Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545257
10 PROP CULTURE I SUMMER 2026 Bird and Oscar the Grouch, said these are really good, you should show them to Bonnie Erickson who ran and supervised the Muppet Workshop. I took a bus across town with this Hewlett-Packard box tied with a rope and showed her my work. She said, 'These are really good, Jim should see these.' But Jim was in France, so I figured that was as far as it would go and honestly, just hearing that was enough for me. Then about a month later, I was back at my desk at HP when the phone rang. A voice said, 'Hi, this is Jim Henson.' I couldn't believe it. He asked me to come down to Los Angeles and show him my work, and that's how it all started. BRAD ELLIOTT, PMG: So, you started as a puppet builder in the workshop? DAVE: I did because they didn't need any puppeteers. I had told Jim that I was interested in doing that. He said, well, we have three-star puppeteers, plus Caroll, who stays on Sesame Street. He said, 'We don't need anybody right now, but if we do a special or something, you could perform and I'll work with you beforehand to polish you up.' I ended up taking a six-month leave of absence from HP so I wouldn't blow my whole career and went to New York. And Jim was true to his word. PROP CULTURE: It's interesting to me because what you're describing feels very Property Master adjacent. That instinct to study something, break it down and figure out how to build it from scratch, that's exactly the mindset we live in. You're not just performing; you're engineering the character from the inside out. DAVE: It is, it absolutely is. PROP CULTURE: Dave, given your background in building and fabrication, as well as performance when you're working as Gonzo and reading a script, how involved are you with the Property Master? Do you tend to rely on what they bring you, or do you shape the props based on your own experience and instincts? DAVE: If it's someone like Brad, he comes to me first. He'll say, 'I've got an idea,' and it's already better than what was originally conceived. From there, we just build on it together. If I have something that works, he adds it in. At its best, Muppet work is completely collaborative and we're always stronger working together than separately. PROP CULTURE: That really resonates, because in so many of my interviews, I keep hearing the importance of collaboration. Everyone is contributing to the character, whether it is props, costumes, or performance, and that is where the work really comes alive. And for a lot of people, that connection between building something and bringing it to life starts early, long before it becomes a profession. BRAD: I was always a puppeteer as a kid. I remember cutting up those pads people used to put on dining room tables and using them to make puppets. I did a tortoise and the hare show, grabbed a refrigerator box, and built myself a little proscenium. DAVE: You were really lucky to do your prop apprenticeship in the Muppet Workshop. You were completely surrounded by character work. BRAD: It was really fun, too. And I found that with characters like Bunsen and Gonzo, a lot of their comedy comes from props, they're very prop-driven. DAVE: They are, yeah. PROP CULTURE: It's very interesting that you refer to Bunsen and Gonzo as "they" and not it. BRAD: Yeah, he's a character. DAVE: Gonzo's out mowing the meadow for me right now, so I could come in and talk to you. But he's not cheap, I've got to pay Disney a fortune just to get my grass mowed. PROP CULTURE: How would you respond to the idea that audiences might see Gonzo as essentially a prop handling another prop? BRAD: Yeah, I've had people talk to me about that. DAVE: Sure, I can understand people thinking that for sure. Absolutely. Gonzo gave me permission to be different. I've heard people say, 'Gonzo gave me permission to be different,' so many times, from all kinds of people, including people on the spectrum. At some point in their lives, whether as kids or adults, they saw him and thought, 'If he's okay being that different, maybe I can be too.' It's such an honor to hear that. And I always tell them, it was really just a lucky accident, we weren't aiming for that. It wasn't the goal. BRAD: I want to talk about props a little bit, because they seem really fun in the way Gonzo uses them to create his comedy. Whether it's wrestling a brick and the brick winning, you're constantly selling these moments so brilliantly, and all the while it feels like Gonzo's enjoying it. DAVE: That's what the great prop people know, the prop is an expression of the character. Making costumes, designing puppets, props, even sets, it's all doing character work. And that's the difference with the really, really good people. They know they're doing character work. PROP CULTURE: Can you think of a moment where a prop or physical choice actually shaped the character or the performance? DAVE: I'll give you a story from Fraggle Rock. It was an episode where Boober meets his alter ego in a dream. His alter ego's name DR. BUNSEN ERNIE