Away from the public spotlight, a Ventura-based puppet maker who was enchanted by Muppets creator Jim Henson’s creations as a kid has now become the Walt Disney of puppet makers. In reality, he has been on that track now for several years — but today he literally ushers in a revolution in puppetry, ventriloquism and character robots.

You’ll be seeing many more “hands free” puppets and cutesy entertainment robots as we move into the 21st century…

And for that, you can thank Steve Axtell.

Just as Walt Disney took his skills and used them, painstakingly honed them, stuck to his vision, expanded the artistic “product” he offered, and expanded his initial cartoon realm by innovating and using the latest 20th century technology, Axtell has used his skills, painstakingly honed them, stuck to a vision, expanded the artistic “product” he offered and is expanding his initial realm by innovating and using the latest 21st century technology.

The result of all this bursts on the scene today as he begins to offer “hands free remote controlled puppets.”

Disney worked in drawings, film and theme parks. Axtell has worked in drawings that he transformed into latex-faced hand-controlled cartoon-like puppets. As a result, his company Axtell Expressions has had a huge impact on puppetry all over the world since the last quarter of the 20th century. It’s the birthplace to cartoon-like puppets you see on TV, cruise ships, at fairs, at private parties — even in a movie such as the remake of “Planet of the Apes.”

At 12:01 a.m. this morning, eager customers from 12 countries started getting on a waiting list to buy these new-era puppets that could re-define a segment of 21st century entertainment. They’ll pay roughly $3,000 to $4,000 for them ($2500 deposit required) and take a new kind of entertainment once only available in certain venues into everyday places. Details on the new puppets are HERE.

“We are bringing the cost of high level animatronics down to a level that small businesses and entertainers can afford,” Axtell says. “Prior to this only available to theme parks and museums before now. Axtell robots will now be performing at your kid’s next birthday party and greeting you at the door of your favorite hot dog stand.”

The controls? MP3 technology. He’s selling remote control ventriloquists’ puppets, remote control magic puppets (for magicians, non-ventriloquists, educators, churches, corporations, clowns and comedians) and remote control live puppets for live events with a hidden operator. Axtell was always good at steadily churning out a batch of new characters, so expect to see a far bigger line a year from now than the present monkey and bird.

[UPDATE: A few more details via Axtell that again seems similar to Disney reaching out to others who knew technology to put his concepts to life:

Ron Palmer, a 40 year robotics specialist, is making the Axtell characters come to life with this new technology. Ron has made thousands of professional robots and his work has been seen in movies like “Knight Rider” and “Lost In Space”.

Greg Jackson, Axtell’s Studio producer & musical arranger, is producing the specialized mp3 which control the robots and synchronize the actions with the voice. His Masters in music is being applied to this cutting edge concept.]

Axtell has always pushed the envelope. His innovations included the the patented Magic Drawing Board (which comes “alive” after the entertainer draws a face on it via a moveable mouth and eyes…and then can be completely erased), and characters such as an elephant that squirts water through its trunk and a dragon that has smoke (canned mist) come out of his nose.

Puppetry Journal has a long bio piece on Axtell which details his life and his multi-media combination workshop/studio in Ventura in detail HERE (it is a PDF file). It also explains the genesis of these 21st century puppets, the work Axtell put into them, and the collaborators who helped him create them.

Is all of this overstating Axtell’s impact a bit? Decidedly NO.

Puppetry has always been popular, and ventriloquism reached its peak during vaudeville, blossomed during the radio years of Edgar Bergen and was seemingly entrenched as a comedy art form as it enchanted Baby Boomers with its frequent appearance on 50s’ and 60s variety TV shows such as Ed Sullivan’s.

The variety shows largely vanished. Ventriloquism is still around but with the exception of a splashy cable or broadcast show, you don’t see see it regularly on what remains of “broadcasting,” versus the more tightly defined “narrowcasting” of cable (coupled with iPods, cell phones and the Internet).

Ventriloquism itself came of age during vaudeville’s earliest years when there weren’t even microphones. So the novelty of an entertainer with his hand in a puppet moving the manually operated robot worked best: no mikes meant there was a greater chance people thought the ventriloquist was truly throwing his voice (which he truly never is). The advent of sound systems diluted that illusion a bit. But no matter how entertainment evolved, ventriloquist “dummies” and standard puppets required a hand inside the puppets to manipulate them.

As of today, you’ll start seeing more “hands free” puppets voiced either by ventriloquism or recordings that can be used with the puppets. So the years of hands UNfree puppets are over? Hardly. Some hand manipulations will never be duplicated by remote control — but expect to see more and more hands free puppets as the time goes by, as the remote controlled movements become more intricate and refined.

So it’s new age that’s literally beginning today….

FOOTNOTE: In Sept. 2003, four months before I started this weblog I went to visit Axtell at his Ventura office, production headquarters and video studio. I had first met him when I attended my first ventriloquism convention in 1989. I was thinking about trying to get back into paid freelance newspaper and magazine writing (I did that from 1973-1978 from places such as New Delhi, India; Dacca, Bangaldesh; Madrid, Spain; and Cypress) and did an extensive interview with him. The piece never got written.

The reasons: I started this weblog, had a hectic performing schedule in my other incarnation as a professional ventriloquist. There were some family sicknesses, some grave personal crises with my foster son’s family, plus my own sporadic illnesses. And I never got that (or any other) non-blog freelance story done.

I originally was going to lead the freelance story I was going to do with Axtell being the Disney of Puppet Makers. My one reservation was that some editors might think it was hype, but I was confident the story itself would support the fact that it was NOT. Axtell has been the key innovator in soft puppets.

Fast-forward to today, and you now can flatly say he has now unquestionably become to puppet makers what Disney was to the animated cartoon.

But never forget this: Just as Disney was a top class animator and innovator and lived during and era when there was also a host of other great animators such as Max Fleischer, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Walter Lantz who had different styles than he did, so it is with Axtell.

There are some highly talented “soft” puppet makers out there. Two of them: soft-sculpture puppet specialist MAT Puppets (I have an old man puppet of theirs that I use in my adult shows and monsterpuppet.com, which specializes in a mind-boggling variety of friendly monster puppets (I have one from there — complete with their innovative “blinkers.”). And the art of making beautiful hand-crafted classic ventriloquism “figures” (dummies) is carried on by such companies as Dummyworks.

And how does Axtell instill his rubber characters with such pizazz? It’s simple. Go to his website (linked above) and watch the videos of him with his characters. He himself seems to be a living cartoon…often naturally funnier than his naturally funny creations. It’s latex art imitating flesh-and-blood art.

How do I know — you may ask — about Axtell puppets? Since 1989 I’ve been using a very large number of them in my shows throughout the country.

And on Tuesday July 1st around 2 p.m. PST, I will jump in my van that’ll be loaded to the brim, and embark on a nearly 8 week performing tour of eight events in three states.

In my van will be my beloved Chuck Jackson-created wooden dummies — and a host of Axtell characters.

These won’t be “hands free” and they’ve been my not-so-silent partners for years.

For years I’ve had to give my Axtell puppets a hand.

But, starting today, some puppets will finally be able to stand on their own two paws or claws.

And for that you have to hand it to Steve Axtell.