The Great Brian Henson Caper

Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson, and Co-CEO of the Jim Henson Company paid a visit to Blue Sky today. Brian gave a presentation on the history of the company as well as the Jim Henson style of puppeteering.

Brian showed up in disguise (image above) which confused me at first. Eventually, when he felt it was safe to do so, he removed his disguise. Immediately after the presentation, Pete Paquette (an animator at Blue Sky) pulled an imaginary finger gun on him. The crowd thought Pete was trying to mug the unsuspecting Brian, but after Pete was maulled, and cuffed by the muppet police, he explained he was merely trying to shoot the guy behind Brian, who was obviously planning to choke him with an extension chord. Pete's sharp eyes and quick thinking almost saved Brian from a most unfavorable situation. Unfortunately, Pete couldn't finish his heroics, being at the bottom of a five foot pile of muppets.

Not all was lost... I acrobatically and gracefully disarmed the would be villain. Afterwards, I was awarded the muppet medal of honor. Of course Brian was very pleased with me, and offered to give me a job as his personal body guard. I, being recently unemployed by my very own muppet creation, jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately, somebody from Blue Sky's HR department realized I no longer worked there, and had me whisked off the premises before I could accept Brian's generous offer.

Muppet WhatNot Workshop Adventure

This past Monday I took a trip into the Big Apple to pay a visit to the brand new Muppet WhatNot Workshop inside the amazing FAO Schwartz toy store. It was my first trip into the city, so I felt it necessary to go with friends, and to pack a nerf gun for protection. You can't be too safe... you just never know when a desperate toy, at the end of his pull string, may try something.

The journey to the store was long and treacherous, but finally we arrived at our destination without any casualties. I took the design I created on the website (image above) and jumped into translating it onto the Muppet order form. The mad muppet scientist collected the appropriate body parts to assemble my creation. As you can see below, the scientist had his hands full with several other whatnots to be. I slipped him a 10,000 monopoly dollar bill, and he impaled the poor muppets ahead of mine and got busy with the Tonymation Muppet Creation.

It didn't take long before my very own Muppet WhatNot was ready to go home with me. I had to brief him on the exit stragety, and, since I was fresh out of nerf guns, he grabbed a black stick and promptly jammed it into his wrist. Immediately I knew two things... my new muppet friend was not only tough, but also completely insane. Both are good assets when in New York City.

We made it to the train, and were soon on our way back to White Plains. My young and naive friends celebrated, but as you can see in my expression below, I knew we weren't in the clear yet.

Eventually we did make it back home safely. I thought it would be a good idea to bring my new friend to work and show him what I do for a living. Big mistake...

I underestimated his ambitious nature. By the end of the day, he took my job.