When the ManiKrewe Carnivale committee was formed a few years ago, we happily inherited more than 30 years of Manitou Springs Carnivale history. Decorations, banners, beads, costumes and ephemera. But Carnivale’s most enduring legacy are the giant puppets – the King, Aries, The Owl, The Three Headed Monster, The Jester (mistakenly dubbed The Blue-Eyed Boy, as he was missing his costume), The Purple Alien, The Green Alien, to name a few. In lieu of floats, giant puppets are Manitou’s Carnivale jam.
Many of the puppets are 15 to 20 years old, if not older. Some have been lost, damaged from many years of use, storage in someone’s garage, age, etc. As artist Patti Smithsonian once said, “Papier-mâché just isn’t meant to last that long.” The ManiKrewe committee knew that preservation of this integral Carnivale element would have to be a major goal. So, we set about making repairs – lots of paper, gauze, paste, paint, fabric – doing our untutored best to keep these puppets in play. And then, last year, the day of the Carnivale parade, Merlin Vincent showed up at the Manitou Art Center as we were loading puppets out to the street.
“I made that puppet,” he said, as we carried The Blue-Eyed Boy (aka The Jester) out. We stood in shock. Finding one of the original puppet-makers in the wild was something we never expected (Al Laurie, are you out there?). A hurried conversation and exchange of information led to an offer by Merlin to work on restoring some of the older puppets. It was a return to a fun time for Merlin, as his last time to be involved was years ago.
Seeing the puppet and its clothes come together at the end is really satisfying for both of us. – Merlin Vincent
“Sometime around 2010 I went to the Carnivale parade for the first time. I thought it was wonderful: a people’s parade where anyone who wanted to could march, wearing homemade costumes and displaying whatever art they could wear, carry, or play,” he said. “The wearable puppets looked especially fun, and I decided to make one and wear it the next year. I made the puppet head, and my wife created its costume.”
That first puppet was The Jester. After that, Vincent was all in.
“I made a new puppet each year for a while, until I started to run out of storage space. I decided to donate three puppets to Manitou, and it was great fun to go and watch them in the parade. I got a real kick when sometimes they made it into the newspaper or were interviewed on TV!” he said.
A recently retired software engineer, he sees the connection. “Creative people are often drawn to engineering since it’s basically a melding of art and science. I spent my career building cool things! I know many engineers who are artists or musicians.”
Luckily for Carnivale, he was drawn to creating giant puppets.
“Puppets and sculpture in general are both an artistic endeavor and an engineering problem,” he said. “How do I make a structure for the alien I want to build that’s sturdy, but not too heavy to wear, and I can see out of it? I chose cardboard and had fun learning how to shape it and cover it. For some puppets the costume has to fit a strange shape (big cardboard shoulders) but still look natural.”
Vincent has a creative collaborator in his wife Nancy.
“My wife is an amazing fabric artist and seamstress,” he said. “I patched a pair of jeans once, so it was great that she wanted to be involved. The fool’s cap that The Jester puppet wears is a good example of her work – it’s a very complex shape! Seeing the puppet and its clothes come together at the end is really satisfying for both of us.”
Those of us in ManiKrewe weren’t even aware that there had been a costume that went with The Jester. We didn’t even know it had been a Jester. Seeing the puppet restored to its former glory, where it will make a debut in the parade March 1, is exciting.
Along with three fully restored puppets with costumes, Vincent spent hours remaking the oversized Carnivale letters that are carried by the Royal Court in the parade.
“The original letters were great – whoever made them did a great job, but time had really taken its toll,” he said.
The ManiKrewe committee is incredibly grateful to Merlin and Nancy Vincent for their dedication and for lending their creativity and expertise.
It’s our hope that we can convince them to continue their important work on these pieces of Carnivale history.
“I always have ideas percolating,” he says. “But no new puppets yet.” Stay tuned, folks!
