By Jima Abbott Artists are an experimental bunch, always ready to ...

Not Writingis Worse —The Art ofJerry Juhlby Michael PottsJolly, quiet, and brilliant: it’s hard to imagine anyMendocino Coast resident bringing more joy to morepeople around the world than our Jerry. He elevated playfulnessto an art.Jerry came to California from the Midwest as ayoungster, and found his art as a puppeteer before highschool, when he earned money writing and performinghis own puppet shows. His father was a scoutmaster, butJerry, ever an individualist, was too busy “wiggling dollies”to join a troop. He took his inspiration from Kukla,Fran and Ollie (the TV show) and especially Walt Kelly’sPogo (the comic strip). He found his writing talent early,as editor-in-chief and head writer for his high schoolpaper. While studying speech and drama at San Jose Statehe also produced an hour long, five-day-a-week showSylvie and Pup on San Jose’s NBC-TV channel. Jerry metwife and working partner Susan, there. Both decidedagainst getting the teaching credential that usually goeswith being speech and drama majors, despite parentalurgings: they didn’t want to “fall back on” anything.After graduation, Jerry did puppetry with Oakland’sRecreation Department. As that job wound down, he performedat the national puppetry convention at Asilomar,where he met Jim Henson, who was seeking someone tohelp with his nightly network show Sam and Friends, aforerunner of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, onlywith puppets.Jerry lived in the Hensons’ basement, and did everythingon the show, building sets, writing scripts, makingpuppets, and performing. Jerry and Jim began assemblingthe company of gifted puppeteers, writers, and staffthat still works together.He had an uncanny ability to capture a puppeteer’spersonality in a puppet. The immortal Kermit the Frog,for example, was written by Jerry, but personified JimHenson. Asked if Jerry had a favorite Muppet, Susan firstdemurred, saying “No, he didn’t. That wouldn’t be fair tothe others,” but then admitted that Jerry loved writing theSwedish Chef’s gibberish.Jerry had a simple but demanding program forartistic success. Learn your Craft. Spend many lonelyhours practicing and polishing – for puppeteers, this isspent in front of a mirror. Then, crucially: Be in the rightplace at the right time.32