Summer Film Series: The Jigsaw Video Puppet Show Thing

Thursday, July 31st at 8pm

The Bridge Summer Film Series starts off with a special guest this year: puppet-master and Charlottesville ex-patriot BenJones. In 2005, Jones was living in New York City running a comic-book store called Jigsaw. He created two puppets as a promotional device for the store: Dr. Kranium, the stodgy, humorless mad scientist; and Milton, his long-suffering, wisecracking robot servant; The Jigsaw Video Show was born. Three years and two cities later, the comic store has closed down, but the puppet show lives on! Milton and Kranium have re-located to Charlottesville and are still producing short, internet-distrubuted episodes on a weekly basis.

Informed by an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure British sitcoms, a comprehensive understanding of time-tested vaudeville gags, years of stage experience, and a lifelong obession with the Muppets, Jones has infused The Jigsaw Show Thing with sharp wit, crack comic timing, memorable original music, and a confounding ability to portray multiple puppet-characters simultaneously. Over the course of the show’s 35+ episodes, extended plot-lines have slowly developed, memorable bit characters have become full cast members, and show has taken on a humorously self-referential and self-depricatingly autobiographical tone. To read more about the The Jigsaw Puppet Thing, check out this article in the C-Ville Weekly.

Weekly episodes of Jigsaw are available online, but the show best appreciated in large doses with a crowd of friends; that’s precisely what we’ll do on July 31st, as we gather at The Bridge for an evening of Jigsaw’s finest episodes, hosted by Jones and Milton themselves, who will provide snarky introductions, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and witty commentary. It starts at 8pm sharp, with a suggested donation of $5.