Canadian puppet company founded in 1973 in Toronto by Johan and Alison Vandergun. Johan Vandergun (born in the Netherlands in 1948) studied at the Netherlands Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. In Canada, he worked with Nikki and Bob Tilroe’s Frog Print Theatre before founding Lampoon. Clowning Around, a simple, delightful hand or glove puppet show, launched the company. The company produced The Stone Mason with string puppets, Monkey Business with rod puppets, and Princess in the Iron Tower was a shadow show. Animals and Make Believe used sculpted foam rubber puppets. The company’s clear visual style uses elements of mime and dance. The Little Blue Hedgehog (1979) was a glove puppet show with visible puppeteers and a stage made of two bamboo parasols. Some productions used live music ranging from a wind quintet for Musical Zoo, to a full symphony orchestra for The Technicolour Wizard.

The company has performed at sixty international festivals in twenty different countries. Lampoon Puppettheatre has earned two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence. The company represented Canada at the UNIMA 12th World Puppetry Festival in Moscow in 1976.

(See Canada.)