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Fraggle Rock Holiday Magic with Gobo Fraggle & John Tartaglia · Kyle Meredith With...

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are.
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  [SPEAKER_04]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with.
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• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: And that's me Kyle Meredith.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: Today, I'm going to tell you, dreams do come true, folks, because I get to talk with Gobo Fraggle.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: the fraggle of fraggle rock, leader of the fraggle 5.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: I also get to talk with John Tartaglia, the showrunner puppeteer and voice behind Gobo, separately, which means at one point though, and we're going to get into this first.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm just going to talk to Gobo, who, as a child of the 80s, there's a few of the things that may be higher on that list right there.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we're going to be diving into the world of fraggle rock.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: With both the eternal explorer and the man who brings him to life in first up, Gobo Fraggles stops by to talk about the new holiday special, the first snow of Fraggle Rock.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're going to break down his very first real snowfall, uh, the panic of hitting rock block, we call it writer's block here, and the unexpected outer space sunwriting session with Laley Ponds.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: that have to find the season's big song.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Gobo is going to chat about his musical heroes, holiday tradition, share between fragles and silly creatures, such as myself, and what it's like, braving the bright, noisy, surface world, all that more.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: I am so happy to be saying these next few words.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Discussing the first note of Fragile Rock, it's Kyle Meredith with Gobo Fragile.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: future Kyle.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's such a pleasure to meet you.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: How are you?
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: You could too, pal.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm good.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm so happy to be here with you.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: So how's winter going in a in Fraga Rock?
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I love it.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, this is my favorite time in here.
• 3:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're down here in the tunnels and the caves that get all iced over and this year we are very first snowfall.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Really.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now you guys get to play around a lot with the snow, right?
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, every year, the dozers bring the snow from the ice caverns, you know, and it's just kind of magically appears that we wake up on morning and all of a sudden boom, there's snow on the ground here in the cave, but this year, I don't know how, somehow magically, we had our very first snowfall, it was so cool.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm glad you enjoyed that.
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: We just had our first snowfall here in Louisville, too.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, first snowfall, ever?
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: First snowfall, the season.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we get that every year.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Aw, so you're used to it.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's a little bit different.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: So I heard though that you were tasked with coming up with a song for the occasion as well.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we all have our jobs during the season and mine is to write the song of the season, which usually is pretty easy for me, you know, to kind of come naturally, but this year, I was stuck.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had what we call rock block and I couldn't come up with the song, and I need a little inspiration.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So luckily, my uncle Matt invited me for the very first time ever to outer space.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Come out where you live silly creature and I got to meet Laila Ponds who's a silly creature who makes music and she taught me how to what you kind of gave me some tips on how to write a better song
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and how do you feel like, like, was sung right in everything, like, like, you all write so many songs in frugal rock, right?
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, that's, that's, you, they're always there, like, hitting that writer's block right there.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, how do you, how do you break through that?
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: The, the rock, it kind of freaked me out on the six.
• 4:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've never had that happen before, but you know, I think what it's about is about getting inspiration and kind of listening
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know we all kind of contributed to it and that's what made it the best song.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now do you have any musical heroes like I have all of my musical heroes over my shoulder right here as wondering if it's like that for you?
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, my very favorite singer of all time, her name is Mezzo.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she came to Fraggle Rock a little while back.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I got to meet her.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I got to, I even got to sing with her, too.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and sing with it.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: You mentioned Laylay Ponds as well.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, like, so what's your impression of when you get to be an outer space with us and everything in Laylay and what's going on around here in the winter?
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I was a little scared honestly because I've never been before, you know, and it's very loud and bright and and big, you know, I mean, I live underground and and you know things are kind of small here for the most part, but but I was so excited when I got there and then when I met Laley, yeah, I was really kind of at my lowest, you know, as far as coming up with my song and she was so nice and she basically told me to trust myself and and be open to new things, you know, and then we sang a song together and that inspired me.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, the song's made it to us.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's a fantastic song that you all are.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've heard it.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: You liked it.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: They loved it.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, good.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: Instant classic that you all have made right there.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, well.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now that you've been out of space, you think you're going to come back?
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Off for sure.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, because especially seeing all the holiday things that you do, it kind of inspired me even more.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I didn't realize that city creatures and frackles share holiday traditions.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've all got our traditions.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now that I know that it's nose there, where are you in outer space?
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, Louisville, Louisville Kentucky.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my Uncle Matt's been here.
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was, I've been so sorry.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: I missed him.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: I must have just walked right past him.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you never know where you're gonna see him.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So keep your eyes open.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: Go, Beau, it has been so great to meet you.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: Seriously.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I hope we get to see you around here on these parts again sometimes soon.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope so too.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I hope you have a wonderful holiday.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: You too as well.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, friend.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we'll be right back right after this.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back, it's Kyle and Meredith.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now we're going to talk with John Tartaglia.
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: Showrunner, puppeteer, the voice behind Gobo about taking a character with decades of anthology, pulling inspiration from classic specials like the Bells of Frago Rock.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've even got new characters and subtle callbacks for a long time fans.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: John's going to get into the surreal moment of meeting Gobo on camera.
