Man With a Microphone Mask/Puppet

Designed and Built February 2025

My group of friends had a secret santa that got delayed to March—I had the task of putting together a gift for my friend/collaborator/roommate Stefan. One of their recent thought games involved making a list of movies that feature a ‘Man with a Microphone,’ a showman type who, in their mind, nearly always elevates the movie. They are also an aficionado of puppets and associated figures of all types (their chosen medium is egg puppets, often). As such, it felt like a delightful challenge to try and design a different type of puppet, that functions at the nexus of puppet-making and mask-making. This was my first venture in both this type of practice and one of the first times I really worked with clay as a material. Now, is clay the ideal material to make this type of mask? Paper mache would have probably been better, but it would have also represented some distinct challenges in terms of making a scene around the house. I also never really made this with it being in regular use as a mask-puppet for performance, but instead as a piece for display. You can see process pictures below.