Mr Yeo, 61, whose stage name is Frankie Malachi, estimates that he has made around 400 puppets to date – from marionettes and hand puppets, to shadow puppets, mascots and animatronics.“Now, they are just hanging there,” he said, gesturing at his eclectic family of “babies” in his studio. “But in the right hands, they come alive.”He used to run a costume rental and performance company, and added puppet-making to his repertoire in 1995, mastering the craft through trial and error.
Mr Yeo’s creations have been featured in events such as the 2015 Singapore Night Festival and the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games. That said, he is no technophobe. He posts about his work on social media and is open to incorporating artificial intelligence and augmented reality into his craft. “I don’t want to be a dinosaur left behind. Life is about learning new things.”He has three full-time employees who also craft puppets and perform, and he enlists the talents of freelance performers as necessary.
While the myriad skills are important, Mr Yeo points to having a purpose as the most crucial trait for a puppeteer to possess. None of his staff had prior experience, and picked up their trade from Mr Yeo and their own trial and error.
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