On March 28, the Lobby at the Ritz in Newburgh will once again give itself over to a peculiar and increasingly beloved form of performance: the puppet slam. Now in its fourth edition, Uncanny Valley is less about felt and strings than it is about what happens when puppetry slips its kid-friendly leash and wanders into stranger, sharper terrain.
“It’s a hilarious evening of short-form adult puppetry,” says Ken Martinez, who helps program the event through Safe Harbors of the Hudson. “Underground, fun, insane—a little bit naughty, a little bit nice.”
If your reference point for puppets begins and ends with Sesame Street, recalibration is required. Puppet slams—an outgrowth of experimental puppetry scenes in Boston and New York in the 1990s—are built around quick-hit performances, usually five to seven minutes long, that range from the absurd to the introspective to the gleefully grotesque.
“There’s a lot of different styles that are presented,” says Dov Manley, a Newburgh-based puppeteer and co-organizer. “Sometimes it’s humorous, sometimes it’s blue, sometimes we love some good puppet gore.”
Yes, puppet gore.
Past slams have featured dismembered figures spilling ribbons of red fabric, sock-puppet lovers separated by the cruel mechanics of a washing machine, and political improv involving a puppet version of Donald Trump chasing down a stack of Epstein files as the audience passed the papers hand to hand to keep them out of reach. If the phrase “anything can happen” has lost its edge through overuse, here it regains a little bite.
The structure is simple: eight performers, an hour and a half, a rotating cast drawn largely from the Hudson Valley with a few ringers from New York City and beyond. Hosted by Liz Joyce, the evening will feature performances by William PK Carter, Carole D’Agostino, Opal Elwell, Scott Hitz, Chris Palmieri, Cabot Parsons, and Brad Shur.
The simplicity is part of the appeal. For performers, the format offers something rare: freedom. “A lot of puppeteers, like myself, do children’s work,” Manley says. “This lets you get out of that box and play in a different sandbox.”
That sandbox can include anything from a dog reciting a poem about its own less-than-dignified habits to a cardboard “wise old sage” delivering a bleak monologue about environmental collapse, staged with shadow puppetry. The only real constraint is time.
“You only have five to seven minutes,” Manley says. “So it becomes: What do I want to say? What have I been thinking about?”
That question—equal parts artistic and existential—gives the evening its shape. The result is a kind of rapid-fire variety show where tone shifts quickly and often. One act might lean into stand-up rhythms, another into visual spectacle, another into something closer to performance art. Martinez notes that even seasoned audiences are often surprised by the range. “There’s so many different kinds of puppetry,” he says. “Even in one night, you get to see just so many different genres and styles.”
The event has also begun to function as a gathering point for a loosely connected regional scene. What started as a programming idea—Martinez was looking for something serial, something memorable—has turned into a modest but growing network of performers. Some are veterans of the Puppet Slam Network, a national organization that supports slams across the country; others are local artists who discovered the form through Uncanny Valley itself.
“We’ve had people come up after the show and say, ‘I’m a puppeteer—I want to be part of this,’” Manley says.
That mix—local talent, out-of-town acts, newcomers testing the waters—keeps the lineup in motion. It also keeps the organizers on their toes. One of the ongoing challenges is simply getting people to commit, and then to follow through. Another is making sure the ideas stay fresh. “You constantly want new work,” Manley says. “You don’t want people repeating the same pieces.”
As for the name, Uncanny Valley, it arrived with a wink and stuck. Borrowed from the term used to describe the unsettling effect of near-human replicas, it doubles as a nod to place and tone: Hudson Valley meets the strange. Which is more or less the promise of the night itself. You may not know exactly what you’re walking into. But somewhere between the laughter, the mild shock, and the occasional spray of red ribbon, it tends to cohere.
Uncanny Valley Puppet Slam
Where: Lobby at the Ritz, 107 Broadway, Newburgh
When: Saturday, March 28, 7–9pm
Tickets: $20
What: A one-night-only showcase of short-form, adult-oriented puppetry—eight performers delivering five- to seven-minute acts that range from comic to dark to experimental.
Who: Hosted by Liz Joyce, with performers from the Hudson Valley, New York City, and beyond.
Why Go: A fast-moving, anything-goes puppetry cabaret that blends vaudeville, experimental theater, and a distinctly offbeat sense of humor—Newburgh’s answer to downtown puppet chaos.
More Info: Safe-harbors.org
