Eugene Lambert RIP

News that entertainer and puppet master Eugene Lambert sadly passed away reached us last Tuesday. Irish Magic was represented and the funeral mass last Thursday evening by Pat Fallon, Brendan Byrne, Neville Wiltshire, Tony Sadar and life long friend of Eugene's - past president of the SIM Joe O'Donnell.  We asked Joe, a former prducer/director/writer of Wanderly Wagon, to pen a small tribute.

I have known Eugene Lambert for so long that it seems as though a part of me has died with his passing. We first became friends in the late fifties when Eugene was pursuing his career as a ventriloquist with a cheeky doll called Frankie. This doll was later transmogrified into Finnegan who still surfaced from time to time with Eugene trying to stuff Finnegan back in his case while the doll thrashed around and roared : “Mind me bloody head Eugene, I’m in upside down!”

We met frequently in those days in the garage at the back of Albert LeBas’ house in Rathmines, a place which he dolled up with red lights and called the Druids' Den. In truth it had the faint and sulphurous whiff of a Bombay Brothel. Ostensibly a place where Albert could sell magic stuff, it in fact was more of a magician’s late night club.

When I joined RTE, I was delighted to work on Eugene’s early puppet shows–Cearta Hudaí, Murphy agus a Cháirde, and–inevitably–WANDERLY WAGON. I worked on Wanderly initially as a floor manager and fell in love with the programme, not only for the magical production that it was, but for its sheer potential. The original producer, a Canadian called Don Lennox, left RTE and the Wagon was dropped. I vowed that if ever I became a producer, my first job would be to bring back the Wagon. This I managed to do, and for many years was the producer/director of the programme as well as writing over thirty episodes.

The beauty of Wanderly Wagon was that the format allowed all sorts of experimentation and we were the first to introduce CSO (Colour Separation Overlay) or Chromakey which allowed all sorts of magical effects. For a magician–and I was still practicing at that time–it was like being allowed access to the biggest magical set ever.

Although forever associated with WANDERLY WAGON, Eugene’s undoubted legacy will be the Lambert Puppet Theatre where many generations of children were introduced to the magic of theatre in that wonderland in Clifton Lane.

I’m sure wherever he is, Eugene is negotiating a few special appearances, provided of course the money is right!

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam díilis.

Puppeteer Eugene Lambert dies - Irish Times - Click here

RTE News Report & Morning Ireland interview with Emily Tully , Eugene's granddaughter - Click here

(Ed. Note.  Joe O'Donnell was very very close to Eugene.  We sincerely thank him for taking the time to write this tribute at what is a difficult time.  We offer our deepest sympathies to Joe and all of Eugene's family and friends.)