PETRA

david malmberg
Oct 16
11 min read

Steve Petra. A name known well throughout the vent and puppetry community. Petra means 'rock,' in Greek. Appropriate for one who has carved a career working school assemblies and library shows.

We had corresponded in 2024 and agreed to meet at the convention for a VOG interview. He arrived at the appointed time and I knew just from our light banter before the interview began that I was meeting up with a mind that is sharp, aware and always thinking.

Steve Petra trained at the National Theatre of Puppet Arts and at Jim Henson Productions in Manhattan. No slouch. He is a full-time professional ventriloquist and puppeteer.

He understands acutely the relationship between puppeteers and ventriloquists. He is unique in the world of voice tossing and puppetry creating tailored productions, (extravaganzas really) ) in the world of school assemblies and libraries. It was a treat to sit down and tap his brain.

Here is the VOG interview.

You worked with Jim Henson didn’t you?

I was transitioning from musician to puppeteer.

What year was this?

Maybe 1996? Anyway, I was watching BET (Black Entertainment Television ) and Kevin Clash was the guest.

Kevin Clash being Elmo on Sesame Street?

Yes. Anyway, he was in charge of the Muppet Workshops where you would audition and if accepted, you got on camera training from the best in the field. So I did up an audition on video and sent it. They called back and said we like your work.

Did you have hopes of working for the Henson company?

I did at the time. But here is what transpired. There were a lot of people at this workshop and they really weren’t prepared. Muppets work on monitor screens and the screens are not like a mirror, the images are in reverse. I practiced for weeks so that my brain was trained in working in a reverse image situation. Well, people were getting cut left and right because they couldn’t work with the reverse imaging

Was Jim involved in this?

No, Jim had died a year or two before, but Jane (his wife) was involved. Here is what happened. Jane lined everyone up who was remaining and asked about their background. Now I had studied with Carol Fijan who was the author of Making Puppets Come Alive.

So you trained with her?

Yes, she was a buzz saw! (Laughter) About four feet tall and lethal. But she knew what she was talking about. Puppetry is like learning a language. You learn to convey emotion, age, mood, and temperament. You learn to do that with a blank puppet in her workshops. No facial features. So, when I told Jane I had studied with Carol, the hair on her head almost stood upright! And not necessarily in a good way! She and Carol weren’t exactly, shall we say fond of each other? (Laughter).

What happened?

Well, to Jane’s credit I finished the course. Jane treated me very respectfully during the entire workshop. In fact, I got a call from her to show up again to do a voice class with the original Muppet veteran Jerry Nelson. (Manipulated and provided voices for well over a dozen characters for Henson, including 'The Count.') Only six people were invited to that. Plus, I also sat in on a couple of session she directed for Sesame Street Puppeteers. So, though I didn’t become part of the Henson team, I learned a lot from the Muppet workshops that even to this day influence my own craft.

Did you perform for the Henson people live?

Yes, it was improvisatory. They said, “get up there and do something.” So, standing in line, waiting to go on, I had to think on my feet. I came up with the idea of doing a commercial for a cannibal restaurant called, ‘Eat Your Heart Out.’ (Laughter). So I did that and got a lot of laughs, but due to the Fajin connection, I was kind of tuned out. At least that was my impression.

A missed opportunity?

No not really. When you work for the Henson company you have to pretty much work for nothing for the first year and a half. Well, I was already grown up…I couldn't do that, so it was probably for the best.

You mentioned that you worked as a musician prior to puppetry.

I got interested in puppetry while I was working as a musician. When I married my wife Jeanie she was a Muppet aficionado. I started looking at that and I was really intrigued. I had been in love with puppetry since my childhood but had no outlet for it.

Were you aware of that? Meaning, was puppetry something latent?

Yes, I was aware. In the 70’s I was working clubs as a musician, I would come home and the Muppet show was on. It was very intriguing to me. It was bizarre but so well structured you know. It had all the bones that spoke to me. It was really my wife who introduced me to all this and I found it all to be really fascinating.

