Mouse had a very long conversation with Granddad Max after the show yesterday. She was so happy to have found someone who was prepared to listen. Quite often the others are more interested in talking and telling Mouse what to do. And Mouse just works and shuts up. But like many of our Instagram followers she reckons listening is a very rare skill.
Anyway, the week has gone so fast again and Mouse has forgotten to remind everyone that next week is Q&A week. The contestants will have to answer questions the readers post. So far we have not had a single question asked. We are sure there are readers out there who want to know more about the contestants, so Mouse drew up a sign to remind everyone. The Dedes are really curious to find out what the readers would love to know about them. And according to the rulebook they are obliged to answer as honestly as possible. So don’t be shy :)
The last contestant to show his skills was Granddad Max. He has recovered well from his illness last week and loafed onto the stage. Lil’Devil ran to fetch a chair for the old man to sit down on. Then nothing happend! Devil didn’t want to push him and settled at his feet and watched for a little while, but Granddad didn’t move. Still nothing happened. “In your own time” Devil said finally, getting a little impatient now. “But” said Granddad Max “I am in the middle of showing my skill. I am listening!” Devil rolled his eyes. “Oh no, we all have ears, so what is so special about listening!” Then he turned to the audience. “Is this really a legitimate skill? What do you think?”
This week is skills week and the name of the contestants are pulled randomly out of the hat. As fate had it, it was poor Chambermaid whose name came up first. She complained to Mouse. “That is so unfair. I was on on Friday, had to work all week because of the party and now I am on again.” Mouse isn’t particularly flexible when it comes to schedules and suggested Chambermaid should simply show some creative ways of cleaning. Chambermaid threw her arms in the air and said “there is no such thing! Give me at least until lunch time.”
She really only had two hours, so she went off to rummage through her belongings hoping to come up with a brilliant idea. Finally she found this little man she had felted earlier. She wanted him as little helper but he never worked out. At least it showed she had some creativity in her. So she took him on stage and showed him to the audience.
“I made this little man to help me with my chores” she explained to Devil. “But it never worked out. He simply can’t see the dirt!” Devil looked at the poor creature for a little while and commented, “how can he? You have forgotten the eyes.”
At this point I want to let you know that next week is question week. If you have any questions for the contestants please write a comment!
It seems to be the day of the devils. At first light, lil’Devil, the the Super Dede Competition cheerleader, was dancing around the house like there is no tomorrow. We were all wondering if the competition had finished early or what. Turns out it was the regram contest that had finished. Last week in the post working hard on it the management team decided to make lil’Devil the cheerleader for the Super Dede Competition. While he was chuffed about the honor he soon found out that he would have to leave home if someone reposted the picture. For a week he was holding his breath, a hard thing to do for any devil. His job performance wasn’t that great either. You can barely see him in the pictures of the competition holding up the signs with the names of the contestants. Anyway, the offer is off the table now and no one took it up. That means the lil’Devil can stay with us. And while he will be a bit upset with the management team for some time, he will survive and happily do his job for the rest of the competition.
Today’s contestant is also a devil, Milky Bar Devil. He skulked on stage and didn’t know what to say. In the end the MC prompted him. “You said in your statement that you want to be in the competition to learn about how to become ruthless. Isn’t that a strange thing to say?” Milky Bar Devil looked surprised. “You of all Dedes should know what is expected of a devil, but it simply doesn’t come naturally to me.” Then he told the audience that he is studying hard and reads all the books. But when he applies all the devilish things he learned in theory, everybody just laughs at him. “I am such a useless devil! I will never fulfill the expectations of my parents. I will never be a success in their eyes.”
“Mhm” said Devil, “not sure if this competition is the right therapy for you.”
I couldn’t sleep last night because it was Granddad Max’s turn today. I was so excited that the old guy had a chance to talk. It is a bit personal as I have the feeling that the world is indeed ageist. So, I had pinned so much hope on the old fellow. And then he called in sick! What a let down. I do have to understand, he didn’t want to come on stage and share his virus around. He issued a statement about his life lessons though and sent it to Devil to read out aloud: “The young ones will be old in due time & there are more shades of love than hate.” After he had read it, Devil looked around and asked, “Does this make sense or is the fever speaking here?” Our Instagram friend wizened_gnome swiftly send us a translation of what Granddad said. “Hate is uncompromising, while love acknowledges imperfection.” So, true.
