Latest / Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com / To Introduce Our Guest Star - Episode Thirteen: Martin Robinson
Transcript
- 0:11Hello, my name is Johannes and I'm Jared Faircloth and welcome
- 0:16to, to introduce our guest star. A muppet fan podcast presented
- 0:19by tough pics.com in this show. Jared and I are taking it in
- 0:23turns to surprise each other with this week's guest.
- 0:26And hey, this week is my turn Jared, you have no Idea who Our
- 0:30Guest is that accurate, it's accurate and it's funny.
- 0:33You said this last episode and I had forgotten how nerve-racking
- 0:37it can be. Yeah, because I have no idea
- 0:39because it could the whole thing about the show is could be
- 0:41literally anyone who's ever, even remotely worked with a
- 0:43muppet, you could have Robert De Niro coming on?
- 0:45I don't know. That's right.
- 0:47Yeah, could be, could be anyone could even be someone who never
- 0:50worked with the Muppets? Could that be?
- 0:52Who this next mystery guest is I do.
- 0:56It's gonna make it very difficult for me to guess.
- 0:58Yeah, the correct. But no, it's on Has worked
- 1:00somehow with the Muppets. I'll give you that clue.
- 1:02I gotta go excellent. Alright, when you're ready,
- 1:05let's go with some questions. Okay.
- 1:09Moppet sesame or Henson Sesame? Okay, is this person a
- 1:16performer? Yes.
- 1:19Is it a human performer as in as in as an actor and not like I
- 1:24say like, you know, right or might it look like a dog, the
- 1:27puppet he's which would be, this is a human.
- 1:29But is not a human performer. I think I know what you mean.
- 1:32Okay. Okay.
- 1:37Here's one. Have I met this person?
- 1:39I don't know if you have, we've never spoken about it but it's
- 1:44entirely possible that you have, okay?
- 1:47All right, that eliminates a couple of people that I had in
- 1:50mind. Okay, has this person done
- 1:57significant work outside of Sesame Street?
- 2:02Yes, but I don't know how you're defining Sesame Street.
- 2:04Okay, so I'm talking for example, like you know, in my
- 2:07mind it's like Stephanie to bruise.
- 2:09Oh, who had done Avenue Q? This person has done significant
- 2:13things outside Sesame. I mean, I think they all have.
- 2:15So it's really, it's a hard. It's a hard, it's a hard
- 2:17question. Yeah, but but okay, I mean is
- 2:21it's a yes, from the yes? Okay, yeah.
- 2:24All right while I mean that's pretty good.
- 2:27Let me let me go with that. Then Joe is this definite
- 2:30Abruzzo? Jared, Our Guest today is the
- 2:34longest-running Puppeteer in Sesame Street's history.
- 2:38He's the talent behind below and inside some, of your favorite
- 2:42characters, like Telly monster slimy, the worm Monte, God, and
- 2:45mr. Snuffleupagus.
- 2:47He also supports one of the most epic heads of hair in the Muppet
- 2:50World Jared. I am extremely yes, to introduce
- 2:52our guest star. Martin P Robinson.
- 2:56Oh my good timing. That is, oh my goodness.
- 3:02Dude, that was that was very quick.
- 3:05That's all. We were meeting Mom.
- 3:06Nick. Well, yeah, like we were already
- 3:11recording the intro. So here you said the way this
- 3:12concept, the concept of the show Works models.
- 3:14That I had no idea you were coming into, literally.
- 3:17Usually, like, we've got a five minutes to prepare.
- 3:19No, no. Joe said your name and here you
- 3:21are. Well that's, it's just
- 3:23accidental. Oh yeah, I was down here a while
- 3:26back and and then I went upstairs and put on some real
- 3:30clothes and just turned it on. I just noticed that the thing
- 3:33was off and I turned it back out and there you guys are.
- 3:36Anyway, so high? Yeah.
- 3:38Hi. How are you good?
- 3:41This is, this is, this is a big moment for me.
- 3:43I'm a. I mean, you like, royalty in the
- 3:46Muppet world. You know, all you gotta do is
- 3:49stick around for a while and not be a jerk and not die and poof
- 3:57poof you're you know, you're the old man.
- 3:59Are you doing? Well, I mean you you haven't
- 4:01just stuck around you still doubt you've been sticking
- 4:03around for over 40. Years now which is incredible.
- 4:07I believe you are the longest running Sesame street,
- 4:09performer, aside from the humans, of course but but of the
- 4:13puppeteers I think you're the longest-running.
- 4:14Sesame performer of anyone? This is.
- 4:17Yeah, congratulations. Thank you.
- 4:20Thank you. Alan Cumming was on the show.
- 4:23Geez, I guess it was a year ago or so a couple years ago anyway
- 4:27and he we are all, they're all doing puppets.
- 4:30And he say well so this is you know who's the who's the old man
- 4:32of the group? Who's been here longest?
- 4:34We looked Round. I said, God, it's me and I
- 4:38hadn't really realized until that moment.
- 4:43Yeah. Well mean well maybe what a
- 4:45career you've had and continue to have.
- 4:47I mean I mean your Snuffleupagus and that breaks my brain because
- 4:52I've got like a weird. I've got always the weird fear
- 4:54of Snuffy you have. I have nightmares of like Snuffy
- 4:58like running down the road towards me.
- 4:59I actually I actually wrote a letter a couple of days ago to
- 5:03to a grown-up man who was a kid on the show and I was asked if
- 5:08he was going to work with Snuffy and Snuffy came onto the set and
- 5:12he He immediately started screaming and crying and we
- 5:15couldn't do the scene. The next thirty-five years
- 5:23worrying about that he hurt, Snuffy's feelings, and he's
- 5:27learning to confront his fears now.
- 5:29So stuffy wrote him a letter saying, hey, you know, being
- 5:32afraid of a 8 foot tall 15 foot long giant hairy Snuffleupagus
- 5:39is probably the smart thing to do.
- 5:43Yeah. Yeah, we have Leslie Carrara on
- 5:45as a guest in our previous season and she and I told a
- 5:49quick story about a time where we were backstage at Sesame
- 5:51Street and they were you guys were about to do with Snuffy
- 5:54scene and we all had to like, clear out.
- 5:56This is like, you know, back by Craft Services.
- 5:59We need to clear out to make room for you guys and Snuffy was
- 6:03like, literally, like running is like that scene in get out.
- 6:05We're like running directly at us and then making a quick like
- 6:09sharp turn, which was it was in Credible moment that I will
- 6:13never ever forget for my entire life.
- 6:14I do that desert purpose people think.
- 6:20And, you know, when I haven't got a camera on me, you know, as
- 6:23a monitor inside. So, I'm looking at the Monitor
- 6:26and when the cameras on, I see what the camera sees, you know,
- 6:28like, you're like, oh, like, Alma B do.
- 6:30But when I'm off camera, people think that I'm just, just
- 6:34thrashing around blindly like a, like, a bull in a china shop.
- 6:40In fact of the matter is, I can see Pretty well, but people do
- 6:44and, but I count on people not knowing that and assuming ideal.
- 6:49So they're not, you know, I'll run full speed straight for your
- 6:54off at the last possible second. And, you know, and I get, I get
- 6:58enjoyment out of that, which just a weird perverse joy out of
- 7:02it. Is probably a speaks very poorly
- 7:05of my character. No II.
- 7:07Love it. Well enough, fine for sure.
- 7:09How do you see when you're in the Snuffy pie?
- 7:12I'm out. Okay.
- 7:14Okay. Yeah, so you actually notice
- 7:17when I exit I've tried to stop doing this, but would I exit a
- 7:21seam? I wouldn't Snuffy exits very
- 7:23often. He'll open his mouth when he's
- 7:25just going off camera. You know, I kind of sell it as
- 7:30what's that but that's me trying not to trample on a child.
- 7:36Is that why? He speaks so slowly.
- 7:37So you can be like Bye Bird. Now it's we're going okay.
- 7:43Slowly so I can see, you know, I've never considered that but
- 7:46but you're right this flower, I talk from what I can see, it's
- 7:51time. Can I ask you a question about
- 7:52Snuffy's voice? Sure.
- 7:54Because is that affected in some way?
- 7:56Is that like they put an effect on it because it's got quite a,
- 7:59yes. Look at the word because like
- 8:01when I've seen you do it in like I think you did like Vanity Fair
- 8:05video or something and you'd like a cup to like sort of get
- 8:08that effect. I used a cup.
- 8:09Yes, I remember that a cups in a pinch.
- 8:15Paper towel paper towel. Oh, this thing.
- 8:20Oh, dear bird. What are we gonna do now or
- 8:24supposed to have a play date but I feel not fit through the door.
- 8:28Oh, okay. So is that what effect that
- 8:34would have worked was in that effect being done live?
- 8:37Or is that something that they do like a control room or that
- 8:40you talking through something? What What it is.
- 8:44It's a it's a it's a microphone that's that doesn't have a
- 8:48high-end gain. You know.
