People keep asking me and I keep telling them to the point of exhaustion. Performing One-Handed Witch at The 9th Annual New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival was wild. Let me tell you.
Toybox Theatre
A week before we left for New Orleans, a puppet messaged me to say he saw me on the bill for the New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival and he couldn't wait to meet the Hiss in person. The puppet was Toybox. We met after performing at Fable Cry’s virtual Festival of Ghouls in 2020. According to Toybox, New Orleans is amazing, the festival producers are the best, and the crowds are the biggest. I believed half of what he said. Later, I learned it was all true.
The festival started on Thursday, April 13. Paul Dab (electric organist extraordinaire) and I landed Thursday night late, got ourselves a rental car late, ate at Waffle House late, and slipped into La Quinta Inn and Motel—a regular place for circus performers and Anjelah Johnson—late.
Toybox at The Mudlark Public Theatre
Friday we went to The Mudlark Public Theatre and met producer and queen puppeteer Pandora and her partner Jack, who live at the theatre, and Caitlyn from Enormous Face who was sleeping in the theatre. We planned to sleep in the theatre. Who gets the air mattress?
After we picked up our rental gear, and ate fried shrimp at someone’s house we went to the Happyland Theater to load in for rehearsal before our first show. Happyland Theater is an old lumber warehouse, turned movie house, turned performing arts venue. While setting up for the show and cursing the airlines for breaking my turntable, I suddenly froze, where was my unicycle? Weeks ago I found a local circus performer to rent me a unicycle, but as of 4 PM he had not delivered the wheel. The show was going to start in one hour. Finally, the unicycle came, finally the computer connected to the projector, and finally rehearsal could begin; but it was also 5 o'clock. It was showtime! How many people showed up? 25 people, Friday night at 5 PM. Fizz!
We went to sleep at 3 AM at The Mudlark Public Theatre.
Midnight Radio Show at Happyland Theater
Saturday, it rained and rained and thundered and we went to the French Quarter anyway. We hit record stores, street fairs, tourist traps and witch boutiques (three on one block). I bought a voodoo doll … not a book, not a crystal and not a Mardi Gras mask. I also bought a used gothic pitchfork for the show. We ate crepes and we went back to the theater to catch the other puppet acts. We shared the venue with two other artists. Midnight Radio Show from Brooklyn and Playdoh from Atlanta. We played at different times every night. This night One-Handed Witch went on at 8 PM. The theater was full, the computer finally connected to the projector and our best attended show of the festival went off. How many people showed up? 80+ people, Saturday night at 8 PM. Pow!
We went to sleep at our rentals whenever.
Street Musicians at Jackson Square
Sunday I woke up, hopped on a rentable e-bike and rode to French Quarter Fest where people recognized my top hat and screamed my name, “Samson!” What?! Fans from San Francisco! After eating beignets, listening to street musicians and eating enough soul food to knock out an elephant, I went back to catch a few puppet shows at the puppet festival. Every show we went to was sold out, no vacancy, try again next year. My show was not sold out and it was at the same time as the rescheduled Giant Puppet Festival Parade. Who can compete with that? The parade was supposed to be Saturday night but due to the thunderstorm it was rescheduled, and the Witch had to feel the sting of its new day and time. Finally the computer connected to the projector and our worst attended show of the festival commenced. Five minutes before showtime it was us and the bartender. That’s when Jeff, the sound engineer, told us Nirvana played to empty bars when they first started out. We aren’t Nirvana. How many people showed up? 11 maybe, Sunday night at 9 PM. Ew!
We went to sleep after the Giant Puppet Festival Parade promiscuities.
One-Handed Witch
Monday was our final show. Half the festival’s puppet acts had vacated. The big nights of Friday and Saturday were behind us and the Giant Puppet Festival Parade had rolled away. The remaining acts must have bought cheaper flights on Tuesday. What I did all day, I can’t recall, except for going to TJ Maxx and watching someone run out the exit and across the parking lot carrying two powder blue hard case suitcases. What an eye for quality! No, I can’t remember anything before or after the show, because the show was a disaster. The computer would not connect to the projector!!! In other words, we had no way to screen the film. Every cursed night we had to troubleshoot this issue. And what happens on the final night? Zip! Finally Jeff had to pull out a ladder and climb up to the projector with the laptop, hardwire it into the projector and then leave it up there balancing on a beam. Then he had to go back up and mute the sound because we’re playing the musical score live! Then failing to move the cursor off the video frame, the play bar was left on-screen for the entire film. By this time I was dining on this disaster and laughing like a serial killer seated in the electric chair seconds before the killing jolt. How many people showed up? 25 maybe, Monday night at 6 PM. Zing! Kids got free kazoos.
We went to sleep with barbecue sauce on our faces.
Art near Spellcaster Lodge
When I messaged The Mudlark Public Theatre to pitch One-Handed Witch it was on a lark. When I reunited with Toybox at another festival it was eerie. And when I left the festival without losing my shirt, I was shocked. The 9th Annual New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival exceeded all my jazzed up dreams. It was wild!
-Samson
