Latest / Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com / Fraggle Talk Episode 10: "Wembley the Spokesfraggle" with Puppeteers Kanja Chen & Ali Eisner

Transcript

Fraggle Talk Episode 10: "Wembley the Spokesfraggle" with Puppeteers Kanja Chen & Ali Eisner · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

• 0:17
  Hello and welcome to fraggle, talk.
• 0:20
  The Unofficial Fraggle Rock podcast brought to you by tough
• 0:22
  exhaust cam. This is the podcast where we
• 0:25
  cover Fraggle, Rock back to the Rock Episode by episode along
• 0:28
  with the talents of producers perform.
• 0:30
  Murs writers and Builders who helped put it together.
• 0:32
  I'm your host silly creature Johannes.
• 0:35
  Today we are talking about episode 10 Wembley the spokes
• 0:38
  fraggle in which Wembley and the coolest doozer in the world,
• 0:41
  create an effective marketing campaign.
• 0:44
  We have two exciting guests today.
• 0:46
  First up is a puppeteer whose work can be seen on Supernatural
• 0:49
  Academy nominal on and The Sunny Side Up Show.
• 0:53
  I'm back to the Rock. They perform turbo, doozer,
• 0:55
  Balsam, the minstrel and read fraggles, right hand?
• 0:58
  We are extremely To welcome Ali. Eisner to the podcast.
• 1:02
  Hi Ali. Lovely to meet you all, high
• 1:05
  fraggle fans. And our next guest is a
• 1:08
  puppeteer, puppet Builder and animator.
• 1:10
  Whose work can be seen on mr. Meaty and oh, yuck here on back
• 1:14
  to the Rock, he performs, the Grizzard Ferguson merggle, and
• 1:17
  character find of the Year pogie fraggle, we are extremely
• 1:21
  pleased to welcome, Konya Chen to the podcast, picanha.
• 1:24
  Hey Joey, thanks so much. I'm super happy to be here and I
• 1:27
  love the fact that I'm here with this super-awesome Hey malli.
• 1:30
  Hey Ally. Oh well Conyers it's no it's no
• 1:33
  secret. That Kanye and I are good
• 1:34
  friends, we love each other. We talked constantly so much joy
• 1:40
  when you asked us to do this together we were so what a
• 1:43
  caring to have the two of you here.
• 1:45
  And I have to assume that all the puppeteers on Fraggle Rock
• 1:47
  are good friends. Just because you've spent so
• 1:49
  much time under the set together.
• 1:52
  Well, they became good friends. It was, we were just talking
• 1:55
  about this yesterday, you know, we were talking about all the
• 1:58
  reviews that we read and You know, are there so many lines
• 2:02
  were just like it was magic. It was magic.
• 2:03
  Everything watched was magic and I know, you know, it's it's true
• 2:09
  that we feel that it was Magic on screen because it felt really
• 2:14
  healthy and magical behind the screen.
• 2:17
  People became very close and all the puppeteers really were super
• 2:23
  supportive for half a year without flaw?
• 2:25
  I don't know. How do you feel Kanye?
• 2:27
  Yeah, I mean the fact that we were I mean away.
• 2:29
  Way from home, we're all together.
• 2:31
  And not only like onset, but even outside like after, you
• 2:36
  know, you know, a shoot day would wrap or with a weekend,
• 2:39
  was there? We were hanging out like we
• 2:40
  were, we were Buds and there's just like Ali said, there's so
• 2:45
  much to be seen on screen when people gel when people really
• 2:50
  connect and they enjoy each other's company and you know,
• 2:54
  enjoy, you know the focus on the word Joy.
• 2:58
  There it comes through. Yeah, we had a blast doing, it
• 3:03
  was shocking. You know, and working on and
• 3:05
  shows is always wonderful. But, you know, usually you get
• 3:09
  like a couple dingleberries or there's, you know, some dips
• 3:12
  and, you know, there's Hills and Valleys and for me and for so
• 3:16
  many for everybody else, I talk to it, was the seamless joyous
• 3:22
  magical experience, it meant so much to us.
• 3:27
  It was, it was just so healthy, who's we?
• 3:29
  Actually really healing. It was a great heel experience
• 3:33
  for me and it was such a crazy time to be alive then during the
• 3:37
  pandemic. And it was like, we just had
• 3:39
  this, you know, special little magic pod where we were making
• 3:44
  each other laugh for half year. It was it was that's the best I
• 3:48
  think that's exactly what you want to hear about people
• 3:49
  working on Fraggle Rock you know.
• 3:51
  Yes speaking of which let's talk about how each of you got to
• 3:55
  Fraggle Rock Ellie. We could start with you what was
• 3:58
  your what was your journey? To get into the room.
• 4:02
  Wow, well, I mean, I'm 48. I've been wanting to work for
• 4:05
  hens and since I was about 5, I know that you can't see me right
• 4:08
  now. But right there, on my mantle,
• 4:10
  that's the first puppet I've ever had.
• 4:12
  That's an Ernie puppet that my parents bought me.
• 4:14
  When I was about 5 years old, I totally had that same Ernie it's
• 4:20
  for people who can't see it. It's like that rubber head.
• 4:22
  It's got the real hair, the long arms Mel.
• 4:25
  So intensely of plastic that people thought they were, they
• 4:28
  should take it away from you because it was Probably, but my
• 4:32
  very specific memory. I had the Burton, the Ernie.
• 4:34
  And at one point I realized, you know, they've never had a
• 4:37
  haircut, they should probably have a haircut, because it's
• 4:39
  their hair is going to keep growing.
• 4:41
  And so, I took a pair of scissors to, to their hair and
• 4:44
  completely little buzz Arena, but yeah, I'm sorry guys.
• 4:47
  Yeah, that's okay. My still wild and crazy.
• 4:50
  The hair smells even worse than the body but it's about keep it
• 4:54
  up there. It reminds me of where I came
• 4:56
  from. So you know, I've been wanting
• 4:58
  to work for heads and since I was Five.
• 5:01
  And I've been in TV kids TV for last 25 years and worked for
• 5:06
  like all the corpse and on a building shows.
• 5:08
  And, you know, I grew up with those shows were, like, kind of
• 5:15
  a third parent to me. I was a bit of a weird art kid
• 5:18
  and so it's a lot of time in the basement and feeling different
• 5:22
  and you know, realizing when I was older that I was transgender
• 5:25
  and you know, those shows made me feel very safe Jim.
• 5:29
  She always made me feel safe and seen.
• 5:32
  And I connected to the heart and the comedy.
• 5:35
  And I really feel like it helped me grow as a creative person.
• 5:38
  And so, you know, I was working this passed last year and I got
• 5:44
  an email from somebody. I've known also for a long time,
• 5:48
  lovely man named Jason, and he, you know, said they're looking
• 5:52
  for people and I Edition. And, and when I got the call, I
• 6:00
  I was just in shock that they were interested in me.
• 6:04
  I was just, I was overjoyed. I couldn't believe it.
• 6:07
  And what was that audition like for you?
• 6:10
  It was so much fun, but what do they actually have you do
• 6:14
  though? I'm sure it was fun, huh?
• 6:15
  Yeah, my allowed to, I'm allowed, right?
• 6:17
  To say this kind of stuff. Okay, thanks.
• 6:20
  Oh yeah, it was super fun. John Doe tag.
• 6:23
  Leah who's just really a hero to all of us.
• 6:28
  I would love to talk about Him a little later if you catch her
• 6:31
  into it. But he, you know, he introduced
• 6:33
  himself. He was so warm and generous his
• 6:36
  Vibe, and it just says he felt so refreshing to kind of just
• 6:41
  see, and it was so nice to be welcomed by him in the audition
• 6:46
  video video and he, you know, he described exactly what we
• 6:50
  needed. So we would the fraggle dance.
• 6:54
  We would, you know, they give us a couple of scenes and We had to
• 7:00
  read those scenes in any voice that came to mind and any kind
• 7:05
  of inspiration they wanted us to go for it.
• 7:07
  So I think one of them cono was like boobers line and boober
• 7:13
  boober and oh my gosh, I do it. Yeah like I don't get the same
• 7:19
  sides. I think.
• 7:20
  I kind of feel like we might have each had slightly different
• 7:23
  sides. I don't know.
• 7:23
  Yeah I'm sure because I think that they researched everybody a
• 7:26
  bit you know like or I think Johnny told me that they Did
• 7:30
  look into us a bunch before making decisions.
• 7:32
  So yeah, we got to dance to a song.
• 7:35
  We had to do not only you know, it was really fun to kind of try
• 7:41
  to make the Fret, do the fraggle Dances, all those dances that
• 7:45
  you saw you saw growing up. So we got a chance to kind of
• 7:48
  show those moves off and technically what you can do and
• 7:52
  then we had to kind of hit home with a bunch of scenes and I use
• 7:55
  this Little Beaver puppet that I have here that is just the
• 7:57
  weirdest looking puppet ever. And I was making myself laughs.
• 8:01
  So I was just like, well, if they don't go for it, at least,
• 8:04
  at least I make myself, right? It's long, as you're having fun.
• 8:07
  That's all that really matters last.
• 8:10
  And so, yeah. When they called me, I just, I
• 8:13
  couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it.
• 8:15
  I was shocked. I started crying.
• 8:18
  Honey. Was that similar for you?
• 8:20
  Like do you just kind of got the phone call?
• 8:22
  And you're like, you're just being put put on tape and doing
• 8:26
  fraggle dances? Yeah, well yeah, I think the
• 8:29
  specifics of the actual taped auditioner are very similar.
• 8:33
  I think the way I found out is a little bit different just
• 8:35
  because as Ali said they've been in the puppetry Biz forever and
• 8:41
  I've been one of those people who I've always loved puppets,
• 8:45
  but it's always being a kind of a side love for me and I had
• 8:49
  another career and that was kind of my main thing.
• 8:53
  I was always doing my other career so I always felt like I
• 8:55
  kind of missed out on opportunities and The pandemic
• 8:58
  really did a number on, a lot of people in for me and I just, you
• 9:05
  know, I remember kind of just burying myself in my day work
• 9:10
  and I just happened to be talking to a good friend of
• 9:13
  mine, Dan Garza, as people may or may not know, please Junior
• 9:18
  gorg as well as a bunch of other characters.
• 9:19
  And I was just talking to him and he's like, hey have you
• 9:27
  heard? Anything about the audition.
• 9:29
  I was like, oh I don't know what the audition is, and he's like,
• 9:32
  well, it's in Canada. I can't tell you what the
• 9:34
  audition is, but it's in Canada. You need to like, get on this.
• 9:39
  And I think I just sent like a little email just to hence and I
• 9:43
  had been a part of their diversity training program back
• 9:45
  in 2016, and I just sort of said, hey, I'm Canadian.
• 9:49
  I heard there might be something going on, you know, I'm not sure
• 9:53
  if you got my information and sooner.
• 9:57
  If I got an email from from Jason just like Ali did and he
• 10:04
  assisted probably Jason Hawk we is is he's a puppeteer here in
• 10:08
  Canada. And you know, growing up, it's
• 10:11
  funny because Ali's talked about how they, you know, they've been
• 10:13
  in the biz like Jason hopley. Ali eisinger were huge names for
• 10:18
  me growing up and they were people.
• 10:20
  I aspired to kind of work with as well as hence in there.
• 10:23
  All these names of people I want to work with.
• 10:25
  So you know all this stuff kind of came together.
• 10:27
  Gather in this one email and Jason are essentially said,
• 10:30
  sending this video. We're auditioning for this for
• 10:34
  Fraggle Rock. And I was like, well, I can't
• 10:36
  believe it sent in my stuff, I had sides and and I just
• 10:39
  remember, just kind of going into it going, I'll just have
• 10:43
  some fun really as well. That's what I was like, what do
• 10:46
  you know? What am I going to do?
• 10:48
  You know I'm buried in, you know, my stressful work right
• 10:52
  now and I ended up sending stuff in and just like Ali, I got this
• 10:56
  message back. Hey, were interested in you and
• 10:58
  I remember going to my wife and going is this for real is he
• 11:02
  like is this really happening? I can't I can't process it this
• 11:06
  right now. Yeah and I also want to add that
• 11:10
  Johnny T is someone who I had met briefly at the diversity
• 11:15
  Workshop. He came by and such a nice guy,
• 11:18
  but everyone's talking about what an amazing person little
• 11:21
  did. I know how true they were when
• 11:24
  they said, what a great per individual will get here.
• 11:27
  Can you believe that that was our boss?
• 11:30
  Kanye like a view that is like you know if anybody wants to
• 11:35
  learn how to be a good manager. Yeah.
• 11:38
  You watch the work of Johnny turtle, glia and Hallie Stanford
• 11:42
  and read it. Like real, I just there it was.
• 11:46
  They were the best managers man. They know how to manage people
• 11:50
  and artists, and I love hearing that.
• 11:53
  Yeah, that's odd. That's such good news bosses
• 11:56
  y'all. Yeah.
• 11:58
  They're exactly who you want them to be?
• 12:00
  Yes! Yes, well, and if we talk again
• 12:03
  about like egoless, right? Like, I remember walking on set
• 12:07
  and meeting Hallie and meeting Rita and meeting Tim.
• 12:10
  And and then, you know, actually meeting Johnny and you know, you
• 12:16
  almost you almost have to take a step back and go these people's
• 12:20
  body of work. Yeah.
• 12:21
  These incredible because they're like friends.
• 12:24
  They're so open. You could you feel like you
• 12:26
  could walk up to Them and like there was like they really went
• 12:30
  out of their way to make you feel valued, right?
• 12:33
  And that's that's yeah, that's in any workplace is very hard to
• 12:36
  find and it and it really affects a team and it affects
• 12:42
  like, the work that people end up putting out and the overall
• 12:45
  tone and Vibe. Yeah, it was, it was really
• 12:49
  amazing to kind of realize that they were so true.