What did you do?

I started checking books out of the library. Like 20 or 30 at a time. (laughter)

How did ventriloquism enter into this? Puppetry is a very different art form.

Yes it is. The difference between puppetry and ventriloquism is always top of mind when I’m at the convention. I’ve learned to integrate and communicate it so I can present something that is unique. To answer your question, my wife and I were both working as puppeteers. We had a fifteen foot stage and all these different performance areas, but we were not visible. We were doing school shows. My wife says, “You know, you should really do ventriloquism. When you go out front you can do a little demonstration and you will connect with your audience.” I thought, “Naw, I don’t want to do that, I’ll end up being visible and I’ll have to put on an act all by myself.” She says, “It will be more contemporary to do ventriloquism and besides that, all those things you make up while we are performing that irritate me you can do as a solo in front of the audience.” (laughter)

Was it difficult for you to learn?

Yeah. Yeah. It was work, let’s put it that way. I knew how much work it was going too be and that’s really why I didn’t want to do it. On the other hand, I got motivated to do it and when that happens, the difficult becomes attractive. At least for me. I began to see a real performing and creative flexibility in doing vent. I wanted to exploit the bridges between puppetry and ventriloquism. Meaning I wanted to do more than just set up and punch stuff. So I came up with this principle…a prop should be associated with an action.

Explain.

Well, we are working with instinct when it comes to understanding your audience you know. There are a lot of wheels turning in the process. In many cases with a lot of vents these things are not so thought out. But to me, I look at a prop and think I need to have an action with it. Something funny needs to happen with that prop, not just a set up and punch.

Sammy King one time coached a vent and after seeing his act said, “You don’t have an act. You just have a bunch of jokes strung together.”

I love Sammy King. He was very much into conceptualization of what he was doing. I’m the same way because I’m not really a writer.

But your shows are thematic aren’t they?

Yes, but it is a different approach. I don’t write scripts at first. When I rehearse, the result of that rehearsal becomes a script. I play with the puppet. I’m a Muppet guy. Henson is my biggest influence.

Do you pull out a puppet, work with it in front of a mirror in terms of developing your ideas?

The first thing I do is investigate the physicality of the puppet. What does it do and convey well? What are its limitations? Then I avoid the limitations and exploit the assets.

Hmmm. You’re really studied at this. Where does that come from?

My obsessive nature. I’m analytical about the process. What I just described is a studied progression. I’m a self-directed learner. There are short comings to that, but generally I come up with things that other people don’t think of.

How does self-direction play out?

People’s brains generally have compartments. They compartmentalize things. I lack compartments. Remember the Titanic? They were going to keep it afloat because of its compartments. But I don’t have any compartments. On the other hand, there is always that iceberg… (laughter)

You consider yourself a children’s performer? Has it always been children?

Yes. I go back to Henson. When Henson didn’t like being saddled as a child’s performer he figured a way to jump-off of that success. At the same time, he expanded into things that not only did kids love but families as well. My audience now is primarily family oriented. I write a show that will cause parents to put down their phones and start paying attention. I want parents to watch the show with their kids not for the kids.

I remember Henson doing the Wilkins and Wontkins coffee commercials. He was always blowing up the puppets. Did that have an effect on you?

Incessantly violent. I love comedy violence. I actually am doing that to me. Not in the visual form, but during the show, my puppets are disassembling me to where my behavior goes into what adults don’t normally do on stage. I get really irritated and upset. And the kids go crazy for it. I saw that in Henson’s commercials. It was the realm of irreverence. I love that.

Are you involved with Puppeteers of America? Do they look at you as a vent or a puppeteer?

I think they see their art form represented in my hybrid.

Puppeteers are a different breed than ventriloquists.

It is a different culture all together. Most people realize one difference between ventriloquists and puppeteers is the technique of ventriloquism itself. Talking for a puppet character through still lips as well as the vent being part of the visible element of the performance. Both vents and puppeteers must operate their puppet characters skillfully. But being trained and working as a puppeteer first ( then becoming a vent) made me aware of another difference which is beneficial to understand.

