Richardson who stands four feet four inches tall and weighs 125 pounds is better known as Puppet, the Psycho Dwarf, the founder of Half Pint Brawlers, an eight-man little person wrestling troupe. The group has achieved national notoriety after being featured on Spike TV earlier this year and will perform on Fridays and Saturdays throughout October as part of Kings Island’s Halloween Haunt.
Kings Island’s Halloween Haunt is open from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. every Friday and Saturday through Halloween. The Half Pint Brawlers will perform four shows nightly at 7:30, 9, 10:30 p.m., and midnight, beginning Friday, Oct. 1. Admission to the Half Pint Brawlers show is free with admission to the park, although front row seats to the show cost an additional $10.
“Midgets are like strippers,” Puppet proclaims proudly. “Show us a dollar and we’ll staple it to ourselves for your long legged pleasure.”
The former Shakespearean actor and stunt man first entered wrestling 15 year ago when he was a personality on the nationally syndicated Mancow radio show.
“People told me I had the personality for it,” Puppet, 41, said. “I get to be my own boss and travel the world.”
The Half Pint Brawlers are a far cry from the increasingly family-friendly blood-free antics of the WWE. The brawlers use weapons like chairs and the aforementioned staple gun, aren’t afraid to bleed (or “get color” in the wrestling vernacular), or jump from very high places.
“We take the same jumps, but fall a lot farther,” Puppet said.
The Half Pint Brawlers have traveled the world performing at concerts by Kid Rock and Rob Zombie.
Beyond the violence, the major controversy that follows the Half Pint Brawlers is the exploitative nature of the group and the gang’s constant use of “midget,” a phrase deemed derogatory by the Little People of America.
“People are going to stare at me anyway, I might as well give them something to stare at,” Puppet said. “I believe ‘midget’ is just a world to describe a small person. It has nothing to do with hatefulness.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.
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