• 12:51
  And I, for me, anyway, I don't know what your perspective is
• 12:54
  calling you, but I just feel like the reason Is that they're
• 12:57
  there and in the work field that they're in and decided to become
• 13:02
  managers. I feel like they're in it for
• 13:04
  the same reasons that I am and in kids TV, for the same reasons
• 13:09
  that I am and think and care about people the same way that I
• 13:13
  care about community. And they show it in every way
• 13:16
  every possible way that they can, they show up and they work
• 13:20
  so hard to make that show. Awesome.
• 13:23
  And I'm so happy that, you know, we get all these accolades when
• 13:27
  it Comes out all the puppeteers. Oh my God, like it was so
• 13:30
  exciting to do. You know, turbo doozer, and
• 13:32
  people like, you know, all these things.
• 13:34
  But then I think about, you know, I almost wish.
• 13:36
  And I was so happy to hear that Holly and Johnny and Rita, and
• 13:39
  these people were on your show because these people behind are
• 13:43
  just rock stars, you know, and they deserve so much credit.
• 13:49
  Yeah, as generous as you're describing them, it's exactly
• 13:52
  been my experience working on this podcast with them because
• 13:54
  not only, you know, where they Enough to use some time to to
• 14:00
  appear as guest on this podcast. But as all of our listeners
• 14:03
  know, they've been in every single episode, providing these
• 14:07
  extra commentaries for us, which they don't have to do like that
• 14:11
  was just a very want to because they wanna show ya extremely
• 14:15
  generous and and I mean Connie and I talked about this a lot.
• 14:18
  Hopefully it's okay. I'm here.
• 14:19
  I was probably about, you know, folks like Kanye and I that have
• 14:22
  growing Road, you know, have been in the industry and also
• 14:26
  grown up is Kids who felt different or, you know, spent a
• 14:30
  lot of time in the basement being weird.
• 14:33
  It was really incredible to have these bosses that were so
• 14:36
  encouraging and supportive because they really want you to
• 14:41
  succeed, not just for the show, but for your own self and it
• 14:46
  was, it was real. Yes.
• 14:49
  So regretting and to piggyback on what a lie saying, I mean, I
• 14:53
  think one of the things that you see come through, Screen in
• 14:57
  Fraggle Rock has so much to do with with the efforts of the
• 15:05
  producers from executive all the way through but I think the key
• 15:11
  point is that encouragement and Polly people believing in you
• 15:16
  and even with because I you know, it's performers were very
• 15:19
  hard on yourselves. I think that a lot of not just
• 15:21
  performers, but I think a lot of people who strive to be the
• 15:24
  best, they can be are naturally hard on ourselves.
• 15:27
  Elves. But we have to be able to really
• 15:31
  look at our, at our performances.
• 15:34
  Look at what we're doing with a, maybe a larger scope than just
• 15:39
  like, oh, I didn't raise the arm the way I wanted to and, and
• 15:42
  feedback from from, you know, from Hallie and from Rita, and
• 15:47
  from Tim and from. But I really want to hone in
• 15:50
  specifically on Johnny because he was like, right there in the
• 15:53
  trenches where you would do something and you'd quietly be.
• 15:58
  After you've done a performance and you're thinking to yourself,
• 16:00
  like did I, did I mess that up? And yeah, he would just kind of
• 16:04
  give you a very quiet. He'd walk over and just quietly,
• 16:07
  say something like you nailed that.
• 16:09
  Like that was awesome. And if you're like me, no, he
• 16:12
  knows. He just saw his nose and I think
• 16:15
  that's what makes a good manager, right?
• 16:17
  Like they, he's like, he's Johnny looks 12, but he's like
• 16:21
  this wife. He's just like the, the most
• 16:24
  handsome birds already. He's, he's like this Y is Old
• 16:27
  tree where I kind of realized halfway through where I kind of
• 16:30
  felt like, oh man, he understands people, he can see
• 16:36
  where people, you know, need to grow or like where they're
• 16:39
  nervous or, you know, he and he'll what he does.
• 16:44
  What he does is I feel like because he can see so much.
• 16:47
  He understands the people part so well, but he'll create
• 16:50
  opportunity in the places where he feels, you need it in the
• 16:55
  most supportive way and so it, It was just really, yeah, it was
• 16:58
  an environment of growth. I felt, I felt speaking of some
• 17:04
  of these talented folks that you get to work with Ali.
• 17:07
  You got to work really closely with Karen prowl.
• 17:10
  Oh, Karen my hero. You need your hero Karen prowl.
• 17:15
  What was it like? First of all?
• 17:16
  You, I mean, you got to be right next to her performing, you
• 17:19
  know. Right.
• 17:19
  Handing or both handing red when needed, but also, as red stand
• 17:24
  in. So I'd love to know more about
• 17:26
  like how that came about and And what kind of tips you got from
• 17:29
  Karen for how to how to be read? Holy moly.
• 17:33
  Well, first of all, if you can imagine out there you know
• 17:36
  growing up with this show and suddenly you're on it.
• 17:38
  Your first of all on the Fraggle Rock Roxette in the Great Hall,
• 17:43
  you know, like everyday that magic in that feeling of feeling
• 17:48
  grateful for that did not wear off in half year, but then
• 17:52
  having read on my hand I was like okay well maybe I did Okay,
• 17:58
  my career or in my attitude or in my something that the pup and
• 18:03
  ended up on my hand, you know, or that I work ended up wearing
• 18:06
  macaron and I'm, I'm endlessly grateful for that connection.
• 18:11
  And, you know, I just feel like the pairing personality-wise was
• 18:17
  just such an incredible experience for me because it's
• 18:20
  Karen Pharrell. I mean, I'm sure anybody
• 18:22
  listening to this there. Such a fan of Fraggle Rock.
• 18:25
  They probably know Karen's Bowl history.
• 18:27
  But if you're just one of these aliens who does not know, please
• 18:31
  go look at Karen's insanely fast body of work, like she has
• 18:37
  worked on everything during Christmas.
• 18:41
  I was watching. Was it think the I would hear
• 18:45
  that. I heard this mouse.
• 18:46
  You know? Like that's Karen. 400 mother
• 18:48
  Christmas. Carol she's the mouse.
• 18:50
  Yes. Yeah, of course just she has
• 18:53
  been a part of so much magic and So, she has not only the
• 18:59
  experience, but just the stories and the connections to all these
• 19:04
  old Heroes and friendships with them.
• 19:06
  And so, you know, being around her was just such an incredible
• 19:11
  experience, and so many levels as a person to be around.
• 19:15
  She's such a joy. She's so friendly.
• 19:18
  She's so accommodating. She's so generous, she's
• 19:21
  completely and utterly egoless even though she has this Insane
• 19:28
  body of work and experience and being around.
• 19:31
  That kind of egoless uncompetitive nature as a person
• 19:35
  in this industry. You know, Kanye and I talk about
• 19:38
  this all the time where we just hope for kind of like New Wave,
• 19:42
  a new generation of performers like that that can just be about
• 19:48
  the work and the puppetry and making a difference and Karen
• 19:51
  lives in that space all the time and she does things for such
• 19:56
  beautiful reason, but As a puppeteer.
• 19:58
  Technically I just I could talk about it for an hour or so, I'll
• 20:01
  try to keep this horse short being around her was so
• 20:05
  educational as a puppeteer the she is.
• 20:08
  So she's such a great combination of being able to.
• 20:14
  Okay, I'm gonna still have right on her hands and I'll watch it,
• 20:18
  I would sit there and watch it. It would start with it on her
• 20:23
  hand and she would look at the script and go.
• 20:26
  Okay? What Needs to be done, she
• 20:29
  would, it would move from her head, like, understanding.
• 20:31
  I'm going to do this, how I'm going to do this technically and
• 20:34
  she would break it down for herself part by part.
• 20:38
  And then that the feeling from her head would move down, I
• 20:42
  would watch it. The energy would move down to
• 20:44
  her, heart to her chest, and then she would bring in the
• 20:47
  emotion after the technical and then Redwood come to life and
• 20:51
  her process was Immaculate that way.
• 20:55
  She never sacrificed 14. Other.
• 20:57
  There are always worked so well together, the the heart, and the
• 21:01
  technical part, and I think that that's why red is so wonderful.
• 21:06
  And what you just described really makes sense for her
• 21:09
  specifically, because she has a history in, like, computer
• 21:11
  programming to write, do you? She told me at the end of our
• 21:15
  run, what she like works on one of my favorite video games ever
• 21:17
  of all time. She's working on Portals, she
• 21:20
  creates caring fellas, a genius people, she is a genius each,
• 21:24
  he's an actual genius, right? So yeah, and you know when she
• 21:29
  would give me tips. She was always so generous, or
• 21:33
  when I would make an error, she was she was so forgiving, you
• 21:36
  know, like she was such a warm energy, I would spring out of
• 21:40
  bed each day so excited to be around her.
• 21:43
  So again, Kanye's here, so I should forever.
• 21:49
  So yeah, yeah, we'll get back to the topic of karenpelham.
• 21:56
  Sure. Her name will come up once or
• 21:58
  twice on this episode, but Kanye, I do want to talk to you
• 22:02
  about one of the, my favorite moment.
• 22:06
  Things new things about Fraggle Rock.
• 22:09
  I don't know if people are on the Pokey train as much as I am,
• 22:13
  I love pogie fraggle and it's, I mean, it's just great that,
• 22:17
  like, you know, we don't have a lot of like, you know, certain
• 22:20
  fraggle characters in the original series to come back
• 22:22
  like, you know, Marlon fraggle like large, Marvin's there, but
• 22:25
  he's not really there very much so So to get a new character
• 22:28
  who's not a member of the main troop, not really you know get
• 22:33
  like he doesn't get his own story lines anything like that
• 22:36
  he's just kind of there. He has a name, he has a
• 22:38
  personality and you get to be the one to perform that
• 22:41
  character. So how did pogi get into your
• 22:43
  hands and where does poki come from from within you?
• 22:47
  Yeah, a great. Yeah, I mean, first of all, I
• 22:50
  have to go back to kind of the beginning of You know, me being
• 22:56
  accepted onto Fraggle Rock and my head spinning.
• 22:59
  And once we were there, we kind of knew that we were going to be
• 23:04
  like there was a crew of people who are going to be featured
• 23:07
  puppeteers and it's, you know, Ali is one of the group of a
• 23:12
  bunch of us and within the group they were offering new rules or
• 23:21
  auditions for these kind of new characters.
• 23:23
  And I just remember getting a request.
• 23:27
  So an email is like. So Kanye I'd love for you to
• 23:30
  read for these characters and I remember seeing them all and
• 23:34
  and, and like, I think I want to see it was Philo, was one of
• 23:39
  them and I was like, oh my gosh, like oh, like I think this has
• 23:42
  to be the one character I want. I was reading through all them
• 23:45
  Storyteller. I was like, okay, new spin on
• 23:47
  Storyteller. Okay, reading through bunch of
• 23:49
  them, large, Marvin got it. I know, large, Marvin, and then
• 23:52
  there's this pogie, and I was like, oh, I don't know who poke
• 23:56
  is, I have no idea. So I didn't know anything about.
• 23:59
  So out of all the people, I was like, well, I like the ones I
• 24:02
  know are the ones I was aiming for.
• 24:03
  So I remember just doing it was a Voice audition because I think
• 24:08
  we had already done our Puppeteer an audition and so it
• 24:11
  was character voices. And so, we were doing our
• 24:13
  characters who are coming up with different things.
• 24:15
  And I heard, you know, this twerk and I was like, thinking
• 24:19
  twerp and I was like, okay, all right, like to me level liked or
• 24:24
  a level Bubble. And and I kind of Drew on a
• 24:27
  whole bunch of things including and forgive me, son.
• 24:30
  I have a 16 year old son right now, but when he was younger
• 24:33
  very like high-energy always wanted to talk to me about
• 24:37
  things, you know, like as a father, you got to kind of sit
• 24:41
  through like a 10 minute, explanation of what he had for
• 24:44
  breakfast, and it really should take two seconds and I kind of
• 24:47
  just, I kind of like Drew on a lot of that and did the reading
• 24:53
  and found out, I got this care. The pogi and I was like cool.
• 24:58
  So I just I didn't know what to expect as like.
• 25:00
  Okay cool. And then I remember Johnny
• 25:02
  sending me a text and Johnny was like Kanye I just you know,
• 25:06
  congratulations on this character and I was like, thank
• 25:09
  you so much. Like wow, thank you.
• 25:11
  And remember someone else saying?
• 25:12
  Congratulations on pogi. I think I got an official like
• 25:16
  email from from production and I was like this I feel like this
• 25:21
  is a big thing and I'm not understanding what's going on.
• 25:24
  Like I don't really understand what's happening because for all
• 25:27
  I knew poke was just another background perfect character,
• 25:30
  like, and then I started realizing little character.
• 25:36
  This character is pretty going to be pretty important, and I
• 25:40
  have to say, my first time putting on pogie, I was like
• 25:45
  just doing the voice and I was like, yeah, totally suits the
• 25:48
  character and the first scene I did.
• 25:52
  I remember looking at Johnny, And looking at the people around
• 25:56
  me and I don't know what it was, but I was so calm.
• 26:00
  I felt so safe. And as a performer, I'm someone
• 26:06
  who I feel, I like, I excel when I'm comfortable.
• 26:11
  I feel like I'm very, very hard on myself and when I feel like,
• 26:14
  there are people who maybe are not encouraging me or not
• 26:18
  supportive of me. I don't think I do my best and
• 26:22
  this was the first time where I just remember sitting down.
• 26:24
  Down with a puppet and a character and just feeling so
• 26:27
  comfortable with everyone around me and having fun.
• 26:30
  And I stopped, I stopped thinking about puppetry.
