Now that I get how cool the Muppets are, I wish I could say that I was a big fan of them growing up. But the truth is I never really liked puppets as a kid, and didnโt connect with the Muppetsโ vaudeville-throwback shtick.
Luckily, as an adult, I now have my kid to show me the error of my ways. Starting last year, when she was six, I have watched all the seasons of The Muppet Show with my daughter Frankieโand in the case of her favorite episodes, like the ones where the Star Wars cast or Steve Martin or Alice Cooper guest-starred, watched them dozens of times.
And I have to ask myself: how could I have been so lame? The Muppets have everythingโlaughs, touching moments, compelling stories, music, artistryโand under Jim Hensonโs guidance, they delivered it all at a breathless pace. Somehow, it took me four decades to grasp this, while Frankie figured it out when she was in kindergarten. Every Muppet moment is a delight to her, and itโs also where her talent for doing voicesโshe can do pretty much all the Muppets, including the best Gonzo Iโve heard from anyone not named Dave Goelzโfirst materialized. Kermit, Fozzie, Ralph and the whole gang are just a part of who she is.
She has a soulmate in Puppetry Institute of Santa Cruz founder and artistic director Ricki Vincent. At four years old, Vincent was already so into puppets that his mom would actually wake him up if something puppet-related came on television. And when Jim Henson was on the Tonight Show precursor Tonight Starring Jack Paar in the early โ60s, she did just that. Henson did a routine with a primitive version of his Kermit puppet and an inchworm.
โThatโs what got me totally hooked,โ says Vincent. โI kept begging my grandmother, โI need to make a worm! I need to make a worm!โโ Finally, she gave him an old coat and a pair of scissors, and he started making inchworm puppets. โBecause it was a big coat, I made hundreds of โem.โ
By age eight, he was turning the family garage into a puppet theater. Mom, who wanted him to be a lawyer, had to be wondering what sheโd started. โShe thought I was nuts,โ he says.
Vincent was obsessed with puppetry into his teens, but lost interest as he moved into his rebellious years, eventually owning a lucrative piercing business. After 9/11, though, he felt like he wasnโt doing anything meaningful with his life, and rediscovered his puppet passion. A $50,000 grant to do a puppet burlesque show in Austin was his first big success, and he eventually set up shop in Monterey. But as he started doing puppet shows on Pacific Avenue as โDr. Mercurio,โ Vincent started to feel more of a connection to Santa Cruz. When he saw a chance to move here, he did.
Now heโs opened the Puppetry Institute in the Octagon, after the Museum of Art and History chose him as their artist in residence. He took a month and a half to turn the inside into a glorious puppet laboratory, filling it with creatures of all types and in all stages of development. Foam and glue give the giant open studio space the smell of constant activity and creativity.
โItโs got the puppet-y madness smell,โ he says.
And indeed, โDr. Mercurioโs Octagon of Imaginationโ is the stuff of puppet-y madness. Vincent does workshops that allow kids and teens to make their own Muppets, and he does a Creature Shop where anyone can come in and get hands-on experience helping him put feathers in a phoenix, or a horn on a unicorn, or whatever else his crew is working on at the time. Thereโs even a class where cosplayers can make their own costumes.
โWhy go and order something thatโs going to cost you $1,200, when you can learn how to make your own stuff?โ he asks. โSame thing with Burning Man.โ
Though he loves to get kids started on puppet design, thereโs an adult side to the Puppetry Institute, tooโlike the show heโll be doing this week, June 8-10, at the Octagon, โThe Doctor Is Out: The Last 48 Hours in the Life of Hunter S. Thompson.โ Vincent researched and wrote the play (on a typewriter, no less), and created the Thompson puppet that he voices in the show.
Heโs been searching for a permanent home for the Institute after the residency is up in August, and just made a deal with the Museum of Discovery in Capitola to move into a dedicated space there. The museumโs bookmobile will also be refitted to serve as a mobile puppetry workshop that Vincent can take to local schools. He sees it as the latest in a long line of collaborations that fuel his passion.
โThe biggest thing Iโm trying to build here is a sense of community,โ he says.
โThe Doctor is Out: The Last 48 Hours in the Life of Hunter S. Thompsonโ will be performed Thursday, June 8 through Saturday, June 10 at 8 p.m., with a 9:30 p.m. show Friday and Saturday, at the Octagon, 118 Cooper St., Santa Cruz. Tickets are $12-$22 sliding scale. For more information on Vincentโs workshops, go to thepuppetryinstitute.org.
Celebrate the garden that helped launch the organic farming and gardening movement in the U.S. with Alan Chadwick Gardenโs 50th anniversary. This yearโs festival will feature an afternoon of poetry and music from noon to 2:30 p.m. Folk harp player Shelley Phillips, the 2017 Santa Cruz Artist of the Year, will play, and nine regional poetsโincluding Angel Dominguez, Michael Hannon, and Persis Karimโwill read their work. 
Join forces with Santa Cruzans to cheer on the local LGBTQ community for the biggest pride parade on the Central Coast. In this queer visibility action, local organizations, allies, supportive groups, churches, candidates, ensembles, parents, performers and children show pride, enthusiasm and love. The parade kicks off at 11 a.m., followed by a festival from noon until 4 p.m. featuring dance, vendors, spoken word artists, musicians, food trucks and a kidsโ space. All ages are welcome for this family-friendly Pride event. 
The Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery presents their 31st annual Irwin Scholarship Award exhibition. UCSCโs most promising emerging artists from the art department will showcase paintings and photos that transcend the boundaries of 2D representation while video and audio works will create a more intimate experience between spectator and artist. The exhibition explores the contemporary consciousness through an unconventional lens, with a rich collection of works that delve into the personal as political, expanding individualized themes into a larger social, political, environmental framework. 
Ever find yourself on your lunchbreak, the weather gorgeous, the birds singing, looking for a place to sit outside and bask in the glory of downtown? Finally, the time has come. Four years in the making, the new community plaza and marketplace will soon be open to the public and this Friday, June 2, community members will be able to get a sneak peek. Festivities will kick off with Camille Utterback (above) discussing her work, followed by live music, art activities, yoga classes, and free exhibitions. The evening will conclude with the beginning of the Ebb and Flow Festival. 