- 8:49Some microphones. Yep I don't understand sound but
- 8:52they have a they have a really sensitive gain that can get a
- 8:56lots of highs and lots of lows. This microphone is not one of
- 9:00those know what they do. Okay, what they used to do is
- 9:03they used to take a microphone and smack it against the wall
- 9:06until it was almost dead. And then put that in the end of
- 9:10a long, Tube like a vacuum cleaner tube.
- 9:16So the microphone system is actually a foot and a half,
- 9:21almost about a foot and a half away from my mouth and then
- 9:23there's some baffles in there to keep it from popping.
- 9:26It can be it can it can get really present.
- 9:29You know, when your Yap got a tube and you're speaking right
- 9:32into a microphone, it can be very direct so there's little
- 9:34baffles to to make the sound bounce around and then it's just
- 9:39basically acoustically altered live.
- 9:41There's no there's no post. Effect on it.
- 9:44Okay, yeah, cuz I've always wondered listening to it and
- 9:47anybody can do it with a paper cup.
- 9:50Okay, I'll give it. Well, don't tell you, I don't
- 9:52think anyone could do it because then you're going to be out of a
- 9:54job. Yeah, gonna get yourself out of
- 9:55a job. Could do it with a paper cup.
- 9:59So you took over Snuffy how long ago now?
- 10:05Like Jerry was doing it and then I'm blanking on the name of the
- 10:10person who did it between you two.
- 10:11Michael Earl, Michael L, that's it.
- 10:14Yeah, so he did it. And then, when did you take
- 10:15over? I took it over in 1981.
- 10:19Well, you Snuffy for followed that bird.
- 10:21Yes. Yeah I thought you were well
- 10:23that one of your earliest things.
- 10:26Yeah, that was, that was before he was mainstreamed before he
- 10:29was, you know, he was he wasn't imaginary he was quote, he was
- 10:34never imagined. This never imaginary know, it's
- 10:36become one of my missions in life to explain to people.
- 10:39He was never imaginary. He just has bad time.
- 10:42Okay, shut up. Yes, yes but he was no we don't
- 10:44have to go to that this time, the accused bird of it being a
- 10:49man. Imaginary.
- 10:49Yes. Which caused all kinds of deep
- 10:53emotional problems with with bird and so, so, yes.
- 10:58So that after shortly after the Follow, That Bird is when we
- 11:02mainstreamed him into the, into the regular cast, we had the
- 11:06whole thing where Phil Donahue discovered him.
- 11:10But, yeah, Follow That Bird was was rather early on before
- 11:14anyone had really met him yet. So, we were still Go in the back
- 11:19way and, you know, and when people showed up, he was going
- 11:22off the Communist for do something shy and he was
- 11:28definitely something about the movie is like, they the movie,
- 11:32you know, is that line where like some people still think
- 11:34he's imaginary. Some people think that know that
- 11:36he's that he's real. So the movie is able to kind of
- 11:40like, you know, do for both. Like you could watch it either
- 11:42with either Viewpoint and you still get the, you know, the
- 11:45same, the same story, the same enjoyment.
- 11:46No, we just confused. Yeah.
- 11:49Yeah, we went to, when they, when they mainstream Tim into
- 11:53into one of the regular cast, it just all the all the
- 11:57opportunities for relationships and scenes, and personal
- 12:05personal character growth. I'll just really opened up for
- 12:08him and me, I guess. Speaking of Snuffy being, you
- 12:13know, member of the regular cast, there's an episode or two
- 12:15and of course, I didn't look up to see when exactly.
- 12:17This was where Elmo is writing on Snuffy's back, and we do
- 12:22that. A couple is that yeah, is that
- 12:24like did you actually have to cut a hole in the Snuffy puppet
- 12:26and have Kevin in there with you?
- 12:29And I assume Bryant Young, or is he just like, like is it just
- 12:33such a good cheat that I never figured out that?
- 12:35No, no, no, no. Your first, your first idea Is
- 12:40the correct one. Although we didn't have to cut a
- 12:42hole Snuffy is has a separation that basically bifurcates his
- 12:47body when they transport him, it's horrible to watch.
- 12:52But they'll take him apart at the center.
- 12:55They take his head, they turn it around and they insert his head
- 13:00into his backside. But, but it, but it did, you
- 13:07think it would help my fear of Snuffy?
- 13:08It is, it is not it. No, it's probably just making it
- 13:12even worse. I apologize.
- 13:15It's terrible. But that's the way they
- 13:19transport him. What point was I make?
- 13:22Oh yeah, so there are so there is a theme that goes around
- 13:26there as well. We didn't open up the, the
- 13:30velcro seam at the top. So, so but when Kevin did that
- 13:35his feet had to go through the bottom, of course, you know, I'm
- 13:38not going to carry Kevin Clash on my back.
- 13:40It's It's rough enough. So his feet are actually down on
- 13:45the floor through another split in the bottom of the character.
- 13:48So as we're walking along, he's kind of going along.
- 13:52Well, we've done the exact same thing with the Prairie, Dawn,
- 13:55and Fran Brill was inside amazing.
- 13:59I love that also like is temporarily Snuffy.
- 14:01Becomes a six legged creature. Like, he's some sort of giant
- 14:06that you're feeling but as long as you as long as you shoot it
- 14:09artfully, If you shoot him from, from the 3/4 front is the best
- 14:14shot for that. And then if he's when he's going
- 14:17by, you just need to make sure that the bottom the camera is,
- 14:20you know, is above the, the floor level just above, but his,
- 14:24his, his belly is pretty low. It's it almost grapes the
- 14:29ground. So, you can, you can get a,
- 14:31almost a full shot. How is it?
- 14:35You got, you've got obviously you've got the biggest character
- 14:37on the show. You also got the smallest
- 14:39character on the show slimey's. Yes, it has like that such a
- 14:44juxtaposition. How do you sort of go about?
- 14:48I guess playing slimy, because there's not a lot, you can do
- 14:52with the puppy, can do a little bit, but a lot of it I think has
- 14:54to be your voice. And actually, I don't do the
- 14:58voice of slimy. Okay.
- 15:01That voice is done separately. The voice is, is kind of
- 15:07blinking on his name. Is it?
- 15:09It's a dick Maitland. Big male indicative, of course,
- 15:11who's one of the guys who has been there since since day one?
- 15:17So so he does the he does the voice.
- 15:24We tried using in the vocal vocal emulator on my voice.
- 15:28Yeah. But any bleed through from other
- 15:31any other microphone and it would and it would start, he
- 15:34would pitch it to get up there. So so we couldn't do that.
- 15:39So this is slimy is, you know, has this wonderful eloquence to
- 15:43him. He's it's all it's all in the
- 15:47movement and, you know, and it's a kind of a study in simplicity.
- 15:52So even though he says A little, it's, you know, he's always
- 15:58think of him as one of the more eloquent characters but you
- 16:02know, but you know, the moves are a little little things like
- 16:05this, where you lift it up and you turn it just the tiniest bit
- 16:09this way and tiny bit. And just so you're playing these
- 16:11tiny little angles and you got the little mouth thing there.
- 16:15So, it's so it's, you know, it's think think, think think think
- 16:18think think think think think, think think, think think it's
- 16:21just, this tiny little news and, and you're right it at
- 16:23juxtaposes with the with stuff. B, it's a it's, you know, it's
- 16:28what we do is, you know, it's it's a kind of a perfect
- 16:33physical example of the range of what the job can be.
- 16:39Yeah. And I mean, I have to assume
- 16:42that between your full-bodied, puppet, work with Snuffy and the
- 16:47intricate puppetry that you just described with slimy, as well as
- 16:51like all the other characters, you do Telly.
- 16:52And, you know, all the am's and etc, etc, is probably why you
- 16:57have been Was in is like the the trainer for a lot of the
- 17:00international Sesame stuff. Is that accurate?
- 17:05Yeah, you know, I hadn't really thought about, you know that,
- 17:08but yeah, some of the stuff do it all, you know?
- 17:12Well, yeah, you know it's, you know, it's puppeteers.
- 17:16Do I mean we you know, we were trained in a lot of areas, you
- 17:20gotta know, a lot about a lot of things or at least a little
- 17:26about a lot of things. Yes.
- 17:29But, but some of the international companies do have
- 17:32walk around characters and certainly the experience is
- 17:36helpful with that. You know, there there are some
- 17:40puppeteers who have not been in walk around characters and in
- 17:44that might be, you know, the experience of being inside that,
- 17:49that crazy massive thing. And, you know, and it doesn't
- 17:53matter how horrible or how heavy their puppets are.
- 17:58You know, I always have the right to say, you know, quit
- 18:00your whining. I'm in the biggest one.
- 18:01There is so chic. Anyone but but Caroll spinney I
- 18:09guess or I guess now Matt Vogel. Well I would never say that
- 18:13similar. Yeah.
