Puppets

The reference to puppets is also based on fact. Like Merlin Zauber, I've been fascinated by puppets since I was a child. This interest continues, as evidenced by the website that I created several years ago, www.presidentialpuppets.com.

Here are some of my ventriloquial puppets:

In the image at the left, I am handling the George W. Bush marionette (string puppet), with the George W. Bush ventriloquial puppet sitting in the chair behind us.

In the image at the right, I am sitting on the couch in my studio with (left to right): President George W. Bush; Ferdinandito, the small puppet who is wearing formal attire; Former President Bill Clinton; and sitting in my lap, the puppet that always goes with me when I entertain children, Florian.

In my 18th-century life as a teenage Gypsy puppeteer I forfeited my head for inadvertently insulting the King. I still surround myself with puppets, although these days I am more careful. If I were a pediatric psychotherapist like my character Merlin Zauber, I would have as many puppets in my office as he had, and much of my therapy would be carried out with puppets, while I would sit in as a mostly silent partner.