Lucky Yates swears by puppets

If anyone spreads the gospel of puppets, it's Matt "Lucky" Yates. He's a regular missionary for puppets in Atlanta. He's lobbied hard to make Dad's Garage Theatre the city's unofficial second puppetry theater, but Artistic Director Sean Daniels has managed to keep his ambitions in check. Nevertheless, Yates has succeeded in infiltrating many a Dad's production with one of his wily puppets.

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Yates didn't set out to be a puppeteer. He was a struggling actor who was never satisfied with his own performance. He was just too over the top (and still is). When he landed a paying gig working the box office at the Center for Puppetry Arts, his first duty was to watch a children's show directed by Jon Ludwig.

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He was ready to be born again.

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"Rays of light went off," says Yates of his conversion experience. "I realized my entire life I'd been playing with puppets, but I never thought of it as a career choice."

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Yates went on to work on the Center's production of The Velveteen Rabbit, but he admits that he wasn't thrilled with all the kiddie stuff.

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"All artists want to grow," he says. "All artists want to swear.".

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Yates found his new creative home at Dad's Garage Theatre in 1997. His first creation was a purple hand-and-rod puppet called Boozy the Imp, which premiered during the first season of Dad's improv soap opera, Scandal. It was a perfect fit for Yates — improv and adult puppetry. At first people didn't know what to think. Here was a man on stage, dressed in black wearing a black mask with a strange wisecracking "thing" on his hand. But Boozy's bad Russian (or is that Middle Eastern?) accent and off-color jokes were a hit.

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In true TV style, there was a spin-off. Boozy and another character from the show, Chick Starley, were cast in a silly Christmas show the following year at Dad's. They are currently starring in their fifth installment, Chick 'n' Boozy, Christmas Around the World, a parody of Christmas variety shows.

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Since '97 it's been full-tilt with puppets at Dad's Garage. Starting with their full-length Punch 'n' Judy show staged in '98, puppets have been involved in mainstage shows like Cannibal: the Musical and Action Movie (multiple puppets). Even when you least expect it, a shadow puppet or hand puppet pops on for a cameo.

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Yates went on to develop a children's show involving puppets — Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Stew in the theater's Top Shelf space. The show ran for eight consecutive months and, according to Yates, was a vehicle for improvisers and puppets to do "crazy shit not at the Center."

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Yates got his next chance in the Top Shelf with a puppet slam — a show with no rules, where "all the walls came down," he says. "It was a puppet party!"

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Jim Henson's daughter Heather heard about the event and has sent a check for $1,000 from the Henson Foundation each time it's been produced.

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Yates is convinced that puppets are the way to go. "I've always thought if we had one other successful puppet theater in town, [Atlanta] would be the puppet capital of the world."

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Spread the good news, brother. Spread the good news.

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