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: the influence of original performer Jerry Nelson and why gobo's stubborn optimism makes him braver than he is in real life.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's part two of this trip through Fragalore holiday spirit and childhood dream territory talking about the first snow of Fragal Rock, it's Kyle Meredith with John Tartaglia.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Good to see you.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: Good to see you as well, especially you being the person who has kept the magic of much childhood alive.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: That's very kind.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's really nice seeing this new special the first snow of a of Frago Rock.
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was like with so much lore and world building as this show has like when you're doing one of these, do you have to look back at any of the past ones to kind of figure any where this one leads?
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we have a really unique situation, right?
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because we're kind of this alternate universe of Fragile Rock, right?
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like we definitely don't try to say, oh, we're after the original series before the original series.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're just kind of saying we're in the same world as the original series.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: But we look to it often as either inspiration or for little beats we can throw in for the fans that kind of make them happy because it acknowledges episode 70 or something for the original series.
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: And with the first snow, Fragorock, we wanted to kind of like the bells of Fragorock.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you know that holiday special for the original series to me, that was like a must-do every single year I had to watch that.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Otherwise, the holidays didn't feel complete.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so we wanted to kind of do another holiday special in that vein where it's got that heart.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's got that really deep metaphor.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's got that beautiful moment of everyone singing in the great hall.
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: All those kind of
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know, blue and snowy and crispy and holiday-ish, but like, you know, all of Jim's work always did.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: If it had something bigger to say.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so I think we felt, yeah, I think we definitely looked back at the original series as inspiration for a lot of this special for sure.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: And little little little little moments little characters in there that maybe you recognize from the original of your big fan.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: And of course we get new characters.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: And what I mean by that is we
• 9:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: where in it's it could have been a dark night of the soul moment where you get to me bump into gobo and this like what's the story with that?
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, so Alex and Matt who wrote the special pitch to originally and I thought it was kind of like a placeholder.
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was just something kind of fun that was in like the script to make me laugh, you know, and like we have a lot of fun making the show, right?
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I was like, okay, haha.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then it was like in the second draft of the script and then it was in like the network copy.
• 10:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was like wait, it's still there.
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, no, what's going to seat?
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: This has got to happen.
• 10:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: No one's to see this.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then they kept pushing it.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: I was honestly vocally.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: I was like, I don't know.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then when we were finally shooting it, we're standing outside the cold, shooting it in Canmore.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a beautiful sunset, find a mountain.
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: And there we were.
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I just was like, this is my childhood dream come true.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm talking to Global Fraggle, who I get to puppeteer, but it's different when I have him on my hand.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm actually interacting with him.
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was very, very weird.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: I got to live that myself today and I appreciate that as well.
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: You're like zero, you know, right?
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's the right thing of the world.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I definitely, when I watch it down, like it just feels very, like, how did that happen?
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure every character has the own tricks of playing them.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, what's the trick to go bow?
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: Mmm.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Gosh.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I mean, I always keep a little bit of Jerry Nelson in my head.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he's the original performer of Gobo who I got to carry it on from.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he was an important teacher for me when I started with with the gym at the company back then I was 16.
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, he was one of the first people I got to work with.
• 11:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I was always like a sponge in the corner of, you know, trying to absorb his brilliance.
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so I always try to keep him, I think if him constantly what I'm doing, Gobo, and here is voice in the back of my head.
• 11:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: But really,
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: Gobo is like the eternal optimist and he's stubborn about it sometimes and he can get, you know, he can get caught up in his own uh hubris occasionally because he gets a little bit like, no, no, no, this is the right way or I know because he just wants to put his foot down.
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I try to keep him as positive and as, you know, he carries this weight as the leader of the froggles.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that, you know, getting to to produce froggles and to, you know, run on the set, I can relate to that.
• 12:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: I can really, I can really set feeling of like feeling this great responsibility to keeping everyone happy to keeping things moving.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so I just try to keep that eternal
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he makes me a braver person, honestly, because he believes, you know, there's nothing to be fearful of, you know, exploring any world.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if I found myself in a brand new world like he does, if I would just be like, great, I'm just going to sing a song and head down the street.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think I'd be panicking on the corner in the fetal position.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: But go over some reason, Kim just take off like that.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so he's made me braver, you know, but that's what I think I try to take with me is that optimism.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: The eternal explorer, I love that, I do.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: Seriously, thank you for keeping that magical life for all of us, and John, it's been a pleasure talking to you.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much, that means more than you know to hear, thank you.
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we'll be right back right after this.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: I want to thank Gobo Fraggle, I want to thank John Tartaglia.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: The first snow of Fraggle Rock, out now on Apple TV.
• 12:58
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• 13:04
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• 13:16
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• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: And leave a review wherever you're listening from and after that you can head over to wfpk.org It's right to a show Monday through Friday starting at 6pm eastern four hours of classics from the 80s and 90s You get the best in new music.
• 13:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: They're bonus interviews lots of music news as well In fact, one of my recent shows featured some classics and favorites from spoon Amanda Shire's Jonny Mitchell Smash & Pumpkins Dave Matthews band Tom Petty Matthew Sweet the Mountain Goats
• 13:48
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• 14:06
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• 14:14
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• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: Please do like and follow along and that does it for another edition I'm Kyle Meredith.
• 14:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'll see you next time
• 14:37
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