Erik Sanko 'The Fortune Teller'- complete puppet show

[simon p. murphy]

A superb piece of Ligottian grotesquerie which we can finally watch in full! Beautiful sets and fantastically creepy puppets - I highly recommend to anyone with 45 mins to spare.

Phantom Limb - (Complete) on Vimeo

Created and Directed by Erik Sanko & Jessica Grindstaff
Original Music composed by Danny Elfman & Erik Sanko
Recorded Narration by Gavin Friday
Film Directed by Daniel Leeb


The acclaimed creation of New York City puppet maker Erik Sanko and designer Jessica Grindstaff, this work features a grotesque array of 15 artfully handcrafted figures in a dark comic tale unfolding in a fantastic Victorian world. There seven characters representing the seven deadly sins convene at a dead millionaire’s estate to claim their inheritance as determined by a fortune teller. One by one, each is delivered what they have coming to them, but perhaps not what they are expecting—a brutal, but suitable, demise. Featuring the gravelly, recorded narration of Irish vocalist Gavin Friday and an eerie score by Sanko and Grammy-winning film composer Danny Elfman, this sinister puppet theater spectacle is a perverse, but gleeful morality tale for grown-ups.

"For those souls with a taste for the elegantly macabre, attendance is highly advised. To miss it - now that would be a sin”
-The Village Voice"

"A morality fable for grown-ups, evoking the familiar idioms of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton in a style you might term Victorian ghastly... the set, a regular wunderkammer, keeps opening up to reveal new sets and images, little Victorian dioramas... macabre and engaging."
- The New York Times

[Insentient Traveler]

A puppet representing a ventriloquist and his dummy. Awesome. Delightfully drawing deeper into the unreal. It can only leave one to wonder how many layers go the other way, away from us.

[Kevin]

My favorite part was the last 10 minutes, especially the final speech. It adds a welcome Ligottian flavor to the moralizing.

[njhorror]

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!

Thanks, Simon, it was marvelous.

[Steve Dekorte]

That song and dance man really cracked me up. Santo and Elfman, wow. Thanks for sharing this.