You have two primary options for your partner (in the show): a puppet or a dummy.
Yes, there is a difference.
Puppets are made from cloth, stuffed with soft cloth and sponge, and stitched together. They’re soft, cuddly creatures, that can express more expression and body language than a dummy.
Dummies are made from wood, with moving parts like the mouth, eyeballs and eyebrows.
Puppets are also less expensive than dummies. Check out the chart below to see a comparison of puppets vs. dummies.
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Puppets
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Dummies
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|---|---|---|
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Made of…
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Cloth
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Wood
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Ease of use
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Very easy to manipulate. Even little kids have the natural skill to mimic someone talking with their hands.
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Slightly harder when compared to puppets. The jaw can get heavy when performing for longer durations, and your fingers can start to tire a little.
|
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Moving parts…
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Not many
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More options available (eyes, eyebrow, water-spitting, etc)
|
|
Cost
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Less expensive
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More expensive
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| Expression | The flexible body and shape of mouth enables puppets to have a lot more body language, facial expression (so to speak) and appear to be more real than dummies. | Dummies aren’t very flexible. Made of wood, the jaw movement, eyeball or eyebrow movement is pretty much fixed – you will only get the same movement every time. Can appear a lot less life-like and appear like the wooden dummy it really is (and hence the saying "don’t sit there like a dummy") unless you give it some skillful and continuous movement. |
| Sizes available in | Available in a large range of sizes starting from the smallest finger-puppets to half-body or full-body puppets, to the larger-than-people, over-sized puppets. | Range of sizes not too large, as the smaller ones and larger ones (if they were indeed available) would be very hard to manipulate. |
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