[8] He contracted malaria in Southern Mexico with a group of friends before traveling to the Haw River Festival in Saxapahaw, North Carolina where he first met Paperhand cofounder Jan Burger.

[1][5][9][10] Jan Burger was born to European immigrant artists who had grown up in the Bruderhof commune, his mother worked as an illustrator and his father as a muralist.

Burger worked with Bread and Puppet Theater before he and his future wife Emma began living in their truck.

He was invited to come back to North Carolina by the organizers of the Haw River Festival to create a puppet show.

Their puppets are constructed using a combination of papier-mâché, cardboard, clay, bamboo, paint, cloth, among other discarded or donated materials.