Waltham’s Harry LaCoste entertains with puppets, comedy           

When The Three Bears came back from their walk in the forest to find their front door ajar, they were not happy. “What, are we trying to air condition the entire forest?!” Papa Bear yelled. 

The story proceeded as it always does, but through the zany sensibility of puppeteer Harry LaCoste. The discovery of the half-eaten porridge. Baby Bear’s destroyed chair. The Bears go upstairs to find a small girl with golden locks and gray skin who’s fast asleep. Goldie, or Golden Locks Of Hair From The Top Of Her Head Down To Her Butt, takes them to meet her self-described “handsome father.” He turns out to be a middle-aged man in khakis and a black ballcap, and he makes her apologize for the mess she made. Goldie agrees: “I’m sorry for breaking into your house but please lock the door…it’s 2025.” Her father is satisfied.

The “father” in question is LaCoste, a ten-year Waltham resident and a juggler and ukulele player as well as puppeteer. His take on the Goldilocks tale is a skit from “The Good News Gus Show,” which he performed at Emerson College’s UnCommon Stage on Aug. 30. 

LaCoste describes his shows as ““Family friendly, but also friendly for the whole family.” To keep all ages entertained, he directs some jokes toward the parents, from bubble tea straws being a cost-prohibitive building material to talking about “[drinking] really old grape juice in fancy glasses.” “Not you, you’re too young,” he adds for the younger audience members.

The First Puppets

LaCoste numbers his puppets at close to 100. This includes Goldie, a dog named Otis, Reginald B. Rabbit and, of course, Gus. The eponymous yellow puppet got his start when LaCoste was living in New York City. For his niece’s birthday, he sent her a video message of Gus congratulating her, and the positive response he received motivated him to do the same for others. He has posted examples on Good News Gus’ YouTube channel.

Gus isn’t LaCoste’s first foray into the world of puppeteering. As a UMass Amherst student in the 1990s, he did shoots for UMass Ed TV’s “Try This At Home Cooking” program with a cheese-loving puppet, Carl. 

In the early 2000s, he worked as an assistant child talent coordinator (or “kid wrangler”) on Sesame Street, where part of his role was easing the children’s nerves as they prepared to go on set. Seeing all the work the show’s puppeteers put into bringing the characters he grew up with come alive, LaCoste decided to try the art himself.

He filmed videos using puppets to teach emotional regulation to children through Insights Intervention, an organization aimed at developing social and emotional regulation skills in children. He also worked with Total Feltdown, a puppet improv troupe that was run by Improv Boston.

The Art of Making Mistakes

LaCoste currently works for the Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline. His regular programming there includes Puppet Playtime on select Tuesdays, where infants and preschoolers are invited to come with their guardians to sing songs and interact with the puppets. 

He balances his puppeteering with  family commitments. In some cases, the two overlap. LaCoste explains how sometimes his two children are the first people he runs material by. 

He brings his letter puppet show “Wordplay” to his kids’ school, and produces the show together with fellow Waltham-based puppeteer Sarah Nolen. The pair perform the show all over Massachusetts.

LaCoste makes most of his puppets. It’s a collaborative effort. He often turns to Nolen and his friend, puppet maker Jon Little, with questions. LaCoste even has a “puppetsona”– a puppet version of himself – which he uses to play “Peekaboose” with the audience through the window of a landscape trailer-turned-caboose in his show, “The Loose Caboose.” 

The puppet making is not without its mistakes; Otis’ ears are longer and floppier than LaCoste intended. The fingers of Big Red Bernie, a live-hand puppet (one where its hands are actually those of a puppeteer’s) ripped because they were too narrow. 

But “when things go wrong, try to find the best way forward and make the best out of what you got,” LaCoste says. That is the lesson  he wants children to take away from his shows. Otis’ ears are too big? LaCoste makes the puppet “sneeze” so his ears flop over his eyes. And as for Bernie, the ripped fingers means LaCoste can stick his own through the holes and play the ukulele with audience members. 

Audiences for LaCoste’s shows are growing, resulting in what he calls a “community of puppet-friendly fans.” He explains that there are several Brookline families that regularly turn up when they know he’s performing the same show again, and that “it’s wonderful because kids learn through repetition…‘Ok, I know this comes next.’” 

LaCoste says interacting with the children and their families is a big motivator for his work. He also says sometimes children will show up to the program a bit nervous around the puppets, but will build up the confidence to go over and give them a high five. For LaCoste, “to see that little growth in that child in that little moment of time, it’s really rewarding.”