– Life as a Professional Puppeteer –
What does it take to become a professional puppeteer? Insights on this and a lot more are on deck for you within this LIFE AS A.. career conversation!
Six-time Emmy nominee Leslie Carrara-Rudolph is a multi-faceted entertainer, puppeteer, visual and voice-over artist, writer and producer who grew up creating characters. She is best known for performing Abby Cadabby and Elmo’s dog Tango on Sesame Street.
A Career Stemming From the Arts
A graduate of San Francisco State University where she designed her major, BA, Child Development Through The Arts, Leslie created and implemented programs for kids at risk before getting her start as a puppeteer on ABC’s Muppets Tonight.
A Widely Accomplished Talent
She’s starred in a variety of shows on PBS, Nickelodeon, Apple TV, Netflix and in The Muppets and the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
She’s even collaborated with her Emmy-winning husband Paul Rudolph to create songs for Sesame Street.
Leslie has also designed and performed an original show for Disney, led a sold out NYC cabaret residency, and starred in an off Broadway musical, “Wake Up Your Weird.”
Adored By All
Leslie continues to bridge the generation gap, touring with her self-developed signature character, candy-loving, 5-year-old Lolly Lardpop to schools, conventions, fundraisers and even twice to Google as a keynote speaker in their Learning and Development Conference.
She loves reaching the young and young at heart with her own style of weird whimsy.
Reasons to Listen
This will be a talk worth listening to for:
- those interested in finding out more about the world of professional puppetry and performance
- those seeking direct tips as per breaking into the world of entertaining and puppetry
- those who are looking for a fascinating look into the mind of an other worldly talent
Listeners will come away with insights on:
- what it means to be a professional puppeteer or muppet performer
- a day in the life on Sesame Street
- the ins and outs of doing actual puppetry for a character like Abby Cadabby
- a formative life experience which opened Leslie up to the world of art and performance
- some of the other work Leslie is involved in outside of Sesame Street
- her pathway into puppeteering
- what type of educational background helped to set Leslie up for a successful career
- how her life mission has played into her establishing such a successful career to this point
- what goes into every character that she performs
- direct advice to those interested in becoming a professional puppeteer
- how she approaches her non-Sesame Street event planning
- the challenges of the work
- a mini conversation with Lolly LardPop!
- much more!
A Memorable Quote from the Episode:
“I remember my grandpa pinching the edges of a snapdragon–my favorite flower. And if you pinch the edges of a snapdragon, it’ll talk to you. It’ll go, Psst, come here, I want to tell you something. And I remember once I saw that, the whole world changed for me. It was like everything could be something.”
-Leslie Carrara-Rudolph
Check out the Video Conversation:
For those who desire to view video highlights of the conversation, you can do so via Youtube.
Discover More
For those interested in learning more about Leslie and her work, you can check out her personal website. Further, you can browse her co-founded organization Humor With A Heart. Lastly, you can also find and follow her on the following platforms:
Keep Listening!
I hope you enjoyed the episode. For more, check out additional episodes here!