• 26:34
  I stopped thinking about puppetry and I literally just
• 26:36
  became pogie and I just embraced it and I was trying to figure it
• 26:39
  out and and Johnny was like, I remember, Johnny was kind of
• 26:42
  like like we were talking about I think you poke had something
• 26:46
  and I was, I was like, all right.
• 26:48
  You just a kid, a doozer. You got to do the stick.
• 26:50
  I was like, and I would just kind of, like riff with Johnny,
• 26:53
  like, you know, between takes To try to get this characters.
• 26:56
  Like all right? Wow, a lot of people here, huh?
• 27:00
  Oh, and then, and then Johnny, I remember, Johnny cut it.
• 27:03
  I me going share, and then Johnny was like, okay?
• 27:06
  And I was like, yeah. Okay.
• 27:08
  And I was like, yeah, we're kind of like, I'm sussing this out of
• 27:11
  figuring it out. And I really, I really feel like
• 27:16
  my opportunity was who was so for me, very timely because it
• 27:23
  really helped me like I said, with the pandemic I was in, I
• 27:26
  was not in a very happy place and then literally to be to
• 27:31
  uprooted and put in the most happy place in the world.
• 27:34
  Surrounded by so many people and having an opportunity to
• 27:37
  finally, like, live out my dream.
• 27:39
  I mean, this was a true dream working for the Jim Henson
• 27:42
  company and and on such a lovely Soul, inspiring show.
• 27:50
  I couldn't have, I couldn't have had any better.
• 27:53
  Any better of an experience? So that's kind of how poke came
• 27:56
  to be. And I'm so honored that to have
• 27:59
  been able to create help bring this character to life, you'd so
• 28:04
  deserve it. Kanye your you deserve it.
• 28:07
  I mean it everybody. Listening like look up Kanye
• 28:10
  Chen like Kanye even though we've only worked together.
• 28:15
  I think we worked on mr. Media together.
• 28:17
  Yeah but Kanye I mean when you look at this dude you know he's
• 28:21
  this like really kind of like big strong NG mad, you know, and
• 28:27
  it's wild the the range that Kanya has like how versatile he
• 28:32
  is with his voices is kind of nuts.
• 28:35
  Like, there were times where he would, you know, put on some
• 28:37
  background character and do a line and people with waking
• 28:40
  like, shit and shoot. Dude, did that come out of?
• 28:42
  You should do that come out of you, you know?
• 28:46
  And yeah, he's you constantly use, you just continuously
• 28:51
  surprised me and everybody else. And Hoagie damn, like poke
• 28:57
  killed us man. Fucking killed us.
• 29:01
  Begin with well. We're ready.
• 29:05
  We're going to see a bit more pogi.
• 29:06
  And some of the other characters, it's both of you
• 29:08
  have performed in this episode, which we should probably get
• 29:11
  into. Let's talk about Wembley the
• 29:12
  spokes fraggle, where we talk about Karen prowl for the next
• 29:17
  or we could do that. Okay.
• 29:19
  I think we've promised the people some, you know, doozer
• 29:24
  LED. And campaigns here.
• 29:25
  So this episode starts with a sweeping view of the Great Hall,
• 29:30
  which has been completely overrun by these pink doozer
• 29:32
  constructions. Which the fraggles think are
• 29:34
  disgusting and they look disgusting, they look like they
• 29:36
  taste, like, Pepto-Bismol. The also, the waterfall has has
• 29:41
  reduced down to a trickle, the wise, fraggle Council comes out
• 29:46
  too because they have a big plan that to fix the waterfall which
• 29:49
  basically just involves I see Joe shouting work and it does
• 29:53
  not work. Mogi suggest that the, the
• 29:57
  council could use fresh perspective.
• 29:59
  Maybe they need a new member and they'll know it when they see it
• 30:03
  world's oldest fraggle, says, you think just anyone can join
• 30:06
  the wise counsel? No, really.
• 30:07
  I'm asking how does it work? Which is great because I feel
• 30:10
  like fraggles for the most part are just making up their own
• 30:14
  rules. So why not for this too?
• 30:20
  Gobo s Wembley which of the four fraggles is wise counsel
• 30:23
  material of the ones who are there.
• 30:26
  And, you know, read says that she's got the energy Gobo
• 30:29
  things, they could use an Explorer Mochi, things to meet
• 30:31
  someone who could stay calm and meditate on Solutions, Uber has
• 30:35
  foresight. He can imagine all the ways in
• 30:36
  which they can get hurt. But they don't even consider
• 30:40
  Wembley Wembley is kind of hurt by this poor little guy.
• 30:45
  Yeah, and I mean, what a brilliant way to kind of what a
• 30:48
  brilliant perspective. It's like, it's like the kid,
• 30:50
  he's left out, who ya, like, so much so much to offer.
• 30:55
  Well, in the four of them are so strong in their convictions,
• 30:58
  like, even even boober who may not be the strongest personality
• 31:04
  of the for. Like he knows what he's good at.
• 31:06
  He knows what he likes but wimbley, like, it seems like,
• 31:10
  well, if you're gonna be on the council, you gotta the first
• 31:11
  thing is you got to be able to make decisions.
• 31:13
  And that's his whole thing, is that he can't?
• 31:16
  Now let's count. May, I just say just interject
• 31:18
  those Council. Moments, whenever they would
• 31:21
  come up. We're like, it was just like,
• 31:24
  that's the best super star comma Dean and like, it was, it was
• 31:29
  like its own show, right? That's a spin-off.
• 31:32
  But I mean it's these characters, who, like they take.
• 31:38
  These are the characters who can literally get away with saying
• 31:41
  anything and he thing. Yes, repeller come on.
• 31:49
  Yeah, totally. I think she described it as,
• 31:51
  like, like, you're drunk, aunt, or something like that.
• 31:54
  Oh, yeah. And she is, I love it.
• 31:56
  It's hysterical and the glasses, like the fact that the glasses
• 32:00
  would like, get locked on her forehead for certain huge
• 32:03
  moments and Donna use that so well, so amazing.
• 32:07
  And I actually just say, quick about Donna.
• 32:10
  I was actually in a room. I was in the room with her when
• 32:13
  she when she realized the character she needed to go send
• 32:18
  the voice too. Henson to kind of approve some
• 32:21
  stuff and she was like, I need a right-hand Ali Eisner.
• 32:23
  Let's go. And so, she took me into like
• 32:26
  some practice room to just put some stuff on tape.
• 32:28
  And so I helped her with her hands but actually it was Cara
• 32:31
  Hall who was Donis hands throughout the entire show whose
• 32:35
  of Genius Puppeteer as well. Yeah.
• 32:38
  And so I watch Donna and Donna was killing me.
• 32:42
  Her openness and trying to figure out who she was.
• 32:45
  She was just like, maybe she's like a little bit trip.
• 32:48
  Maybe she is, like Is she sits menopausal?
• 32:51
  Like she just, it was like so hot.
• 32:54
  Yeah, she got a little bit too much into the reddish wine.
• 32:58
  You know, she just has a glass of night.
• 33:00
  That's enough. You know, it's for the blood
• 33:02
  pressure, right one. There's nothing wrong with that.
• 33:05
  Like, and Ellie, are you also write handing?
• 33:10
  I see Joe since you've been working so much Sharon, so this
• 33:14
  is how I see. Joe worked is because when Karen
• 33:19
  What Karen was? I see.
• 33:20
  Joe Karen Pro. So her hand was in.
• 33:23
  I see Joe and then Andrew Cooper was holding in the back because
• 33:27
  it's a very, very big heavy puppet and Ingrid.
• 33:30
  Hence, Henson was doing the hands and then I would be red
• 33:35
  because there was no red in that moment.
• 33:38
  So, I would be the standby for doubling.
• 33:41
  Read that make sense. Yeah, that was the I see Joe
• 33:45
  team, right? Yeah, I like that.
• 33:47
  You're part of the I see Joe team, despite the fact that Or
• 33:49
  not even touching. The puppet like you are an
• 33:53
  important part of it. Absolutely.
• 33:55
  I love Z. Yep.
• 33:57
  Next up while we check in with the Doozers cotter, pin is
• 33:59
  pointing out that the fraggles aren't eating the new doozer
• 34:01
  constructions. And she suggests that the
• 34:04
  Doozers, take a pause, which is outrageous for the Doozers.
• 34:09
  The architecture reminds her about the great pause when which
• 34:12
  a doozer accidentally dropped his helmet into the machinery,
• 34:14
  and they had to pause work for 40 seconds or a full minute
• 34:18
  according to Richard. March towards, I gotta say that
• 34:22
  one line delivered by Johnny. It was a full of minute,
• 34:27
  probably what, my favorite deliveries of the entire series.
• 34:31
  Terrific. I also love that that that
• 34:34
  black-and-white flashback shot of the Doozers.
• 34:36
  Just in complete Panic like just so Yang at the camera.
• 34:40
  Oh yeah, I loved it. That's gold yellow fever.
• 34:43
  Do I have a doozer? Yeah, God just doesn't.
• 34:46
  That's a good question. I don't know.
• 34:48
  I have to think about that for a second.
• 34:49
  Is I've always loved cotter pin like common pain is just such a
• 34:53
  good character. Yeah but-but-but cotter pin also
• 34:57
  doesn't have the what's the word like the that ad-lib Enos that
• 35:02
  the architect has, where you could tell he can get away with
• 35:06
  saying anything and it's hysterical if you could see
• 35:10
  Johnny T's outtakes with architect.
• 35:13
  Oh yeah, they were nuts. He would just go and go and go.
• 35:19
  Go and he would r as Donna and R as cotter pin.
• 35:23
  And I'm telling you how perfect it was like full you know you
• 35:28
  need that, it was like a cool balance like cotter pin is like
• 35:31
  very you know, 8 IP and like just I don't know sir.
• 35:34
  Whenever you know, she's just very she's very by the books and
• 35:38
  so the combination of architect being so wild and Chris is a
• 35:42
  full Ernie and Bert, right? Yeah, like a great combination.
• 35:46
  I do love them. The architect.
• 35:49
  Suggest that they can't take a break.
• 35:51
  So instead, let's just convince the fraggles that they like the
• 35:54
  new doozer sticks, which is how taste buds work, as we all know.
• 35:58
  So they're going to hire someone who can help convince the
• 36:01
  fraggles. And we meet Jackhammer who came
• 36:05
  up with the nine day work week. He came up with two belt
• 36:09
  Tuesday. He got the monorail down to only
• 36:12
  one rail Jackhammer. Could do anything.
• 36:15
  He's a doozer with a handlebar mustache.
• 36:19
  It's like pompadour hairstyle Guy Fieri flame jacket and he
• 36:25
  rides a motorcycle with like a chrome doozer helmet on the
• 36:28
  front. He's literally the coolest
• 36:31
  doozer that could ever be. I mean he's incredible and he's
• 36:35
  voiced by Kenan Thompson and performs buy you a lie?
• 36:38
  Is that right? Yes me and a variety of other
• 36:41
  awesome puppeteers that sometimes with hands and feet
• 36:45
  and all these kind of things. Like if you watch the musical
• 36:47
  number, you know, he's moving and All over the place.
• 36:50
  But that was the most fun week for me, I mean, I had a
• 36:55
  glorious, you know, time in the entire series but that was
• 36:59
  really special Mostly because I love during I loved working
• 37:05
  turbo doozer, you know, the entire time.
• 37:08
  But we're working Jackhammer was extra cool because they spent so
• 37:13
  much time on the build of that puppet to make it so seamless.
• 37:19
  And Trudeau do to Nick Ward and Soria is a word and Nick
• 37:25
  Beaumont and Cameron. You know, working that puppet
• 37:29
  was so fly. And we're and the, my favorite
• 37:32
  thing about that whole week actually was working with Jordan
• 37:35
  Lockhart. Yeah.
• 37:38
  That was my favorite part of the whole of the whole week but he's
• 37:41
  super nice guy. Yeah, he's nice.
• 37:44
  I'm going to I'm going to take a few moments not not that, right?
• 37:46
  This second because I'm gonna jump back to Jordan but I just
• 37:49
  have to say Our about Karen probably.
• 37:51
  And I know I'm just gonna talk about ali Eisner and this is
• 37:55
  this is the thing that that many people probably don't know about
• 37:58
  a lie. But they there's a reason that
• 38:00
  they really talk about humility and you know, being kind to
• 38:05
  others because they are the embodiment of all those things
• 38:08
  they really during this week, I really watch them honor their
• 38:15
  performance and take the time to really consider so many
• 38:18
  different things. Always Sounding boards, you
• 38:21
  think this is good and how can I approach this as, you know, the
• 38:24
  most best way possible. And they really put a lot of
• 38:27
  thought into it and the dues erring, Ali loves Jews ring.
• 38:30
  But for people who haven't performed to do sir, they are
• 38:33
  probably technically one of the most difficult puppets to
• 38:36
  perform. And Ali is a master Puppeteer
• 38:41
  specifically with many years which says so much about their
• 38:45
  abilities. Just they nailed Jackhammer.
• 38:49
  I have Pictures. I didn't take a lot of pictures
• 38:51
  on set because I was so engrossed and everything.
• 38:53
  But there's so many pictures I have of Ali puppeteering
• 38:56
  Jackhammer because I remember just turning to a lie, I was
• 38:59
  always in the seat. Like I was always kind of under
• 39:01
  there doing stuff because I was helping with Jordan and I just
• 39:05
  remember turning to Ali and kind of going, I can't believe you
• 39:08
  just did like if you really watch how Flawless those
• 39:11
  performances are they're amazing.
• 39:13
  So they won't, they won't toot their own horn.
• 39:15
  So I'm just doing that Kanya at our wedding.
• 39:20
  Mary on. Yeah, I mean Connie and I just
• 39:26
  like talk every day that the get to a point where we nearly cry
• 39:29
  because we love each other so much.
