If you need to move your mouth while the puppet talks, just do it! Bad ventriloquism is more distracting than just focusing your attention on an animated puppet.
Puppetry can get addictive!
Step1
Find a puppet.
Step2
Put your dominant hand in the head/mouth, and use your left hand to hold the "arm" stick (if applicable).
Step3
Flap the muppet's lower jaw, once for each syllable.
Step4
Keep the puppet moving, even when it's not talking! A still puppet looks lifeless, so turn the head, move the arm -- stay in motion!
Step5
Make sure the puppet is looking straight at its audience, not above or below.
Novice 
Comments
raystarck said
on 8/7/2007 That was very informative lex. I'm going to run out and get my very own puppet too!