Creative process.

I observed many if not most vents to have a linear creative process. By that I mean they traditionally would create or even develop a character sometimes before acquiring a figure. Then find a puppet that "spoke" to them, enabling their character vision to come to life.

Puppeteers, I found to have a different creative process. Less linear as it had different goals. Many puppeteers I knew were creating a world. They would actually build the world with staging, scenery and props. Then they would populate the world with characters. A single puppeteer could bring to life a repertory company of players to tell their story to an audience.

So I felt I needed a way to blend my puppeteer process into a ventriloquist landscape in order to execute my own artistic vision.

I’ve watched your work. You have an amazing control over your audience, like you’re playing an instrument.

You nailed it. I did a series of videos. One was called “Let’s Build a Show.” I get into music production but then take it further by explaining that your whole performance is music. Everything is music. There are keys, rhythm, timing, pitches, dissonance and harmony.

Visually?

Yes, the audience has a role to play. I look at myself as the conductor. So, if you give them a part and conduct them when to come in, well then you have music. An audience is like a swarm of bees. They have a motion of their own and they move together. If you can link into that, you can play it like an instrument.

Some performers say that for every ten bits, two will work and the rest are jettisoned.

True?

I would change it before I jettison. I want to work it to see if the idea is valid. One or two shots maybe three allows me time to analyze what will make it work. So, bits are an evolution.

How long have you been doing this.

Since about 1995.

How have the markets changed in that time?

School shows are not accepting generic shows anymore. It has to be thematic. You have to have academic content. Although I will say the work is less now. Libraries are different. When I first started doing libraries I had a librarian tell me that I would never work libraries because I didn’t do fairy tales. I have never done a fairy tale and I have dominated libraries for 20 years. Bottom line, whatever you do, make sure it is funny. It is THE key to every show.

You talk about the power of the pre-show. What is that?

People don’t show up on time. They wander in the first 15 minutes of the show. So, I started coming up with magic routines as kind of a preshow show while people were coming in. The great thing about magic bits is that they engage you with your audience. But they are totally conversational. By conversation I mean kind of a call and response. I ask my audience questions and they respond. In unison. Engagement.

Why do you do this?

Why do I do what? (laughter)

Is there an esoteric motivation for doing what you do?

(pause) Yes. It’s part of who I am. People in my family want to know when I’m going to retire? I say I have no intention of retiring because what I do is like a body function. Certainly a brain function. My Brain is doing this whether I am doing it or not. My brain is always writing material. So I say to them, “At some point are you going to stop chewing your food?” That is what it would be like for me to stop.

Were you like this as a musician?

Yeah, more so when I first started. I was in a bar band that (of course) broke up. But I was really disillusioned with rock music by that time. I wanted to find something that was more intellectually stimulating, more complicated. Then I discovered Frank Zappa.

Zappa was complicated. I didn’t like math, but I did like Zappa, which in some respects is the same thing in how he approached music. I went to see him. He had a 22 piece band. And I thought, “Ok I gotta start doing this kind of stuff.”

Someone once asked Zappa about how he approached the guitar. He said that what he did was very specialized. He said, “I have a very basic knowledge of the guitar, and I have an imagination.” That right there is my bedrock for how I approach originality.

What is the status of the vent world today?

Better than ever. When I first started doing vent everyone told me it’s a dying art. It’s not, it’s a growing art. And there is a new tolerance for fresh ideas in the vent community. One of the things that those of us who have been at this a long time are doing is teaching skills to pass on what we have learned. That is of value and a good reason not to retire. I encourage people this way: If you’re good enough to do a certain thing, don’t wait to plug your imagination into it. You don’t have to be a virtuoso to be expressive and imaginative. And if you can be those things, whether it is music, or puppetry or vent or whatever, it will give you control of your imagination AND your instrument. Stay at it.