Being a Muppet is a dream for so many of us and The Muppets Mayhem brings us into the world of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. A brilliant look into the band that has brought us such joy from The Muppet Show and beyond also gives new puppeteers the ability to join the team and bring new characters to fans! Like David Bizzaro and his work as Gerald Teeth Sr. in the new series!
I was lucky enough to speak to Bizzaro about his work on the show, as well as his puppeteer work on shows like Waffles + Mochi‘s Restuarant! We talked a bit about Bizzaro’s life and I mentioned how exciting it all his and he was quick to agree. “Yeah, it’s super exciting,” he said. “I am living in a reality that I didn’t know I would be in five years ago.” Bizzaro went on to talk about seeing a post on Instagram that said to him he’s exactly where he should be but that this was a journey he wasn’t sure he’d reach. Because he did seem to want to leave puppetry behind him.
“I’m also an actor,” he said. “And so I was even contemplating getting out of puppetry and just doing what puppeteers call fleshy acting, which is just using my face. And I got pulled back in right after lockdown. And the pandemic sort of loosened up a little bit. The Jim Henson company had a call out for puppeteers to come do their puppetry training. And it’s like two weeks. It’s an intensive and it’s every single day from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM of just training Henson style puppetry. And I didn’t think I was gonna do it. And my wife was like, you have to do it. You have to do it.” For Bizzaro, it was a bit of back and forth because he thought he was going to get out of it.
But he listened to his wife. “So I auditioned. I got these really amazing, motivating compliments from Kevin Clash. He’s the puppeteer who originally performed Elmo on Sesame Street and a bunch of other characters but he was one of the guys that was on the audition. It was through Zoom. And he was like, you know I can see everything you’re doing. It’s incredibly difficult what you’re doing, and I’m super impressed. You’re a very good puppeteer. And there was another person on the call and they were like, you need to take that compliment because Kevin Clash does not give out compliments. He is not known for it. So we need to take a moment and sit in what’s happening right now. And I got off that audition, just feeling really motivated.”
We talked a bit more about his time leading up to joining the cast but what was fascinating is learning that Bill Barretta approaches his work as Dr. Teeth from a very actory sense. And as someone who trained in Meisner’s technique, I loved to learn that that’s what Barretta uses to bring the character to life.
Bizzaro described a typical Meisner technique where you are meant to check in with your scene partner and said “I’ve done that exercise with Bill and it’s really helpful and it gets you out of your body and really finding truth when you’re performing. And that’s something that Jim Henson was really concerned about.” Which is probably why these characters mean so much to fans. We know that the actors behind them care and are learning and their acting skills shine through, which is very clear in Bizzaro’s characters.
You can see Bizzaro’s work in The Muppets Mayhem and Waffle + Mochi’s Restuarant!
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios)
