She's pulling the strings

L.A.-based puppet maker Jackie Smook takes 'Dilly's World' on the road

- BY CARLIN STIEHL

CARLIN STIEHL Los Angeles Times

JACKIE SMOOK, creator of the whimsical web series "Dilly's World," is taking her puppets to the stage in Chicago and L.A.

Tucked away in a small neighborhood below the Hollywood sign is Jackie Smook's puppet workshop, a small sequestered room with a single work table surrounded by the characters she handcrafts from the depths of her imagination. Smook, the creator of the web series “Dilly’s World,” is a whimsical and eccentric personality, falling nothing short of what one expects from the title “puppet maker,” with her Willy Wonkaesque enthusiasm, style and tangential character-driven anecdotes.

“It’s important not only to be a builder if you're gonna do anything niche like this; it’s good to also be a performer,” says Smook.

Smook was classically trained in opera and studied musical theater at the Boston Conservatory before she moved to Chicago and started building puppets.

“I told myself I would build one puppet a day to get really good at it,” says Smook.