"It's like American Idol, without the jerks!" This is how David Cassanova described last night's Puppet Karaoke Red Hot Royal Rumble at The Manhattan Grill in Fishtown. Phillyist is more like to compare the Puppet Karaoke experience to accidentally finding oneself at open mic night on the set of HR Puff N' Stuff; but no matter which way you choose to look at it, Puppet Karaoke is loads of fun.

Part cabaret, part karaoke, part arts-and-crafts extravaganza; Puppet Karaoke pits the quirky, professionally performed puppets (Colonel J Hammer, Fruitwa, Mr. Big Boss, Sork the 500 Foot Astro-Polyp and others) against each other and puppets made and performed by the audience. Puppets can be brought in from the outside - but Phillyist noticed it was a more popular option to storm the table of paper bags, markers and assorted other do-dads (nicknamed the "Emergency Puppet Construction Zone" or "EPCZ") and create puppets stage-side. Some show-goers who were too shy to sing took advantage of the EPCZ to create paper puppet undies to toss on-stage during songs. (It was that kind of crowd.) We don't care how old you are: the lure of brown paper and safety scissors is difficult to resist.

The evening was moderated by nice-guy emcee Cassanova and his lounge-lizard counterpart Carmen Martella III (Martella can also be seen performing around town as himself, Salvador Dali, Tony Clifton, Rip Taylor and (our personal favorite) Skeletor), who introduced the acts, chatted with all the puppets and kept the audience entertained with vaudeville-grade groaners as performers crawled in and out from behind the stage. This is karaoke - but make no mistake - the puppets are the stars. All puppeteers - professional and amateur alike - spend their song time crouched beneath the stage with their lyrics and microphones while the puppets enjoy the glow of the spotlight and garner all the applause.

Phillyist may be biased as we grew up watching on healthy-doses of Sesame Street - but we fail to see how anyone can have a bad time watching puppets sing and dance. It's funny. It's fun. And luckily - it's once a month (every third Thursday) at the Manhattan Grill.