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Catching Up with Noel MacNeal · Muppet Fan Podcasts with ToughPigs.com

0:04
Hi everybody, and welcome to the Tough Pigs Muffet fan podcast
0:08
feed. Today we have a really special
0:11
treat for you because I, Becca Petunia, I'm here with the one
0:16
and only Noel McNeil to talk about some of Noel Mcneil's
0:20
current projects. And wow, I totally don't have a
0:24
second thing. Your current projects, all the
0:27
exciting things that you're up to.
0:30
Noel, thank you so much for sitting down to chat with me
0:33
today, even if I didn't have a great opening there.
0:36
That's OK, That's why leaves it open for me to fill in
0:40
everything you wanted to say. But that's why we're doing an
0:43
interview, so this way you can actually hear me talk about it.
0:48
So let's jump right in actually to what I'm really excited
0:54
about, which is your upcoming 54 below show.
0:58
Hey, this was really fun. So for folks at home, Noel, you
1:02
know this, but it's going to be staged on March 24th and folks
1:07
can still buy tickets either for the in person performance, which
1:12
is in New York, or for a live stream.
1:16
What can folks expect from this show, Noel?
1:20
Well the title has like like 2 references 1 it's from this show
1:26
that I used to work on called A Bear in the Big Blue House.
1:29
And the last song on the show that kind of wrapped everything
1:33
up was called the Goodbye Song and the first line was Bear.
1:37
And he would say kind of commenting on.
1:39
What you just went? Through with him.
1:40
Hey, this was really fun. So it's a great title, which
1:44
I've used for number 2 for My Autobiography, which I wrote and
1:48
available on Amazon. Because when you're in a
1:51
pandemic and you have time being locked down and trying, you
1:55
know, to survive, you write down like little stories that have
1:59
happened to you over the years and your wife encourages you.
2:02
Well, why don't you put them all together into like, you know,
2:04
the story of your life, which I did.
2:06
So that's what actually the show is kind of based on.
2:10
It's, it's, it's based on my life and the journey I've had
2:14
being a puppeteer among other things, up until like, you know,
2:18
this moment. Yeah, so, I mean, again, you've
2:21
you've worked on so many, so many amazing things in the past.
2:25
And, you know, looking at the, the description of the show,
2:29
seems like there's gonna be some, some references to, to a
2:32
lot of those things, you know, Eureka's castle and Bear and you
2:38
know, your, your time with Sesame.
2:41
Any, any. I mean, I was about to ask if
2:43
there were any surprises in store for folks, but I guess you
2:46
you wouldn't answer that question because then it
2:48
wouldn't be a surprise. Oh yes, there'll be, there'll be
2:51
a few surprises. A few like old friends, wink may
2:57
show up towards the end of the show.
2:59
So you know, you'll have to wait and see, but I'm really looking
3:03
forward to it. Plus, I have my friends and
3:07
colleagues, Jennifer Barnhart from Sesame Street and Avenue Q
3:12
and Between the Lions, and my friend Fergie Philippe of
3:16
Broadway of Hamilton and of the Muni's Little Mermaid and about
3:22
to go out on the national tour, the anniversary national tour
3:25
of. Beauty and the Beast as the
3:27
Beast. Oh, wow, I hadn't heard that one
3:30
yet. Fergie's, Fergie's terrific
3:32
Fergie. He's like, I've had the pleasure
3:35
of chatting with him a couple times and Oh yeah, he's.
3:38
He's the best. So I've got like two of the best
3:40
people backing me up and it's, it's going to be fun.
3:43
And I've always wanted to do, you know, something like this,
3:47
but in terms of bucket list items, instead of like, bungee
3:51
jumping or leaping out of an airplane, I wanted to do
3:53
something. Equally as exciting.
3:56
A tad nerve wracking, but at least I'll live the tale.
3:59
The Tale. Well, you, you, you had some,
4:02
you had some practice because you were at 54 below pretty
4:06
recently for their for their tribute to puppets that they
4:10
did. Yeah, it's a puppetry on
4:12
Broadway is the Instagram account, and I got to be a part
4:17
of it. And it was kind of like a sort
4:19
of like a review, like a variety show of people who have been
4:24
associated with puppets or who are puppeteers or puppeteers who
4:28
have done puppetry on Broadway or who are like associated with,
4:33
it was like pretty much like a, a conglomerate of like puppetry
4:38
Broadway. How can we pull this together
4:39
so? It was.