• 39:30
  So anyway, thank you so much. Canas, very, very sweet but to
• 39:35
  take them off myself, the Jordan.
• 39:37
  Jordan, Jordan, you love Jordan, we can't even stop talking about
• 39:43
  Jordan either think it's pretty ridiculous.
• 39:45
  So I mean, I have to say one of the things that that absolutely
• 39:48
  blows me away. About Fraggle Rock this season
• 39:52
  specifically it's you know it's really hard to pick up a
• 39:56
  character Legacy character in to make that character seem like
• 40:01
  the same person, but bring your own spin to it and I was Jordans
• 40:08
  assist. It was a rule that I was so
• 40:12
  honored and privileged to be able to do because Jordan we all
• 40:17
  you talked about genius before and then I don't throw that word
• 40:20
  around, you don't throw that word around easily, but Jordan
• 40:24
  is such a genius Puppeteer and performer people don't realize,
• 40:29
  you know, he's always like apologizing to me because he's
• 40:31
  like, he's like every take is a little bit different, you know,
• 40:34
  like you know, like some performers are like, they're
• 40:37
  take every single tick is the exact same.
• 40:39
  And so like the the assist can always like just time it and,
• 40:43
  and George like I'm sorry, because every take is so
• 40:45
  different. But what he's apologizing for is
• 40:47
  one of the things I absolutely love about him because of you.
• 40:50
  His performance. I don't feel like I don't feel
• 40:52
  like I'm watching a puppeteer. I really feel like I'm watching
• 40:55
  Wembley and I've said, I said to Jordan, like the biggest
• 40:58
  compliment I can give you is that when I hear you talking as
• 41:01
  my, but as my friend, I hear when I'm like, I don't just like
• 41:05
  he's so much a part of who you are.
• 41:08
  Technically, you this series like this episode.
• 41:12
  I can't tell you how many challenging puppeteering
• 41:17
  techniques. He needed to Master from, from
• 41:21
  Wembley being in that, that tunnel people may not realize
• 41:25
  that that was so complicated and hard to just him being in the
• 41:30
  front of the mirror. Like he's, he's pretty much.
• 41:33
  I feel like he's my brother essentially.
• 41:36
  Yeah, he's so talented and he's nailing that character.
• 41:39
  That's that's a hard character to get rights.
• 41:41
  Yeah. And he's really doing a terrific
• 41:43
  job with Wembley technically. He's so smooth everything that
• 41:46
  Jordan, sorry, just one more Jordan moment.
• 41:49
  No, please go for the beginning of that song.
• 41:52
  The ball of fire song There's and I know it like it seems
• 41:55
  silly to just be like there's this one moment of his Bubba
• 41:58
  tearing but when you're a puppet nerd and you know, you go up to
• 42:02
  another Puppeteer and like they're just drinking a coffee
• 42:04
  and eating a protein ball and you're like hey man when you
• 42:08
  like twisted your wrist like that it was freaking awesome.
• 42:12
  You know like puppeteer of these mean everything because it's the
• 42:15
  money like when you nail it and so there's this one.
• 42:19
  One moment, I know it sounds odd but at the beginning at Jordan,
• 42:23
  Wembley has this line where jackhammers like, you know, you
• 42:26
  can be and he's trying to build them up and Wembley, you know,
• 42:29
  because he's, you know, kind of insecure little little, you
• 42:33
  know, he's trying to figure it out.
• 42:34
  He goes, I'm just Wembley and the just watch him physically,
• 42:40
  and the way he decided to play that moment.
• 42:42
  It is, it is the most smooth. He is just completely alive
• 42:48
  anyway. Yeah, go back and watch that.
• 42:50
  Amazing. Yeah, no, that's that's cool.
• 42:52
  That's that's like candy, you know.
• 42:54
  Oh God. So back to Jackhammer.
• 42:57
  So you perform the puppetry for this character, but, like we
• 43:01
  said, Kenan Thompson from Saturday Night Live.
• 43:03
  He performed, the vocals. Did you ever get to talk to him?
• 43:07
  Did you ever get to like actually?
• 43:09
  Yeah, I didn't tell Kanye this, but I had a cool thing happen,
• 43:12
  recently. Yeah, Young, when I found that I
• 43:15
  was doing jackhammer. And, you know, they'd let this
• 43:22
  little weird short kid with a high voice do this.
• 43:25
  You know, it will be C, kind of kind of dude.
• 43:28
  And but, I mean, it wasn't going to be my final voice obviously.
• 43:32
  So I just kind of gave my best interpretation seven quite male,
• 43:38
  actually, having the whole week, but, um, I didn't get to meet
• 43:42
  him during, you know, that time but recently.
• 43:48
  Well, a couple of months. Yes.
• 43:50
  And I sent the note to Johnny and Helene Rita who's really
• 43:53
  cool but I posted a photo of me and Jackhammer puppet online to
• 43:59
  say like what a joy it was and how much fun and I'm a again.
• 44:02
  I'm a big fan of Keenan's on that show.
• 44:05
  I love that guy and he wrote me privately and he yeah he deemed
• 44:10
  me and he was like, Hey man, he's like great job.
• 44:13
  He's like I loved it and he just went on and he's just like so
• 44:17
  humble and very, very sweet. Eat.
• 44:20
  And I thought it was just going to be a like, great job piece.
• 44:23
  You know, celebrity Vibes, we chatted for a little bit, it was
• 44:26
  really nice and he just, you know, complimented me and the
• 44:30
  show. And then he said it was totally
• 44:32
  like a dream. It was a it was a really fun
• 44:35
  experience for him and hmm, and it was actually really neat
• 44:42
  performing that character because usually and this is I
• 44:45
  think what we did with everything else on Fraggle, but
• 44:47
  this was kind of the only exception, which A wild and fun
• 44:51
  challenge for me. It was actually really fun but
• 44:54
  usually you know, you perform in and then people will go in a TR,
• 44:57
  do it in post and they'll just you know, try to follow your
• 45:00
  sink. But what we did is we did that
• 45:03
  for about I'd say 70, 70, or, 80% of my dialogue.
• 45:08
  And then what we did do for a small portion of the dialogue is
• 45:11
  I actually had some of Keenan's lines that we would play back to
• 45:15
  the floor and so it was really fun.
• 45:18
  I got to match his Ink. So I would go home and I before
• 45:21
  I went home, I did a bunch of work.
• 45:22
  I listen to it and it's like music, like knowing the tempo
• 45:26
  and and the beats. And so I got to actually see
• 45:29
  what he was going to look like and coming to life with Keenan's
• 45:32
  voice which was really, really fun.
• 45:34
  And it'll cool very funny lines. Yeah, he did.
• 45:37
  Yeah. There's some great moments that
• 45:39
  you could tell came from came from Kenan they were very keen.
• 45:41
  Any yes, yes. Like this one we can talk about
• 45:44
  later but like late when he's on that crane at the end of the
• 45:47
  episode and the Queen's kind of moving around.
• 45:49
  He's kind of doing like a you know like reacting to being
• 45:53
  shook around on this thing. He's just like yeah.
• 45:58
  Right. Yeah the guy's last name is like
• 46:02
  nailed it or like did I or did I not do it you know he's like
• 46:06
  endlessly cocky. Like so full of themselves.
• 46:10
  The guy will never change. He's screwed everything up Sir.
• 46:14
  Like he's the one who's got to tell you what you think.
• 46:16
  Well, you think he did a great job.
• 46:17
  You're gonna hire them again next?
• 46:19
  Season, you know, and the script was so good that I just felt
• 46:22
  like I saw him at the end of that episode driving away and
• 46:26
  screwing everything up. We're getting ejected, not
• 46:29
  caring that. He got rejected driving way, and
• 46:32
  then just going somewhere else to do the exact same thing.
• 46:34
  That's right. Yeah, yeah.
• 46:38
  I mean, I'm probably thinking this because of the monorail
• 46:40
  moments just before this, but but like he's the monorail
• 46:44
  salesman on The Simpsons, you know?
• 46:46
  He's he comes in, he ruins everything.
• 46:49
  That he goes sells a monorail. The next town over.
• 46:51
  That's it, man. I'll actually recently I was
• 46:54
  writing a script for a show and I recently somebody sent me that
• 46:58
  clip of when he's trying to sell it and comes in like to the.
• 47:02
  That is such a funny scene that is such a funny character Music
• 47:05
  Man. Moment yeah, yes yes incredible.
• 47:08
  We should get Conan O'Brien because Conan O'Brien wrote that
• 47:10
  up so we should get him to write a Fraggle, Rock episode, how
• 47:12
  amazing would that be? Holy moly you bro?
• 47:16
  All right. Like that's the seed season 2.
• 47:19
  We interrupt this podcast for a special postcard from our uncle
• 47:23
  traveling, John's Heart, A glia and A fraggle fast fact.
• 47:28
  Today's fraggle fast. Fact is back to the rock is the
• 47:30
  same, but different, and that's very true.
• 47:33
  We really tried to honor the spirit of the original series
• 47:37
  and just make it feel like the 2022 version of Fraggle Rock.
• 47:41
  If Fraggle Rock, was made today, what would it look and sound
• 47:44
  like? And so what we really tried to
• 47:46
  do was take all the elements that worked from the We knew we
• 47:50
  wanted the fraggles. We knew we wanted the Doozers
• 47:51
  and gorgs and Dawkins. Pocket, Uncle traveling.
• 47:54
  Matt in outer space. There was no reason to change
• 47:56
  any of that because it all worked and just kind of refresh
• 47:59
  it. And just kind of take the
• 48:01
  characters and places, maybe they hadn't gone before and find
• 48:04
  new layers to their characters, you know, it was fun to figure
• 48:07
  out ways that red and Gobo and Wembley and mokey, and boober
• 48:10
  could go that maybe they didn't necessarily go in the original
• 48:13
  series and finding ways to kind of expand their world a little
• 48:16
  bit. We knew we wanted to show to
• 48:18
  look Really beautiful and colorful, you know, we're on 8K
• 48:23
  screens nowadays where everything has to be crystal
• 48:25
  clear, and really stand out. So we wanted the sets to look
• 48:29
  fresh and new and wanted to have more water.
• 48:32
  I for one loved whenever the fraggles would play in the
• 48:34
  water. So we talked a lot about how do
• 48:35
  we get the fraggles in the water more?
• 48:37
  And so really, it was made with so much love to try to honor all
• 48:41
  the things about the original that all of us fans love, but
• 48:44
  also just give it a new Fresh feel and we hope we did that.
• 48:47
  We hope you love it. All right back.
• 48:49
  Cast. What was your favorite script?
• 48:56
  Oh gosh. Good question.
• 48:57
  Was my favorite script? I mean all these figures would
• 49:00
  eat up an answer now. Like favorite do user favorite
• 49:02
  scripture? I know list.
• 49:04
  Alex doing a great job, flipping the script on you there.
• 49:07
  Yeah, really. I'm not used to being
• 49:08
  interviewed by this, but by, by my interviewees gosh, you know
• 49:13
  what I was thinking about the glow and how brilliant that
• 49:17
  episode is, and how that metaphor works so well, and
• 49:21
  like, also like, Boober, Dave, goals and Frank, mesh Collide
• 49:27
  and nail that. So, well, that performance, I
• 49:31
  mean, I know that's not script stuff but like it's that's a
• 49:33
  that's a really good episode. I think that's a lot of people's
• 49:36
  favorite man and as a queer person that was like is that was
• 49:40
  a like in our in a room read that was it.
• 49:43
  That was a total tearjerker thing.
• 49:44
  And I'm friends, I'm friends with Sabrina jalees.
• 49:47
  You wrote that character, who wrote that script.
• 49:49
  And so I texted her and I was like, you just you killed
• 49:51
  everybody, man. Like we're all.
• 49:53
  This is Yeah, it's great. And it's Fregley to because
• 49:57
  there's some heavy topics on this series and, you know, like
• 50:00
  we like we're tackling, you know, consent and fake news and
• 50:05
  things like that and to put them into a Fraggle, Rock lens and to
• 50:12
  see like how it works in this universe without getting too
• 50:14
  heavy or without getting two adults.
• 50:17
  And like the glow is a perfect. He's perfect example that like
• 50:20
  it's just handled so perfectly. I love you.
• 50:25
  Credit check credit to not, who's failed and Allah.
• 50:29
  Oh yeah, Cuthbert Burton like their team of writers.
• 50:35
  I was blown away by all these, like, every single script, when
• 50:38
  a lie saying they could actually imagine it.
• 50:41
  Like, when you read a script and you literally see it in your
• 50:44
  imagination as you're reading it.
• 50:46
  Like that says so much. And I was like, Wow.
• 50:48
  And and, and just appreciating myself.
• 50:52
  I'm kind of learning the business.
• 50:54
  Is especially coming through Fraggle, Rock because you're
• 50:56
  seeing the best of the best, right?
• 50:58
  Like I I really I've seen sets before, but when I walk out
• 51:01
  there and I see this the Great Hall for the first time, and I'm
• 51:04
  sitting there I'm going, what is going on right now?
• 51:07
  This is foam and your and there's people building sets
• 51:10
  with like spray foam and they're painting it.
• 51:12
  You're like what is happening? And I just want to say that Matt
• 51:16
  was on set for for a good amount of time.
• 51:20
  I loved when he was there and I have to say, I didn't know.
• 51:24
  Is again my head spinning? I'm eating so many different
• 51:26
  people. I go, and I am talking with this
• 51:29
  wonderful guy. He comes up and goes, hey, I
• 51:30
  love pogie. And I'm like, thanks so much and
• 51:33
  we're just talking and I ended up watching like, we did it
• 51:36
  Ally. I think you were part of the,
• 51:37
  to, we did this like little like socially distance, like texting
• 51:42
  movie, watch together. One time I cried was dumb.