We wish Granddad Max a speedy recovery and he was right to stay in bed.
With the cancellation of Granddad’s appearance Mouse had a bit of time on hand and she used it to find out more about Lapdog. Mouse never really engaged with the little dog as she thought it is just a pretty little thing that hasn’t much grey matter between her two oversized ears. To learn more she looked on the character page yesterday only to find there is no description for Lapdog either. (Apologies: the puppets without descriptions were originally made for an exhibition and to sell. Once I develop their story I have trouble letting them go. But since I am not selling at this stage, I might as well tell their story).
So Mouse spoke to Lapdog at the stage door. Her main concern was what personal pronoun she should use when she refers to Lapdog. The little dog laughed and said, “When you talk to me, you use you. Like you would with any other person. If I am not around, you can say he, she or it. I don’t mind as I don’t hear it. You even could say the bitch, that would be right too, as I am Lapdog.” The dog is certainly not short of confidence. Good on it.
This week the contestants have to talk about themselves and Snippedy had a rather bad start. When Mouse took the rubbish out she found the clown lolling about with a bottle of schnapps behind the theatre . “You know,” Mouse said to console him, “it’s okay, not everyone wants to talk about themselves.” But Snippedy felt sorry for himself. “Yes they all do” he said recalcitrantly. “I am the only one who can’t. I stuffed up big time” and he took another gulp from the bottle.
“Well” said Mouse resolutely “this is certainly not the solution!” She grabbed the bottle and chucked it into the bin together with her other rubbish and left a gobsmacked Snippedy standing there.
Meanwhile, in the theatre Devil had to figure out who is next. There were two contestants with equal numbers: Lapdog and Granddad Max. Devil didn’t put much thought in it. “Okay, ladies first” he said and made a gesture towards Lapdog. Lapdog looked around first and then came up to the stage. “I guess you mean me” she said to Devil. “If you want me to go first, I would have appreciated it if you’d said beauty before age or something.”
Devil looked at her in astonishment. “Aren’t you a lady?” he asked.
“No I am not,” she said quite bruskly. “Just because I’m pretty doesn’t mean I’m female.” Devil didn’t know what to say and looked her up and down. “Well” he said quietly and hoped the contestant wouldn’t hear it “we Dedes are heads only, so I can’t look into your pants.”
Lapdog has obviously had this discussion before. “We Dedes still have a gender and I consider myself gender fluid.”
“What is that supposed to mean? God only made two genders” said Devil at a loss. Lapdog laughed out loud. “That is too much to discuss here in a talent show” she said. “All I can say is that in my profession it is very beneficial to be able to emphasise with both genders equally. And I can.”
“Okay we’ll leave it then” said Devil, happy to conclude the subject. After all the Dedes embrace diversity. “Can you tell us something about yourself then?”
Finally, all the contestants have been introduced to the Instagram readers. As soon as the last two went up this morning, Detail presented the preliminary results to the management team. Mouse didn’t like what she saw. With everything added up, Granddad Max clearly leads with 67 points, second is Lapdog with 65, followed by three puppets with 60 points each. So here we would have our five contestants. However, Mouse was unhappy that Alley Cat, with only one point less, would have to go home. No, that was a little bit too close for Mouse’s liking, so she suggested a rule change. Ah well, we are in Dedeland. (I guess Mouse was a bit fearful about telling a cat she has to go home!). She came up with a new idea instead. All Likes count as one vote and every comment made about a contestant will count as 5 (five). Mouse expects that this will spread the numbers dramatically and she has no problem sending Alley Cat home, should she have 15 points less than the next one. Not even a cat could argue with that.
Mouse quickly drew up a placard and is now parading up and down in front of the stage to get people to comment. Meanwhile, preparations for Sunday are in full swing. Detail will count out all the likes and comments on Sunday morning and then the finalists will be announced with a little do at the theatre later in the day.
Devil had to burn the midnight oil yesterday. When he first saw the list of applicants he picked the five, maybe six Dedes, he thought would make it through the preliminaries. As MC for the competition he has to do some background research on all the contestants. Never in a million years would he have thought that the old man Granddad Max would make it into the competition. But this guy is still holding on to the lead. So now Devil has to catch up on research. Unfortunately, because Granddad Max is so old he has the longest history and this means much more work for Devil.
