Puppet Master in S’pore Has to Resort to Selling His Puppets to Pay The Bills As He Can’t Perform Anymore

The arts and performance scene in Singapore is suffering badly during Covid-19.

After all, with the pandemic, you have no concerts, no birthday parties, no events to emcee or live shows to perform at.

And it has forced puppet master Frankie Yeo to sell some of his puppets to make ends meet.

Frankie Yeo, stage name Frankie Malachi, has been performing at children’s parties, theatre productions and company events for more than 20 years.

However, due to Covid-19, he had to make the hard decision to sell some of his puppets, which he had painstakingly made by hands.

Speaking to ST, he said that the pandemic has gone on longer than expected and he is selling the puppets to pay his bills.

“I have no choice. The pandemic is dragging on much longer than I expected and I do not know when I will be able to next put on a puppet show.”

Thought It Would Be A Short Phase

Initially, he had thought that Covid-19 would last a short time, just like the SARS period.

However, it has been a while and there are no events in the foreseeable future.

Running his own company, Puppets and Mascots, he said that this is the only way to keep his company afloat.

He has to pay the rent for a 3,300 sqft warehouse space as well as three employees’ salaries, which he had to cut by 30% last month.

Having not drawn salary since April, he now finds himself having to lay off one employee from next month onwards.

Hope Things Will Get Better

Now, he can only hope that the pandemic ends.

His company has no income and he doesn’t think that online shows are viable for puppet shows like his.

Online videos don’t capture the interaction he usually does with the audience and it’s hard to get people to pay for a video stream.

So far, he only managed to sell two puppets, which includes a one-on-one tutorial with him.

Buyers are not financially sound as well, he pointed out.

He is glad that live performances might be allowed soon, as mentioned by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) on 21 Aug 2020.

MCCY said that they are looking to pilot a few performances at a few venues to see how it goes.

If it’s safe enough, they will scale up.