The Henson Digital Puppetry Studio is a digital puppetry platform the Jim Henson Company has been building for decades, with roots that go back to Waldo C. Graphic in the late 1980s. The technology has come a long way since then, and in recent years has become good enough that the Jim Henson Company regularly uses it in Puppet Up!, their touring live improvised puppet comedy show.
In this video from Tested, Henson puppeteers Sarah Oh and Dan Garza show host Adam Savage how they use their puppeteering and improv skills to blend a digital character seamlessly - and hilariously - with a group of practical puppets in a single performance before a live audience.
What makes this so impressive, of course, isn’t just the technology. It’s that Oh and Garza are skilled puppeteers doing what skilled puppeteers have always done: listening, reacting, finding the joke, and creating the illusion of life where it doesn't actually exist at all.
The octopus may be digital, but the performance is remarkable because it's unmistakably human.
If you want to see the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio in action yourself, Puppet Up! will be playing the Montalbán Theatre in Los Angeles this summer. Visit PuppetUp.com for upcoming tour dates and full details.
