most Interesting Olivetian," that's what they call their alumni. Amongst those nominated were the folks that started One Way Street, Dale and Liz VonSeggen. Well, in a landslide, these puppet people won. Here is the video that was presented at recent festivities at the school. Congratulations Dale and Liz!

Atlanta Puppet Festival...a few weeks late

I'm a few weeks behind on posting some pictures from my trip to Atlanta for the Puppet Ministry Festival there. Sorry on being late, here's a few pics...

One of my favorite clowns, Brenda Marshall (aka Flower) was one of our guests. Speaking of favorites, here she is doing one of my favorite ways to present a simple salvation message, the good ole Salvation Flash Cards.

When I first met Jason Bonilla he lived in Florida. When I first met Gene Cordova (above) he lived in Seattle. Both have taught at festival for us for many years, and now they are both apart of the same church in Tennessee. So they drove down to Atlanta together to teach at the festival. This is Gene with his vent buddy, Puppy.

Here's one of the most creative people I know, Ferrel Marr, teaching a class on blacklight puppetry.

Our host team, The M&M Puppeteers did a wonderful presentation that combined some flag choreography along with something cool that's been making the YouTube rounds lately called "Cardboard Testimonies." Like "Edward Scissorhands" they made me cry.

I-Fest 2008

I'm really behind on updating everyone on this year's I-Fest, The International Festival of Christian Puppetry and Ventriloquism. One Way Street sponsors this conference every year and it takes a lot of work. Every year is a challenge, but this year we knew going in there were going to be some big issues to deal with. So I'm really feeling bad I haven't updated the blog world on how well the conference went. Mainly I'm feeling bad because the awesome week we had was result of the fact that God came through big time. He's faithful 100% and we want to give Him all the glory for a great week!

Our theme this year was "Fully Committed," and God displayed that He was fully committed to his children throughout this incredible week. Between construction on the college campus which eliminated the normal cafeteria from use, and the challenges of the economy and the impact of gas prices...we wondered at times how we would pull off this year's festival. Fact is, we didn't...God did!

At the One Way Street website you can check out the "Virtual I-Fest" reports that we sent out to our customers a few weeks after the event. It gives you a chance to check out some of the highlights, see some of the new products that were introduced, and download some free workshop audio as well as the audio for the morning devotionals. Here are the links:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

I wanted to share a few photos of my own as well. It was a great week!

Ventriloquist Tony Borders with his buddy Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear (read that one again, always loved that name) opened up the festival on Monday night.

Here's Dave Privett and his buddy Milo from PlaySoup teaching one of the many puppet manipulation workshops.

Carrie Murphy was a One Way Street intern with me waaaaay back in 1993. Here she is teaching some advanced choreography. She also directed this year's Puppetry Dream Team.

Ella Havell from the UK and her team, Smile Puppet Ministry, shared during the International Night program on Wednesday.

Philip Haught is co-directing our One Way Street Ministry Team this summer. He picked up a new character at I-Fest, Sammy the Shark.

Brian Cockerham was a Louisiana State Trooper until a few years ago when he felt the call to go into full-time ministry at I-Fest. Now he travels all over with his ventriloquist partners. He was a featured performer on Tuesday night.

David Hellyer from the UK was another one of our international guests. David is an amazing puppeteer and puppet builder. We were thrilled to have him share in some of the workshops this year.

The one and only Amy Harder teaches on the finer points of Stretch-a-Belly puppet choreography. She ought to know how to do it, she invented the things.

The One Way Street Ministry Team performed once in the evening program, once in a showcase without curtains, and served as conference assistants throughout the week.

This team came all the way from Puerto Rico, and shared a performance on International night.

An I-Fest tradition is the Mystery Puppet Building Challenge. Teams are given a mystery ingredient they must build a puppet out of by the end of the day. This year's ingredient...Duct Tape!

Evangelist Mel LaMar is not only an accomplished ventriloquist, but also an amazing juggler. This year his daughter Ali joined in the act.

Friday night featured a performance by the P.O.W.E.R. Company puppet team, which is the team I grew up on. It was actually the final performance for the team under the direction of Christy Watkins. I got to present a special award to Christy for over 25 years of commitment not just to her team, but to helping train many other teams around the world. I cried like a baby.

This is the final moment from the Puppetry Dream Team's performance. This year's performance was based on a Christian children's book called The Squire and the Scroll. The author's husband and daughter were even able to attend.

The whole festival was fantastic...and like I said, God deserves all the glory. I've many more photos posted over at my Facebook page. In fact, I'm adding new ones all the time. So if you're a facebook user, send me a note, I'll be your friend...no big woop. Speaking of Facebook, we've also created an I-Fest fan page over there, so you can join all the other I-Fest fans and see videos, take part in discussions, and experience a whole bunch of puppet ministry coolness.

Puppet Ministry at TheWayWeSeeIt Blog

Ryan Frank is the man behind Kidz Matter which publishes the awesome new children's ministry resource K! Magazine. He blogs about children's ministry along with Jim Wideman and Evan Doyle over at thewayweseeitblog.com. He's also the children's pastor at his church in Sweetser, IN and our One Way Street Ministry Team had the opportunity to minister at his church last Sunday night. Ryan wrote a great post about their visit which also talks about how to have an effective puppet team in your church. Go check out the post here.