FREDERICTON • Bob Stutt has enjoyed a long career as a puppeteer on well-known television shows and has put those stories to paper in a suspense novel called Puppet.
Stutt brought life to puppets on shows like The Friendly Giant, Fraggle Rock, The Muppets, Sesame Park and Big Comfy Couch. He continues to perform with his favourite puppet, Iggy the Iguana, from Under the Umbrella Tree.
As a puppeteer and script writer over several decades, Stutt drew from his experience to write the book.
"I kept a daily journal for the last 53 years and felt I had a voice I could use after that, so I decided to take my life experience and build this novel around it," Stutt, 73, said in an interview from his home in Fredericton. He approached Merlin Star Press, a publishing company dedicated to authors from New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada.
"It's basically about an amiable TV puppeteer who gets involved in scandal, blackmail and murder," he said. "A lot of it is about my experiences but I would not say the character is me. At the same time, I am using a lot of my experiences in telling the story."
He said the novel also shines a spotlight on a show business occupation that not many people know about, because puppeteers are usually out of the camera's view.
"Puppetry is sort of a mystery to people. They don't know what happens backstage or behind the scenes, so I felt this was a chance to use that and put it out there."