• 51:45
  We're hanging. We were coming to meet you
• 51:48
  America to. He was like, we're all going to
• 51:50
  watch it tonight. And text each other was like me,
• 51:52
  Kanye, Matt and Amy Garcia, Mia, Andy Garcia, and we're testing
• 51:55
  and it wasn't until afterwards like maybe like weeks, or maybe
• 51:59
  even a month of me. Like, going that Mac guys, a
• 52:02
  nice guy that I actually found out that he was, will show her
• 52:06
  one of the show Runners and he was in charge of like, all the
• 52:09
  people doing all these scripts and I was like, yo, wait a
• 52:11
  minute. I looked him up and I saw all of
• 52:13
  his credits and I was like, I would never have guessed, he is
• 52:16
  again. The whole set is filled with
• 52:19
  these very like down-to-earth, super talented people.
• 52:24
  All who you would have no idea like there's you wouldn't
• 52:28
  realize it. You think you're just like doing
• 52:30
  like a little Indie show with a whole bunch of the cool people,
• 52:33
  but it's like this amazing show. It was created.
• 52:36
  Anyways, that's my little shout-out to my he's so chill,
• 52:40
  man. That's the best.
• 52:40
  That's my favorite Coming to America to story that I've ever
• 52:43
  heard. The doc bot, which is a robot
• 52:59
  that can help walk sprocket feed him.
• 53:01
  Play with them, take over the world with his robot Pals.
• 53:05
  It reminds me of the rocket sprocket from the original
• 53:08
  series. That was in the episode.
• 53:10
  I don't care what doc builds a robot sprocket.
• 53:13
  I think doc bot and Rocket sprocket would get along really
• 53:16
  well for sure. And also I thought it was really
• 53:20
  funny. That doc bot speaks with like a
• 53:23
  robotic version. Doc's voice but like in this
• 53:25
  present English, this very good, very dog.
• 53:28
  Yeah, ridiculous. And some of that I could almost
• 53:31
  see, I can almost see the algorithm that just kind of
• 53:33
  pulled random words and tried to put them together, right?
• 53:36
  It's kind of like those. Those robot art pieces or the AI
• 53:39
  art pieces were like a. I was like, make your own
• 53:42
  masterpieces. Like, I'm gonna just put these
• 53:44
  random words together. I love that the dog will
• 53:46
  understand later on, in the episode we check in a couple
• 53:51
  times with Doc bot and sprocket and like this.
• 53:54
  Thing is just wrecked the whole place.
• 53:55
  That's pretty much. That's pretty much the B plot of
• 53:57
  this thing. We next, check in with
• 53:58
  traveling. Matt, we got to go to another
• 54:00
  classic traveling, that postcard, this time.
• 54:02
  He's at a grocery store, he sees a commercial for spray-on hair
• 54:06
  in a can with our buddy, Dan Garza as the the lead bald, man.
• 54:15
  He's looking very sad until he sprays on some hair and then a
• 54:19
  bunch of people come and you know Embrace him they're very
• 54:23
  impressed by his hair. The includes.
• 54:24
  I'm assuming these are all puppeteers.
• 54:26
  I know I spotted Gordon Lockhart's in Ingrid Hansen and
• 54:30
  I think Kara Hall. It was no, it was Kanya.
• 54:33
  What was that? Well, it was Kira.
• 54:37
  Ingrid and Konya was bald men. Number two, but Jordan is.
• 54:40
  So the started off with Jordan. Oh, that's right.
• 54:43
  It was Jordan, it was, it was Ingrid Hansen with Kira Hall and
• 54:48
  Dan at the very beginning of the shot.
• 54:51
  That's right. That's right.
• 54:52
  That is right. Thank you.
• 54:53
  Then Kanye, you get to walk behind.
• 54:56
  Being basically a sad bald man, that is, that is the Q until
• 55:02
  until Dan shares, his gift with you.
• 55:04
  And you look very happy, you are a happy bald, man, super happy.
• 55:08
  First of all, if you had seen dad, I remember that day, like
• 55:14
  walking, but like, by the trailers, and the door happened
• 55:18
  to be open, and I did a full-on double take, because I knew
• 55:21
  that, I knew that we were going to be shooting something with
• 55:23
  like, Like live performers, but I like and I knew was a
• 55:27
  commercial, but I didn't really like, imagine what it was going
• 55:29
  to be because it was gonna be like blue screen stuff, right?
• 55:32
  And and I walked by, and I see Dan in the wig and I did a
• 55:37
  double take because I mean, he looked so Suave so handsome, I
• 55:43
  was like, I already am envious. This is not going to be acting.
• 55:47
  This is going to be for real. That had a hair was a beautiful.
• 55:52
  It was, it was fantastic. It was I mean, we were just
• 55:55
  allowed to clown around and just like, just go all out and over
• 55:59
  the top and and they we had so many different takes.
• 56:03
  There were like there were a lot of like really crazy
• 56:06
  over-the-top takes of like being so in a bird and impressed with
• 56:10
  with Dan, I think they picked, they picked the perfect balance
• 56:14
  between like like the take that had like the humor and the MV
• 56:18
  the energy that they needed. So it was a good good overall
• 56:21
  choice but it was it was a blast loved it.
• 56:23
  That seems like a Last. Yeah, we were just sitting there
• 56:25
  con eating chips and watching the screen.
• 56:28
  And we were like these, what? Dingleberries there is.
• 56:31
  Like every time you think they were just do something more
• 56:35
  ridiculous for having to drop or try to make it is great.
• 56:40
  That's so much fun. Ellie.
• 56:42
  Did you never made a an on-screen appearance on this
• 56:45
  season? Did you?
• 56:46
  I did not. Could it be my sweatpants?
• 56:50
  Could it be my sweatpants? Do you think it was my
• 56:53
  sweatpants? My greatest what this is we're
• 56:56
  in a pandemic. We are literally all wearing
• 56:58
  sweatpants it would not be a reason to not put someone like
• 57:02
  you know puppets your attire but also could have been the
• 57:05
  sweatpants I'm telling myself. It's not that I look like you
• 57:09
  know a very short Trends Elvis baby.
• 57:16
  If there's a season 2 and I am yeah.
• 57:18
  Season to be on camera. Yeah, you get to hang out with
• 57:21
  traveling Matt. I'm ready for it.
• 57:24
  Right. Matt sends a can of whipped
• 57:26
  cream back which he is mistakenly thought as this
• 57:29
  spray-on hair back to Fraggle Rock and I like that red, sprays
• 57:33
  it on Gobo and it gives them like eyebrows mutton chops, a
• 57:36
  big Moustache. She does a little impression of
• 57:38
  traveling. Matt, it's a cute scene and
• 57:43
  Jackhammer is explaining his plan.
• 57:46
  All you got to do is get one fraggle to Champion.
• 57:49
  The idea that the new doozer sticks are good and then you
• 57:51
  just build a whole ad campaign around it.
• 57:53
  They need A girl who is good-natured, but not too firm
• 57:56
  in his convictions and the backgrounds.
• 57:58
  We see Wembley trying to decide which rock to pick up and that's
• 58:05
  the guy that's that's that is the star of the campaign.
• 58:09
  It was really fun. Again, performing that character
• 58:12
  and I mean, and Frank actually was were Jack's hands a lot of
• 58:17
  the time and he was, you know, he thinks the Elvish stick is
• 58:20
  really funny, so he just picked the right.
• 58:24
  Right moments to kind of point and do a hip shake and help me
• 58:26
  do a hip shake. And so yeah, it was, it was just
• 58:30
  like, you know, our goal definitely was to make each
• 58:33
  other laugh. And yeah we needed the whole we
• 58:35
  kind. I didn't have a hard time at all
• 58:37
  out week. Yeah.
• 58:40
  That's great. It was super wonderful and those
• 58:42
  you know about ball of fire scene that shoot that music
• 58:45
  video. That's a lot of Doozers man.
• 58:48
  Doozer days. Karen I think once said that
• 58:51
  they call them you know they were calling doozer days because
• 58:53
  their dues He's of a day of days.
• 58:55
  Sure, I can be noisy. So yeah, they just spent so much
• 59:00
  time in the shop and they just did such a great job and to your
• 59:03
  point a lie about, you know, making sure that the, the the
• 59:06
  cohesiveness of like the hand movements and the puppet again,
• 59:10
  like it's often underappreciated.
• 59:13
  But, you know, you look at those things and when you see like
• 59:17
  these scenes happening and they all seem seamless and you really
• 59:21
  as I'll he's talking about, sometimes you'll have two three.
• 59:24
  We four or more puppeteers on one poppet.
• 59:27
  Yeah, because it reminded me to like that whole wembling thing
• 59:31
  when I watch, when I'm watching these episodes, you know.
• 59:34
  Again I experience the moments, I was just in the moment but she
• 59:36
  tend to like forget the details until sometimes you watch them.
• 59:39
  And I remember like Jordan and I kind of laughing because we were
• 59:43
  trying to get that say the sink where he's like pointing at all
• 59:45
  the different. The Rocks.
• 59:47
  Is this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and again
• 59:50
  there's there's so much fun to be had with even within like
• 59:53
  mistake And not getting the shot.
• 59:55
  You know what I mean? When you again, going back to
• 59:57
  that whole thing, we knew this was a, this was a huge show and
• 1:00:00
  there was, you know, you could have felt overwhelmed by the
• 1:00:04
  pressure of of the and the magnitude of what you were
• 1:00:07
  creating, but you weren't, you were just like, even mistakes
• 1:00:11
  were turned into into joyful moments, right?
• 1:00:13
  Relationships, were good, right? So even like during exists,
• 1:00:16
  right? It's kind of like best idea
• 1:00:18
  wins. It's not about who's in charge
• 1:00:21
  and so, you know, and sometimes you'll have an Idea.
• 1:00:24
  And you'll be like, hey, Frank or whoever, I want to do this,
• 1:00:26
  that and the other, and then sometimes when you have an
• 1:00:28
  assistant, you have got a pop it on your reading, each other's
• 1:00:31
  minds and so it's just happening, right?
• 1:00:33
  And then other times I mean, he's like, hey man, I was
• 1:00:35
  thinking I could do this with Dan's and you're like, yes,
• 1:00:38
  please. That's awesome.
• 1:00:39
  So it'll, you know, it's just being open to all those
• 1:00:42
  possibilities and the magic happens.
• 1:00:46
  Yeah, love it and wearing sweats, you know, and wearing
• 1:00:49
  sweats while you're doing while you're making magic.
• 1:00:51
  Yeah, Jackhammer meat. Emily.
• 1:00:54
  And I thought the first thing he says to him is like hey buddy.
• 1:00:57
  Now that's a shirt. Oh yeah, I compliments right
• 1:01:00
  away. Totally Nip.
• 1:01:02
  It is and like one empty compliment to like, that's a
• 1:01:05
  that's you didn't say. It was a good shirt if you want
• 1:01:08
  to one for himself. That's a shirt.
• 1:01:10
  It's shiny shirts? Yes.
• 1:01:13
  He does pop in on this crane that we mentioned before which
• 1:01:16
  is a cool practical effect. I love, I love seeing the
• 1:01:19
  Doozers, you know, like actually on their Machinery while moving
• 1:01:23
  and talking and acting. That's really cool.
• 1:01:25
  He brings Wembley into the doozer, Dome and Kanye.
• 1:01:27
  This is what you were talking about were when we was like
• 1:01:29
  crawling into the the doozer. Dome tunnel.
• 1:01:33
  I don't, I'm wondering I can remember from the original
• 1:01:34
  series, but this might be the first time we've seen a fraggle
• 1:01:36
  inside, the doozer dome, which is pretty cool.
• 1:01:39
  Is that right? Kanye, I would say, I think, I
• 1:01:43
  think you're right. Joe, I don't remember ever
• 1:01:45
  seeing a fraggle inside ice, you know, like no and that.
• 1:01:50
  And like I was talking before the amount of challenges that
• 1:01:56
  had to be overcome by Jordan and on the rest of the people,
• 1:01:59
  assisting him on just to make that look realistic.
• 1:02:04
  Because I mean, you got to figure your arms, a certain
• 1:02:07
  angle, right? And there's certain camera shots
• 1:02:08
  that they want to get and he's supposed to be on his belly.
• 1:02:11
  And the puppet is not built with a hole in the stomach.
• 1:02:14
  Yeah. And he asked he has to write
• 1:02:16
  himself up so there was so much problem-solving that that went
• 1:02:20
  into it. And again when you've got all
• 1:02:22
  these mines kind of like working together and Jordan just kind of
• 1:02:26
  going I can do this, I can do this in the camera, camera
• 1:02:29
  people you know, changing the shot and going out Make it look
• 1:02:32
  like that, directors, trying to like making things work.
• 1:02:35
  It works amazingly well for us was and also like you know props
• 1:02:39
  to the zoo, the builders. And you know it makes a
• 1:02:42
  difference when you have Builders and understand puppetry
• 1:02:45
  because you know, Builders can make something and then give it
• 1:02:48
  to you. And you're like, oh Jesus, well
• 1:02:50
  this hole is big enough for a child, you know, a six year,
• 1:02:53
  olds arm, you know, I think, where do I go on the side?
• 1:02:57
  Like, well, I put a 48-year old arm in there and also like to
• 1:03:01
  Raw Ah, odds, you know, so it's was really amazing working with
• 1:03:05
  this team because they're so Pro.
• 1:03:07
  And so, they know a whole to get your arm through needs to be
• 1:03:10
  this big, that it's got to be comfortable.
• 1:03:12
  That it just all every your so taken care of and any fixes,
• 1:03:16
  there's on the fly. But yeah, the dudes, our stuff
• 1:03:19
  was was really amazing. They use a different design than
• 1:03:22
  they did, with the ones from the 80s.