There are still two contestants yet to be introduced to the Instagram readers tomorrow. As already mentioned, Granddad Max is leading the table at the moment with a total of 65 votes, followed by Lapdog, who has no votes on the blog, but 60 on Instagram. Snippedy the clown and Chambermaid also have 60. Looking at it from a different angle, so far it looks like we will have experience, fun and beauty in the competition. I must say it bodes for a very good contest.
Ah well, it could all change by tomorrow. So if you haven’t voted yet, choose Super Dede 16 from the menu, look at the contestants and vote in the poll at the bottom. And don’t worry, I cannot trace who voted and you won’t get any unsolicited emails if you vote. It is all plain Dede dada fun.
Mouse isn’t particularly patient when it comes to campaigns. She wants to have results, poff, poff, poff. No fluffing around. Naturally she was very disappointed when there were only a few votes yesterday and she got her management team together to discuss how they could rustle up more vistors. In the afternoon, they agreed on a strategy to sacrifice one of the lil’Dedes for a regram action. They invited the Lil’Devil into the theatre for a photoshoot and told him he would be the cheerleader for the Super Dede Competition. He happily agreed, but I think they forgot to tell him that he will have to leave the Dede household once the cheerleading contract is over. This campaign is on Instagram only, and everybody who regrams the picture goes into the draw to win this little fella. The picture went up last night, but no-one has yet taken up the offer. If he is lucky, Lil’Devil will stay with us. :)
As we all know, Rob D Light hasn’t got a job. He was sent by the Dede employment agency to help out Mouse and gain some work experience. Mouse gave him the task of keeping track of the comments our readers make. This is a very important job as every single comment goes into the draw for a signed copy of first Dede puppet book, Hermit’s web. So if you comment five times, Rob D Light has to write out five little dockets and put them into a hat, from where the winner is drawn after the competition ends. Mouse gave him a big baseball cap, though Rob used his initiative and changed it for a little Leprechaun hat. “That is big enough for the few comments we’ve got so far” he told Mouse. Mouse just sighed and said “I hope you are wrong.”
We have also had the first upset in the competition. There must be a few older fans amongst our readers. Yesterday Alley Cat and Granddad Max were introduced to the Instagram readers and Granddad Max, who is in second place on the blog votes, has taken the lead when his likes from Instagram are added. Who would have thought! Snippedy and Chambermaid are hot on his heels, so “run old fella, run”.
This week is a preliminary round and you are asked to vote for your favourite puppet or puppets, those you would like to be contestants in the Super Dede Competition. Of course, not all Dedes are in favour of the competition and Detail has done a great job of rustling up these 10 brave Dedes to choose from. The five with the highest score will go on to compete. The others will be sent home. To help you with your decision the ten puppets were asked to briefly state why they are here.
It will be a bit tricky establishing the winner of the preliminary round, as the competition runs on Instagram, Facebook and this blog. Mouse will simply add the Instagram and Facebook likes to the poll result on the blog. We have until next Saturday to establish who will become contestants.
You can vote for more than one puppet and please, please, please tell all your friends to vote too :)
The Dedes work impromptu and they appreciate any comments and suggestions. We are all very excited about what is going to happen in the next four weeks. All comments will go into the draw for a signed copy of the first Dede puppet book Hermit’s Web or the few friends I need, I handcraft myself.
Now give a big hand for the applicants!
(In alphabetical order)
Alley Cat
“I am here because it wasn’t cool enough for Cool Cat, but we felines need a representative in the cast.”
Chambermaid
“I want to be in the competition because I am sick of tidying up after all the other Dedes.”
Granddad Max
“I am old but I am not dead. We seniors have something to say.”
Milky Bar Devil
“I am a devil in training and I want to learn how to become ruthless.”
Lapdog
“I am here because I’m soooo prettaay.”
Loudmouth
“Honestly, I am the only Dede who can sing. This is a singing contest, isn’t it?”
Snippedy
“I didn’t make it last time, so I’m trying again.”
Snotty Nosed Prince
“The king said I should experience what the commoners enjoy.”
Sunny
“I want to be an artist and the prize money might set me up.”
Top Dog
“I will win. I am a joker, I simply trump them all.”
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