- 18:15I mean they're they're they're they're both both good friends
- 18:19but Snuffy weighs a lot more than bird.
- 18:22Are you kidding? Bird needs to fluffy feathery.
- 18:25Thing is nothing, but it was Snuffy, you don't have to keep
- 18:29your arm straight up in the air like like, but that's true.
- 18:31That's true. I don't know.
- 18:33That's the hard part to me. Yeah that's yeah, that's the
- 18:36hard part. I got to defend, you know, you
- 18:40are correct of what your job is, very difficult.
- 18:44Let's not downplay my job. Okay.
- 18:47I actually had to play bird this past season.
- 18:52Oh, really? Yeah, a guest star who will go
- 18:56unnamed, and who is who is has a little black mark against her
- 19:00name cancelled hours before she was supposed to be there?
- 19:06Or almost almost talk show, get a hold of that.
- 19:10And, and it was it was a, it was a shot that was they were, they
- 19:16were doing a task like this. They had to be shot all the way
- 19:25to the floor. So we couldn't do it with a
- 19:28puppet. It had to be a person in a kid
- 19:32and, and So there was nothing to be done, so they decided to put
- 19:37burden it Matt wasn't there. And so so I got to put on birdie
- 19:43and go through this, go through amazed and then go under a limbo
- 19:49stick after loading a tray with an entire service of food and
- 19:57drinks and then and then serve it.
- 20:00Then pop it down and serve it with with Almost no experience
- 20:06in the bird. Anyway, it was it was very
- 20:08wanting and grateful. You have to do the whole thing
- 20:11while looking in a monitor where the ball is going to monitor
- 20:14some far down, it just your average workday.
- 20:20Yeah. Which, you know, which is one of
- 20:21the great things about working for Sesame in The Muppets is,
- 20:25it's always something new. I mean, I've been asked, do you
- 20:28know, you know, you've been there, 40 plus years doesn't get
- 20:31dull know, it's always something new.
- 20:35And, you know, solving new problems in different ways and
- 20:39and finding finding interesting solutions to stuff.
- 20:44It's, you know, and then they are all the other character in
- 20:48the relations and we're adding a bunch of new characters this
- 20:51season. It's always, you're always kind
- 20:55of, by the seat of your pants to a certain extent, and that's
- 20:59great. I mean, I love the fact that
- 21:01Sesame Street especially, but like all these franchises Sesame
- 21:04and It's another Hanson fraction.
- 21:06Franchises. None of them are resting on
- 21:08their Laurels. Now then we're just kind of
- 21:09doing the same thing. We've always done, we got to
- 21:11keep experimenting and we got to keep, you know, Taking Chances
- 21:15and doing more things, new things, whatever it is because
- 21:19you know what's the point if we're not going to continue to
- 21:20evolve, right? And that's one of the, that's
- 21:23one of the great things about about working for this company
- 21:25is, is that they they've never gotten complacent, they're
- 21:29always trying to be better. They're always taking the
- 21:32up-to-date information on kids. Education.
- 21:35The world. How kids learn?
- 21:37What they learn. What's safe.
- 21:39What's not safe? And and putting it to use.
- 21:43We, we just we just wrapped on on help stirs the second season.
- 21:47Did you know that, Joe, Yes I did.
- 21:50Yeah we rattles that was aware right last Friday so I've been
- 21:54I've been shooting that since since August is beginning of
- 21:58August, let's look how does help serves differ from Sesame Street
- 22:03because I know it's a lot of the same people because it's a
- 22:05Sesame Workshop production. You're working closely with, you
- 22:08know, some of the performers like Stephanie to bruise.
- 22:10Oh, but there's got to be some big differences for those two.
- 22:15Big differences or not, maybe they're exactly the same,
- 22:19they're not exactly the same. No, no, they're not at all.
- 22:23We do have, you know, it's a co-production between Sesame and
- 22:26Apple. So we've got Apple input that we
- 22:31wouldn't have normally, I mean on Sesame Street, which makes
- 22:35for an interesting dynamic. They and, you know, and because
- 22:41it's a cut-down, you know, you can't have too many people on
- 22:44the The set at any given time. It's you know it's a lot of that
- 22:50is remote. So you know, getting things
- 22:53okayed checking things out, we try to, you know, we work when
- 22:59we plan on the fly to a certain extent, there's you know if
- 23:03there's something that is sitting right?
- 23:05Or if we have an idea because they do will, you know, can I
- 23:08pitch this? That's the that's the phrase
- 23:10that we use on that show is, you know.
- 23:11Let me know. I'm pitching an idea.
- 23:13Ding, ding ding. And we try to Again secure that
- 23:15ahead of time but sometimes it's sometimes it just happens at the
- 23:19spur of the moment and you need need things to be okayed.
- 23:25So that the this that the chain of information is what I'm
- 23:29referring to is is sometimes a little, a little rough with that
- 23:32show getting getting the information fast enough that
- 23:38being said, if we don't get the information, we just go ahead
- 23:40and do what we think is, right? And the cast.
- 23:44The crew is just stunning is just wonderful, you know, and
- 23:50not, not not compare comparing it to Sesame in any way or
- 23:54saying one is better than the other.
- 23:56What I will say is this, the scripts on hipsters are just
- 24:00just incredible. They're just so much fun.
- 24:04And even though ostensibly it's about computer coding, which
- 24:08just sounds like the most deadly dull thing possible on the
- 24:11planet. It's a, you know, they, they
- 24:13managed to Make it interesting, you know, doing things in
- 24:16sequence, and looping, things, and doing things in order or out
- 24:20of order and the cast is just is just so cool.
- 24:27It's very close-knit. It was, it was there's a lot of
- 24:29Tears in the last day. Well, well, here's hoping to get
- 24:33a third season because it's a fun show.
- 24:35I think, you know, if people out there have Apple TV they should
- 24:38check it out. You never know when we were we
- 24:41were just delighted that we had this second season and I mean
- 24:49you know call me naive but at the but it sounds like if you
- 24:52know, if you've got a show that's really cooking long and
- 24:56doing something useful and I assume people are watching it.
- 25:01That's not my job that you know that you can continue doing it
- 25:06but you know I'll still live in the real world and and sometimes
- 25:10they do and sometimes they don't II get that.
- 25:14I understand that too. Well unfortunately well to get
- 25:19back to Sesame. First thing I do think we have
- 25:20to talk about Telly. Who is just one of my all-time
- 25:23favorite Muppets of any Muppet franchise?
- 25:25I adore Telly, I love his his neuroses and You know, his I
- 25:33don't know. I do his genocide qua.
- 25:35I guess with Telly not appearing as much as he used to like, is
- 25:41this like a part of you that feels like it's it's missing
- 25:44that you don't get to play with Telly on the street every day.
- 25:46Yeah yeah. I mean that mr.
- 25:49The answer is yes. I miss him.
- 25:51The the other the again kind of living in the real world.
- 25:56It's you know, characters come and characters, go and and
- 26:00things that Were things that were teaching and how we teach
- 26:04it and which characters are best to teach those things changes,
- 26:08you know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna beat myself
- 26:11up dream of trying to keep a wave on the shore.
- 26:15It's just you know the things things change.
- 26:18And I've had some some dear friends, I mean, one of my great
- 26:23mentors Johnstone who I learned so much from it was absolutely
- 26:29key to My existence as a performer, he wanted Sesame
- 26:37Street to stay this the way it was and, and was sad and bitter
- 26:44toward the end of his life. That it was not something he
- 26:46could be proud of, and I have made a conscious choice, not to,
- 26:52not to do that, you know, not to make Athens is the Johnstone
- 26:55made environments, so many ways, but he was not happy toward the
- 27:00end of his life. And And it had to do with you
- 27:06know with not being able to deal with the with the changes.
- 27:11You know. I'm a part of the show, I'm a
- 27:13part of the changes if if I'm in more of a supervisory capacity
- 27:20these days great. You know, I don't want to
- 27:24certainly don't want to live my usefulness or you know, be a
- 27:28fifth wheel that being said, you know, I still Have lots of fun
- 27:34and and and figure someone useful on the show.
- 27:41But Telly monster was, was my great savior, my great personal
- 27:46Savior. And I would think that anything
- 27:49that's that, that's that important to me.
- 27:51And that that's personal savior to me, is somewhat Universal.
- 27:55I mean, I, That's the kind of the way we do it.
- 27:58You make something intensely personal and then you find out
- 28:02that everything that resonates with many other people.
- 28:06When you've invested that much of your, you know, your
- 28:11particular, you know, in my case neuroses into it and you know
- 28:16that much of my caring and love and all that stuff.
- 28:20So so yeah, I know he was, I used to say that he was, he was
- 28:25my As long as I had tell you, I would never need serious.
- 28:30You know? Deep psychoanalysis because he
- 28:33was my secret valve, and I get it in different ways.
- 28:36Now, I've been getting it getting with mr.
