Itche Kadoozy: Better than BarneyBuried in Brooklyn, just a few streets over from Avenue Q, there are some other puppets you might want to check out. Itche Kadoozy and friends!

The Forward has a piece about the Jewish puppetry phenomenon this week, and since I’ve not seen the show, I’ll leave it to better journalists to give you the scoop. But I couldn’t resist this plug. It just sounds so hilarious!

In an interview with the Forward, Taub said he created Itche — the show’s rabbi and one of its main characters — by accident, during his time as a counselor at a Hasidic summer camp. Disappointed by the way his first hand-sewn puppet turned out, he purchased a book on puppet making and re-created “Itche” (who, though only 4 in puppet years, is presented as a 60-ish rabbi on the show and boasts a long gray beard, a black yarmulke and a raspy voice).

When Taub shared his invention with Jonathan Goorvich, his childhood friend, Goorvich was “blown away.” Taub then taught him puppet making, and Goorvich created a puppet that reflected himself: casual college student with open plaid shirt, baseball cap and dark glasses. After the two friends improvised and taped these two puppets together, Jono was born: the show’s second main character, a secular Jew who lives in the rabbi’s basement. The characters befriend each other, and together they experience wacky adventures and mishaps with esoteric and practical lessons to be learned.

Any wacky hypercolor puppets inspired equally by Jim Henson and the Lubavitcher Rebbe have GOT to be worth a journey to Brooklyn, right?

C’mon! One of you has to be willing to go and scout this out for me, report back. Any takers? I’ll (personally) buy your ticket!

You can check it out online too!