4:40
It was great. And I have just, and it's on my
4:43
Instagram feed, the duet I did with Jen Barnhart and her bear
4:50
from Avenue Q, Her bad idea Bear, whose name is Clover, by
4:55
the way. Don't know if you knew that.
4:57
And so she and Bear do a duet together and it's the song
5:02
Wonderful from Wicked. It's you know, it's it's great
5:06
and everybody, everybody listening should definitely,
5:08
definitely look at Knowles Instagram for these clips.
5:12
I I wish I could have been there.
5:14
I just scheduling didn't work out but.
5:17
But it turns out we the IT was such a success that 54 Below has
5:23
already contacted Julia Darling about wanting to put together
5:26
another. Show.
5:28
This fall and it would be towards the end of October and
5:33
we all know what holiday is at the end of October.
5:36
So stay tuned I'm. Really excited about that.
5:42
And it would be two. Nights, not just one night.
5:44
So that's how successful this last one was.
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I mean, it, it looked like a ton of fun from from Instagram.
5:50
And you know, again, I spoke to some people who who were
5:52
performing in it besides you. But yeah, it seems like, hey,
5:58
that's great that they're they're gonna do it again.
6:00
And you know, do you think they'll be they'll be future
6:03
future performances of your show?
6:05
Or maybe, I guess it remains to be seen.
6:13
There should be something so hopefully and also potentially
6:16
taking it like on the road, like going elsewhere with the show,
6:21
which have already been like asked about.
6:23
So I've said, let me let me get through this first show and then
6:27
we'll get back to you. I'm doing a version that can
6:31
that can travel. Yeah, you gotta you gotta go one
6:34
step at a time. And like you said, you know,
6:36
this is this is nerve wracking, nerve wracking enough, but.
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I this is the first time I'm doing anything like this, so
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let's just get through this and then let's learn.
6:45
Well, I feel like I feel like shifting, shifting from that in
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terms of like you doing new things again, like obviously
6:55
your, your career with, with puppetry and actually
7:00
puppeteering is, is long and illustrious.
7:04
But recently you've really shifted into doing more and more
7:08
directing. I've noticed, you know, looking
7:12
at your Muppet wiki page, you did direct one episode of Bear
7:16
in the Big Blue House according to that, but then there was a
7:19
then there was a long gap. And now you've been directing a
7:22
lot of stuff for Sesame. And what is what is that
7:27
experience like? What is it like shifting to to
7:30
that side of the camera? It's great because of the fact
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that, as you said, I've had this very like long career being a
7:37
puppeteer. So I've actually had the
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opportunity to work with a lot of great directors and on the
7:44
rare occasion a director that could have done a little more
7:49
homework. So you learned from the good and
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the bad. So I, I know like how how
7:57
puppets should be directed, like starting with like Johnstone and
8:01
Lisa Simon from Sesame Street and Hugh Martin from Eureka's
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Castle. And yeah, it's like people like
8:09
that and knowing how to like inspire people and also trust
8:14
people. So that's for me because of the
8:16
fact that I've been a puppeteer and still am a puppeteer.
8:19
So I know what puppets can and can't do.
8:22
I've been a Wrangler, so I know what like physically the puppets
8:27
can or can't do in terms of like props and set up.
8:31
And like I said, having worked with such great directors,
8:34
including Mitchell Kriglin who created Bear the Big Blue House,
8:38
I know like how puppets can be shot.
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So I'm not hesitant in like setting up a scene where you
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know, I want the puppets to do something in particular that may
8:50
seem difficult because I know it can be done because I've sat on
8:54
the floor just like you guys. So do it.
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So if you got a better idea let me know.
9:02
Yeah, I mean, it's something, it's something we, we hear a lot
9:05
about, you know, in the, in the world of puppetry that there's
9:10
so many things that seem like they should be easy for puppets
9:13
to do that aren't, and so many things that seem like they
9:16
should be hard for puppets to do that aren't hard.
9:20
You know the the idea that like something as simple as like 1
9:24
puppet handing another puppet a pencil is like the hardest.