- 28:38Prim, on house del Sur is he is in some ways as far out as
- 28:47telling him. You think I let the sad part
- 28:51about that, I that I Thing and think about Telly was seen to be
- 29:01angry and frustrated and the kids, the studies indicated that
- 29:09they thought that Telly was angry at things.
- 29:12And, you know, and that was never an intention with him.
- 29:16You know, that he he was, he was, you know, concerned and he
- 29:20was, you know, he was worried about things and I, you know, my
- 29:24favorite reaction was when Kids would say, okay no, chill tell
- 29:27you, don't worry, it'll be okay, which all what's lessened?
- 29:31Their fears and put their fears, perhaps in perspective, that
- 29:35was, that was one of the great uses of.
- 29:38Well, that is why I've always had like so much of her love and
- 29:41respect the Telly because I, you know, I'm someone who has has
- 29:46had some anxiety issues in my past.
- 29:49It was always nice to have, like, tele around because tally
- 29:53was sort of that. That what's the word?
- 29:59He was the representation of it, I guess.
- 30:01And I think you know, in such a, you know, in a world where were
- 30:04trying to talk about mental health.
- 30:06And I'm not saying, you know, Telly had mental health issues,
- 30:10but I'm just saying that anxiety and stuff like that.
- 30:12I think it's something important that hopefully might get
- 30:16reintroduced. Whether that means telling needs
- 30:18to change in some way shape or form.
- 30:22I'm hoping, I mean, for your sake, for everyone's sake, we
- 30:25get more tally. Yeah.
- 30:27And you know, from your mouth to God's ear or your from your
- 30:29mouth to the producers here. But yeah.
- 30:33And and I and and I do think thank you for saying that he.
- 30:38I do think he was provided a service.
- 30:42You know, in that direction Sesame is going in some in some
- 30:45different directions, we're going into, you know, deeply
- 30:48into, you know, some you know, some social, emotional stuff,
- 30:51and racial Justice things. And, you know, we have We have
- 30:59some very important new directions.
- 31:03We're going in as opposed to tell ease anxiety, while I'm
- 31:08excited to stable and Yeah. Yeah, we're excited to be
- 31:14putting it together. We've had some new casting
- 31:17sessions and probably not too, too much.
- 31:21I could probably talk about, although I haven't signed any
- 31:25non-disclosure non-disclosure agreements, but to be basically
- 31:29circumspect, we're yeah, we're we've had a lot of auditions.
- 31:33We're bringing some new people in.
- 31:36There's some, some staff changing, but Looks like we're
- 31:43going to really hit the ground running and season season 53
- 31:47coming up. Well, actually, they're shooting
- 31:48writable, they're shooting. They shot monster Foodies this
- 31:53past week and a new new Elmo's World for goodness sakes.
- 31:56So so we're already into season 53.
- 32:01Wow. Incredible that this this shows
- 32:04going to go on forever. Well, I went, it's like, oh now
- 32:07you're wrecked it you had to say that but I gonna do sit, who
- 32:12knows? Who knows?
- 32:13I mean, I started I started season 12 and they were just
- 32:16astounded that, you know, that it had lasted that long and then
- 32:21ever, okay, you got picked up for another season.
- 32:23Isn't that cool? And it's I always think of the
- 32:27the 20th anniversary special. There's a moment where Bob and
- 32:31read along and Russ Gorman. Mmm, Who else Sonia probably
- 32:35probably. They're all like sitting at
- 32:36Hooper's store and they're just kind of like, you know,
- 32:38reminiscing a little bit. They went kind of wow, 20 years.
- 32:41Well, I think we'll make it to 20 more years, whatever it was.
- 32:44It's just like, now we look back were like, yeah.
- 32:46Obviously obviously it had 20 more and then 10 more on top of
- 32:50that and probably, you know, on and on and on like what a
- 32:54phenomenon, you know, like, like me, I know it was a phenomenon,
- 32:57you know, on the second third season as well as the 10th and
- 33:0020th season. But like now, it's Almost too
- 33:03big to fail. And it's and it's an interesting
- 33:08interesting thought because we we got pretty close a number of
- 33:13years back. What was that?
- 33:14Maybe 10 years ago, 10 10, 12 years ago, things were, you
- 33:20know, it was weird again. I don't, I haven't signed a
- 33:25nondisclosure agreement, but the, the amount of money that it
- 33:30was bringing in as opposed to the amount of money, it would
- 33:33cost to production. Yeah.
- 33:35He's just way out of balance and we were just hemorrhaging money
- 33:42for a good cause I'm going to, you know, a great cause but it
- 33:47was not financially viable in a sustainable way.
- 33:57When they, when they made the deal with HP people that really
- 34:02kind of finally took away. Those those financial fears, you
- 34:10know, and we find find a nice creative home and a physical
- 34:17home. I guess you'd say that was an
- 34:18argument, but we were having black.
- 34:20I remember when we reported that news, that was an argument.
- 34:22We were having with the fans and that that was saying, well, you
- 34:25know, Sesame Street has lost. You know, what it was doing it.
- 34:28It's like, no, no. You need to understand if Sesame
- 34:31Street, doesn't do the take vo deal.
- 34:33There's no more Sesame Street. And people didn't seem to sort
- 34:36of understand that for a couple of years, now it seems to be
- 34:39something people can sort of, you know, make peace with.
- 34:43But yeah for a long time that was a real genuine like fight in
- 34:48the comment sections. Yeah.
- 34:50Yeah. People people saw it as, you
- 34:52know, as a selling out to to pay TV and you know this this whole,
- 34:59you know, free public television show which should be available
- 35:03in free to everyone. You know that now it was that
- 35:06was a that was a that was a subscription item but the yeah
- 35:14but and you're right, you know, the now that the world has lived
- 35:16with that for we're into our fifth fifth year conference.
- 35:22What seven, eight years now it's, you know, it's it assures
- 35:29us moving forward into the future.
- 35:32PBS gets it for free now. Nine months later.
- 35:36So, you know, and it's still very topical and and in PBS
- 35:43doesn't have to kick into the, you know, into the production
- 35:48anymore. And yeah, it was It was kind of
- 35:52the the jewel in PBS's, Crown. You could say for many many
- 35:56years but you know, I think it's a good Equitable plan.
- 36:01I mean PBS was not bankrolling. See Sesame Street by any stretch
- 36:06of the imagination, what happened?
- 36:09All that money, we donated to get those tote bags.
- 36:12That didn't that didn't fully funds us?
- 36:13No, no, you needed to buy more more coat, but don't bags.
- 36:17Joe had known that I would have bought more, tickle me.
- 36:20Yes, almost back in 1995, that helps, but production is
- 36:32absolutely hey. I'm not a money guy, I have no
- 36:36idea what the what it costs, but man, you know, when that studio
- 36:41is up and running all the, you know, the hundreds of people
- 36:45that are involved focusing, you know, on that show on that
- 36:48moment. And all the people who have done
- 36:50all the work and are doing their work, behind the scenes and in
- 36:55an offices and remotely, it's, it's just astounding.
- 36:59How, you know, how much creativity has to get focused?
- 37:04You know? Down to five four, three, two,
- 37:06one go. You know, do your thing?
- 37:10Yeah, yeah, which is, which is, which is a great responsibility
- 37:14and, you know, it's, you know, it's a heck of a kick out of it.
- 37:21Five, four, three, two, one. And they Point your finger and
- 37:24in all that all, that's right on you and make it a break-in at
- 37:29that moment. It's a, there's nothing like it.
- 37:32You've got a, I guess another little Action in that.
- 37:36You got married on Sesame Street.
- 37:39We did I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 37:43There's a couple of photos on The Muppet.
- 37:44Wiki if people want to have a look, but tell me, are you,
- 37:48you're those photos on The Muppet?
- 37:51Wiki your reflection in your glasses?
- 37:53I can hear one of Oscar heckling As your wife and you were on the
- 38:02on the stoop and then there's another one of the reception,
- 38:04right? And it's just like I want to get
- 38:06married on Sesame Street, that sounds so much fun.
- 38:11It was, it was it was one of those things where we trying to
- 38:14figure out where to do it. And what was, what was the
- 38:17central centrally located to our friends and family.
- 38:21So we had the idea and they say, well, you know, you'd have to
- 38:25you'd have to do this. Okay, well, so we do that then
- 38:28what do we do? Well you'd have to, you know, to
- 38:30get the lights on and to get the doors open again, I got a
- 38:32higher, the Union's. Well.
- 38:33Okay. What do they cost?
- 38:35Okay. Great.
- 38:37And it's every every obstacle that they put in in our way or
- 38:41Ang we just kind of said okay you know we can do that, we can
- 38:43do that, we can do that and we did it.
- 38:46And then finally, you know, the last person, you know who could
- 38:49say, no didn't say no. And we just do said great.
- 38:51So we did. And you're probably the only
- 38:56person the only couple that ever got to do something like that on
- 39:00Sesame Street said. Yeah.
