Dave Goelz

Dave Goelz came to the Henson organization as a puppet builder, but Jim Henson and Fank Oz felt sure that he had potential as a performer. The Muppet Show gave him the opportunity to realize that potential by developing The Great Gonzo and other key characters.
"Late one summer evening in 1985 while we were shooting Labyrinth in London, I met Jim Henson and Frank Oz at CTS recording studios in Wembly to tape a series of Dail-a-Muppet messages.
"Each one of us had to time exactly fifty-five seconds, so we arranged ourselves in a circle with an oversized stopwatch facing upward in the center. It was late, we were all tired. and sure enough, as I began a solo segment I mispronounced a word and Jim and Frank began to giggle. It was impossible for me to continue. I asked them to leave. Frank obliged by going into the drum roon behind me. Jim was sure it would be all right if he just crouched behind his music stand, which was directly in my line of sight.
"A music stand does not conceal much of a six-foot-three-inch man. True, I could not see his face, but his jacket, hands, and legs were wiggling as he wheezed and convulsed. Meanwhile, Frank's strangled laughter escaped from the sealed drum room as a whining, crying sound reminiscent of a tortured Miss Piggy. the engineers shifted in their seats. I was laughing so hard there was no way I could pull myself together.
"After the customary twenty minutes of reeling around the room and gasping like morons, nature took its course and the three of us calmed down sufficiently to resume work."

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