Facelift

Facelift is a half-hour topical comedy show produced for New Zealand's TV One by the Gibson Group. Drawing on The Gibson Group's extensive experience with a wide range of comedy productions, including Public Eye, Skitz, Telly Laughs, Newsflash and The Semisis, Facelift is a sketch comedy employing live actors in rubber puppet masks. Pulling off the transition from puppet caricatures to human caricatures was a complex and ambitious task. A small group of actors were cast for voice and performance skills. Moulds were then taken of their heads and prosthetic masks created of various New Zealand politicians and celebrities, such as Helen Clark, Don Brash and Kate Hawkesby. New topical characters are periodically introduced. The fourth series screened from July 2007 to September 2007.