The World of Puppets - Murray the Monkey

Murray is the oldest of the bunch, ’born’ in 1995. He was put together as part of a design project at university and gained extremely high marks. He then went on to star in many of my university videos. However, he was not the first puppet that I created. Before him, I built both a dragon and a wolf, but these contained a great deal of metal, and as such were heavy and clumsy to use. The wolf is now an ornament on top of a friends wardrobe, and sadly the dragon no longer exists. However, like any good individual, she left her body for transplant, and much of her is inside others. Anyway, what about Murray?

Puppet Construction

Murray is a fairly sophisticated type of glove puppet. He stands approximately four foot tall. The head is operated with the puppeteer’s right arm inside, to move the mouth and neck. The puppeteer’s left arm is actually inside the puppets arm, like a glove - very much in the same way as the Muppet Fozzie Bear. This means he can pick up things, aiding in the illusion of life.

A photograph of the ‘birth’ is to the left. As you may be able to tell, the head is carved from a block of foam. It is then covered in fur fabric. The main body is fur fabric hiding a thin strip of chicken wire, which provides both strength and shape. He wears a pair of my own discarded cut off jeans, and a Hawaiian shirt. With additional details created by such easy to find items as felt for the mouth and ping pong balls for eyes, his character is brought to life. Like all the puppets I have built, he has the uncanny knack of looking alive even when he is dumped in the corner.

Character Profile

Murray is an awfully flamboyant, boisterous monkey. His biog says he used to work for a company doing “gorilla grams”, but got the sack when his employers discovered he was not a gorilla. Unfortunately he is not the most intelligent of creatures, and is so laid back that he often misses the point of anything important going on around him.

The first production he appeared in was as the DJ in my university video project ‘Steam Dragon FM’ - a children’s show about a radio station run by puppets. One of the features on ‘Steam Dragon FM’ was an agony aunt sketch called ‘Uncle Murray’s Problem Phone In’. Murray always included a banana in the problem solving, believing bananas can solve everything. Well, he is a monkey after all.

Selected Credits

Murray is a veteran character in many shows. These include performing in three videos, made during my university days.

With Bananas and I

Adult show where Murray gets drunk, reads Play Monkey and behaves badly.

Steam Dragon FM

Children's show (See above for details)

Staying Alive

Madcap musical (See Zak for details)