200-puppet salute to the master

Humorist, kitsch collector and “histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix has earned a national following for his sly theatrical tours through other people’s slides and home movies from the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s.

Last June, during a two-day run at Disney Hall’s REDCAT Theater, Phoenix expanded his show with music and variety acts, spotlighting one of his recent “retro pop” discoveries: Bob Baker, master puppeteer, puppet maker and artistic director of the 44-year-old Bob Baker Marionette Theater, the country’s oldest continuously operating puppet theater.

Baker, 80, proved to be the evening’s showstopper as he used a vintage marionette he crafted to re-create one of legendary dancer Bill Robinson’s extensive tap routines.

This week, Phoenix hopes to further share “this brilliant, creative man” with adult audiences in “Charles Phoenix Presents Bob Baker: This Is Your Life,” an evening of tribute and performance that will run Thursday through Sunday at Baker’s theater at 1345 W. 1st St. in downtown L.A.

“I had such a good reaction to him in my show,” Phoenix said, “that I wanted to expand on that and say there’s someone very special among us, a master of his craft. Let’s take a moment and enjoy his art.”

The event will feature slides and film clips from Baker’s long career, plus a performance of his current musical revue, “Alegre,” featuring 200 puppets -- “more than have ever been assembled for one Bob Baker show,” Phoenix said. “Some of them are 60 years old.”

The evening will end with a performance by Baker and a reception in the theater’s party room that will include “the little ice cream cup, the kind you eat with a wooden spoon,” a tradition that still caps all the theater’s family shows.

-- Lynne Heffley