- 39:01I think like, even in the old days, anyone, as far as I know,
- 39:05got merits as well. Well, Maria and Luis got married
- 39:09sir. But that was not me.
- 39:11What it wasn't? I know an Oscar and grungy do
- 39:16almost got married ancestral. Do with that wasn't really your,
- 39:20you've ruining Sesame Street for me.
- 39:24Did you did Caroll spinney? We asked him to officiate the
- 39:28ceremony and he was actually going to get be ordained.
- 39:31Oh wow. Wow.
- 39:32Got to get one of those online things.
- 39:37That was so huge Sookie. He offered to actually perform
- 39:41the service and said, no, no we we do have a minister who's but
- 39:46instead hey. Hey Clint I'll Oscar, he Heckle.
- 39:49Yes, yes. Yes, why?
- 39:51I mean that's the real dream was to be heckled at your own
- 39:53wedding. We're asking the Grouch.
- 39:54Yeah. Why buy the milk when you can
- 39:58come buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, no Mom
- 40:03and Dad. So your wife Annie on Sesame
- 40:26Street. So like a time where the two of
- 40:30you have kind of clashed over something.
- 40:32Creative for the show clashed? No, no, good.
- 40:38Great there was, there was a time when I came when I got a
- 40:41script that she had written, I came home and I gave her one of
- 40:43these it was giving us the, the eyebrow.
- 40:48Look for those who can't see your face the side either, but
- 40:52she Dunno. She had written a really nice
- 40:54script that that featured Snuffy and Telly and slimy all the
- 40:58same. See, not what you want.
- 41:01Well, she's trying to give you work.
- 41:03Yes, I do. My favourites.
- 41:06Yeah, nepotism at its finest. So we had Yeah, it's like okay
- 41:11figure this one out husband does she know?
- 41:14That's not triple, the pay cheque for you.
- 41:16You just need to know. No, it's not you just, you just
- 41:20know, it doesn't matter. You know, I can go in and do no
- 41:25characters or do 20 characters, God, Ryan, Dylan, and I think, I
- 41:29think we broke the record. We were doing it was for almost
- 41:33talk show and we were in the studio today, over the over the,
- 41:37the Sesame corporate Isis on the green screen and I think we each
- 41:43worked more than 50 puppets in one.
- 41:46Now there were cases in cases in cases of puppets and it was for
- 41:52his for the audience, the audience for almost auction.
- 41:55It was an all those characters in the audience, that's all Ryan
- 41:59and me, I was there that day, you're there.
- 42:03That remember you guys, I was and I remember you guys were
- 42:07picking up like a chicken or whatever it was and then Don't
- 42:10know why you had to go on for so long with every one of those
- 42:13characters, like okay, we need them laughing.
- 42:15And then it's literally just five minutes straight of this
- 42:18one chicken lat, we're going to pull literally three seconds on
- 42:20it but we need five full minutes of it.
- 42:22And then to do that 50 times in a row.
- 42:25It was yeah it was a heck of a day but again that's the job.
- 42:29Yeah. Who knows for sure what the fun
- 42:32and like how I like how hard to like?
- 42:34I mean what a challenge to make it interesting every single time
- 42:37and Michelle, hickey and Lara McLean had to carry.
- 42:39And In case after case after case of cats and dogs and
- 42:44vegetables birds and all this stuff incredible.
- 42:50Yeah, I remember a putting on an onion.
- 42:51Okay, what's it? What does an onion sound like
- 42:55what what's the character onion? And but you know, but you don't
- 42:57have time to think you just gotta go, which is, which is
- 42:59part of what does an onion sound like what does onion sedima?
- 43:03That's everyone's homework for the night is figure out.
- 43:06If you are an onion what you sound like.
- 43:08Yeah. And then and then and then laugh
- 43:10as an onion for 5 minutes and then you'll look a quizzical
- 43:13then look right and look and dou double to anyway just yeah.
- 43:17Have you got any puppetry like horror stories like things that
- 43:22you've done, where you just like you've been in a really awkward
- 43:25position or like, we were talking to Alex Denis last week
- 43:28and she was saying that, you know, they asked her to property
- 43:33next to a live elephant and she was like, I'm not doing that.
- 43:37She said, no to a life that no to that.
- 43:39Yeah. She was gonna be like on the
- 43:42ground like a bee on the ground without anesthetic at its foot
- 43:45and he's like I'm not doing that.
- 43:48Yeah. You mean you'd have to really
- 43:50know the elephant and Trust the trainer.
- 43:55Do we have time to make friends with the elephant before I get
- 43:57on the ground? Oh God.
- 43:59Yeah, we did a we did a bit with just not answer your question
- 44:04yet. I need Abruzzo, we had an owl on
- 44:09help stirs a live owl and that end.
- 44:14She, she has every character has little little pigtails to go out
- 44:20that there are part of her way, she expressed herself, and she
- 44:24triggered those pigtails and it Spooks the owl on that all
- 44:28jumped on her. There's there's an outtake
- 44:33full-grown. Great horned owl leaping Cody
- 44:39and there will fall below down. Nobody got hurt which is but I
- 44:43love lip. But I mean I'm also almost more
- 44:46worried for for the Cody puppet because I know those things get
- 44:50damaged. Like you rip that puppet?
- 44:51Like that's it for a while. Yeah.
- 44:54There's a couple of Coatings. There's only one codigo that she
- 44:56likes it, right? Yeah.
- 44:59Nobody was hurt. Yeah, animals they're there.
- 45:02They can be problematic but w a horror story that I've been.
- 45:06In through. Geez, I don't embrace my horror
- 45:13stories, like some people watch them and forget them.
- 45:21My cat yourself, lucky. I can, I cut myself lucky every
- 45:26day, you know? I just, I have no no license to
- 45:31complain. But of course, you know,
- 45:33sometimes I still did when I, you know, I hear horror stories
- 45:39of like some of the my puppeteers in other countries.
- 45:44What they, you know, what, they go through to go to work and do
- 45:48their jobs. That's those are those aren't my
- 45:51stories but man, do I empathize with them?
- 45:56There was one of my puppeteers in the United Arab Emirates.
- 45:59His parents found out that he was going to that, he was hired
- 46:02on a puppet show and they tied him up to a chair in his room
- 46:07and beat him and shaved his head so that no one would want to see
- 46:10him and he escaped out a win. Endo packed his bags hiked
- 46:16through the desert and caught a caught a truck to the airport
- 46:21and and, you know, showed up a few days late.
- 46:24But let us know that he was, he was coming, but, and then could
- 46:27never go home and it's in a while.
- 46:30Would he would? He would say stop on his way to
- 46:33work. And there was a construction
- 46:34site and go out and take my picture because he was a
- 46:36constraint as a construction engineer, and take my picture
- 46:39next to this construction crew. And he would, and he would send
- 46:42that to his parents saying, you know, I'm Doing fine but wow,
- 46:47really takes away your license to complain and my puppeteers in
- 46:54in Kabul in Afghanistan. The to the two ladies who were
- 46:58the leads, they couldn't go to work the same route every day.
- 47:03Somebody for fear that somebody might suss out their patterns.
- 47:08They couldn't be seen going into the studio and known for, you
- 47:12know, television production. They had to change their route
- 47:16all the time for fear of fear of death and they showed up to work
- 47:25every day and then and there was a bomb that went off around the
- 47:30block and I think two or three of the production people were
- 47:32killed and they did the show. Anyway, those are the stories
- 47:38that I, you know, that I know that you here.
- 47:44Like sitting next to an elephant that died at the park, doesn't
- 47:47it? Well, it's, you know, it's a
- 47:52Everyone everyone, you know does what this what they did if they
- 47:55can and puts up with what? They can the things, you know,
- 48:00all the things that I've had to put up with that.
- 48:02I, you know that I that at the time seemed really bad.
- 48:06Like we do a lot of color. A lot of location work on
- 48:10hipsters and started in August. It was blistering hot.
- 48:13Sometimes you're in the blistering heat and there's no
- 48:16shade and you just you know, you're slathering yourself with
- 48:18sunscreen and you're just Threat to your underpants.
- 48:24And then, you know, we were worked up until like I say it
- 48:26till last week in the freezing cold, you know, Ten Degrees and
- 48:31you got you got thermals on and you got booth in.
- 48:34You were just just trying to stay warm, you know, and and
- 48:37that's seems like a hardship but it's nothing, you know, compared
- 48:41to what, you know, the fear of being blown up or, or beaten or
- 48:49ostracized or Some of the things that happen in some of the other
- 48:56countries. So, yeah.
- 49:00So I like those things are perspective.
- 49:01Yeah, it really does. Yeah.
- 49:05Well I'm not a slightly later notes.
- 49:08I do want to ask you the same way.
- 49:21I'm just going to change the Entirely and hope that it's fun
- 49:24one. Meanwhile, over on the other
- 49:27side of your Muppet related filmography, unrelated to
- 49:33Sesame, I did want to ask you a little bit about your time on
- 49:36The Muppets Take Manhattan set, because it was a long time ago.
