We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shaun McNamara a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shaun thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned by trial and error. Believe it or not, there were not a lot of blueprints you could follow to be an R-rated puppet theater owner. My wife was supportive and helped me get started. Then we just tried things. I just learned by failing. I still learn by it. My shows are constantly changing, even night to night, performance by performance because I’m learning. Scripts, jokes, ENDINGS, I’ve changed everything in a show just by eating sh** in front of an audience. However, knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I would change much. I don’t believe “who we are” and “who we will be” has anything to do with each other. When I was 20, I dropped out of college, and moved to California. I was SO SURE I wanted to be the next Jim Carrey! The problem was Hollywood didn’t want another Jim Carrey. When you’re a performer, that’s all you do is wait. Wait for someone to cast you. Wait for someone to call you. Wait for someone to write you the perfect part. Wait for the perfect role to come along.
So, I waited. I took different jobs. I tricked myself into thinking if I was taking jobs that were “performance based” (Jungle Cruise Skipper at Disneyland, puppeteer/performer at Universal Studios) I WAS a working actor in California.
I lied to myself. I lied, because I was afraid that I had taken a chance that I believed in, and I was wrong. The obstacle was reality. I was fighting reality and I refused to move.
It wasn’t until I realized I had to deconstruct my dream. I had to open something I held very dear and investigate WHY it was so precious. What about this thing satisfied me? Why was being a movie star the ONLY thing I could be?
I started boiling the dream down to its basic elements. I looked at what was left, and really examined all the things that gave me REAL joy. All Puppet Players was born from that broth. A happy accident.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are an adult-only puppet theater company. Picture Forgetting Sarah Marshall in real life, only the puppeteers are completely masked. We have a bar on the premise, and we do not allow anyone under 17 in the theater. We like the idea of people having to get a babysitter to see a puppet show! In eleven seasons our stage spoofs have included Top Gun: Live Abridged & Completely Underfunded, Alien: Live & Legless, Jurassic Puppets, Fifty Shades of Felt, Friday the 13th: The Parody Musical and Die Hard: A Christmas Story. We take pride in what makes us different, and that uniqueness has made us unlike any other theater around.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The first goal is to finish out our 11th season. Our stage shows continue this April with Reservoir Dogs (including an all-dog puppet cast)! However, our creative endeavors do not stop with the stage. Looking beyond this season we really want to explore some different avenues. The pandemic put us online and I learned so much about what our characters were capable of when they are on screens. Now, I really want to make a movie! I want to hire only locally. I want my cast, crew, and audience to be a part of every aspect!
After that- I have something bigger I am working on. Something outdoors, something that will be an experience – I do not want to say too much, I want it to be a surprise! I’m working with local artists to see if I can give that vision some definition. Fingers crossed; it might be one of the coolest things we produce… if it works.
Locally, I love what Chris Hamby and Theatre Works did with their immersive Alice in Wonderland. I’m a huge fan of what David Byrne has created for the stage. Meow Wolf seems to be creating far out pieces of transformative art. I would like to explore some bigger concepts. I really want to push the boundaries of what theater and especially puppets can do.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The collaboration, no question. It started with just me and my wife, but the casts and crew of APP became family. Some cast and crew have been with me for over 9 years. Some of my best friends have performed with APP. These people have been in the proverbial foxhole with me. When we started in Arizona, no one knew what we were. It was hard to explain. We bounced around the valley trying to find a permanent home. There were nights we had more cast and crew than audience members… but these impressive creatives just kept returning. They believed in what we were trying to do. They made my shows better by pitching jokes, making suggestions, making the show ours, not just mine. I owe them everything. Let’s not forget we also have a collaboration with our audience as well. Our audience treats every show (for better or worse) like it is a rock concert! You can’t have a bad day when you get to perform for such awesome people. Am I kissing ass a little? Hell yes, but it’s warranted! We are a small theater that thrives on word of mouth and people love to be the one who introduced us to their friends. So many people come up to me after the show, pointing to their friend, “I brought them here just so I could watch THEM watch THIS!”
We are just a tribe of people who take joy in being weird together. What more could you want?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.allpuppetplayers.com
• Instagram: linkedin.com/allpuppetplayers
• Facebook: facebook.com/allpuppetplayers
• Twitter: @puppetanarchy
• Youtube: youtube.com/allpuppetplayers

Image Credits
Jonathan Castillo Jason Walz Scott Hallock Jason M. Hammond Kristin McNamara