I find this kind of funny. In the last couple of months I bought 2 more puppets. One was a rabbit puppet and the other an Axtell Gator. I really did not know what voices I was going to use for them, but as soon as I received them and put my hand inside of them, their voice immediately came out.

Has this happened to you? I guess I am really CRAZY!

Either you're not crazy, or you're not the only one who is crazy because I've had the same thing happen, and I've heard other people say the same thing.
I've gotten figures in the past where their perfect voice just seemed to come out immediately, but I've also had other ones where no matter how hard I tried, I could not find a voice for them that I was satisfied with.
Maybe with those that I couldn't find a voice, I was failing to heed what Shari Lewis said;
".....you don't make a puppet talk. You allow a puppet to talk.
You can't make them talk a certain way........the trouble with many puppets is that their characters and voices have been forcefully superimposed on them by their owners.
It doesn't work that way."

I think down deep in your imagination you have a preconceived idea of what a character may sound like. For examnple, a bulldog character may have a more gruff or gravel-sounding voice; a female character may have a higher pitched voice, etc. I'm not saying yoiu can't mix this up a bit but I find that you imagination works well with some puppets, while others take a bit more work. IMHO.

Mark
markwade@kidshowvent.com

I totally agree with Mark! I knew the voices I wanted for my vent family as soon as I seen them for sale/adoption. Still took some effort on a couple of the voices but Cletus L.C. Jones, my cousin from the hills of Kentucky, just came out naturally. Buckley Barnes, another cousin from the plains of Kansas, sounds a little like Pat Buttram, the kind junk dealer who was on "Green Acres". Grampa B has a deep rough voice and Bobby, my young 10 year old nephew has the typical high pitched voice that is normally associated with young boys. Weird, but then again, I resemble that word:o)

I know a some vents think a lot about new characters--write out their background story, "interview" them, etc. For me the process is more intuitive. I start trying different voices, and suddenly one sticks. For instance, my primary character is Mrs. Lucille Goldman. When I first got her, I tried a sweet old lady voice--didn't work. Then a Mrs. Doubtfire type. Nope. And then out came the voice of a tough old broad who "ain't done yet" with men. Bingo! Character followed voice, and she leapt to the fore of my characters.

My new Nelson/Lavender bum started out as a plain old alcoholic, but one day I noticed how much his ears looked like Prince Charles's ears, and the Cockney drunk Archie P. Nelson was born. It all came together very quickly.

Incidentally, I'll be performing with Archie in the Senior Open Mike at the ConVENTion. Lucille is coming with me, but she is not suitable for a family show. But in the privacy of my room...

Bob