- 49:40That was it was a long time ago. I will say, first of all, every
- 49:44time I watch the movie which is often, I always make a point to
- 49:48pause the movie when you have your on-screen cameo.
- 49:52During the the theater at the school.
- 49:56Yeah. Near the beginning of the movie,
- 49:59you are watching permit others for my television format.
- 50:02It does it gets cut off and what does it?
- 50:05Yeah, I guess could. I'm right on the edge, on the
- 50:07television format, but the on the wide screen, I am right on
- 50:10the edge. We were all in.
- 50:12Did you know that? Did you know that, that that
- 50:15shot is, like, people can like rent it or buy it for stock
- 50:20footage? Really feel like we've seen Seen
- 50:22it. Yeah, we seen it at other
- 50:23things. I believe they use it.
- 50:25Amy Sedaris. Has a like a craft comedy show.
- 50:31I love that, which is hysterical.
- 50:33I love insider'. She's amazing.
- 50:35And like she uses that that scene of like whatever their she
- 50:38needs to show her audience applauding like there's you and
- 50:40there's Steve making. Everyone think Amy Sedaris owes
- 50:43me money. Oh, let's not get good luck.
- 50:52I think the actors Union might have something to say about
- 50:57that. That's good.
- 51:00Actually is interesting, funny. Yeah, I think you can go on to
- 51:04like the Getty website and like it's one of those things you can
- 51:07you can buy is that and a couple other shots from that shoot of
- 51:11the film. Well, if it's what I think
- 51:13you're in as far as you're buying it, then.
- 51:16Yeah. If they're if it's if it's on a,
- 51:18if that's on the Getty and if they're buying it, then then
- 51:22Everyone who's in there, who? Yeah, then then, then they're
- 51:25paying me. I mean either way I think Amy
- 51:28Sedaris still should like give you like 20 bucks or I would
- 51:31just got ya, appreciating some like random chicks the like two
- 51:34cents like once every three months and you go.
- 51:36What's this for? That's probably what it's all a
- 51:39mystery. I just thought, maybe a cupcake.
- 51:43All right, we'll get it done. That's a good trade.
- 51:48She does not surprise me. Do you have any specific fun
- 52:01memories from the Muppets? Take Manhattan.
- 52:03Shoot, we were shooting on that for a long time it was, we had a
- 52:10silver cup. I was I was very new back then
- 52:16and and Yeah, that was I guess that was my first feature Follow
- 52:25That Bird was after that, right? You know, I always trust you to
- 52:28know. I'll fall.
- 52:29So, so Manhattan was 1984. Let me Google follow that, but
- 52:37it was 84 well, edit this out to make a sound sleep.
- 52:41I probably won't. Oh yeah, we know, we know the
- 52:43years for time, I followed that bird was 1985.
- 52:45So yeah. So Manhattan was first.
- 52:49Okay. Yeah, I was I was so it's brand
- 52:52spanking new and you know you didn't know what I didn't know.
- 52:58So I was right. It was it was it was a good good
- 53:01training thing but it got training on the feature film is
- 53:03tough. You know I was doing he was
- 53:07doing the baby Muppet scene and and I was sure.
- 53:12Yeah, baby piggies Biggie's goes up a slide climbing up at just a
- 53:18just a quick little shot. And I was doing her hands, and
- 53:20we did 54 takes, and it was because I was messing up in some
- 53:25way. I had no clue what it actually
- 53:28was. And, you know, I wish that, you
- 53:31know, with the somebody had said, you know, listen Rhymes
- 53:34and do it this way or this is not your shot, I'll do it.
- 53:38You know, do something else but they just, you know, just take
- 53:43after take after take till we did 54 takes and, you know, I
- 53:48feel bad. Bad about that.
- 53:49But I was just too green to know.
- 53:54You know, I picking hand from a from a, from a slide grip.
- 53:59Sure. Well and we found out recently
- 54:02that Jim Henson directed The the Muppet Babies scene for the
- 54:05movie. So that may that may explain a
- 54:07little bit about like, Jim may have been a little bit more
- 54:10patient with the puppeteers and like Frank who was directing
- 54:13solo directing his first film. Don't remember my my
- 54:16recollection is that Frank was directing this scene is so
- 54:19interested. Frank was the one that was
- 54:21saying. Again again again.
- 54:24I just remember his very, very sad face as we as we did it over
- 54:28and over and over again. But that's but, you know, you
- 54:32know, you know how recollection is.
- 54:33It's just it's it's changed and altered by time and memory.
- 54:38And God knows, what is there was a, there was a I always do is
- 54:45tell the story of they had cast. Kevin Clash to do Swedish chefs
- 54:53hands for the for the big final scene where there were doing the
- 54:57cake and the yeah. Yeah.
- 54:59Right the decoration on the cake and then somebody finally
- 55:03figured out that that wasn't going to work.
- 55:07Right? Yeah and so at the we're all
- 55:09thinking and yeah it's a very last minute once was They put me
- 55:17into that part and that was very enjoyable doing.
- 55:21Oh, I bet doing those hands. That was one of my favorite
- 55:25parts and I got to I got to put my hand in Bunsen Honeydew and
- 55:30for a for a really wide shot where he's coming into a thing.
- 55:34And and I got a long tutorial from Big goals but exactly what
- 55:39and what not to do with buzz and how to do it, but he was one of
- 55:43my always one of my Favorite characters.
- 55:44So just got a kick out of being. Is there a reason you haven't?
- 55:50That's cool. I'm just looking at ya.
- 55:52Think I'm not Wiki now and there's a couple of more things
- 55:54here and there like letters to Santa.
- 55:57Apparently I'd have to go back and listen to it but apparently
- 56:00you were performing dr. Teeth and they forgot to dub it.
- 56:04So apparently there's a line of yours as dr.
- 56:06Teeth in letters to Santa It's their son Disney.
- 56:12Plus right now everybody go go, find it.
- 56:14Hey Dylan says a in my personal space.
- 56:17There's a fuzzy line that he's that they forgot to dub, so it's
- 56:22him as faulty, but there's no reason you haven't done more
- 56:26with them, is it just cause you're so busy with Sesame and
- 56:28all the sort of Productions around the world, or is it just
- 56:31a personal thing? Like you decided, where is it?
- 56:34Well, it's doing with the, with the To be perfectly candid.
- 56:43There was there were there were years when you know, when they
- 56:47were the years that they were fully staffed and with the with
- 56:51the, the crew, you know, Richard and Jerry and Dave, and you
- 57:00know, that when and Kathy and Louise in the whole group, you
- 57:05know, they were they were fully staffed up and then there were
- 57:09called the years when, when the classic Muppets were kind of in
- 57:13flux and when, you know, when Jim Jim passed away and this is
- 57:19my take on it. This is not official, it's just
- 57:22me talking and in a way things were in flux and the company got
- 57:26sold and it was the you know that Holding company that had it
- 57:29for a while and then they started selling parts off and
- 57:32that's when Sesame Street bought the Sesame Street muppets.
- 57:37And, you know, there were years when the Muppets were not really
- 57:42what you'd call a viable creative entity, in my opinion
- 57:49and you know, and then I was in then, you know, when Disney
- 57:53finally did the deal and they finally got and they finally
- 57:57found what to do with them and they don't know how to use them
- 58:02to their best advantage, and how to really breathe some life into
- 58:09this into these wonderful characters in this wonderful.
- 58:11Fantastic. And by then, you know, I was, I
- 58:17was starting to be the old guy and I was not the new Flash
- 58:22young Puppeteer anymore, you know, I was so the guys that
- 58:28That they brought in to breathe life into that were, you know,
- 58:32the new guys, the, the younger folks, which is fine with me.
- 58:36I don't mind being being my age and having lived the things and
- 58:42had the opportunities that I've had.
- 58:43You know, I had massive amount of took those opportunities that
- 58:47those those folks didn't get. So, the way I look at it and I
- 58:52was, you know, I missed that boat.
- 58:56I would love to have worked. Do you know Disney Muppet stuff
- 59:00but by the time that franchise had new life, I had moved on to
- 59:07other things, you know. And and they didn't necessarily
- 59:11want, you know, somebody who was in their in their late 50s.
- 59:17Working a puppet that, you know, he might, you know, croak before
- 59:21they where you could, maybe that's a good thing if you're
- 59:27playing a frog, right. Right, maybe they want you to
- 59:29cry. Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but
- 59:34horrible pun Jokes Aside. Thank you for the horrible.
- 59:41Yes. And I had, you know, plus, you
- 59:43know, that's, that's, that's, that's one take on it.
- 59:47I was also very happy at Sesame Street, and, and kind of was
- 59:54somewhat useful at Sesame Street's.
- 59:55So while some of the other guys, Guys and gals were, you know,
- 1:00:00off doing, you know, doing the Muppet stuff?
