Exclusive BubbleCAN Interview: Getting a Feel for Simon Puppet

 

WB: Are you in fact a living puppet named Simon Puppet?

Simon: Yes. Yes I am. I am Simon Puppet.

WB: Good. Very good. Now onto the more technical stuff, what inspired you to create the show, Felt Up, where puppets retell embarrassing stories like this?

Simon: Well in school, my class was assigned to shoot a documentary for class. So, wanting to try something more exciting I thought it would be fun to shoot the funny and embarrassing stories of some of my friends and present it in a comedic way. And because of my love of puppets I wanted to implement puppets reenacting those embarrassing stories.

WB: So why have you always been into puppetry, like I’m sure you liked puppetry groups like The Muppets and those guys?

Simon: I feel there’s an innocence to puppets that kinda links to most of our childhoods. As most puppets are seen in kids shows most of us can really relate to puppets on an innocent level. So I thought it create this fun little disconnect if I had these puppets performing these sexual stories. Obviously this doesn’t bode well to everyone, but to a lot of people they find it really fun.

WB: Yeah I can see that. I personally find the show really fun as well, especially with all the very creative designs. Which leads to the question, how many puppets do you have for the show and who creates them?

Simon: We have 60 Puppets altogether. I draw the designs and Trevor Duffy, our puppet designer, creates the complete puppets for the show.

WB: Wow! 60? So, out of those 60, which one is your favourite and why?

Simon: I would say the Simon Puppet because he’s me.

WB: Now that brings up a question I wanted to really ask. I have my own show with a puppet character and he’s clearly an exaggeration of my personality quiet and etc. Would you describe Simon Puppet like this, as an exaggeration of your day-to-day personality or is he a MAJOR extreme, like he’s just clearly a fabricated character?

Simon: I would consider Simon Puppet to be more my spirit animal rather than a separate part of my personality if that answers your question. He’s something that I would like to be, seeing as Simon seems to be the more empathetic and a nicer guy.

WB: How did you come up with the name Felt Up for the title?

Simon: Well I like play on word titles and while at first I had an equally fun pun name at the time, seeing as all the puppets were made out of a fabricy material it just seemed fitting to call the show Felt Up.

WB: As well it’s also a play on the term “Felt Up” meaning feeling somebody up and Fucked Up. (Editor’s Note…I think this is the first time Whyboy has ever cussed…HE’S OURS NOW!)

Simon: Yeah exactly. I just always like those play on words because it usually strikes a chord with people watching.

WB: Each episode you have Simon Puppet and his roommate Joe on their own little storyline pseudo-VLOG style to string together all the other stories. My question, how long did it take to write these sections of each episode?

Simon: Well me and Mike (the writer, Mike Robertson) take around 3 weeks for each of the Simon and Joe stories, which doesn’t factor in the revisions that we make.

WB: One of my favorite aspects of Felt Up that’s different from a wide variety of other gross retelling shows is that your character, Simon Puppet, likes to interject in the middle of the story asking questions to the storyteller. Was this a conscious decision in light of all those shows or did you just think it would be just a fun thing to add to the show?

Simon: I say this was more an egotistical choice in all honesty as I just wanted myself in the show as much as possible. While editing interviews usually you take out all the portions where the interviewer asks the questions but I thought it would be funny and the perfect way to put me into the show more if I just left in some of my questions. And it seemed to really work well.

WB: So he acts as a sort of… conscience to the storyteller, giving his thoughts and exclaiming how fucked up the situations are?

Simon: Yeah, Simon is like a Jiminey Cricket character.

WB: I notice that most of the opening shots in most of these stories are all outside in the middle of winter, or in seemingly very cramped shooting locations like a bathroom. What was the most difficult location you had to shoot in for the show?

Simon:  That’s a very good question. Now being this is all puppetry almost all the shoots were difficult shoots as all the spaces we shot in were very cramped and you have to keep everyone out of the shot. Coupled with the very tight shooting schedule it was a lot of fun but a lot of work to get all these stories shot. I would say the most difficult place we shot at would be in the episode “Trying to be Nice” in the story where the guy shits in the same tiny bathroom as this guy.

