112: Yip Yip Yip Yip Ah Hah! Ah Hah!

Our guest today has been one of the main Muppet performers on Sesame Street for the past 37 years, and is Ammar’s puppeteering mentor! Mr. Martin Robinson. Marty is an American puppeteer who works for the Jim Henson Company. He also built, designed, and performed the puppets for Little Shop of Horrors. He is best known for his work on Sesame Street, having performed the characters of Telly Monster, Mrs. Grouch (Oscar the Grouch’s mother), Slimey the Worm, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Oscar’s niece Irvine, Shelley the Turtle and the blue Martian that goes (Yip yip yip yip yip, ah hah! ah hah!). He also performed the characters Riff the Cat and Clef the dad on Allegra’s Window, and was an animatronic puppeteer for Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is the puppeteer responsible for training the puppeteers on the international Sesame productions. He also voiced the Cat in the Hat in the second season of “The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss”. We talked about puppetry and what you might need to become a puppeteer, so if you are planning on being one… this will be a good episode to listen to