- 1:00:02Somebody had to hold down the fort to Sesame Street.
- 1:00:05Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
- 1:00:07And, you know, and I would like to think that for, you know, for
- 1:00:10a few years, you know, that was, you know, I was helping to, you
- 1:00:17know, to keep the Sesame franchise.
- 1:00:22You know, working working working nicely.
- 1:00:26Yeah. And you know and I like doing my
- 1:00:29own projects to and I've got a you're not going to you do you
- 1:00:33have a lot of great off Sesame projects, you had a the
- 1:00:38Halloween stage show a couple years ago which you'll have to
- 1:00:42remind me what it was called because all of you.
- 1:00:45All Hallows Eve, which I saw some video.
- 1:00:49I saw some of the puppets, those puppets.
- 1:00:51Like, it looks incredible. Did you build all those
- 1:00:53yourself? Oh, there they are.
- 1:00:56Oh yeah, wow. Okay, we're looking we're
- 1:00:59looking at some some spooky skeletons with some jack
- 1:01:02o'lantern heads and what looks like a a hunchback or is he just
- 1:01:06hunched over? He's just hunched over.
- 1:01:08That's a stick that makes. Oh, that's okay.
- 1:01:10That's a like a very strange. Almost kind of bunraku style
- 1:01:18vent dummy of Spencer lat. Oh lady Puppeteer.
- 1:01:23Spencer lot. Yeah.
- 1:01:25One of the leads in the thing. Yeah.
- 1:01:28So that was that was a project of love that I that I worked on
- 1:01:32for a number of years, is that? Because there's a point in this
- 1:01:40I'm not comparing myself to anyone, but I also really like
- 1:01:46being home. I love that.
- 1:01:49I'm crazy mad about my wife and I've got young kids and and I
- 1:01:56don't mind being home at all. I can, you know, I'm I'm not a
- 1:02:02workaholic I you know, during the during the lockdown and in
- 1:02:082020 I gardened for a year and a half and there were, you know,
- 1:02:13there was jobs here and there and things to do, professional
- 1:02:21work, but I'm perfectly happy working in a garden.
- 1:02:26And, you know, and cooking dinner for my my family and
- 1:02:28playing with my dogs and and not going anywhere.
- 1:02:34Everything I Need Is Right Here. Sure.
- 1:02:38Yeah. You know, I'm right in the
- 1:02:39middle of a shop. I can build anything in this
- 1:02:42shop and I guess it's fun. Sort of saying the shop behind
- 1:02:46you like obviously this is the podcast people can't see it but
- 1:02:49you've got, you know, there's two giant eyeballs.
- 1:02:51I can see there's an elephant head.
- 1:02:54If there's That's a very creepy clown puppet.
- 1:02:58That's definitely going to help my dreams.
- 1:03:01Yeah. Oh that's he's going to have
- 1:03:02he's going to have his head and Snuffy's body.
- 1:03:05Okay. Yeah that's yeah, that is.
- 1:03:07That is one of the creepiest things I've ever made.
- 1:03:09It's it's really Terrible. Oh no.
- 1:03:17Oh, I hate it. Well, I'll see if I can put a
- 1:03:20photo of this on the Instagram or something when this goes
- 1:03:23live. But oh, my gosh.
- 1:03:26Like, it's terrifying. It's like a, like a killer
- 1:03:28clowns from outer space and it's even creepier up close.
- 1:03:32Oh no. Oh, I hate it, pretty.
- 1:03:40Oh yeah, I've a clown thing. So yeah, basically, I turned all
- 1:03:46of my. Oh my My horrible clown
- 1:03:49nightmares into into the into this character.
- 1:03:52Oh, he helped lots of different go.
- 1:03:54Oh, yeah, that's yeah. That's terrifying.
- 1:03:56Marty although he does he's got a scary when he's eyebrows go
- 1:04:00up. Yeah.
- 1:04:08Speaking of this is a small version of the same kind of
- 1:04:18nibbling at your feet. All right, thanks for that.
- 1:04:20Yep. There you go.
- 1:04:22Now that's a free one for you. Yeah.
- 1:04:23Thanks for sharing. It's bigger and bigger.
- 1:04:37And the the final version you can, I'm sure you can pull them
- 1:04:40up online but the final version was about I don't know, 20 feet
- 1:04:44tall. It was just oh great, horrible
- 1:04:49writable. That's that really was designed
- 1:04:52to be pretty much the worst thing imaginable does not a sure
- 1:04:57thing not a kids show. No, speaking of your stage work,
- 1:05:04you think a lot of people don't know that, you were one of the
- 1:05:07original puppeteers on Audrey to, for Little Shop of Horrors
- 1:05:11in 1983. And then again, when it came to
- 1:05:13Broadway in 2003, and did you watch, We're come the movie as
- 1:05:18well, or was it just the stage show?
- 1:05:20Just a stage show? But I, but I, but I wasn't just
- 1:05:24a puppeteer. I mean, I designed built and
- 1:05:26designed and built the thing as well, that's incredible.
- 1:05:29I mean, Regional. That thing is one of the, the
- 1:05:33most iconic. Yeah.
- 1:05:35Puppet characters in all of Theater history.
- 1:05:38So I love it. She, she was one of those things
- 1:05:42where a life imitated art almost perfectly.
- 1:05:47You know, where, you know, in the, in the play, the plant, you
- 1:05:50know, starts a little, and grows, and grows, and eventually
- 1:05:53takes over the world where the, you know, the play itself did
- 1:05:56exactly that as well. So it became one of the biggest
- 1:06:00stars Amateur properties out there and then well, I did the
- 1:06:07original in 82 which wasn't an off-off-broadway showcase that I
- 1:06:14made a whopping $350 for the entire run and then and then did
- 1:06:20it again in 2003 on Broadway. And when it's far as the Film
- 1:06:30Production, I was in London for a lot of the Film Production,
- 1:06:34Ellen, and I were still together then, so we were, we were living
- 1:06:37together in a nice little place. Way off the Beaten Track and I
- 1:06:42was, I was actually doing tale of the bunny picnic then.
- 1:06:47So interesting I was doing that project which was shooting
- 1:06:50concurrently with with little shop I believe.
- 1:06:55And I was working a start working on spitting image back
- 1:06:57then too and so I was really enjoying the spitting image
- 1:07:02thing and then my best friend Anthony Hansberry.
- 1:07:06Did a lot of the lead puppeteering for the for the
- 1:07:10little shop film. So you are like kind of just
- 1:07:14popping. I was the face there on the
- 1:07:16second. I was there set as Ellen's
- 1:07:19boyfriend, right? Was that was my main, my main
- 1:07:24purpose. And, you know, as you know
- 1:07:28somewhat, you know, Godfather to the project from from its
- 1:07:32Inception. But sure.
- 1:07:35Yeah. Lyle Conway, just did an amazing
- 1:07:39job on those on the characters for that.
- 1:07:42It's It's, it's known in the business as the last great
- 1:07:46rubber monster. It was it was just before CG and
- 1:07:52there's there's, you know, there's no CG on them.
- 1:07:54They just they just played with the timing a little bit, the the
- 1:07:57film speed. Yeah.
- 1:07:58But everything that you see, as far as all, that all, that all
- 1:08:02the movement on that incredible creature was all levers, cables,
- 1:08:07levers, and rubber done. Amazing.
- 1:08:11I know it's incredible. I love it, me too.
- 1:08:15And then I also have to ask you, because, as we're recording
- 1:08:18this, Or a few weeks away from Stephen.
- 1:08:20Sondheim's passing cut, because you worked on set design for
- 1:08:24frogs, one of his lesser-known musical.
- 1:08:26Yeah. Did you ever get to meet
- 1:08:28sometime? You know what I did?
- 1:08:30We had the big kickoff for for the project Susan Susan, I'm the
- 1:08:41director. Like letter name isn't
- 1:08:45Strassman. Susan Stroman stroke so I was
- 1:08:49close. Yeah it was it was on the tip of
- 1:08:51my tongue and the wrong tip and oh and who's the who's the lead
- 1:08:58on that? He also wrote it.
- 1:09:01Ah blanket sorry. But that's alright.
- 1:09:05We had we had a the big kind of get together to kick the whole
- 1:09:10project off. And as Stephen Sondheim, was
- 1:09:14there, when I wish I had, I wish I had the nerve to, to talk to
- 1:09:19him. Just just just tell him how much
- 1:09:21I love Sweeney Todd. Yeah, but that was, that was a
- 1:09:28fun production to work on. I built a built, some couple of
- 1:09:33crazy puppets for that and one of one of which got cut and it
- 1:09:39will die, it was it's one of my professional regrets that thing
- 1:09:46never saw the light of day that never never saw performance
- 1:09:48because it was Kick-Ass, it was really something special.
- 1:09:54What? What was it?
- 1:09:55It was it was this a mythical creature called?
