(Photo by Cheryl Corman)
On this Awesome Con X Edition of THE INTERVUE, when it comes to a legend in puppetry, our guest today is one of the best in the biz. You may not see in his face, but he is the man behind two of our favorite Star Wars characters: Jedi Master Yoda and powerful crime lord Jabba the Hutt. You would also see his work in The Dark Crystal, Little Shop of Horrors and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I cannot believe I’m talking to our first puppeteer in 14 years. Let’s talk to the master puppeteer, Dave Barclay!
Welcome to the INTERVUE, Dave! How are you?
I’m doing very well. Thank you.
Excellent. So, you’re at the tenth Awesome Con, how does it feel to be here?
Oh, it’s fantastic. It’s brilliantly run, the promoters doing a fantastic job and the crowds are amazing. I’ve had people coming up with wonderful questions. And I’ve had a wonderful weekend so far.
Why I’m so glad here. I understand that you are a second-generation puppeteer. How did puppetry begin for you?
Well, yes, my mum and dad were actors. Originally, they met at RADA, which is the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but they were never cast together. They all as actors, you’d cast in one place, someone’s cast in another play, they wanted to work together. They decided to set up a public company and see how it went. It was hugely successful live puppetry. And so, from about the age of four, I traveled with them. Before I went to school, helping with a puppet shows. Yeah, and building and making my own puppets throughout my childhood and into my teenage years.
Wow, so tell us about the first puppet that you created.
And the first puppet I made complete puppet was when I was about six, it was a wizard. And it was a glove puppet. My parents were involved in a puppet festival in England. And there were prizes for best puppets. I decided I was going to make a puppet for the festival because our show is going to win. Yeah, of course, I didn’t put my puppet up there. I put it up with all the other puppets in in this exhibition so but it was it was the impetus for me to start making puppets and that and then I just never stopped.
How you got the role of being the puppeteer are both too much near a character to Star Wars, Master Yoda and Jabba the Hutt. We got to hear the story.
Well, some of the toy puppets that I enjoyed puppeteering, and I used them as warm up for my parents show. No, put some music on, I’d use some toy puppets. They’re called Pelham puppets, okay. And as a kid, I would dance my pet on puppets to the music before the show started, which was like the warmup act for before they started. Yeah. As a teenager as a summer job, I worked at Hamleys toy store and that’s the big famous London toy store selling those Pelham puppets. Mark Hamill came in one day; he was a puppet collector. He came in and bought a whole bunch of Pelham puppets and said, “I want a custom Darth Vader string puppet”. And I said, “I could make that for you”. So, he commissioned me to do a Darth Vader string puppet.
Oh, when it was ready, he invited me along to Elstree Studios where they filmed all the Star Wars films. And then introduce me to Stuart Freeborn, the make-up supervisor. A week later, Stuart offered me a job on Yoda. So, I started off with Stuart building Yoda. I sculpted a new top lip for Yoda because the original sculpture had the mouth open. And when it was converted into foam latex, you couldn’t close the mouth because it was already pre opened. So, the only way to do that was to add an extension on the top lip. And that was my first job for security.
But then one of the puppeteers became ill who was on set working with Frank Oz, one of the puppeteers and they said we need someone to stand in right now. Stuart knew I was a second-generation puppeteer and said, “David can stand in”. I ran down to the set, grabbed the controls and started puppeteering Yoda’s eyes. Frank loved what he did and said he wanted me to stay on during the eyes. So, I was on for the rest of the shoot during the eyes.
At the end of the shoot, we ran over because it was much harder to film the order than anyone expected because it had never been done before. Frank had to go off and do another job, but there’s still two weeks of Yoda filming left to do. I heard that he was going to nominate one of his muppeteer friends. No, he chose me, 19 years old, I became chief puppeteer for Yoda.
I can’t believe you did that at 19. I was in college studying communications at college.
Same as they were but I’d spent my entire childhood on the road with my parents doing public shows making those I was also interested they because they were actors, and they had their makeup boxes. I was also interested in stage makeup and prosthetics. Planet of the Apes was the big thing when I was a kid, so I made rubber Planet of the Apes masks. I was doing cosplay long before it was called cosplay.
Then If you asked me about how did I get Jabba? Well, I was working for Jim Henson on The Dark Crystal, when Stuart Freeborn called out and said, “David, would you like to be chief puppeteer for Jabba? And I said, “yes, please” And that was it. I didn’t have to audition. No, they were there were lots of puppeteers potentially available to do it but I got the call.
And I understand you are still doing puppetry to this day. What is what are your projects now?
Well, the most recent project is just completing postproduction. It’s called “Coyote vs. Acme”, it’s Wile E. Coyote with the Roadrunner. And the coyote is suing Acme for all the failed products he’s bought over the years. It’s a brilliant setup. The film is really funny. We don’t have a release date yet, because I think they’re trying to work. Is it theatrical? Or is it streaming? That’s a big deal these days, isn’t it? which way it goes?
It’s a great movie. And I spent every day on the movie, because it’s like a Roger Rabbit live action with animated Wile E. Coyote. But I was the puppet representation of Wiley for every day on the movie. So, it was just fantastic. It’s an amazing experience and a delightful film to work on.
Wonderful. One last question. What would you say to a person who wants to become a puppeteer? Because you’ve done it since ’78 but way before that since you were six. This could be a very enduring career.
Well, I think most people that discover puppetry, they discover it for the love and just the way there’s something special about being a puppeteer and being a puppet maker. You’re not going to become a multimillionaire; you don’t make a lot of money out of it. And the actors make a lot more money than puppeteers do. So, you wouldn’t really go into it to make lots of money. You do it because it’s so creatively fulfilling. Yeah. And I just love it. I mean, admittedly, I was exposed to it as a kid. And so, it became part of my DNA basically, I think every one of my puppeteer friends, they just love the process of bringing something to life and giving, giving audiences an insight into characters that are it’s no other way of doing it. It’s brilliant. I love it.
It’s so brilliant and you are brilliant. Dave, thank you so much. And we’re gonna have more from Awesome Con X
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