Bob Baker: This is Your Life = Too Many Treats at Once

“How will we ever recover?” showman Charles Phoenix asked the audience following the spellbinding presentation by master Bob Baker and his dazzling crew of puppets and marionette-iers.

A few days later, we still haven’t. Memories of the overwhelming tribute to Baker linger. The fascinating documentary about Baker’s seventy-plus years making and operating marionettes, Phoenix’s captivating slide presentation, and the tour-de-force performance featuring seductive kittens, petunias and onions, glow-in-the-dark skeletons, sort of freaky clowns, and a host of other astounding characters left the lucky audience members awe-struck. It was a truly amazing evening. And just to think this all takes place on a regular basis (albeit not quite as stupendously) at Bob Baker’s Marionette Theater beneath the First Street Bridge in the shadow of Downtown.

Unfortunately this magical event has already concluded, but please, we implore you: if you didn’t regularly attend birthday parties at the BBMT as a kid, or even if you did, you owe it to yourself to go see a show or two or ten by the ingenious puppeteer -- a true local treasure -- and his troupe.

And if you’re super lucky, you might be treated to fluffy icing-encrusted cake and ice cream cups in the festive party room.