- 1:09:58The guy? Geez they and they you know they
- 1:10:02wanted me to build this big huge creature and I came up with a
- 1:10:08concept and pitched it to Susan and she liked it and then she
- 1:10:15and I pitched it to the writer of God.
- 1:10:18He from The producers, and we said that the movie, The
- 1:10:24Producers, Nathan line, Nathan Lane, Nathan Lee, who wrote it,
- 1:10:29we got that in started. Thank you, Nathan.
- 1:10:33And so we sold on this idea. And what it was was it's kind of
- 1:10:38its kind of an old as a puppeteer meme to a certain
- 1:10:40extent where you take a whole bunch of people and you form
- 1:10:45them, you know, you know, you know, I guess you can't see this
- 1:10:49but I mean, you guys you to sit can but This was one of the
- 1:10:52bases of it. My head is the pupil, and this
- 1:10:56is in my arms of the eye and the pupil is looking left and right.
- 1:11:03So, I designed and this full thing where maybe a dozen
- 1:11:11performers all in black velvet with with red, orange and yellow
- 1:11:19stripes as highlights on we're We're sewn carefully into the
- 1:11:24costumes. So, when they formed together in
- 1:11:26the shape, they form this big huge face and some of them had
- 1:11:31had Keith on their arms. And they would this person with
- 1:11:35whole clowns arm over here and then you have this big huge
- 1:11:38mouth and the eyes they had helmets, they put on their eyes
- 1:11:42that to make their heads green. And they they had webbing behind
- 1:11:47their arms or they lift their arms up there and this and white
- 1:11:50fabric would be behind them. And and they would, they all
- 1:11:54kind of crawled and used on to stayed in this, in this swamp
- 1:11:59scene and then they would form. There's somebody brought him a
- 1:12:03wheelbarrow which was like a little step unit and the boom,
- 1:12:06boom! In this thing formed right in
- 1:12:07front of your face and John byner.
- 1:12:11The great comedian did the voice for it.
- 1:12:13He was part of a kind of like the the third eye, he was there
- 1:12:18and as he as he did the lines, The the character kind of
- 1:12:27mirrored his face and it was just right.
- 1:12:31He said yeah, yeah, it sounds like we're looking forward to
- 1:12:34saying that on the knee stays and sesame strike.
- 1:12:36Well, I got all kind of maybe season 54.
- 1:12:42Yeah Vines. But I'll trust that one out
- 1:12:46again. Some other time.
- 1:12:48Well, Marty, we have taken up so much of your time.
- 1:12:50We could literally talk to you for hours and hours.
- 1:12:52About this. It's okay.
- 1:12:53I know you got out of it, but the, but the dogs have started
- 1:12:55strut stop barking. So, so, well before we go, we do
- 1:13:01have Jarred, my each have a series of questions.
- 1:13:04We each have our own that. We ask our guests this week.
- 1:13:07I've got a few questions to ask you.
- 1:13:10Lightning round style, feel free to take as much or little tiny
- 1:13:15here. Here we go.
- 1:13:17I'm learning to be more brief with my Bing Bing.
- 1:13:22Grief with my answers is a good challenge for me.
- 1:13:26All right, well, I'll try. But if you fail, it's still a
- 1:13:29win for. All right.
- 1:13:31Marty, what is your favorite dessert?
- 1:13:34Favorite dessert. This is a lightness is, that's
- 1:13:38why I gotta think of like a fast.
- 1:13:39Fast answer. I'm rather fond of like banana
- 1:13:42cream pie, but but pumpkin put this a great choice with with
- 1:13:47ice cream. Yeah.
- 1:13:52I'll go. All right.
- 1:13:54Who is your favorite superhero? When I was a kid, I loved Green
- 1:13:59Lantern. I just for some reason I always
- 1:14:04was crazy about doing there. Yeah.
- 1:14:08Look, real answer. If there was a muppet based on
- 1:14:11yourself who beside you, would you want to perform it Living or
- 1:14:19dead. Who would I want to perform a
- 1:14:21muppet based on me? Spencer Locke.
- 1:14:28Great choice, super-talented guy, Marty please pick a number
- 1:14:33between 1 and 100 15 the number 15 movie on the AFI top. 100
- 1:14:40movie list is 2001 A Space Odyssey.
- 1:14:43Have you seen it and do you like it?
- 1:14:46Yes, I saw it. When it first came out, I saw it
- 1:14:48in the movie theaters, I admit I was high when I saw it and I was
- 1:14:54in high school and it was like, the first time my brother Older
- 1:14:57brother like like, had me smoke, some, some weed and I was, yeah,
- 1:15:03I was fit to be tied. And I thought it was one of the
- 1:15:06most amazing, beautiful things I've ever seen in my life and,
- 1:15:09you know, and that, and that hasn't changed.
- 1:15:13And I think it's, I think it's, I think it broke so many rules
- 1:15:17of filmmaking, and it's just A Marvel of Simplicity and beauty
- 1:15:23and profundity. I absolutely agree and I've
- 1:15:26never even seen it high. I've never I've never seen it.
- 1:15:31You don't see if you can watch on the big screen.
- 1:15:34I feel like that's the only way, right?
- 1:15:36Well, you need all of your senses to be taken up by the
- 1:15:39weirdness of Stanley Kubrick and yeah, and you need to, you know,
- 1:15:42not not look at it with, you know, through the lens of so
- 1:15:46many of the movies we've seen over there.
- 1:15:49Yeah, Splash. It's it's just, it's a, it's
- 1:15:56it's I think it's very accurate with regards to what?
- 1:16:00Space is probably really like just which is just quiet and
- 1:16:06nothing going on and waiting for a month after doing nothing.
- 1:16:14But the movies more interested in interesting than and it's
- 1:16:17waiting around doing nothing for months.
- 1:16:18That's right. That's right.
- 1:16:20So our last guests who was Alison Damien.
- 1:16:23Alex Denis, wonderful. She is wonderful.
- 1:16:29She not knowing who our next guest was going to be wanted to
- 1:16:32ask you. What?
- 1:16:33Instruments? Do you wish you could play
- 1:16:36piano? God, I wish I could play the
- 1:16:38piano. Yes, I'm here.
- 1:16:40Yeah, I I consider it one of my great.
- 1:16:44Feelings that I can't speak any other language except English
- 1:16:49and I can't play the piano. And I bought bought a piano and
- 1:16:54I try to, you know, it was going to take lessons with my little
- 1:16:57daughter and you know, I still think I could still learn how to
- 1:17:00play piano. It's never too late.
- 1:17:03I'm the same, it's hot. I took lessons when I was about
- 1:17:0612 and I stopped after about a month because I was like, yeah.
- 1:17:09And that is like, my biggest regret in life that I didn't do
- 1:17:11it because I just want to get behind it and know what I'm
- 1:17:13doing. I don't need to be a master
- 1:17:14pianist. I've never get behind it and,
- 1:17:16like, kinda can bang out, Let It Be by the Beatles, and that's
- 1:17:19about it. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:17:22I just, I'd just like to know some chord progressions and to
- 1:17:26be able to noodle in a, in a, you know, in a way that
- 1:17:32mirrored, what I was feeling? Well, I'll come over to America,
- 1:17:37and we'll take lessons together. How's that sound?
- 1:17:40Yes, yes, I need. I need, I need to push myself on
- 1:17:43that. Yes, don't think I could do that
- 1:17:46now for sure. And finally, without knowing who
- 1:17:51it is, what question would you like our next guest to answer?
- 1:17:59What makes them? Delirious with joy most in their
- 1:18:09life. I like it.
- 1:18:12That is something we're genuinely curious about whoever
- 1:18:14that next guest is going to be. I mean, I don't know her that
- 1:18:17next guest is going to be and I have to bring them here.
- 1:18:19So that'll be fun. Figured out Jerry dude.
- 1:18:23Choose that guessed based on that question.
- 1:18:25I do know what, I probably know. I'll keep it in mind, I'll
- 1:18:28remember that. Oh, Martin Robinson, thank you.
- 1:18:32So So much for being here, this has been an absolutely thank you
- 1:18:36for chatting with us about Sesame and everything else that
- 1:18:39you do. And you've done, we're looking
- 1:18:41forward to the next season of Sesame Street, and the next
- 1:18:43season of help stirs and everything else that you've got
- 1:18:48in the works. So, thanks for being here.
- 1:18:51I will say, now, this is, this is a real Joy, why I was in a
- 1:18:54room with you once this is back many years ago and I was going
- 1:18:58to nurture, this was 2008. So I kind of set a Sesame Street
- 1:19:01and I was too nervous to go and say hello to you.
- 1:19:05And I was like I said, that's not a problem, unless you get
- 1:19:08and I can't, I can't. So, it's lovely that I get to
- 1:19:11actually sit and properly. Say, thank you for all the
- 1:19:13amazing stuff you've done. You're very welcome.
- 1:19:16And you know and you can come over and give me a hug any time
- 1:19:20for any reason. What an invitation, wow.
- 1:19:24What an invitation, wow.