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Last year, DerRic Starlight nearly missed the gig of his life.
“I was a little slow trying to get to the audition for the reboot of Fraggle Rock in Calgary,” coyly admits Starlight, an Edmonton puppeteer from the Tsuut’ina Nation reservation just outside from Calgary. “One of the producers I had worked with on a wrestling show with the Hart family said, ‘You know, we’ve got some numbers for Fraggle Rock, we’ve already told them about you. So I contacted them, and despite being two weeks late, they let me audition.
Needless to say, Starlight impressed producers and was hired last year along with 11 other Alberta puppeteers for a five-month stint as Fraggles, Doozers and Gorgs on the cult comedy-fantasy show. He also scored a bonus gig on a video for the Foo Fighters version of the song, Fraggle Rock Rock.
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Starlight hopped on a Zoom call with fellow Alberta-based puppeteers Brendan James Boyd and Andrew Cooper to talk about the work they’ve done together beyond the 13-episode first series of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. , which debuted January 26 on Apple TV.
The three friends have just returned from a trip to Alberta with a workshop and a comedy tour. They also discussed general puppet plans for a sci-fi/fantasy movie to use as a pilot for young viewers and another series for mature audiences. This, of course, while waiting breathlessly to see if a second season of Fraggle is ordered by Apple.
Below, Starlight shares a bit more about the experience and how he became a puppeteer.
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Q Excitement for the Fraggle Rock reboot among fans was intense. Were you nervous about being part of it? A In fact, when we got up there, I was pretty relaxed because I’m good at improvisation with puppets. Except everything was choreographed and I couldn’t see the monitor at all. Meanwhile, Andrew (Cooper) was doing a phenomenal job. I was watching and they had every step, right on the ball. I stood next to Andrew and thought, “I’m going to follow this guy. Q Growing up, were you the kind of kid to binge on various Henson productions like The Muppet Show and the original Fraggle Rock? A Yeah. I was a CBC kid, and back then you didn’t have all the fancy cartoons we have now. We had Mr. Dress Up and the Friendly Giant, Fred Penner and Sesame Street, and they all had puppets. But we also had the Sunday night tradition of The Wonderful World of Disney followed right after by The Muppet Show, so I got into that. I just wanted to try to get to Sesame Street, you know? How to get there has been a question of a lifetime. Q From what I’ve read, you’ve traveled there through back roads like APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network), where you’ve been on shows like Beyond Words, Indigenous Circle, The Sharing Circle. Is that how you started? A It was earlier. I started by entertaining the children of my elementary school. When Jim Henson died in 1990, that’s when I dedicated my life to puppetry. I couldn’t find a job, but there was a kid at that daycare who wanted me to throw his birthday party. I went there, did the show, and all the kids at that daycare wanted me for their birthday. I was like Bozo the clown, going from house to house with my puppets. After that, I went to the Breakfast Show in Calgary, and then all the Treaty 7 reservations started calling, and APTN came along. So I had a good healthy career for years. Q Your very own puppet may be inspired by your childhood love of The Muppet Show, but it has a very native twist. What do you call your puppets? A I call them “nuppets” (a portmanteau of the words “native” and “puppets”.) We have never seen native puppets on Sesame Street, and native puppeteers are very, very rare in the world. So instead of the Cookie Monster, which I made with Brendan, we have the Bannock Monster. (Affects Cookie Monster’s voice): “Hello, me Bannock Monster. I like bannock because it makes me fat. Q Last month, the Foo Fighters released a version of Fraggle Rock Rock, a song that featured on the original series. The group interacted with the various muppets; how was it? A I just remember wielding Fraggles. It really was a circus there. We were filmed at the Calgary Film Centre, while the Foo Fighters were filmed at the Jim Henson Company Studio in Hollywood.
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Q Why do you think the series rebooted after so many decades? A The thing about Jim Henson is that he was ahead of his time. When he created Fraggle Rock, it was to show a diverse group of puppets, the Fraggles, Doozers and Gorgs, in a world of peace and love, trying to understand each other. Different cultures, different people, just trying to get along. That’s why it’s such a global phenomenon, why people are still talking about it, and why it’s coming back: we need it.
