"Bear" in the House

As we draw closer to the official release of "Cartoon Lagoon," we are sharing some behind the scenes stories of the cast and crew that helped us make the show. Noel MacNeal is a veteran puppeteer, who knows and loves Huntington, having taught Oompah Puppet classes here last summer. He was the man inside the "Bear in the Big Blue House"

CLS (Cartoon Lagoon Studios): Would you tell us some of your favorite projects you have worked on?

Well, the latest one was Cartoon Lagoon (wink). 

CLS: Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

I am a native New Yorker, born and raised in Central Harlem. My mom still lives in the apartment I grew up in. 

CLS: Where did you go to school? Did you study puppeteering?

I attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. There was a theater program back then and in that was a puppetry course taught by Kermit Love, the designer and builder of Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus (and NO the frog was NOT named after him). 

CLS: When did you know you wanted to be a puppeteer? 

In high school, The Muppet Show began. When it was time to think of college and career, I thought "if this Jim Henson guy can do it, why can't I?" 

CLS: What was your first professional experience as a puppeteer?

I was 20 years old when my puppetry teacher Kermit Love asked if I wanted to be a puppeteer for three commercials his shop built puppets for........ in Paris! Yes. My first professional job was puppeteering for three Magi Bouillon Cube commercials shot in Paris, France. For a week. WIth a stop over in London. I was 19; first real job in my career choice; first time to Europe; first time on a airplane. It was a great start to to a great career. 

CLS: What artists were your biggest influences?

Well, Jim (Henson) of course who I met and worked with. And his colleagues: Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Carroll Spinney. But also Leonardo Di Vinci for always thinking and creating; Walt Disney, especially when he was told Disneyland would ruin him and he kept going. And of course my mom who always said, "Don't get a job, get a career." 

CLS: How did you get involved in OOMPAH in Huntington? CAn you tell us a bit about the program?

One of the parents works at Sesame Workshop and her kids attended the puppetry course the summer of 2010. It was run by local puppeteer Steve Widerman. SInce he could't do it last summer but they still wanted the program, she asked Henson if an of us were interested. And I said, "yes!" (Due to the uncertainty of OOMPAH for this year, when I was offered another teaching position here in NYC, I waited as long as I could before finally accepting. The good news is, Steve Widerman, who started it all, will be back this summer, using the curriculum I set up last year.)

CLS: What other cool projects are you working on these days?

I am one of the puppeteers for FIELD STATION: DINOSAURS in Secaucus, N.J. It's a dino themed park with life size animatronic replicas of dines and two "baby" T-Rexes that are full body puppets that you'd wear.
I am also teaching puppetry to under-privelleged kids for the GO Project in Manhattan for the month of July. This 75 year old organization recruits kids from the worst public schools on the Lower East Side and gives them an academic and arts enrichment summer camp for five weeks. 

CLS: What advice would you give someone who wants to pursue their dream career?

Do it. Just do it. Figure out how, what you need, what you already have and just start doing it. In fact, stop reading this about how to do it and just start....RIGHT NOW!