Tucked away in a small neighborhood below the Hollywood sign is Jackie Smook’s puppet workshop, a small sequestered room with a single work table surrounded by the characters she handcrafts from the depths of her imagination. Smook, the creator of the web series “Dilly’s World,” is a whimsical and eccentric personality, falling nothing short of what one expects from the title “puppet maker,” with her Willy Wonka-esque enthusiasm, style and tangential character-driven anecdotes.
“It’s important not only to be a builder if you’re gonna do anything niche like this; it’s good to also be a performer,” says Smook.
Smook was classically trained in opera and studied musical theater at the Boston Conservatory before she moved to Chicago and started building puppets.
“I told myself I would build one puppet a day to get really good at it,” says Smook.
Along her creative journey, Smook applied to “American Idol,” where she claims she was a “personality hire,” but the exposure on the show allowed her to connect with PBS in Chicago, launching her career. Smook was suddenly producing work for multiple TV shows and feature films, and has been producing puppets professionally for three years.
In her shop, Smook cuts away at pieces of Arctic polar fleece, stitching, stuffing and shaping the form of a sardine puppet. In a mere seven hours, from concept to construction, the character takes form — a blue sardine donning sunglasses, large lips and vibrant orange hair, a signature look of her work.
“Puppets are so colorful, they’re tactile, you can touch them. And in a world of this new emerging AI, it’s a way for people to make sure that things are remaining real and tangible,” says Smook.
Smook’s audience ranges from small children to grown adults, and highlights that a combination of nostalgia and authenticity of the analog craft creates a timeless experience that ushers in a wide audience.
Despite the playfulness of puppet-making, the work requires a complete investment of Smook’s time and energy, making it rewarding but lonely.
“It is frustrating to be my friend sometimes, because I am working all the time,” says Smook.
Smook attributes a strong support group of friends and fellow artists who understand the commitment she has to her work, making a balance between her craft and her personal life more manageable.
Despite long hours and packed schedules, there is fulfillment beyond the personal joy of creation with an opportunity to make her audience laugh and offer respite from a “challenging world.”
With her new show, “Dilly’s World,” a story about a girl named Dilly and her friends who confront social and emotional issues, taking off with a live tour, there seems to be no rest for Smook in the near future. The work, however, is welcomed and is a source of inspiration not only for her, but also for aspiring puppet makers.
“It gives me a lot of hope for the future of puppetry and puppet building, because the two thriving things right now, for some reason, are puppetry and comedy,” says Smook.
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