• 1:03:24
  And I actually got to see one day.
• 1:03:27
  Jason was like, dude, come into the shop.
• 1:03:28
  We got the original Doozers here, you gotta check them out,
• 1:03:31
  and I was like, Oh my God. And I went and they were
• 1:03:34
  preserved. Like, they looked.
• 1:03:36
  All right, so cute and chubby. And the design was actually
• 1:03:42
  quite different, these ones, it was kind of look, it kind of
• 1:03:44
  looked like a big rubber symbol that had, you know, strings on
• 1:03:51
  either end. So anyway that you moved it
• 1:03:53
  around, it was just like a fluid kind of emotion.
• 1:03:56
  That would be to move the the neck, you're saying exactly
• 1:03:59
  who's in Knack and yep. Back and forth and around.
• 1:04:01
  And around. And on the new design they were
• 1:04:05
  they were made out of metal and they had kind of different.
• 1:04:08
  It was all different kind of materials and string was
• 1:04:10
  different. And so there, there it was it
• 1:04:13
  was really cool. There are pros and cons to each
• 1:04:15
  of those designs and and it'll be really neat to see what the
• 1:04:19
  newest, you know, Discovery is, that's the great thing about
• 1:04:23
  puppetry and puppet shows is you're always kind of just
• 1:04:25
  fine-tuning and and making things more awesome.
• 1:04:29
  And Jason word was, is also not only a bill But he was also the
• 1:04:33
  head of all the there's different ways to control
• 1:04:36
  deuter's to, right? You could have it on a stick in
• 1:04:38
  your hand, or sometimes they were Max, right?
• 1:04:43
  So like remote controls. So we would be standing, you
• 1:04:46
  know, halfway across the set holding a little more and there
• 1:04:49
  were also two different kind of remote controls.
• 1:04:51
  So there was just so much constant fine-tuning.
• 1:04:54
  It was really rad watching these cats, go to work.
• 1:04:57
  Yeah, that's great. And Ali.
• 1:05:00
  I also I also see Snuck in, I think either either after you or
• 1:05:04
  sometimes just to see those Doozers.
• 1:05:06
  And the ones I saw like they held up pretty good but you got
• 1:05:10
  to figure like these are like years and years and years ago.
• 1:05:13
  So they go. Yeah.
• 1:05:14
  Right there. Something or some disintegration
• 1:05:16
  happening? Yeah.
• 1:05:17
  You know, one of the things that I remember about the Doozers is,
• 1:05:21
  and I think I have video of us Ali, like, when we were first,
• 1:05:24
  like, you got to imagine kids in a candy store, like first of
• 1:05:27
  all, our eyes are as big as saucers everywhere.
• 1:05:30
  We went to see things for the first time.
• 1:05:32
  I remember seeing the Doozers and they did such an amazing job
• 1:05:35
  with with, you know, all the little details, like the tools.
• 1:05:38
  Like sometimes, if you, if you see close-up shots of the juicer
• 1:05:42
  do more like a little office and you see like little wrenches and
• 1:05:45
  stuff what, you know, it looks they look like, you know, pretty
• 1:05:49
  big but they are actually Tiny the tiniest little things and no
• 1:05:55
  expense was, was what's the saying?
• 1:05:59
  No, they didn't hold back. A of the expense.
• 1:06:02
  Yeah, sure. That's her new saying.
• 1:06:05
  I'm going with that one. Sure, you're real 3D printed.
• 1:06:07
  Those are all the tools everything was three.
• 1:06:09
  They were all 3D printed, all 3D printed, right?
• 1:06:12
  So they so yeah, so they continue, they completely
• 1:06:16
  invested the time and effort into making all these little
• 1:06:19
  little props. But the other thing too, is they
• 1:06:21
  were very accommodating for each Puppeteer just like each puppet.
• 1:06:26
  A hand puppet that you'd put on has little pros and cons to how
• 1:06:29
  you manipulate it and how you have to put your hand.
• 1:06:32
  All work differently. Yeah.
• 1:06:33
  So did sort of the Doozers right somewhere.
• 1:06:35
  Some of them, their bodies moved a little bit better.
• 1:06:37
  Some of them their mouths. Moved a little bit better.
• 1:06:40
  Yeah. It was just a matter of like
• 1:06:41
  yeah, I figured as part of the gig and just kind of getting
• 1:06:44
  your dues, your dues or like with turbo, kind of getting
• 1:06:47
  turbo to work. The best that, you know, it
• 1:06:50
  could work and, and being happy with it.
• 1:06:52
  But just to go back on those 3D printed tools.
• 1:06:55
  Not only were they small man, but if you saw these things in
• 1:06:59
  person you're just a you just go up to neck.
• 1:07:01
  Nick and Jason. You're like you guys are insane,
• 1:07:04
  like, the detail on something. That is the size of a speck of
• 1:07:10
  dust just like, really man, you sat there with a paintbrush, the
• 1:07:16
  size of a Tic Tac like something that's smaller than a Tic Tac
• 1:07:21
  and you made it look so good. When I see stuff like that, I
• 1:07:25
  always say like I'm afraid I'm gonna swallow it.
• 1:07:27
  Like it's going to fall on my food.
• 1:07:28
  I mean, I think it's up like a vitamin.
• 1:07:32
  And it's like, you just but like that was like a four hundred
• 1:07:34
  dollar, you know, quarter inch wrench and I just ate it, you
• 1:07:39
  know, like I don't even know, you know.
• 1:07:41
  Yeah, well I believe just want to eat it because they're just
• 1:07:43
  so cute. Well, we see a lot of Doozers in
• 1:07:48
  this next scene, which is ball of fire, which we mentioned a
• 1:07:50
  few times which is an old song from the original series.
• 1:07:53
  It's from the episode Junior faces the music.
• 1:07:57
  I love that. There's like a doozer band and
• 1:08:00
  they're all like glammed-out and These shiny outfits, one of them
• 1:08:03
  has like a ZZ Top, beard bright orange.
• 1:08:06
  That's, that's good stuff. And when Billy gets a whole
• 1:08:09
  makeover, like that scene, in Wizard of Oz, like exactly.
• 1:08:13
  Yeah, they're making them look cool.
• 1:08:15
  He gets his own little pompadour, a pair of sunglasses
• 1:08:19
  and a tie. With that Guy, Fieri style flame
• 1:08:22
  on it. He's so cool when he's never
• 1:08:25
  been cooler than it was in the so much.
• 1:08:27
  Oh, my god, when the tie gets from on him and he said, yeah,
• 1:08:30
  Pump It, Pump It. Old out.
• 1:08:32
  Yeah, and you mentioned Ellie. How there's all these little
• 1:08:37
  tiny little puppetry moments for Wembley that are really
• 1:08:40
  impressive, the one that stuck stuck out to me.
• 1:08:42
  You could tell again, this is like, if, you know, a little bit
• 1:08:45
  about puppetry little bit about TV production.
• 1:08:47
  There's a shot where he's, he's speaking during the song to
• 1:08:52
  Jackhammer and they obviously wanted the reflection of
• 1:08:56
  Jackhammer in the sunglasses, but you can't move the head too
• 1:08:58
  much for that. So he's gotta keep the top of
• 1:09:01
  that. Have his head perfectly still,
• 1:09:03
  so that reflection looks right, but he still has to sing.
• 1:09:07
  And so he's kind of like looking like shocked and singing at the
• 1:09:10
  same time, and it's just like, it's just impressive.
• 1:09:13
  Jordan did a very good job. That's good direction.
• 1:09:16
  That is good direction. Well, and that and the Hand
• 1:09:18
  stamina that Jordan had to have had to write.
• 1:09:21
  Yeah, my gosh props. John Rosenbaum, John were
• 1:09:25
  directing a great music video and also just really quickly to
• 1:09:28
  roll back to that band that Rip's moments, like, you know
• 1:09:36
  what, weirdly I mean. It's just they're just friggin
• 1:09:40
  perfect and just a, the edit is so good on that bad, man, on the
• 1:09:45
  piano and the guitar especially unjust, I'm dead.
• 1:09:48
  When I watch it like, I can't actually handle it, it's in the
• 1:09:51
  edits are so good. And so short that you're just,
• 1:09:54
  you're praying that they got back to them because it's so
• 1:09:57
  it's so comical. Absolutely.
• 1:10:00
  They were they were such Stars In that bag and there were dying
• 1:10:04
  of laughter underneath there. That moment where he oh yeah it
• 1:10:19
  looks great. It looks amazing.
• 1:10:21
  The the impressive coordination, it took to make that work.
• 1:10:27
  I do believe Andy Hayward was the one who had to try to nail
• 1:10:31
  that. There's these these magnets,
• 1:10:34
  there's a magnet in Wembley's kind of.
• 1:10:38
  Yeah. Right.
• 1:10:39
  But you're talking about someone like so Jordan had the time it.
• 1:10:43
  I think I was on one of the hands there were I think there
• 1:10:47
  might have been Doozers still kind of there.
• 1:10:49
  So there's a underneath there was like four or five of us like
• 1:10:52
  literally bumping each other. Yeah and the mark like he has to
• 1:10:57
  be perfectly still so that Andy who's happens to be like he's in
• 1:11:01
  front of the Camera and he's got this like Long Rod which, you
• 1:11:05
  know, the the longer the the puppet Rod is the harder it is
• 1:11:08
  to control. Yes.
• 1:11:10
  Harder just to nail that point and it has a bit of flex to it.
• 1:11:14
  So like you thinking about all those little things it was it
• 1:11:18
  was so hard to do but the end it looked amazing.
• 1:11:21
  It was so much going on, right? And so like, on my end so I'm on
• 1:11:25
  I'm I was actually, I felt like guilty at times, it got in this
• 1:11:31
  ever happened to you. It's like, it would just be just
• 1:11:34
  a storm of puppeteers in those doozer areas and they're,
• 1:11:38
  they're in their mouths are in there, aren't other people's
• 1:11:42
  armpits. Like it's just a thing, the
• 1:11:45
  dance of how you figure out how to puzzle piece together to make
• 1:11:48
  it work. And then if and thing is on that
• 1:11:51
  scene I was actually doing remote control.
• 1:11:53
  So I was controlling jackhammers head and mouth and so I got to
• 1:11:57
  like sit back in my sweatpants aren't chair outside, the do.
• 1:12:01
  Is or do well, all those other cats were wondering.
• 1:12:05
  Also, I'm like, Nick, they're controlling that arm.
• 1:12:08
  Which was that like that. What do you call that?
• 1:12:10
  Y'all, that put that Podium thing.
• 1:12:13
  That whole like the, like he's on like a crane pretty crane
• 1:12:15
  thing. And so they're puppets doing
• 1:12:17
  that. And we're just so much going on
• 1:12:19
  in those moments. Yeah, it was, it was, it's a
• 1:12:23
  dance, I think of puppetry like dance, very much and like music,
• 1:12:28
  you know, timing, it's the right fit.
• 1:12:30
  It's listening, it's all the Things.
• 1:12:33
  So, next up, the fraggles are trying.
• 1:12:35
  The new doozer sticks. They are still not liking them,
• 1:12:38
  but here's Wembley to tell them that only the coolest fraggles
• 1:12:41
  get it. So maybe it's just not for you
• 1:12:43
  and then walk away just hysterical.
• 1:12:47
  He's telling them for a limited time.
• 1:12:49
  Only get them all the last, their organic there matured
• 1:12:51
  their sophisticated and complex. Like these are, these are good
• 1:12:54
  Buzz words, that he's learning here from Jackhammer and they
• 1:12:57
  record a really catchy jingle. It's really catchy.
• 1:13:01
  She jingle rocked watching. That was a me Garcia.
• 1:13:06
  Andy Hayward. And bend Roche, right?
• 1:13:09
  Like it was Ben and is the three of them doing those three
• 1:13:13
  backup. The backup.
• 1:13:15
  Are you sure? Yes.
• 1:13:16
  Well, three okay. Oh, wait.
• 1:13:20
  Yes. Okay, I tried I kind of feel
• 1:13:22
  like it's because I was sitting there zoning out watching and
• 1:13:25
  laughing. I'm I know it was.
• 1:13:27
  Yeah and that was wait. Does anybody remember?
• 1:13:30
  Do you remember? Do you want to sing?
• 1:13:33
  Hold on there. Six bunks down and down the did
• 1:13:38
  you then what is Never Enough is on and I'll glue sticks.
• 1:13:46
  Yeah. Do you remember what was
• 1:13:47
  happening with Johnny teaser in that moment?
• 1:13:50
  It was beautiful. By the way, I just want to say,
• 1:13:51
  what a beautiful moment was butchering, message?
• 1:14:07
  He's also like incredible singer and you can choreograph and so
• 1:14:11
  Johnny for actually a lot of the scenes, a lot of the scenes
• 1:14:15
  throughout the entire season and that was one of them, he would
• 1:14:18
  choreograph, you know, dance and it was Brad, he's so fun.
• 1:14:24
  He was so much fun to watch and it was like, you know, what's
• 1:14:28
  that? Did you ever see Fame?
• 1:14:29
  Do you like, you gotta sweat? And she's like, You know, she's
• 1:14:33
  like, yeah, he's getting everybody into it.
• 1:14:36
  Imagine that all these fraggles are wearing leg, warmers you're
• 1:14:40
  practicing in front of the big mirror with the bar.
• 1:14:44
  So, as you said, when we gets his catchphrase, here, I like it
• 1:14:47
  because it's little scooter fist.
• 1:14:49
  That goes across the chest. We see Doozers selling Wembley
• 1:14:53
  where which are tiny Wembley helmets?