Firstly the bathroom was an even smaller location then usual. It was difficult to fit more than three people into the room at a time. Plus we only had the location for three hours so we had to shoot everything on a tight schedule. But it all worked out and the story turned out good.

WB: What has been your favorite aspect of development while working on Felt Up? Writing, shooting or adding your voice over?

Simon: Hmmm… That’s a good question too. I don’t really know what my favorite was. I liked shooting, writing all the jokes and doing the interviews. But if I were to choose I would say my favorite would be doing the storyboards. I’m able to really let my creative drawing skills go as I map out all the various scenes that these stories will show.

WB: Oh that’s right, you also draw caricatures for a living while your not working on the show is that correct?

Simon: Yes. Doing caricatures is primarily how I make my living while I’m not working on projects like Felt Up.

WB: Do you happen to have any weird or crazy stories from your times doing caricatures?

Simon: Well I usually work on doing caricatures for kids so in that sense no. But I do get a few odd requests from some conventions I go to. Like this woman at this tattooing convention asked me to do one of her as Superman.

At the time I couldn’t remember what the symbol on Superman’s chest looked like, so I asked her if she knew. In response, she pulled down her pants and pointed at a Superman tattoo she had on her. Now the tattoo wasn’t exactly on her thigh… it was closer to her genitalia area.

WB: Haha! Are you serious? Did she pull them down in the middle of the convention?

Simon: Yeah she did. I’m not sure what she was thinking. I just have a feeling she just really wanted to show off that tattoo.

WB: While your team was in development for Felt-Up, how many stories did you listen to until you decide which stories you wanted for Season 1?

Simon: I don’t know exactly but most of the stories were actually from my previously done documentary.

WB: Out of the episodes in the first season, which story told was your favorite? Like my favorite was the story where your cat latched onto your penis in the bath tub.

Simon: Yes. That did in fact happen. My favorite out of all of them would have to be from the episode “Trying to be Nice.” Where a girl swallows water that has a cum covered Kleenex in it.

WB: Ugh! Oh yes, that was a good one.

Simon: Yeah this story gets the best reactions out of people, which I like. It was the mixture of the great storyteller and the visuals that really made this one of the best stories on the show.

WB: I’d like to ask, now that Season 1 is over, do you have any plans for a Felt Up Season 2, or is there another project you’ve been thinking about working on?

Simon: Well we are already in production for Season 2. At the moment we are getting the stories for the episodes. Hopefully at the rate production is going we’ll have everything a great deal of Season 2 done by December.

WB: Now before we end off I wanted to ask you two more “philosophical” questions. First, how did you feel when the first episode of Felt Up went up on Bite?

Simon: It felt good. We had spent a lot of time on the series and I felt it came out really well. There was some head turning from a few friends when the story about the girl who shit on the guy’s chest came up but overall I felt really good about the show’s premiere.

WB: Ok, now let’s go to the opposite end of that question, how did it feel when the first season came to a close?

Simon: That’s a good question. The whole shoot overall went by in 10 months, which to me at the time felt very quick. But I had fun with the whole process. And after the final episode aired, I don’t know. It felt very good to have my show out there having everyone see it. But after it was all over I watched The Wire, then more of The Wire. And… I just watched a lot of The Wire.

WB: Yeah I can relate to that. After I complete some sort of huge project I just have to step away afterwards and just have to take my mind off of it by watching something else, just thinking “I just completed that” with a sense of relief.

Simon: Yeah that’s exactly it.

WB: Well I just like to say thank you again Simon for taking the time to talk with me.

Simon: Oh no problem. It was fun.

WB: Yeah it really was. Well I wish you luck on Season 2 of Felt Up and can’t wait to see what it has in store for us.

Simon: Same here.

Now if you’re interested in watching season 1 of Felt Up, now you can watch the complete first season on the Official BiTe Show Page or on the BiTe Youtube Channel for yourself.