Canned Air: A Tribute to Pop Culture · Evergreen Podcasts

Canned Air #541 A Conversation with Actor & Puppeteer David Barclay (Jabba the Hutt Chief Puppeteer / Yoda Assistant Puppeteer)

·1 hr 17 min·4 clips

Jabba needed a whole office converted into an oven because his foam-latex body was too large for normal equipment.

1. Canned Air: A Tribute to Pop Culture centers on David Barclay’s work on Yoda, Jabba the Hutt, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Fraggle Rock. 2. Jeremy Colley and Randy Hardenbrook interview David Barclay, who is an actor and puppeteer known for Yoda, Jabba, and Sprocket. 3. The episode asks how a child raised in a puppet theatre family ended up shaping some of the best-known practical creatures in Star Wars and Jim Henson projects. 4. Barclay says his parents, Anna and Michael, met at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, RADA, in London in 1954. 5. He says they started a puppet company when he was about four because acting jobs kept them apart. 6. Barclay describes growing up around glove puppets, British puppet festivals, and wanting to be a puppeteer from age four. 7. He says he later became interested in Planet of the Apes, prosthetic makeup, and special effects because television and film puppetry work seemed limited. 8. Barclay says his first encounter with Mark Hamill happened at Hamleys while he was out at lunch selling Pelham puppets. 9. He explains that Hamill later returned to Hamleys looking for him and asked for a Darth Vader marionette for his personal collection. 10. Barclay says that visit led to a trip to Elstree Studios and a meeting with Stuart Freeborn on the Empire Strikes Back production. 11. He says Stuart hired him as a trainee in the makeup department, and he was still 19 when he started working on Yoda. 12. Barclay explains that his first Yoda task was sculpting a small top-lip extension from six plaster options so the mouth could close. 13. He says the chosen version became the lip used on Yoda after Stuart added surface texture and foam-latex casting. 14. Barclay describes filling in on Yoda’s eyes when a puppeteer needed help and says Frank Oz liked the performance. 15. He says Frank Oz kept him on the Yoda team and later nominated him to complete the remaining shots after Frank had to leave. 16. Barclay recalls the close-up where Yoda falls backward and says the first take was terrible before he recovered and got the take used in the film. 17. He says Frank Oz broke each Yoda shot down in a portacabin trailer, moving the puppeteers through the timing and rhythm before filming. 18. Barclay describes Jim Henson’s workshop culture, the Dark Crystal crew, and the first Thanksgiving meal he ever attended in 1979. 19. People interested in practical effects, Star Wars puppetry, and Jim Henson history would get the most from this conversation. 20. People looking for a short celebrity recap or a plot-heavy story would probably skip it.

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