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POSSUM PUPPET by AXTELL EXPRESSIONS
"ROAD KILL"
(The possum is very s-l-o-w character and by contrast you are in hurried state)...
-
YOU- Okay we don't have much time ....tell the folks what your name is.....go on hurry.....
POSSUM - My- name- is....
YOU - ...Yes, go ahead and tell them....
POSSUM - (Looks slowly up at you) My- name- is....Peter.....(whatever your name is for him)
YOU - Great now tell the folks why you are here...
POSSUM - .....Possum.
YOU - What?
POSSUM - My-name-is-Peter....Possum.
YOU - Your name is Peter Possum Okay great, now tell the folks why you are here....
POSSUM - My-name-is-Peter....Possum, and I do.... impressions.
POSSUM - I can do any impression.
YOU - Can you do an impression of me?
POSSUM - Can you do an impression of me? (say this in your own voice repeating you exactly. Coming from his little body it will be funny)
YOU - Wow! That's wonderful!
POSSUM - (repeating you in your voice) Wow! That's wonderful!
YOU - Do you do anyone else?
POSSUM -(back in slow voice) I can do ....Jim Carey.
YOU - Jim Carey? That actor who does all the weird facial expressions?
POSSUM - (when you say "facial expressions" the possum twists his face up into a bizarre shape - easy to do with latex. He remains motionless and slowly looks at you)
YOU - Wow that's great! Give him a hand!
POSSUM - (still holding face in position remaining nearly motionless and with muffled voice) Oh no....
YOU - what's the matter ?
POSSUM - (leans over to you and whispers loudly in your ear still with face in position.)
YOU - (loudly) You're STUCK?!!!
POSSUM - (muffled) Cranmatal (trying to say "crank my tail" but his mouth position won't let it come out clearly)
YOU - What?
POSSUM - Cran
YOU - Crank?
POSSUM - ma
YOU - My?
POSSUM - tal
YOU - Tail? Crank my tail????
POSSUM - (Yelling muffled) cran ma tail !!!!!
YOU - (strange look to audience) Okay.....(reach under possum and begin cranking tail up and down about 5 times making a creaking sound like a rusty car jack)
POSSUM - (mouth slowly retuns in about 5 stages synched to the tail movements - this gets a huge laugh)
YOU - Are you okay?
POSSUM - I hate it when that happens. I can do one more impression
YOU - Are you sure you want to buddy?
POSSUM - I can do an impression of a road kill.
YOU - A road kill??
POSSUM - (starts jerking and rolling over upside down with funny sounds)
YOU - (you look back and forth at the audience with various double takes) Are you okay?
(EVENTUALLY let him slide off your hand and end up holding him upside down hanging by the tail like this...)
(The audience is usually laughing out of control - they've not seen anything quite like this before.)
ENDING - I usually have prepared that a stage hand will come out and around from the curtain slowly and take the possum off stage by the tail holding his nose without prompt from me. Then I recover and wipe off my hands saying something like ....I've never seen anything quite like that before....and I hope I never do again", let's give him a hand for an amazing impression of a ....road kill.
Ax
Tom Slovenski
School or Church presentation ideas:
1. Make him too lazy to get involved in helping other possums. I'd just like to hang around the garbage cans and sleep away the day. Your routine can motivate him to take shorter naps and help out a fellow possum by volunteering as a "child possum teacher", "clean up crew" or "youth possum leader" etc.
2. Have the possum pretend to be asleep when asked to help sing with the kids. Finally after convincing him that we know he's awake and just faking, he pulls his head up from under your arm and is coaxed into joining in. Show him how much fun it can be to join in with a group.
3. Have him be very lonely because the other possums have gone away. He is too afraid to join them because he is too afraid to cross the road for fear of becoming Road Kill. Show how his fear is keeping him from joining all the other possums in the big fields on the other side. Show him how to face his fears using common sense and caution, but face them! Have him become more and more brave thru the routine and then just for fun have him throw caution to the wind and start talking about how he'll never be afraid again, and he'll cross the road 20 times a day now, and zig zag between the cars and .....let the kids talk him back to his senses. After you put him away you can discuss that fear isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes it protects us, but there are times when we need to face our fears and show examples like standing up for what's right etc.
Petey, his possum..