9:28
Thing to do. So you, you need someone, you
9:31
need someone who knows, you know, be behind the camera too.
9:35
And I'm, I'm glad that you've, you've been able to make that
9:38
shift. And let me tell you, I, I
9:41
actually, before this, you know, I had seen some of some of the,
9:45
the stuff you directed, but I made sure before I, before I,
9:49
before we logged in, that I watched a bunch of it.
9:51
And let me just say, the, the ones that are my favorite out of
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the things you've directed for Sesame are definitely the, the
9:58
two videos with Elijah and Wes. I thought those were so cute and
10:03
so much, so much fun. I'd, I'd love to hear about
10:06
those experiences, you know, especially the barbershop one,
10:09
which I thought was just so, so cute.
10:12
And it was so nice that, you know, Roscoe, Roscoe Orman who
10:15
plays Gordon came back for that. Any any any things to share
10:19
about? Like those experiences with
10:21
Elijah and Wes? Yeah, the credit for the
10:24
barbershop, which I'm proud it got nominated for an an Emmy
10:28
Award. And it was the the brainchild of
10:31
the two puppeteers, Bradley Freeman and Chris Hayes, who
10:34
play Elijah and West because Elijah and West were created
10:40
around 2020 during the time of the the George Floyd protests.
10:46
And more awareness of like the racism that still exists in the
10:50
United States and trying to make it on a level that for kids to
10:55
understand and also representation because they are
10:58
African American Muppets. But Chris and Brad said, you
11:03
know, these are great characters, that this is a great
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bond of a father and son. And they don't always have to do
11:11
such every subject matter. They can actually have fun.
11:17
And so they came up with the idea of the barbershop, which is
11:20
very central and core to black communities.
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And so they came up with the idea.
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And so I got to direct it. And a little piece of trivia
11:31
when we were set or like Easter egg, we were setting up and like
11:35
figuring out the decor inside the shop and it like pans over.
11:40
You'll see these two pictures in the back, these sort of sepia
11:43
tone pictures of these two black people.
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And I said, you know, that there should be, you know, posters
11:50
like, you know, modern, like a modern poster or two or
11:53
hairstyle, but then also maybe legacy in terms of like
11:56
hairstyles. And so I like put up like the
12:01
images of my great grandmother and great grandfather and so and
12:08
so, and they said, no, these are great.
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Can we use them? And I had to like sign like a
12:12
waiver. So so those are actual MacNeil
12:15
relatives. Like on the barbershop.
12:17
My, my, my great, great grandmother and great
12:20
grandfather are are on there, which is great.
12:24
That's great. And I told my I told my cousin
12:27
that and they were like over the moon.
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And then we've got we got Chad, who's actually a terrific actor.
12:35
He's currently on Broadway in Hell's Kitchen.
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He was the Barber, had Elijah, we had Wes, we had a kwami, a,
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a, a specially created muppet of really dark skin also for that
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representation, which was wonderful.
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And and then of course, we had Roscoe Orman as Gordon coming in
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for this as well. And so a friend of mine, when
13:00
it, when it aired, he, he told me it's like he, he just loved
13:04
it. And he's also black and I've
13:08
known him like almost all my life.
13:09
And he said he loved it because he said no sesame hasn't been
13:14
this black since 1974. So he was really pleased.
13:19
Yeah. I mean, again, obviously,
13:21
obviously I can't, you know, speak to that side, but I can't
13:24
say. It just felt very genuine in a
13:27
in a way that was so appealing. You know, again, even if I don't
13:32
have personal experience with it, I could tell that it was
13:35
coming from from that kind of place.
13:38
Yeah, it's like, it's it's a nice balance between like the
13:41
sincerity and just the genuine humor because it was fun.
13:45
It's fun. And they were trying to make
13:47
also the experience of getting your first haircut so little
13:50
kids that could be very like, like traumatic.
13:54
And so I mean, Wes do it. It's also a way of teaching kids
13:59
like it's OK and like, you know, you know, very special haircut,
14:02
which was like the funny little tagline we just kept pushing.
