Rude toys - comic puppetry for adults only

IS ANYTHING funnier than a foul-mouthed puppet? A chorus line of all-singing, all-swearing felt? "Obviously there's something funny about puppets being rude," says Sammy J, whose Fringe show Sammy J In The Forest Of Dreams is an enchanting Disneyesque fantasy, with slick production values, 14 puppets, 23 poo jokes and an opening song entitled F*** You Disney.

However, he adds: "We've got all the bells and whistles, but if it's not funny then we've failed. The puppets are characters and they're there to fill inb the jokes." Sammy J's show, created with puppeteer Heath McIvor, includes nods towards Tolkien, CS Lewis, and, hilariously, Les Miserables. He was raised on Disney films, he says, and has "worked hard to retain their classic story arc".

He actually conceived the show without puppets in mind, and is quick to distinguish it from former Fringe show Avenue Q, the twisted yet thoroughly Sesame Street spoof by ex-Jim Henson Company employees. A cabaret-inclined musical comedian, J had already worked with McIvor (whose CV includes hulking animatronics for Walking With Dinosaurs), and his alter-ego, the puppet stand-up Randy.

"I had the idea, title and a bit of the storyline," J recalls. "And I'd got to the point where I'd drawn myself with a special boot, with a broom stuck to the shoe and a face on top of the broom, so that I could put my leg behind a table and pretend to be interacting with it. Only then did I remember that I'd been working with Heath for a year. So he came onboard and it's been a 50/50 collaboration ever since."

For his part, McIvor reckons that J's "baby-bird physique" and "lack of ego" means he works well with his "cute, cheesy little co-stars, because puppets will upstage you occasionally".

Some historians believe puppets predate human actors, with hieroglyphs from 2000BC depicting "walking statues" in Egyptian plays, while Italy's commedia del'arte developed when puppets were banned from Catholic churches after their morality theatre became too slapstick. Sesame Street has spawned a joint Israeli-Palestinian version and an HIV-positive character in South Africa, while The Muppets have adapted Dickens for cinema. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone made the marionette movie Team America to satirise US imperialism, while MTV recently launched the late-night sitcom Fur TV. And like Jimmy Carr, Basil Brush was lambasted earlier this year for a joke about gypsies.

"It's similar to the way adult animation has taken off," says McIvor, "with grotesque, really politically incorrect, sexy and brightly coloured cartoons. And it gets ingrained in you as a kid. Punch and Judy have always been hardcore, all that violence and child abuse. Even The Muppets always had an appeal for an adult audience. Puppetry is becoming more popular because people are realising you can do absolutely anything with them." One 15-second sequence in Forest Of Dreams cost more than £700, because, as J explains, "as soon as one of us had an idea, however stupid, we couldn't not do it. When I said let's have a 10ft inflatable fox, there was a pregnant pause as we stared at each other and then realised we couldn't go back."

Forest Of Dreams is one of several grown-up puppet comedies at the Fringe this year. "Last year, there seemed to only be two or maybe three," claims Andy Bennett, appearing in two shows this year himself as part of Shitty Deal Puppet Theatre Company, making up in ambition and crudity what they lack in employing a ragtag ensemble of old toys.

Reprising last year's Complete History Of Oppressed People Everywhere!, the company are also debuting their Fringe antidote, a Complete Guide To The Arts, "which is pretty much how Shitty Deal was invented," Bennett explains. "Will (Averill] was surrounded by all these artsy-farty, pretentious shows at drama school and he wanted to make the antithesis to that, so we have absolutely zero production values, special effects, set or anything. If I can build some sort of rough prop, we can do pretty much anything, and it gives us a lot more licence to poke fun at things we'd otherwise shy away from. We're not exactly Jim Jeffries-level offensive, but because it's a puppet speaking rather than a human, there's a sort of deniability and we can be a lot more risqué."

Nina Conti cheerfully exploits this dislocation between cute and offensive in Evolution, appearing alongside a puppet of her actor father, Tom, presenting a Darwinian lecture "that goes tits-up pretty quickly" and letting her sidekick, Monkey, put her under psychiatric hypnosis.

Referring to her puppets as if they were sentient individuals, she maintains that it's "impossible to oust Monkey from his position as my top dog, because comedically he seems to know he's got a lot of punch and it's difficult for the other characters, he seems to outwit them." Incidentally, she recently wrote a sitcom script with Paul Andrew Williams about "what happens when you talk to your monkey too much in real life".

Conti reckons that "jokes have traditionally let ventriloquism down, rather than the art form itself, though in terms of me respecting it as art, I'd have to cut out the knob gags. I don't want to be known for bullshit arthouse ventriloquism."

Acknowledging the role childhood nostalgia plays in puppets' appeal, the mother-of-one admits that any kids in her shows are "a source of great shame. I make a point of telling the ushers to warn parents. But the kids often stay and laugh throughout. And I will do a kids' show one day. I did my son's fourth birthday and hurt some of the children by mistake when the puppet theatre fell apart and landed on their heads. They all cried and ran away, so that was my worst gig ever."

She once lost Monkey on a flight and "was forlorn because I couldn't do any gigs. I could have arsed about with a sock, but I wouldn't have got any laughs with that."

Kevin Sutherland begs to differ. The hands behind The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, he describes his Shakespeare-reciting, Kraftwerk-spoofing footwear as "a sort of straight man and funny man, with distinct characteristics but similar voices. Developing them for radio has been tricky."

Performing on a stand-up circuit that increasingly welcomes variety, with the Socks regularly appearing on bills alongside "magicians, burlesque performers and escapologists", Sutherland admits: "The time they're not described as a novelty act is when I get worried."

Indeed, the Socks' uniqueness has been a marketing boon. "As a Fringe-goer, if you're looking at a poster or the description of a show, unless you've heard of that stand-up before, you're invariably looking at a bloke with a microphone or a couple of girls in dresses pretending to be people they're not," he says. "Whereas at first glance, two sock puppets simply look funny and draw people in."

Bennett agrees. "We've found there are two types of punters: those that want to see foul-mouthed, violent puppets and those that don't. There's no grey area and by coming to the show, you've pretty much made the decision.

"We put a warning about language, violence and nudity on our shows and that usually helps sell them."

Moreover, there are also merchandising opportunities for the especially cute. "I'd love to make Terry (the skunk] keyrings or maybe squeeze-me dolls, because he's got some classic lines and a great little voice," confesses McIvor. Actors, he adds, should fear for their future employment.

"Puppets don't age, do they? Once you've got a classic character you can cast it for years. Look at Kermit. He didn't die when Jim Henson did."

Sutherland though, keeps his Edinburgh 2007 stars tightly sealed in a glass box.

"The big problem is that they get worn out and need washing, but being constructed as they are, that's hard to do without them falling to bits. So towards the end of the Fringe they go unwashed, and God, you have never smelt anything like it."

• Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams is at the Underbelly until 24 August at 6pm. Shitty Deal Puppet Theatre Company is performing Complete Guide to the Arts at 10:25pm and Complete History of Oppressed People Everywhere! at 12:15am, until 25 August at The Vault. Nina Conti: Evolution is at Pleasance Courtyard until 25 August, at 8:25pm.