The Puppetry of Barnaby Dixon

Jarrod Fairclough – While we at The Muppet Mindset are more familiar with ‘Muppet’ style puppetry, digital puppetry and animatronic puppetry, the truth is that there are a whole heap of puppetry styles out there in the world.  There are shadow puppets, marionettes, banraku, rod puppets, glove puppets – and that’s just a handful (get it?).

Last week I was browsing Reddit, and on the front page there was a video by a man named Barnaby Dixon.  He is a fantastic puppet builder and puppeteer from England, and his YouTube video is full of some amazing puppets that he has built.  They’re generally operating with his fingers, and while at first this video might seem simple, just wait until the puppets hands start moving.

While the puppetry might not have anything to do with The Muppets, Sesame Street or Henson in general, I thought it was right to acknowledge such an impressive take on the art form to a wide audience.

Barnaby has graciously allowed me to share some of his videos here on the site.  Take a look below at just a few of my favorites, and then head over to see more on his YouTube page!