One of the great pleasures of New York City is that it’s a place where it feels perfectly normal to hear someone say, “I’m headed to SoHo to see an adult Christmas puppet show,” and mean it sincerely. Now in its 26th year, Basil Twist’s Puppet Parlor, playing at HERE Arts Center, has become exactly that kind of downtown holiday ritual: strange, festive, a little dangerous, and deeply its own thing.

Joey Arias and PuppetsMaria Camia

Presented by HERE’s Dream Music Puppetry Program, Puppet Parlor unfolds as a loose, cabaret-style evening hosted by Basil Twist himself, and joined by performance artist and cabaret singer Joey Arias (they of the amazing Arias with a Twist). The framing is deliberately casual — stories, banter, a bit of history — but the artistry on display is anything but. Twist, a third-generation puppeteer from San Francisco and the only American to graduate from France’s prestigious École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette, curates an evening that celebrates puppetry in all its eccentric forms.

Jonothon Lyons

The acts range widely in style and sensibility. Some rely on traditional marionettes; others blur the line between puppet and costume; still others draw from the arm-powered tradition familiar from Sesame Street or The Muppets, but filtered through a distinctly downtown, adult lens. The result is a parade of short pieces that veer from eerie to profound to gleefully bizarre — often within the same act.

Sophie Becker and OliveSophie Becker and Ronnie

Among the evening’s standouts is Sophie Becker, whose ventriloquism act combines razor-sharp comic timing with unapologetic diva energy, refreshing the art of voice-throwing with contemporary bite. Narcissister brings sly sexuality and subversive humor to her musical numbers, keeping the audience delightfully off balance. Tau Bennett contributes another gorgeously grotesque character from his ongoing work Medicine Men, while other performers experiment with form, music, and movement in ways that defy easy categorization.

Basil TwistTau Bennett

What unites the evening is less a theme than an attitude. This is puppetry as adult performance art — playful, risqué, occasionally unsettling, and unapologetically handmade. Twist’s genial hosting, paired with Arias’s piano accompaniment and Jono Mainelli collaborating musically throughout the night, keeps the evening moving, even as the acts themselves shift wildly in tone.

Joey Arias

The production proudly embraces its downtown roots. It’s a little chaotic, knowingly naughty, and resolutely non-commercial. A Christmas singalong caps the night, sending the audience home smiling — no strings attached.

Machine DazzleThe Puppeteers of Puppet Parlor