• 1:14:56
  And banana-tree shirt, switch is an adorable, adorable adorable,
• 1:15:00
  can't get over it. It and Wembley talks to
• 1:15:04
  cotterpin who is trying to to tell him that it's all a lie and
• 1:15:10
  she points out that the fraggles are pretending to like them and
• 1:15:14
  then tossing him in the fraggle Pond, which is turning into goo
• 1:15:18
  getting all over the myrtles. Giving them hiccups.
• 1:15:20
  Oh my God. Yeah, oh yeah, torture torture
• 1:15:25
  for the yeah, I want to just roll back on one, very funny
• 1:15:28
  line, one of key. Now, please Lions way that he
• 1:15:30
  delivered. It killed me.
• 1:15:31
  But also the the scripted line was just so genius.
• 1:15:35
  This comedy, it was like he's like and then you know, walk
• 1:15:38
  away. And then when Lee's like that
• 1:15:40
  Allah and then walk away and he's like those dude walk away.
• 1:15:44
  Don't say walk away. Walk away like what do you like
• 1:15:48
  doing ever that? Yes, it's so funny that Western
• 1:15:52
  Kenan, Thompson dress. What are you just gonna?
• 1:15:56
  Yeah, it is hysterical. And I remember, you know,
• 1:16:01
  Jordan, that was a really cool big week for Jordan, that was
• 1:16:04
  like a big Jordan said, big Jordan episode, you know?
• 1:16:08
  And so it was really cool kind of watching him discover all the
• 1:16:14
  moments and wanting it to be rad and he would just like you would
• 1:16:17
  do awesome. Take after awesome take and he'd
• 1:16:19
  look at me and be like, was that?
• 1:16:21
  And I'm just like are you knocks like it was so funny but he's
• 1:16:27
  just so humble endlessly. He Yeah, I yeah.
• 1:16:33
  Do you think that he knows how good he is gone?
• 1:16:35
  Yeah, I don't do you think Jordan knows how, like, what,
• 1:16:41
  how good he is? I think he would just, I think
• 1:16:43
  he just, I think he was like, think of himself as like, like,
• 1:16:46
  passable or competent. You know what I mean?
• 1:16:48
  And not really realize, not really realized how amazing is
• 1:16:52
  the other thing I want to let people heavy.
• 1:16:54
  He's so the other thing is that because I was able to like, be
• 1:16:59
  his assist again. Can't Don't talk enough about it
• 1:17:02
  because it allowed me to like just literally be beside him for
• 1:17:05
  so much. Jordan is.
• 1:17:07
  So amazingly hilarious onset and just he is, he's a great
• 1:17:13
  practical joker. He loved and never mean-spirited
• 1:17:16
  jokes. Like, always just very fat like
• 1:17:18
  just very fun funny. He like he he says until he
• 1:17:23
  figures out who's like into it. And like he'll do like little
• 1:17:27
  jokes of hill or he'll take something and put it on my lap.
• 1:17:29
  And, you know, just before I'm about to Perform something or
• 1:17:33
  and I'll have to brush it away. Like just he's just so funny and
• 1:17:36
  always kept things. Like, even like that were really
• 1:17:39
  like, a lie saying, like us follow whatever.
• 1:17:41
  Yeah, these are, these are heavy days.
• 1:17:44
  He had to deliver. This is a big production, he had
• 1:17:47
  to deliver. There were very complicated
• 1:17:49
  things, he had to deliver, he had this still, you know, nail
• 1:17:52
  the character and he was still able to remain fun and carefree
• 1:17:58
  all the time. It was, it was such a blessing.
• 1:18:01
  He's He's so cute. Yeah, he has a way.
• 1:18:03
  He's like he's also very compassionate person like he
• 1:18:06
  would. If I remember the, you know,
• 1:18:08
  like if you see somebody get like kind of quiet and like walk
• 1:18:11
  over him, like Hey, that was really good.
• 1:18:14
  You know, what you did was very kind and, you know, I just but
• 1:18:18
  yeah, we he would, he's very skilled at keeping things light.
• 1:18:22
  It's, there's a wisdom there where he can feel, he can maybe
• 1:18:26
  feel some type of energy and then he'll do something silly
• 1:18:31
  little Make everybody feel really nice.
• 1:18:33
  So yeah, that's nice. That sounds like he's taken a
• 1:18:37
  page out of the. Johnny tartaglia book.
• 1:18:39
  Yes, Lisa's just passionate be humble.
• 1:18:42
  Do do your best and it's going to come up, come across treat
• 1:18:45
  people. Well, last week about, we should
• 1:18:47
  all do a little bit of that, maybe I agree and how many, how
• 1:18:51
  many workplaces would change if everyone did that?
• 1:18:54
  I mean, because every day, I would wake up.
• 1:18:57
  Jump out of bed and like rush to work and be so happy and Days
• 1:19:02
  off, when I'd see a got a day off, and be like, oh man, right?
• 1:19:05
  Like, who does that? Yeah, this is circle are.
• 1:19:11
  Let's get back into this. Wembley is he's between a
• 1:19:16
  Fraggle Rock and a hard place because he's gotta choose which
• 1:19:19
  he hates doing between helping the Doozers because the work is
• 1:19:23
  doing is actually helping them out very much or being honest
• 1:19:26
  with the fraggles and his friends are of no help because
• 1:19:30
  they're all common, the jingle Ands reluctantly eating the
• 1:19:33
  doozer sticks. So there's a big presentation on
• 1:19:38
  stage where Wembley is about to present the new double stick
• 1:19:42
  now, with more stick and he takes a stand.
• 1:19:50
  He says, everyone does not like these new friend doozer sticks
• 1:19:54
  and he doesn't like him either. Like he's he is a wembler, but
• 1:19:59
  there is no wembling about the truth.
• 1:20:01
  And he rips off his cool tie. He's no longer mr.
• 1:20:05
  Cool guy and he gives like this, very mr.
• 1:20:08
  Smith Goes to Washington speech like I would I would vote for
• 1:20:10
  him, you know I love that moment so much because it wasn't just
• 1:20:15
  about, you know, it's like wait it's like all comedy but about
• 1:20:19
  you know relaying displaying and believing in the truth.
• 1:20:22
  But also gaining the confidence to be able to display the truth.
• 1:20:27
  You just hear that right, right? It's important that we speak up
• 1:20:30
  about. Yeah.
• 1:20:32
  And and being overseen and overlooked by the wise counsel
• 1:20:36
  at the beginning, and you kind of feel the gravity of his own
• 1:20:39
  relationship with his self and him, you know how he feels about
• 1:20:43
  himself. And so it was this kind of
• 1:20:45
  really cool development, you know, he's dumb develop a lot in
• 1:20:50
  that in that episode in terms of his own confidence and sense of
• 1:20:53
  self and other people respecting him or seeing him, you know,
• 1:20:58
  differently because he was authentic to his own voice which
• 1:21:01
  is Is really rad. Yeah.
• 1:21:03
  And amidst that very powerful moment.
• 1:21:06
  We hear the ceremonial whoopee cushion.
• 1:21:11
  There's you see the world's oldest fraggle?
• 1:21:12
  He's got this big whoopee cushion and it's making the
• 1:21:15
  longest, you know, fart noise. Yeah.
• 1:21:18
  It's a cool-looking prop to its got like these tassels and stuff
• 1:21:21
  on it like obviously handmade and and then I love it.
• 1:21:26
  This Storyteller starts to speak and then he keeps blowing it
• 1:21:29
  interrupted. Yeah, that's the stuff.
• 1:21:32
  Yeah, it was actually that was a day.
• 1:21:34
  Something really funny. Happened that day Kanya,
• 1:21:37
  bringing their for this. I don't know.
• 1:21:39
  It was ridiculous. It was like just one of those
• 1:21:42
  days where we were all just like everybody was not just like in a
• 1:21:47
  good space. Everybody was just like goofy is
• 1:21:51
  hell and we were all just sitting in that big circle in
• 1:21:55
  the holding area and then I was joking around with Jordan a
• 1:21:59
  bunch and I had my My little, my little speaker there, and Jordan
• 1:22:05
  and I were making each other laugh.
• 1:22:07
  Based off that joke like the whoopee cushion joke and we
• 1:22:10
  pulled up this app. Feel free to cut this up.
• 1:22:15
  We pulled up this app with all these million different kinds of
• 1:22:18
  fart noises on them and we missed each other die.
• 1:22:22
  We were crying. You're crying.
• 1:22:23
  And then Donna came over and she started hearing them and then
• 1:22:27
  like making Donna, laughs is so satisfying for me.
• 1:22:31
  Because she's such a hard worker and she's so focused and like
• 1:22:35
  just busting her out and seeing her goof is was so satisfying to
• 1:22:39
  me so she started dyeing like laughing hard and then so I put
• 1:22:44
  and it was respectable there wasn't anything going on on
• 1:22:49
  what? I put that the app on my speaker
• 1:22:52
  smart and so yeah. And so about 20 puppeteers there
• 1:22:57
  and we just sat and it was like minutes of it and we were like,
• 1:23:00
  it was every single We were all crying.
• 1:23:03
  Yeah, all of us. Love our amazing.
• 1:23:05
  We're all children. Yes, that was.
• 1:23:08
  It was, we were children, but I love it.
• 1:23:13
  Well, getting off of the topic of fart days.
• 1:23:17
  He this noise. This, this fart noise is to
• 1:23:20
  signify that the wise counsel has made a decision.
• 1:23:23
  They are inviting Wembley to join them, which is terrific and
• 1:23:26
  he doesn't wemble. He agrees that he wants to be a
• 1:23:29
  part of this, and he This is cotter pin to everyone else and
• 1:23:33
  says that cotter pin is is a doozer that we all need to
• 1:23:35
  listen to and she convinces the Doozers that they really need to
• 1:23:39
  take a pause because a great pause.
• 1:23:41
  Now we'll make a greater more sustainable change for tomorrow
• 1:23:45
  and then we got this great moment that we mentioned before
• 1:23:48
  Jackhammer says my work here is done.
• 1:23:50
  She says what you didn't do anything and he speeds away into
• 1:23:53
  the sunset, like at the end of grease.
• 1:23:55
  That is actually exactly. That was actually one of my
• 1:23:58
  favorite like just comedic. Take moments as well where it
• 1:24:03
  says like that beat killed me where it was like, you know,
• 1:24:07
  yes, Wembley and you're right, and they're no, they're all
• 1:24:10
  talking. And then there's this beat and
• 1:24:11
  he goes but still with confidence and not get rejected.
• 1:24:16
  Everything he goes like well it looks like I'm done here.
• 1:24:20
  He could have just disappeared into the into the backgrounds.
• 1:24:23
  Nobody would have known and it's funny because I mentioned The
• 1:24:25
  Simpsons monorail episode earlier, but there is a moment,
• 1:24:28
  very similar to this in that episode.
• 1:24:30
  Where Leonard Nimoy's My work here is done and one of the
• 1:24:34
  characters says, but you didn't do anything and he says, didn't
• 1:24:36
  I? Yes, and it's not worth it or
• 1:24:39
  did I nail it and man, it was cool.
• 1:24:44
  Frank did this really cool thing with the bike on the bike and
• 1:24:48
  cuz also I'm a my own, I have a motorcycle on the motorcycle
• 1:24:51
  rider and Frank is as well. And so we it was really cool.
• 1:24:56
  We were talking about, you know, the best ways for for, you know,
• 1:24:59
  at the drive off and it was really fun when he would ride in
• 1:25:03
  there and I positioned him well, and all this kind of stuff.
• 1:25:06
  And then Frank, I remember, grab the bottom and he did this shake
• 1:25:10
  with, you know, the motorcycle that just made it seem like it
• 1:25:14
  had bad as pipes, man. Oh, yeah.
• 1:25:17
  Like, you know, and so if that you like, it was alive and just
• 1:25:23
  driving away like the dudes, the builders, they were so satisfied
• 1:25:28
  with those shots, man. It's just like so cool.
• 1:25:31
  He was Funds the funds. Man.
• 1:25:33
  That's the best ripped out of here.
• 1:25:35
  Ripped out there. I think they gave John Rosenbaum
• 1:25:39
  one of those bikes like a great. Yeah, they think I gave him a
• 1:25:45
  statue of a bike and actually, they did something so nice.
• 1:25:48
  I don't know if you heard about this for all the directors they
• 1:25:51
  built them like director Doozers.
• 1:25:54
  Oh that's cute on their last day.
• 1:25:57
  Johnny would usually bring out go blow and you know, just you
• 1:26:01
  No. Sing their praises and thank
• 1:26:03
  them and give them a lot of good energy and then they would
• 1:26:06
  present them with a director. That was that looks like them.
• 1:26:10
  That is a reason that I need to learn how to be a director.
• 1:26:15
  I don't care about the career, I don't care about the money.
• 1:26:18
  I just didn't want to do get my own doozer.
• 1:26:20
  That's all I want to swirl podcast, Caesar.
• 1:26:23
  Well I really miss this episode being directed by John
• 1:26:26
  Rosenbaum. We have to take a few minutes
• 1:26:28
  also just to sing. John's praise.
• 1:26:30
  Yeah. John's Hold it.
• 1:26:32
  He he, he nailed it again, it's this, but he didn't do anything.
• 1:26:35
  I'm scared. You did a lot.
• 1:26:38
  Notice the silence that John's ability, like, not only you have
• 1:26:47
  to have a certain level of Comedy, right?
• 1:26:50
  Obviously, for something in Fraggle Rock, but to be able to
• 1:26:53
  match that with heart, to be able to really allow puppeteers
• 1:26:58
  to, to do their thing and be It enough in your own abilities, as
• 1:27:03
  a director to really bring out the best in everything.
• 1:27:06
  Like what an absolute treat John was to work with you.
• 1:27:09
  I love you go. Lovely.
• 1:27:11
  Yeah. And he's funny as hell.
• 1:27:14
  And it's also he's just like nerds.
• 1:27:16
  He was like the same kind of, you know, nerdy, 70s.