14:04
It's like very especially the haircut that Wes just just keeps
14:07
saying to himself. And yeah, I, I really had fun
14:12
directing that. And then I've gone on to direct
14:14
other stuff for Sesame. Like there was the episode of
14:17
the Lunar New Year that I got to to direct, which actually got
14:21
nominated for a kid Screen Award.
14:24
Did not win, but still proud of the nomination.
14:26
You should be. Thank you.
14:31
Yeah. So I've.
14:31
I've actually had a lot of fun directing Sesame Street.
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And again, like, you know, the guy started off as a Wrangler
14:39
and then became background puppeteer and now he's, you
14:41
know, directing the show. And I actually got to win an
14:44
Emmy Award for it, So. So.
14:46
Hey. Yeah.
14:50
You know, it's, it's interesting because I actually, I last a
14:55
couple months ago. I actually, I interviewed Alan
14:59
Morocco for the site and, and Alan was talking about how he is
15:05
made been making the shift towards directing and, and he
15:08
mentioned, he mentioned you as well and, and working with you,
15:13
you know, as a, as a director. And sort of like how both of
15:18
you, and it's funny that you're, you're touching on this already
15:21
with the, with the West stuff, but both of you really sort of
15:25
value that, that push for increase diversity both behind
15:31
this, the camera and on camera. And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm
15:36
curious, you already started talking about it, but like, what
15:39
are your thoughts on the, on the current state of diversity in
15:43
the puppetry world and like how that's changed since you
15:46
started, you know, so many years ago?
15:49
Yeah, it's it's it's definitely like progressed like a lot.
15:53
I mean, Megan, who does Gabby on Sesame Street and it was
15:57
featured like, you know, she's the first African American woman
16:00
puppeteer on Sesame Street, which is a triumph, while still
16:05
at the same time, it's like really, it's taken this long
16:10
really. But that's also because of the
16:13
fact that the resources to find diverse puppeteers has expanded.
16:19
Because when I was, for instance, I worked on the show
16:23
in the the 90s, it was called The Puzzle Place and it was APB
16:28
S show. And the cast of puppets were all
16:31
diverse. And I got to play the African
16:33
American kid from New York named Leon.
16:36
And if you spell Leon backwards, there it is.
16:40
And so and so I auditioned. I got the part, but and so I
16:47
matched my character and Carmen Osbar Rosita on Sesame Street,
16:51
she got to play Kiki, the Mexican American character.
16:56
And Jim Martin, who, who is white, played Ben, who is
17:02
technically not white. They said he was Euro American.
17:05
OK, sure, sure. Fine.
17:10
Not the term I would have used, but you know, that's OK.
17:14
But then there were the characters, Sky, who is Native
17:17
American, and Julie, who is Chinese American, Asian
17:21
American, and they were played by Peter Lentz and Alistair and
17:24
respectfully, and they did a great job, but they're not
17:30
Native American and they're not Asian American.
17:34
And it's the kind of thing now if you were to do a series like
17:36
The Puzzle Place now, you would have more of a resource to
17:40
really fan out and find people through, through the Internet,
17:44
through Google search, even posting things on like Instagram
17:48
and TikTok and just getting the word out.
17:51
And like, we're looking for these kind of puppeteers to
17:55
represent these kind of things. So in that that's also helped
17:59
and getting more representation in the puppetry world as well as
18:06
with Sesame Street. There are a lot of of puppeteers
18:11
of color out there, both doing theater and festivals and like I
18:16
said, now on TV. So yeah, it's come a long way.
18:19
And representation does matter, it really does.
18:23
So doing your best. Yeah, no, I mean, again, like
18:29
it's, it's, it's interesting to watch and it's something that I
18:31
absolutely, I absolutely do appreciate.
18:33
It's funny that you mention the puzzle place because I feel like
18:37
the the new, you know, characters like Wes and Elijah
18:42
and you know, and Gabrielle and Ji Young almost remind me of of
18:48
the puzzle place. It reminds me of watching the
18:51
puzzle place as a kid. But it is, you know, again, nice
18:54
to know that we're seeing diversity both behind, you know,
18:59
again, behind those characters this time that you know.
19:02
Yeah, yeah, Kathy Kim does Ji Young and you know, she is like
19:06
Korean American American and yeah.
19:09
And Megan and also Bradley, who does West, he does Tamir, Sure.
