No matter how prestigious a theatre school you attended, nothing can quite prepare you for the moment in an audition for a show when you’re asked to strap a pair of googly eyes to your hand. So discovered Ashley Eileen Bucknam, who survived this test to become a cast member of the Broadway hit musical Avenue Q.

“When you audition, they first see if they like you, and then they see if you can lip-synch with your hand, to see if you can actually match up words,” recounts Bucknam, on the line from Anchorage, Alaska, where the satirical, puppet-laden show is playing before making its way down to the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. “Before you actually get cast, you go through, like, this puppet boot camp, where it’s kind of like a puppet intensive,” the effervescent Bucknam continues. “At the final call they throw all the puppets at you and put you through the wringer.”

Bucknam made it through boot camp and, in 2009, joined the ensemble as understudy to all the female roles (puppets included). She is now a principal cast member, the voice and puppeteer of Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut—and, as those character names indicate, child’s play this isn’t. A coming-of-age tale featuring 14 characters, 11 of them puppets, the show follows Princeton, a freshly minted English major, who moves to New York City in search of his life’s purpose.

The only apartment he can afford is on Avenue Q, where his neighbours include Internet addict Trekkie Monster, slacker Nicky and his uptight Republican (and closeted) roommate Rod, and sweet kindergarten assistant Kate Monster (no relation to Trekkie).

Musical numbers include “If You Were Gay”, “It Sucks to Be Me”, and “You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love)”. This last one accompanies a graphic and extremely vocal puppet sex scene between Princeton and Kate Monster. “If we haven’t caught the audience’s attention by then, that’s where we get ’em,” Bucknam says. “It’s either we get ’em or they walk out.”

Engaging in vigorous coupling is just one of the many feats Bucknam performs in the production; she also voices both sides of an argument between Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut. “I basically have a full-on two-page monologue with myself, just switching my voice between the two of them,” she explains. “It takes practice to make two very distinct voices, and make sure you actually remember those voices when they’re talking to each other. It’s one of the hardest things to do.”

Audiences are able to see just how that’s achieved because the puppeteers remain unconcealed throughout the show. “I think that actually helps, because the actor can make facial expressions,” Bucknam notes. “We can do things with our bodies that you can’t completely portray in a puppet, so I think it really adds to the emotion.”

Having been brought up on Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock—she admits to crying as a starstruck young girl upon once meeting Big Bird—Bucknam says the show’s appeal lies in its nostalgia-tinged irreverence. “It’s just an homage to your favourite television shows that you used to watch as a child, but for that next stage in life,” she laughs. “Instead of ABC and 123, it’s ”˜The Internet Is for Porn’ and ”˜Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist’.”

Avenue Q plays the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts from Tuesday (February 1) to February 5.