First off, I apologize for anyone who’s ever seen this before, but not that much, because chances are you can watch it again without being bored. As internet popularity goes it’s a little old, but I doubt it received as much attention as some woman j’accusing a white cat (yes that’s a word.) I’m still not going to have a lot to post in the foreseeable future, unless I actually go somewhere a little later on and, the crucial bit, find something while I’m at it. So as I’m sitting here tracking packages and wondering if our postal service has completely shit the bed, we have this.
I came across this a few years ago I think, and saved the link then promptly forgot about it, which is a shame because it’s damn cool. My original link was through Gizmodo (though I believe it was Sploid at that time,) but their post didn’t provide a lot of background so I’m just going to embed the video here. Basic premise: RicKy Syers (his spelling) is a puppeteer and musician, and from the looks of things an accomplished drummer on his own, who tricked out a puppet he calls “Chopsy” and then demonstrates just how good it looks by playing along to Rush’s ‘Tom Sawyer.’
I want you to note that the ensemble even has a working kick drum and high-hat cymbal, so just the model work is impressive. But this was only a little demo, with the song playing in an ambient room and the actual rattle of the puppet on the drumset carrying through, so it wasn’t long before he did another version, this time with a music track on its own, as well as multi-camera work and synced (!) stage lighting, to Rush’s ‘2112.’
I can’t help but think how almost surreal it might have looked had he shrouded himself and his manipulating sticks in black; I also wonder how many more times he pulled this off before the arms of the puppet simply disintegrated. But there was one thing missing, and had he been able to include it, the illusion might have been virtually (heh!) complete: the ability for the puppet to sweat copiously. I mean, c’mon!
Now I gotta go play some other music so I don’t have Rush going through my head incessantly…