OLIVER SMART can breathe life into the most boring of inanimate objects. A sock is not merely a sock around Smart - it takes on a life of its own. He infuses it with movement and laughter and even gives it a unique personality. If you don't believe me, go see for yourself. Smart will be performing at Stanley Plaza next Sunday as part of the Shake Shake Summer carnival.
Smart got hooked on puppetry in his last year at arts school when he saw a performance by overseas puppeteers. He decided that was what he wanted to do. There are courses to teach puppetry, but Smart took the more traditional route and went in search of a mentor. He met Ramon Rivero at the Wellington Fringe Festival and the Mexican puppeteer gave him his first lessons in puppetry technique.
'Puppetry is like a kind of dance, there are ways of moving things so that they take on a life of their own,' says the New Zealander.
His favourite characters are two sock puppets - Leroy and his comedy partner Alex. Leroy is proud of being a sock, but Alex is in denial about it. He has been working with the pair for four years - 'they are my stock sock characters' - and form the basis of his Suitcase Circus show. Although Smart controls the puppets, he says he has been working with these two characters for so long that they have their own rapport, independent of him.
'When I'm operating Alex and Leroy, they take on a life of their own. Leroy will say something, and Alex will reply straight away. I don't have to think about it.'
Smart, 30, gives his imagination free reign to create new characters and they sometimes show up at the least likely moments. He says the idea for one of his pet characters, Mr Discombobulous - a sock puppet with a mohawk and a bow tie - came while he was doing the washing up.
'I started talking in a really strange voice and I thought wow - this is a new character here.'