19:14
He's African American. So yeah.
19:15
So it really does help and it does matter.
19:18
And they're they're very popular.
19:21
It's like kids, you know, kids recognize them.
19:24
Kids love them. I've seen, I've seen kids with
19:27
young dolls and Tamir dolls on the street right next to their
19:31
Elmo, like clutching 1 and like, you know, clutching the other
19:34
one. So, yeah, while, while we still
19:36
have like, you know, you know, the traditional Muppets like,
19:39
you know, you grew up with and so, you know, like Big Bird and
19:42
Ernie and Bird and and Cookie. Cookie will always love cookies.
19:46
It's like, yeah, sometimes he eats a vegetable.
19:49
Yes, we get it. But he will always be, you know,
19:52
Cookie Monster at heart. So, yeah.
19:54
And I'm looking forward to and directing more with with Sesame
20:00
Season 56 starts very soon. So, and season 55 is airing now.
20:06
And I actually did for each episode, there's the letter of
20:10
the day. And I directed that, that insert
20:14
of song that gets repeated. So as well as the foodie, the
20:19
Monster Foodie inserts which are very, very funny, not only
20:24
because of Donger and Cookie Monster, but.
20:27
In particular, because of David Rudman and Warwick Pike like
20:31
their chemistry together. They're so good.
20:33
Such a good comedic duo. Absolutely.
20:36
Absolutely. And it was Warwick idea to have
20:39
like little cameo appearances by other characters.
20:42
So it's been very funny like throwing in like Prairie Dawn or
20:45
the Count or Ernie like popping into the the foodie truck.
20:50
So. Keeping it fun.
20:52
The Sesame Street's fun. That's, that's important.
20:57
I mean, again, that's, that's always, that's always, always
21:00
been a key part of that. But Speaking of, Speaking of
21:03
some of those, some of those older characters, actually Joe,
21:07
our our mutual friend Joe Hennes, he he wanted me to ask
21:13
you, you know, you've, you've done some, some work as Big Bird
21:19
lately, you know, at the Thanksgiving Day parade and
21:22
stuff. What has that been like, that
21:24
experience? Well, it's, it certainly ran the
21:28
gamut this past Thanksgiving. Before that It's, you know,
21:33
it's, it's, it's wonderful because I get to be Bird and you
21:39
get to like ride the float down Central Park West and then down
21:43
6th Ave. in front of Macy. And you just see all these
21:46
literally like millions of people like watching this.
21:49
And I remember like there there've been some years it's
21:53
been kind of chilly. Some years it's been a little
21:55
cloudy. Thanksgiving of 2023 was
22:00
probably like one of the one of if that's the most perfect
22:04
Thanksgiving. It was a blue skies.
22:05
There was no wind. It wasn't that cold.
22:08
It was absolutely what Macy's prays for every year, pulling
22:14
out the prayer rugs for that kind of weather.
22:17
They misplaced the prayer rugs this past Thanksgiving because.
22:20
Sure did. It rained, and I'm not talking
22:24
like a drizzle. It rained the entire time and it
22:29
has. And I've like chronicled the
22:31
parade. It hasn't rained like especially
22:34
in that kind of situation in over like 8 years really.
22:39
And so like, it's one of the times that when you really want
22:43
climate change, can we just have a warm Thanksgiving Day just for
22:46
this, just for Big Bird, right, Just for Big Bird.
22:49
And, and what made it worse was it's like it didn't rain the day
22:52
before. It didn't rain the day after.
22:54
It actually stopped after the parade was over.
22:58
But the parade ends at noon, just before 12:30.
23:01
That's when the rain stopped. But until then, it was raining.
23:06
So normally Big Bird's in his nest and he's waving to people
23:10
and then we do the song at the end in front of Macy's.
23:13
But for this, we couldn't have Big Bird in his nest because it
23:16
was really raining. And so we kept them inside and
23:19
we were inside just like riding down, down the street inside.
23:24
Also we found out that this this float that's been around forever
23:29
is not leak proof. So they were kind of leak.
