ABOUT LARRIKIN PUPPETS
Larrikin Puppets services the greater Brisbane area, performing colourful and fun puppetry at your events:
- Puppet Shows for Kids’ Parties, Grown Up Parties, Child Care Centres, School Fetes, Public Festivals, Libraries, Restaurants, Shopping Centres!
- Puppet Compère/MC for Corporate Events, Product Launches, Wedding Receptions, Award Ceremonies, Film Screening events, Trivia Nights!
- Puppetry for Film, TV and Theatre productions!
- Puppetry Workshops for Schools, Theatre, Film & TV!
- ANY event! ALL ages!
Larrikin Puppets specialises in Muppet-style puppetry inspired by the work of the late, great Jim Henson.
Larrikin Puppets is WINNER of the 2015 BizCover NEIS Change Award. More information about this award and how we came to win it here.
FOUNDER & DIRECTOR; PRINCIPAL PUPPETEER
Brett Hansen is the founder of and principal puppeteer at Larrikin Puppets. Brett won the 2015 BizCover NEIS Change Award for Larrikin Puppets at the Small Business Development Conference in Melbourne, after the growth of the business throughout its first three years.
Brett’s weekly puppetry work is mainly focussed on live performances at schools, childcare centres, festivals and parties around the greater Brisbane area. He also runs beginner puppetry workshops at schools. Brett spent a week in residence at Belmont State School teaching each child from prep to year 6 the art of storytelling through puppetry as part of the 2016 Belmont Literary Carnivale.
In 2016, Brett spent three months in the USA for professional development where he networked, trained and performed with puppeteers in New York City, Los Angeles and Texas. He received formal puppetry training at the Beyond The Sock advanced puppetry workshop at the University of North Texas under Marty Robinson (The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Street) and Noel MacNeal (Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House), with puppet construction training from Pasha Romanowski (Project Puppet, The Moe Show). Brett trained at The Puppet Kitchen in Manhattan, New York under Michael Schupbach (Sesame Street, The Jim Henson Company). He also performed in New York City at the Puppetry Arts Festival of Brooklyn.
In theatre, Brett was puppetry consultant (trainer of puppeteer cast members) in both the 2012 and 2014 Brisbane Arts Theatre productions of Broadway musical, “Avenue Q”, and the 2017 Sunnybank Theatre Group production. Brett was also a puppeteer cast member of the show in 2012, co-performing Nicky and Trekkie Monster. Brett’s own casted stage show “Thank Troggg You’re Here: A Puppet Impro Spectacular!” debuted at the 2014 Anywhere Theatre Festival and has been performed several times to large audiences.
Brett was also the puppeteer for Studio Theatre & Cafe’s Saturday morning kids’ stage show, “The Super Weekend Show” – featuring puppets, full bodied costumes, songs, jokes, games and prizes.
In film, Brett performed the puppet characters in Richard Bell’s “5 for 35”, a film which screened in 2015-2016 at the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) at GOMA (Queensland’s Gallery Of Modern Art). He also assisted with the puppetry in “Cluck: The Web Series”, puppeteered Troggg in the short film “Heart of a Thousand Souls”, Kev and Carlos the Cop in the short film “Kev”, and two characters in the Tia Gostelow music video for her single, “That’s What You Get”. In television, Brett has performed puppetry on “Totally Wild” (Network Ten), “The Bureau of Magical Things” (Jonathan M. Shiff Productions and Network Ten), The Late Nite Show” and “Showreel” (Channel 31) and appeared (as Troggg) on two episodes of “Juiced TV” (Children’s Hospital Foundation).
ASSISTANT PUPPETEER; PUPPET WRANGLER; CO-OWNER
Elissa Jenkins performs Flossy, Marina and other background characters. She has received formal puppetry training at The Puppet Kitchen in Manhattan, New York under Michael Schupbach (Sesame Street, The Jim Henson Company), and often assists in the running of our own puppetry workshops.
Additionally, Elissa has a 17 year career in media, marketing, communications and management; three degrees; a collection of awards; a bunch of life experience; and many beautiful stories to tell.
Elissa has worked for a multinational media corporation, in the non-profit sector, in the renewable energy sector, and has supported small to medium businesses and social enterprises to flourish. She’s an ideas person and an action person – she makes things happen.
Elissa combines her friendly personality, passion and pizzazz with her smarts, sincerity and professionalism to steer strategic organisational imperatives and inspire teams to achieve greatness, no matter where in the world they are located.
Elissa is a leader in the social justice and environment movements, locally and globally. Her volunteer activities have taken her to Kenya, Brazil, Austria and Taiwan and provided her with a global network of environmental and social justice friends and colleagues. She has lived. She has learnt. She has acted. And her diverse skillset reflects this. Elissa is also editor-in-chief and publisher at Sustainability Hackers.
A special project of Elissa’s within Larrikin Puppets is the launch of Puppets At Work which will feature a program of activities for corporate and community workplaces. We look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months.
While Larrikin Puppets is a full-time business for Brett, it is a part-time, passion piece for Elissa, who says, “I am very lucky to have such a playful business to have fun with while supporting it to grow.”
Larrikin Puppets is a Blue Card holding business, regulated by the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian Act 2000. We’re covered by Public Liability Insurance through Duck for Cover Entertainers’ Group Inc.
The trailer for Brisbane Arts Theatre’s 2012 production of Avenue Q can be seen here. And footage of our own production of Thank Troggg You’re Here: A Puppet Impro Spectacular can be found here.
Here are Some of the great businesses who’ve booked us, supported us and collaborated with us over the years:
C&K Creche and Kindergarten Association Goodstart Early Learning Guppy’s Early Learning Centre Avenues Early Learning Centre Neighbourhood Creche Brisbane City Council Libraries Moreton Bay Regional Council and Moreton Bay Region Libraries Brisbane Marketing Ipswich City Council YMCA Vacation Care PCYC Vacation Care Racecourse Road Precinct Puppetry Arts New York Mowbraytown Hall East Brisbane Paradise Resort Gold Coast Belmont State School 31 Digital Milani Gallery Luke Walker Productions Creative Clones Juiced TV and Children's Hospital Foundation Why Not? Films Studio Theatre & Cafe / Starbuck Productions New Globe Theatre Bunnings Warehouse Botanical Cafe Functions Events AEIOU Foundation Probus Retired Professional and Business Clubs