• 1:27:20
  Kids that were he's exactly my age.
• 1:27:21
  And so we have all the same references and, you know, he
• 1:27:25
  loves Star Wars. Like he's just the same kind of
• 1:27:27
  nerdy dudes. And so yeah, he was just such a
• 1:27:30
  joy to work with a needle. Open.
• 1:27:32
  And, and the cool thing about puppetry and I'm sure, you know,
• 1:27:35
  puppeteers, listening realizes is that, you know, I feel like
• 1:27:41
  directing puppets people have not directed puppets before.
• 1:27:44
  They think it's the same or similar or maybe it wouldn't be
• 1:27:47
  that different than directing humans.
• 1:27:49
  It is it is a skill and it is develop skill, and it is, it's,
• 1:27:56
  you know, it's there when you're working with somebody who has
• 1:27:59
  experience with working with puppets, It Rock.
• 1:28:01
  And then some people learn so fast and they get it and are all
• 1:28:07
  our directors, you know. It was it was really rad.
• 1:28:09
  Everybody was really kind of open to the puppetry part and it
• 1:28:13
  was gorgeous. So yeah, he worked really well
• 1:28:15
  to hear that. Yep.
• 1:28:18
  Well that brings us to the end of this episode of back to the
• 1:28:21
  Rock. But is there anything that the
• 1:28:22
  two of you want to mention or another call out to another
• 1:28:26
  Puppeteer that you love? Now that we've already sung, the
• 1:28:28
  Praises of so many of them, this talk has Inspired me to start my
• 1:28:32
  own podcast called Karen talk. Oh, can you be a podcast about
• 1:28:38
  Karen prowl? Talk about Karen.
• 1:28:40
  That's it. You could have me on as a guest
• 1:28:42
  I will gladly join you in singing her Praises.
• 1:28:45
  Oh my God, I'm so excited. What a lie that's going to be a
• 1:28:49
  problem because my podcast is going to be called perfectly
• 1:28:51
  prowl and it's literally the same formula.
• 1:28:57
  Perfectly proud. See that's idea wins.
• 1:28:59
  That's way better. And then, but like because our
• 1:29:02
  clock has run at the same time but like you and I are not
• 1:29:05
  competitive with your daughter's, really?
• 1:29:07
  I really hope your podcast as well for it is.
• 1:29:12
  I guess you know, to answer that question in terms of like
• 1:29:15
  shoutouts. I just wanted to say you know
• 1:29:18
  for anyone who has not yet watched Fraggle Rock.
• 1:29:23
  Check it out. It will make you feel So good.
• 1:29:27
  And I hope that anyone listening to this podcast this scene
• 1:29:31
  because we got pretty deep for someone.
• 1:29:33
  Like, if you're listening and you've never watched probably
• 1:29:36
  the moral here, is more. Like if you already love Fraggle
• 1:29:39
  Rock, which is answer here, then tell your friends to watch a
• 1:29:43
  tell your family, you know, like get the word out, right?
• 1:29:47
  So it's a kids show, it to families by children, puppets.
• 1:29:52
  And I don't know about you Kanye, but I just want to do an
• 1:29:54
  extra shout out. To Rita and Hallie and Johnny
• 1:29:58
  for and Tim and just for making it making a little Trends kids
• 1:30:03
  dream. Come true.
• 1:30:07
  I want to Echo that as well. I think the biggest takeaway is
• 1:30:11
  that they absolutely lived. They practice what they
• 1:30:17
  embodied, the whole idea of acceptance and nurturing and
• 1:30:21
  caring and kindness. Because like I said, I was I was
• 1:30:26
  just this little, you know, Jamaican Chinese Irish you
• 1:30:29
  creamy and dude who did puppetry on the side and I never stopped,
• 1:30:34
  you know, because I've always loved it, no matter what never
• 1:30:37
  really thinking anything would come of it.
• 1:30:39
  And here I am get being given an opportunity of a lifetime to
• 1:30:42
  work on such a beautiful production and my kids watch it.
• 1:30:45
  You know, I've got a 16 year-old, I've got a 13
• 1:30:47
  year-old, I've got a daughter and all of them go.
• 1:30:49
  They give my tough sixteen-year-olds.
• 1:30:51
  Watching Fraggle, Rock, and he's going.
• 1:30:53
  You know what? Dad It's pretty good show and
• 1:30:56
  that's amazing for you. That's, that's the Benchmark to
• 1:31:00
  get that both on screen for the audience,
• 1:31:16
  like us. And for the people who work on
• 1:31:18
  the show, there's a place for everyone.
• 1:31:20
  And that's a beautiful beautiful sentiment and very true to what
• 1:31:24
  Lll, Rock represents. Hmm, and thanks to tough pigs
• 1:31:28
  for, you know, letting puppeteers be seen and heard
• 1:31:32
  because we're usually, you know, underneath the table in sweat
• 1:31:35
  gear, waiting for waiting to make people laugh.
• 1:31:40
  So, it's really nice to have our voices be heard as well.
• 1:31:43
  So thanks. Thanks to figs.
• 1:31:45
  Of course, and thank you both so much for joining me.
• 1:31:48
  Ali Eisner Konya Chen. You brought doing a terrific job
• 1:31:52
  on the show and we're going to keep our fingers crossed for
• 1:31:53
  season 2. We get to do this all.
• 1:31:55
  Again, where's the votes? Yes, really creatures.
• 1:31:59
  Here's hoping. Yes, well, that brings us to the
• 1:32:03
  end of another fraggle Talk podcast, but stay tuned as tough
• 1:32:07
  pigs own. Beth cook talks more about the
• 1:32:09
  themes of this episode in our dive deeper segments coming up
• 1:32:13
  right now. Welcome to dig deeper.
• 1:32:26
  This is Beth cook and I am joined once again by executive
• 1:32:29
  producer and president of television and the Jim Henson
• 1:32:31
  company Hallie Stanford. Let us let us dig deep into the
• 1:32:36
  realm of Jackhammer. Oh, definitely one of my
• 1:32:42
  favorite guest star spots. Yeah.
• 1:32:45
  Yeah, so much fun. Such a great character.
• 1:32:47
  I love that because I love the doozer so much.
• 1:32:50
  I love that we presented to you. The coolest of all cool Doozers
• 1:32:54
  and if you didn't see the Flames painted on his boots, made a
• 1:32:57
  little, you need to look a little closer.
• 1:33:00
  But yeah, this episode is a lot about fake news versus what's
• 1:33:07
  real and also a little bit about commercialism when I was a
• 1:33:12
  little girl, I remember listening to the Record free to
• 1:33:15
  be you and me and on it. Carol Channing does the little a
• 1:33:19
  little poem that's all about the woman trying to sell you
• 1:33:24
  products so that your home screen clean.
• 1:33:28
  And she's like, that's an actress who's being paid to tell
• 1:33:30
  you that. And I remember when she said
• 1:33:33
  that, I'm like, what was like, mind blown people are paid to
• 1:33:39
  tell me to do things. It's not that they actually
• 1:33:43
  believe in them, so So I think that there's a little bit of
• 1:33:46
  that here too with consumerism that we felt it was important
• 1:33:49
  messaging. I'm sure parents will love this
• 1:33:52
  episode in terms of like you know, not everything, you know
• 1:33:56
  is what it appears to be. That we're going to have been
• 1:34:00
  sold to you to your kids. So but then again it's also a
• 1:34:05
  lot about just like thickness you know the information about
• 1:34:09
  that these these sticks taste delicious when in fact, they
• 1:34:11
  taste terrible is doozer sticks with the goo.
• 1:34:15
  That was such an important conversation with the Doozers of
• 1:34:18
  cotterpin saying that must mean there's something wrong with the
• 1:34:22
  doozer sticks and something wrong with the goo and we needed
• 1:34:24
  more testing. And everyone else saying, well
• 1:34:27
  no, we just need to convince the fraggles to eat them, it's fine
• 1:34:32
  and to self-serve write something so that they'll keep,
• 1:34:35
  they'll keep, we can keep building, right?
• 1:34:38
  So we can keep building, it's not even about like like and
• 1:34:41
  then of course, you see the structures keep building up and
• 1:34:43
  building up and We showed this physical manifestation of the
• 1:34:46
  problem, but at the end of the day, that's just not serving
• 1:34:51
  anybody and Wembley has to stand up for himself, and the fraggles
• 1:34:59
  have to admit that they've been bamboozled and Jack ever.
• 1:35:05
  So funny. Because once that his intention
• 1:35:08
  all along, you'll never know here is done.
• 1:35:12
  They're like, What's that what he was trying to say?
• 1:35:15
  And cauterize, 100 students under right thing.
• 1:35:17
  Yeah, cotter pins. Not fine.
• 1:35:19
  She's like, I'm not buying that but so we don't make him a bad
• 1:35:23
  guy, right? Although he's very fussy, he's
• 1:35:26
  such a funny cat. I love him.
• 1:35:28
  I, you know, he definitely, there was a kind of yeah,
• 1:35:32
  Faustian moment with him and Wembley getting him to, like,
• 1:35:36
  come on. You can look just like me and
• 1:35:38
  you can be Sly, can sell it, sell anything like me.
• 1:35:41
  And really appealing to, you know, if only the the fraggles
• 1:35:45
  knew how good these dudes are six where if they only gave it a
• 1:35:48
  chance realizing that he is tapping into Wembley's
• 1:35:51
  insecurities about himself. Yes, exactly.
• 1:35:54
  And you know, we're all, you know, it's good to show that
• 1:35:57
  people can be vulnerable and be taken advantage of and that they
• 1:36:01
  can be led to do things that they think make them feel good
• 1:36:07
  about themselves. But actually it's it's kind of
• 1:36:09
  covering up the real problem. It's a Band-Aid and luck.
• 1:36:15
  Luckily, I'm we have so many good friends and such a good
• 1:36:19
  community that he's able to, to discover that lesson.
• 1:36:23
  Oh, that was such an intense moment where he's starting to
• 1:36:26
  realize that something is wrong and he's trying to talk to his
• 1:36:29
  friends about it and they're so thrilled for him like, oh,
• 1:36:33
  that's the old Wembley who couldn't make a decision.
• 1:36:35
  Look at that guy, he's so confident.
• 1:36:37
  We're so proud of you and it just takes a mountain of
• 1:36:42
  self-worth to be able to stick to Your inner Compass after your
• 1:36:47
  friends tell you, you're doing the right thing.
• 1:36:49
  It's hard. That's a really, really hard
• 1:36:51
  lesson. It's a huge just you just
• 1:36:53
  reminded me of Devon Hansen. It's like that.
• 1:36:55
  It's like families, dear Heaven, Hansen moment, where it's like,
• 1:36:59
  I've got to, I've got to come clean.
• 1:37:01
  This is not okay. I don't like it yucky, and I'm
• 1:37:05
  gonna let you all know that that this is not the right thing to
• 1:37:08
  do. Yeah, it takes a lot of courage.
• 1:37:11
  And then you discovered that, he had more courage than anyone to
• 1:37:14
  be able. To admit that type of mistake.
• 1:37:17
  So it's a very I feel like it's a very like the on the nose
• 1:37:20
  messaging like that parents and you know, can use as a talking
• 1:37:26
  point with kids, about when they're being led to do
• 1:37:30
  something that maybe they shouldn't, or they're being sold
• 1:37:33
  something that they know, isn't that great for them, or maybe it
• 1:37:37
  isn't going to is cheaper, it's going to be junkie or, you know,
• 1:37:40
  let's let's following how the propaganda specifically Eel to
• 1:37:45
  all of these different demographics.
• 1:37:47
  Allow you feel older. It'll make you feel cool.
• 1:37:50
  It's organic. You know what though if only
• 1:37:54
  Jackhammer could use that power of persuasion for good.
• 1:37:58
  Hmm. Right.
• 1:37:59
  Like any shy like Wembley and he's shy kid, does need to learn
• 1:38:04
  at some point that they're going to have to sell their ideas,
• 1:38:07
  right? They're going to have to sell,
• 1:38:09
  whether it's like something that I believe in a cause or
• 1:38:13
  mathematical N or a piece of art, like we're going to have to
• 1:38:18
  all learn how to present ourselves and sell ourselves and
• 1:38:23
  we have to do it when it feels, right?
• 1:38:25
  And it feels like we're selling ourselves and not somebody
• 1:38:29
  else's propaganda and I love that.
• 1:38:33
  It came back to that message of allyship with Wembley giving the
• 1:38:38
  mic metaphorically to cotter pin.
• 1:38:40
  Like, hey, here's this person who knows a lot more and we
• 1:38:43
  should all be listening to yeses.
• 1:38:44
  Not a great moment. I love that moment.
• 1:38:46
  It's so important and then she gets to be heard right us, and
• 1:38:51
  she hasn't been hurt. And, you know, when we didn't
• 1:38:54
  talk about that either, like she's actually not being hurt by
• 1:38:56
  her own Community, or her friends week, she's actually
• 1:38:59
  telling the truth. She's actually advocating the
• 1:39:01
  right thing to do is particularly, as a scientist and
• 1:39:03
  engineer, and she is being ignored because of a sort of
• 1:39:07
  bigger desire to do, what they always do, to keep the wheels
• 1:39:11
  spinning, right? To keep Society functioning the
• 1:39:13
  way it's always function. And they needed to listen as
• 1:39:17
  well. Fraggle, talk The Unofficial
• 1:39:26
  Fraggle Rock podcast is brought to you by tough pics.com
• 1:39:29
  produced written and hosted by Johannes fraggle fast facts,
• 1:39:33
  segment presented by special guest.
• 1:39:34
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• 1:39:38
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• 1:39:40
  talk art by Dave whole team. Junior Fraggle Rock Martin logo
• 1:39:43
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• 1:39:45
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• 1:39:55
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• 1:40:01
  Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time down at
• 1:40:03
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