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Zak the Hippy
Zak the Hippy was 'born' in 1997, during the spare months between college and university. Until this time, all my puppets had been based on animals, and were aimed more towards kids. I really wanted to try my hand at a human, and to make a more adult orientated puppet. So I decided to do both at the same time.
Zak's basic design is the hand and rod puppet that I pioneered with Sebastian. As I was a lowly student with mounting debts, he was created mainly from bits and pieces lying around my parent's house. I had to buy glue and ping pong balls, but that was all. The foam was again ripped out of an old sofa, which was easy to come by during the summer. All I had to do was go for a walk around the student accommodation areas, and look for a sofa being chucked out by a student landlord. The clothes were old children's stuff, together with my father's original sixties hippy wedding shirt - all cut-down and adjusted to the right size by lots of sewing. I also made a pair of suede boots, by gluing suede over the top of some old kid's wellies and adding some laces. I didn't even need any cotton wool for his arms. Instead I used the legs from my childhood Emu puppet, which by then was falling apart. Fitting I think that a treasured puppet became reused in this way.
Of course there are a few differences to building a human rather than an animal puppet - namely that a human has skin and hair, not fur. Very quickly I discarded the idea of using anything that would look like natural skin, and instead followed the example of Jim Henson and ignored both skin colour and texture. Tan coloured fur fabric left over from making Sebastian was ideal, and gave Zak a muppet-like look. An old wig topped off his head, and I used part of it to give Zak a goatee beard. Sun glasses, bangles, chains, and other hippy accessories that were happily knocking about the house were added, and hey presto - one hippy puppet. It proves what you can do with a five pound note and a lot of imagination. The lesson learnt is if you want to create a puppet, it need not cost the Earth. Just use your imagination and see what happens.
Over the years I have added some of my own Glastonbury Festival wristbands over Zak's skinny arms. I think he would have approved. Zak is my favourite puppet, due in part to him wearing my father's wedding shirt. If my house ever caught on fire, I will be seen running out with Zak under one arm, and my cat under the other.
Zak is the embodiment of all things Hippy. Laidback, with a permanent grin. Flowerpower, peace, love and a good smoke are his favourite past-times. Although he was born much later, he thinks of himself as a child of the sixties, and dislikes all other decades as they are not spelt the same. The only thing he hates more is ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who he blames for the breakup of the original line up of the progressive-rock band Genesis. Nobody really knows why he thinks this. He is a big fan of the Glastonbury Festival, and has been to every one since 1999. He can often be found there, dreaming that it is still the summer of love.
Building Zak
My Father Wearing Zak's
Shirt to His Wedding
Herb the Owl | Alex the Droog | What is a Puppet | Watching With Mother | Gerry Anderson | Jim Hensons Muppets
From Satire to Sitcom | Are Puppets Just for Kids | About the Author and Links
This website is the copyright of Benjamin Burford-Jones 2014, except quotations and photographs used to illustrate various traditional and television puppets.
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