My dad was the first person to introduce me to shadow puppets. When my sister and I were tiny kids, he would tuck us into bed, turn off the lights and then cast an image of a dog against the wall.

A recent Thursday, 11:12 a.m.: "Anything can be a puppet. You can make your shoe look exciting if you know what you're doing," Nick Jones said as he loaded 15 of his furry creations, a sound system ...