"Fraggle Rock" Dave Goelz Hand Written Letter Dated 2012 COA for Sale

On eBay Now...

"Fraggle Rock" Dave Goelz Hand Written Letter Dated 2012 COA For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

"Fraggle Rock" Dave Goelz Hand Written Letter Dated 2012 COA:
$199.99

Up for sale"Fraggle Rock" Dave Goelz Hand Written Letter Dated 2012.This item is certified authentic by ToddMueller Autographs and comes with their Certificate ofAuthenticity.
ES-6338E

DavidCharles Goelz(born July 16,1946) is an Americanpuppeteerand puppet builder, knownfor his work withthe Muppets. As part ofthe Muppets' performing cast, Goelz performsThe Great Gonzo, as well asDr. Bunsen Honeydew,Waldorf(afterJim Henson's death),ZootandBeauregard, originatingonThe Muppet Show.Goelz's puppeteering roles also included inFraggle Rock,The Dark Crystal, andLabyrinth. Outside ofpuppeteering work, he was also the voice ofFigmentin theJourney intoImagination with Figmentattraction atEpcot. BorninLos Angeles, California,Goelz had an interest in puppetry as a child, including an affinity for thechildren's television showTime for Beany, but after high school, he attended the LosAngelesArt Center College ofDesignand began work as anindustrial designer. The mechanically-minded Goelz worked forsuch companies asJohn Deere,American Airlines,andHewlett-Packard. However,whenSesame Streetpremiered,he was fascinated by the craftsmanship, as he recalled in an interview: I hadbeen a Muppet fan for many years, but now I started getting fascinated with thedesign process that went into what I was seeing on the screen. Who were thesepeople who created the puppets, costumes and performances that were soevocative? I got very curious. While working full-time for an electronics firm,Goelz began dabbling with puppet building. He metFrank Ozata puppetry festival in 1972, and during a vacation inNew York City, he attended dailySesame Streettapings.A few months later, Goelz showed his design portfolio toJim Henson, and in 1973, he was offered a job withHenson Associatesasa part-time puppet builder. His first assignment was to build puppets anddesign effects for a proposed Broadway show. However, the show was soonabandoned in favor of anABCpilot,The Muppets Valentine Show,for which Goelz built characters and got his first chance at performing,playing Brewster, whom he also designed. Upon Goelz's return to California, helearned that he had been replaced by his electronics employer, so he set upshop creating puppets and videos for industrial videos. Eight months later, inthe fall of 1974, Henson offered him a full-time position as abuilder/designer, and occasional performer in specials, while still allowinghim to keep his industrial clients. Returning to New York, Goelz began workonThe Muppet Show: Sex andViolence, for which he built the new host character, Nigel.Working from sketches by Jim Henson,Michael K. Frith, andBonnie Erickson, he also builtAnimal,Floyd Pepper,andZoot, thelatter becoming his first major character. In 1976, Goelz joined the rest ofthe Henson team and flew toLondonto begin work onTheMuppet Show. In addition to reprising his role of Zoot and playingbackground roles, as in the earlier specials, Goelz was promoted to"Principal Muppet Performer" with the starring role ofThe Great Gonzo. The puppet had debuted inThe Great Santa ClausSwitch, asCigar Box Frackle,and had made brief appearances inMuppet Meeting FilmsandHerb Alpert& the Tijuana Brass, with different performers. The sad-eyedcreation was now given a permanent name and puppeteer. However, in addition toplaying Gonzo, Goelz was still employed in the Muppet Workshop. Goelz recalledthe hectic schedule of working full-time behind the scenes and in front of thecameras in a 2004Film Threatinterview:So my typical day involved running back and forth between making puppets andperforming. And I of course didn't know anything about performing. At all. Iguess I had an aptitude for it, but it was something I hadn't had any trainingfor. So I was learning on the job, and I found the whole thing very stressful.At the end of the first season, I said, 'Jim, look, is there any chance I couldcome back next year and just be a performer, and not work in the workshop?' Andhe said 'yes'. So I sort of blended into the performing world that year. Gonzo,that first season, like many of the newMuppet Showcreations,was a work in progress, and especially for Goelz, playing his first starringcharacter and major speaking role. When he was assigned the character, hepanicked: "I have no voice!" He thought of the voice the morningbefore the first taping performance. As recalled later, Goelz thought that hehad the worst voice out of all the Muppet performers, and was scared the firsttime he had to sing. Theearly Gonzo, with a permanently sad expression, inspired a similarly depressedportrayal from the novice puppeteer: "The downcast eyes made him easy toplay because that was exactly how I felt. I was an impostor in show business. Iwas learning how to perform and to puppeteer on the job." In thatfirst season, Gonzo was a misfit and out of place, according to Goelz, whichwas how he saw himself as a performer:When I came toThe Muppet Show, I found myself suddenly witha different and enormous star every week, and I had absolutely no credentials.I felt so out of place. So that came into the character, and for the firstseason, he was very self-effacing and he felt like a misfit. Looking at thecharacter in retrospect at MuppetFest, he recalled that "over the years,he sort of evolved along with me... I was an impostor in show business. In thefirst season, Gonzo is always self-effacing and embarrassed. But he knows hehas something special."Adding to Goelz's insecurity was the jadedveteran crew members of ATV Studios, who had worked with the likes ofJulie AndrewsandBing Crosby, and were thus hard to impress.Finally, towardsthe end of the first season, Gonzo had a scene where he had to shout, inamazement, "No!" Jim Henson told him to go bigger, so Goelz obligedwith an overemphatic "NO!" This earned his first laugh from thecrewmembers.I got another laugh the second season. It was unstoppable now! AndI thought, I could make a character of this. Then when I got that firstlaugh... I felt limited because he couldn't look excited. His droopy eyelidsalways made him look pathetic. So after that first season, I asked Jim if Icould build a Gonzo with an eye mechanism. He said 'sure', so I went backtoNew Yorkand didthat. Now he could convey his excitement and enthusiasm for his silly acts, andit was much more entertaining. Along with this I was becoming more comfortablewith performing. So it started to work better. I think he grew because I wasgrowing, and I was capable of doing more. As Goelz increased in confidence, andGonzo transitioned from a nervous depressed failure to a manic, confidentstuntman, other facets of the character fell into place. The second seasonintroduces his romantic fascination withpoultry.As the performer reminisced inOf Muppets and Men: Therewas a moment during thesecond seasonwhenI had Gonzo ad-lib a line that was, I think, important for my understanding ofhis character. He'd been auditioning chickens for the show -- dancing chickens-- and they were all terrible. At the end of the scene I had him turn to thecamera and say, 'Nice legs, though.' Something jelled right there. It told mesomething about him.