Larrikin Puppets presents a colourful, interactive puppet show that can be both educational and entertaining for students and teachers alike!
Larrikin Puppets provide children's entertainment for schools and childcare centres that can be both educational and very entertaining for students and teachers alike! Our program includes puppet shows and workshops that can work within the Australian P-2 primary school Design and Technologies curriculum; the Foundation to Year 10 Intercultural Understanding curriculum, as well as English and Drama subjects; and Book Week, Library and Literacy events.
Our puppet show is a colourful, interactive and crowd-pleasing comedy variety show which includes a segment at the end on how the puppets work. The performance is 45 minutes, including a “how the puppets work segment” and the option to have a meet-and-greet or a class photo with the puppets at the end.
Our comedy puppet show always goes down a treat, but we also offer themed and educational puppet shows including: Marina’s Marine Adventure, Health & Wellbeing, Kindness & Anti-Bullying, Environmental Sustainability, Musical Christmas or Australia Day.
- Venue Format
- Theatre, Hall
- Technical Rating
- Touring Party
- 2
- Considerations
Sound Equipment and Set-up: We have our own wireless headset mics, P.A. speakers, music and sound effects, etc. We would require access to one powerpoint. We would arrive at the venue about 1.5 hours before showtime to park, load in and set up all of our staging and audio for the presentation.
Blue Card and Insurance: Brett's Blue Card number is 1161011/3, Elissa's is 690261/3. Larrikin Puppets has public liability insurance through Duck For Cover Entertainers Insurance.
Professional Development Overseas: We have completed three months of professional development in the USA, which included performances and advanced training with Jim Henson puppeteers from The Muppets and Sesame Street.
Larrikin Puppets performs colourful and exciting puppet shows and interactive puppetry workshops featuring zany characters and catchy songs, live and online. They have a fun, catchy debut music EP for kids aged 3-9, available across 150+ music streaming services.
Highly entertaining and captivating, Larrikin Puppets’ fast-paced, feel-good puppetry celebrates fun, kindness and diversity while nurturing child development, encouraging audiences to talk, dance, sing and play along.
Award-winning Larrikin Puppets, established in 2012, is a thriving Queensland puppetry arts company founded by puppeteer and musician Brett Hansen. His wife Elissa Jenkins joins him as co-puppeteer and human host. They specialise in children's entertainment and kids’ music.
Brett and Elissa, who received training in the USA under Jim Henson puppeteers from The Muppets and Sesame Street, provide child and family audiences with wide-eyed wonder, joy and laughs from beginning to end.
A full-time professional puppetry arts company, prominent performances include Woodford Folk Festival, Puppetry Arts Festival of Brooklyn (USA), Hamilton Island Resort, Horizon Festival, Cooroy Fusion Festival, Redcliffe Sails Festival, Ipswich Festival, Bundaberg Pageant of Lights, and Gladstone Harbour Festival.
Notable TV appearances include puppetry on The Bureau of Magical Things, Totally Wild and Juiced TV, and in music videos for Regurgitator and Tia Gostelow.
- Company Website
- larrikinpuppets.com.au
Unique Selling Point
“We incorporated Larrikin Puppets into our Design Technology and Drama units. The Year 1 students absolutely loved the puppet show and were completely engaged throughout it. The opportunity to learn how they work was fabulous.”
Marketing Materials
Promo video showing all the excitement, fun and colour of our puppet shows - https://youtu.be/lq-wL_v5mBY
Community Engagement
We have performed this puppet show in rural and remote communities, regional libraries, and at events for children with a disability. Children who don't often have the opportunity to participate and engage in these sorts of presentations have smiled, laughed, danced, learned and even expressed interested in pursuing puppetry further after the experience.
Comments/Reviews
Melissa Franklin
Audience Review
We incorporated Larrikin Puppets into our Design Technology and Drama units. The Year 1 students absolutely loved the show and were completely engaged throughout it. The opportunity to meet the puppets and learn how they work was fabulous. We will definitely book Larrikin Puppets to perform at our school as a part of these units for many years to come.
Alannagh O’Reilly
Audience Review
Larrikin Puppets are supremely talented, and every bit of the fun and mischief we were hoping for. Brett and Elissa are kind, personable and very knowledgeable. I feel certain that they're on a trajectory for success and fame (TV pilots and other exciting projects in the wings) and feel grateful to have had such an intimate performance by them.
Kate Redward
Audience Review
We had an absolute blast! The children laughed the whole way through the show and loved the opportunity to meet the puppets and puppeteers afterwards! What a great way to celebrate Book Week!
Jenny Somerville
Audience Review
What a wonderful show that Brett and Elissa performed at our childcare centre last week. We are always looking for new incursions for our children and luckily we stumbled across Larrikin Puppets. They were fun, professional and great value. The children were in hysterics the whole show and loved meeting the puppets afterwards. I highly recommend them.
Mindy Russell
Audience Review
Brett and his awesome crew of puppets entertained kids aged 2 to 72 at The Family Place for Aboriginal and Islander Children's Day last week. It was hilarious and a treat that will be talked about for years to come. I still have the talking cheesecake song stuck in my head.
Walter Vecchio
Audience Review
Thank you for demonstrating and engaging the children in the amazing world of puppetry. The kids had a ball and found out just how real puppets can be. Thank you for your wonderful demeanour with the kids as they found you highly entertaining. All the best for the future.