Puppets were first introduced to the world of entertainment thousands of years ago. It originated from Greece as the Greeks then were known to be fond of theatrical presentations. Though they enjoyed theater, they found supporting the actors financially rather expensive, so that they turned to the use of puppets in plays. They soon discovered that puppets were just as able as actors to elicit positive response from the audience, so they continued to patronize the use of puppets in puppet shows and presentations, and soon stage puppet shows became many people's favorite past time.



Today, puppets and puppet shows have come far from their humble beginnings and still continue to be popular. Many puppets are patterned after animals such as frogs, elephants and birds. Every puppet used on stage has a distinct characteristic and personality. The differing personality is expressed not only by the puppet's design but also by its individual body movements as expressed by the puppeteer's hand movement.

Puppet performing it is not as easy as you think. It requires thorough and consistent practice before you can become an expert. A puppeteer needs to study different techniques such as the basic positioning, diction, arm rods and body movements.

The most common type of hand puppets is the simple hand puppet and the larger hand puppet. Each of the puppets has their distinct usage in puppet shows.

The simple hand puppets have few or no moving parts at all. They are usually made up of flexible materials and have distinct facial features such as eyes and nose. The mouth is often included on the simple hand puppets but it is usually there just for design purposes. It does not even open or close unless a thumb enters a pocket allowing it to move.

Larger hand puppets are more complex. Other than obviously being bigger in size than the simple hand puppets, they have additional manipulatable parts such as the eyelids and hinged mouth and arms.

Aside from providing amusement and fun, puppets nowadays have taken a political turn and are also used in thinly veiled political caricatures and satire. These political puppets are often modeled on known political personalities and are often depicted in the characters' usual political setting.

Whatever the size or the design, puppets and puppet shows today still provide wonderful entertainment to many people of all ages.