Daemen College : Student Life : Daemen Insight : Catching Up with Cameron
Catching Up with Cameron
By Jennifer Klemann
Passion is a rare commodity nowadays. With the growing indeterminacy and diminishing attention-spans of today’s youth, it is near impossible to fathom the thought of anyone focusing twenty-four hours — an entire day’s worth — of work into an outlet for pure enjoyment. Yet, that is what Cameron Garrity, a Graphic Design junior here at Daemen, does for his passion: puppetry. The INSIGHT highlighted this aspiring puppeteer when he was just a freshman, but since we last chatted with Cam, puppets are no longer just a hobby.
An original play created by Cameron, "Something That I’m Supposed To Be," premiered at last year’s Academic Festival. The work was a “fantasized retelling” of the end of the life of Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets — mainly the debate between Henson and the Disney CEO Michael Eisner over the selling of his beloved Muppets.
In a nutshell, Henson planned on selling the Muppet Show Muppets to Disney, but Eisner would not close the deal unless the Sesame Street characters were included as well. The stress from the negotiations weakened Henson’s immune system to the point that shortly after contracting strep throat, he passed away. In his will, he left to his children the Muppets that were intended to be sold to Disney, only after ownership of Sesame Street was shifted to the Children’s Television Workshop.
Cam wanted to spread this fairly unknown story, to show “the fact that in his death, [Jim Henson] became this tragic hero.” Along with Dr. Waterhouse and Professor Brandjes, Cameron worked on the script from June 2010 until March 2011. He also needed to construct the actual puppets and train additional puppeteers within the remaining month or so before the performance. The show included some lovable characters, such as Kermit the Frog, Ernie (with his rubber ducky), Cookie Monster, Mahna Mahna (doo dooo dodoo do!), and Eisner’s evil minion, the not-so-lovable Mickey Mouse.
Cameron is also in collaboration with Dr. Waterhouse and Professor Brandjes for Daemen’s Student-Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Think Tank. He receives funding to create his puppets, set up workshops, and present here at Daemen and even at a conference in Baltimore, Maryland this upcoming April. The purpose of these workshops is to teach others how puppets work and to show how cool they can be – or interesting, as Cameron corrected himself. (We both still think they’re cool). Cam will also be attending the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference next summer, where he will be able to work one-on-one with Sesame Street Muppeteers. But it won’t be the first time Cam has met the cast of Sesame Street. Last April, he visited the set and had a conversation with Caroll Spinney, better known when he’s covered in bright yellow feathers as Big Bird.
So how did this passion for puppetry come to be? Cam attributes it to a few factors; the first, a life-long love for the Muppets, is quite self-explanatory, while the others require some elaboration. The next aspect: puberty, which allowed Cam to acquire his spot-on impersonation of Kermit the Frog. Then, his freshman year, Dr. Waterhouse asked Cameron to puppeteer in one of his plays. The experience also provided the opportunity for him to act. That’s when the “acting bug” bit him. Another pivotal point of inspiration was a simple A&E special on Sesame Street. It showed Caroll Spinney without his Big Bird feathers, and seeing that puppetry could be a job was the “light-bulb moment.” From then on, that was the dream job.
But puppetry is only one side to Cam, although it is quite an enormous side. The Honors Program consumes a portion of Cam’s time; he’s not only a member, but also on the governing board and has taken an active role in the reformatting of the program. He has attended the Regional Conference for Honors program in Maine last April, as well as the National Conference in Arizona this past October. He's also greatly involved in the Graphic Design program. Although this is his fallback, Cam says it “diminishes it to call it that.” One can feel his admiration for the area of study when discussing the effects of mathematical distancing on the aesthetics of words, logos, etc. For it to be considered a “fallback” clearly exudes his fervent love for puppetry.
Cameron shows that with passion, creativity, and with some— no, a lot of hard work, one can accomplish amazing feats! He is pursuing his dream, which can be extremely frightening,but also exciting at the same time. In the words of the Muppets, “Life’s like a movie, write your own ending, keeping believing, keep pretending.”
Want to see more about Cam? You can also read his interview with Toughpigs.com,which contains the videos of his entire play, "Something That I’m Supposed To Be." Also, keep an eye out for his upcoming puppetry workshops!