Bio

A long time ago in a dirty old basement, in a creepy old house on the south side of  Ann Arbor, Michigan I started making puppets and I couldn't stop. Night and day, day and night I sculpted, carved, painted, sewed and strung marionette after marionette. I had never built a puppet before this point. But now I couldn't stop.

First was Carl the zombie and then came his buddy Frank. ...then  Cold Timmy, then the Fuzzy Bunny, then Drunk Santa, then The Black Frog..... you get my drift. That's all I wanted to do any more. I stopped going out. Stopped eating and sleeping. I Just kept building puppets and puppets and puppets and puppets. I was also losing my mind. That was obvious.

The first show was a Halloween party at home. Carl and Frank danced for guests. That night Carl insulted somebody and was attacked. Seems the man just got out of jail and didn't find Carl that charming. This would not be the first time Carl ticks somebody off. I found it funny that he went after the puppet and not the puppeteer. The party goers enjoyed the show so much, and so did I, that I decided to take the show out and about. I wrote some skits, and assembled a few friends and away we went. The first crew was my brother Chris Talvitie, and my pals Chris Sheets, and Evan Darian.  Our first shows were at the now defunct Cross Street Station in Ypsilanti. During this show the curtain broke in the beginning and a Klaus's head popped off and floated around in front of everyone. We had a knack for handling disasters in the best way. The improvisations that came out of it were insane. Our next show was at The Small Planet in East Lansing for New Years Eve. We performed with a band called Botfly. They were awesome. Our set kept getting pushed back all night while our stuff was getting beer spilled on it in the kitchen of the bar. We did a 15 minute spirited performance at the end of the night.

We started performing around town, then rapidly progressed to performing all over the Detroit metro area. You name it, cafes, bars, art schools, theaters, rock festivals, night clubs, parties. It was now on a path and pace of it's own. So began the golden age of The Gepetto Files™. God help us all.

After getting a bunch of shows under our belt the puppets started experimenting with different plots and subplots but often could not see an ending in sight thus left it a cliff hanger. The puppets tell me what to do. Help Me!! And special effects got more exciting. There's the Fuzzy Bunny car scene with the moving backdrop. What a spectacle. Then there's the puppet bomb skit at The Gypsy Cafe. People didn't know what hit them. At a Valentines Day show we drove in a snow storm to actually open for a screaming man banging a dildo on the floor.

One of the most memorable shows was performing in the window of Noir Leather in Royal Oak, Mich. The cops had to disperse the crowd of people. Razor spent his dinner money on a cock ring. We shot our first short film, Das Creeping Horror. We performed Santa's Been Drinking & He's Got a Gun at 1515 Broadway. The final night was sold out. That month I had mono, hepatitis, and two deaths in the family. What a horrible Christmas but what a fantastic show. Big lessons learned.

After three years in we found out the house would be torn down to be made into a parking lot. What a blow. Now what?! The puppets were pissed. Some of us got jobs at the Woodstock 1999 festival in Rome New York as builders and decided to take the show. I traded a marionette for a motorcycle before we go. We have one hell of a farewell party. Before we get to New York we go to the Rainbow Gathering hippy festival in the mountains. What a trip. Meeting at the peace pole. Dancing with the Dirt Fairys. We arrived 2 months before the concert. The show gets booked to perform the second day there. Then we are worked like dogs. All kinds of crazy sh*t happened. A man killed a ground hog with an onion. Freak storms. Really crazy place. The Mud People! We were all ready to perform but because of the fires and riots we never get to perform. We ran for our lives instead. We hid on a water tower that was filled with jet fuel. We didn't know what was in it till later. Ended up having puppet show parties at the housing unit with the crew. Inevitably peforming for the production people and our roady pals. We danced all night around an insane bonfire and on the rooftop. Looked like it would be back to the tool shed.  We got so close but never really got to perform for those 250,000 people. I learned a lot. I decided to end marionette shows for a while. It was the end of the golden age of The Gepetto Files™. It was back to the tool shed.

After New York the puppets and I moved to Hamtramck for three years, This is when the magic show started starring Van Gogh. He's a real screwball maniac and don't dare doubt his skills. I joined up with the PuppetArt Theater in Detroit. My Russian pals were very patient. Totally did my puppet ninja training there. We kept doing smaller Gepetto Files' shows around town. Detroit was a trip. We opened for The Impaler and The Ruiners at the Hamtramck Blow Out. The unraveling process had begun. I was on the other side of Hell and looking back!! Just kept making puppets. Stick to what you're good at.

In about 2005 I  moved to Washtenaw county. Set up shop in the back of a big old haunted mansion. It used to be a court house or some shit. I got a room from a dominatrix who hung out with a crazy guy and a midget. I couldn't make this up if I tried. There was  the Little Rat Theater which was a marionette stage equipped with video cameras, lights, backdrops, and about 50 marionettes. No show was ever performed there for the three years I was there. Crazy huh? It was tweaked and beautiful and ready to go. Why was no shows ever held there? I couldn't tell you folks. Just didn't feel right at the time. Always wanted to be holding private shows  there as well as web broadcasts. Then there was the basement Plasma Studio where we did photo shoots, production work, and live appearance rehearsals. It was in a defunct plasma bank, above Vee Gee Kids printing. It has since turned back into a plasma bank and we have moved out and moved on. There have been a few new, and newer incarnations of the traveling gorilla stage as well. One was lost at a storage place. I would like the "Doosh Bag" that didn't bother to call before they threw it out.

A few years ago we started the band. For many newer Gepetto Files™ fans this is the only form of the show they know. This is actually the third version. This might be obvious if you had been reading the prior paragraphs. Anyway.... I started working with Andy Ferda at Tobins Lake Studios a few years earlier and we talked bout taking a musical approach and drank a lot of beers but nothing got going until a few years later. We started rehearsing in our bassist, Buckweet's basement. Me on vocals without puppets at first, Andy on guitar, Tim Bruno  on drums, and Buckweet on bass. It clicked almost instantly. Almost.... I said. Some songs took almost a year for us to shit out. Our first performance under this new style was at the Majestic Theater, Detroit. Performing at a Dirty Show after party with Crud. We used the latest version of our gorilla stage. This time using hand puppets and the stage looks like large speakers. I love this version. In many ways it is perfect. For it also doubles as our road cases.

The show is in it's 13th year with well over 100 puppets and at least 100 more started. There are lots of new stories and jokes, twists and turns. But we're only going to give them to you one at a time. Ha Ha Ha Ha......Doh! Who knows what the future brings. I've had lots of crazy offers. I'd like to see the Black Frog for president personally. Some bio huh? Never take your self too seriously folks.