23:31
So it's kind of like being in the hull of the Titanic at
23:34
moments, making sure you don't get like water on yourself or on
23:39
a puppet you're holding. And then once we got to Macy,
23:43
that's when normally I don't have to put on the legs when I'm
23:48
in the nest. But because for this, Big Bird
23:51
was going to stand, we decided Big Bird was going to stand
23:53
outside the doors. And so that's the first time in
23:58
forever there's a frozen reference.
24:00
I actually was fully dressed as Bird from like head to three
24:04
pointed toes. And so I'm standing outside.
24:07
Big Bird has a wonderful yellow slicker on.
24:10
And then Michelle Hickey, God bless her, is standing next to
24:13
Bird holding an umbrella over his head as he's singing the
24:17
song, the classic song Sing. And it wasn't some.
24:21
And I posted like they've been posted pictures.
24:24
I posted a picture of Bird and her together.
24:26
And it wasn't so much Bird as people wanted to be Michelle.
24:31
People were saying, how can I get the job of being Big Bird's
24:34
umbrella handler? So Michelle have become a
24:39
celebrity. Yeah, more, more important than
24:44
Big Bird. You know, people see Big Bird
24:46
every year. People don't get to see people
24:48
don't get to see Big Bird's umbrella.
24:49
Also, they commented on the yellow slicker.
24:51
People were really impressed with the yellow slicker.
24:53
They they like the big, big bird had a great yellow slicker on.
24:56
So it was like, yeah, he did because he had to.
24:58
Yeah, we were drowning out there.
25:01
You do not want those feathers getting wet.
25:03
No, no, not at all. So.
25:07
And yeah, so another thing that you mentioned again, I'm, I'm
25:13
kind of focusing on stuff that you stuff you're doing lately
25:17
because I feel like let's you know, if people want to know
25:20
about stuff that you've done in the past, they could they could
25:22
just go see, Hey, this was really fun.
25:28
March 24th tickets on sale now. You're welcome.
25:32
But you've also been been working on a on a production of
25:39
Little Shop of Horrors. Still correct?
25:41
Yes, I'm the swing puppeteer and swing voice for the Plant Audrey
25:47
2 for Off Broadway's revival of Little Shop of Horrors.
25:50
And I've been doing that for over 2 years now and it's like
25:54
one of the most ones I've ever had.
25:56
I'm working with such incredibly talented people actually for
26:02
because of February, we did another shoot of for Black
26:06
History Month and they're on Instagram.
26:10
You go to little shops Instagram page and also my page, you'll
26:14
see like the photo shoot we did. And it's just like it's, it's,
26:19
and I, I say that coming from TV puppetry where it's still
26:24
predominantly white male, being able to work at a little shop
26:28
with such incredibly talented black people and especially
26:33
women is just so gratifying and so much fun.
26:38
And we have like the best time. I have not laughed so much as I
26:42
have like being there and being in that guy's dressing room
26:46
because the guy's dressing room is small and there's like seven
26:48
of us. So especially like, and it's
26:51
like whoever's doing Seymour. So it's like, you know, you
26:54
really want to be there because this is a tight room and we
26:57
don't have room for your, you know, ego.
27:01
So you really want to be there, buddy.
27:04
And I'm looking forward to our new Seymour and Audrey.
27:08
Currently there's Nicholas Carpenter and Sherry Renee
27:12
Scott, and they're about to leave.
27:14
And now coming in will be Milo Mannheim and Liz Gillies.
27:20
And so I've been working with them.
27:22
So rehearsals actually have a rehearsal with them tomorrow,
27:25
because not only do you have to rehearse with the human actors,
27:28
they do have to rehearse with Audrey too.
27:31
Makes. Sense exactly.
27:33
And she can be a little temperamental, so, you know, So
27:37
just making sure, like, you know, you're getting eaten
27:39
safely. And this is how it's done.
27:43
How is so? Is this your first like Off
27:47
Broadway show or had you done that before?
27:50
No, this is this is my first legit like theater that I've
27:54
done. I mean, I've written and created
27:56
shows for the the Bronx Zoo in the past, family musicals and
28:01
but this is my first like legit Off Broadway, like real theater
28:06
experience. In fact, during the early days
28:09
of me rehearsing and learning how to manipulate the plant
28:15
during a break, the stage manager at the time was talking
28:18
about this podcast he was listening to.
28:20
And the host says, the question I always leave off asking the
28:25
the celebrity. The last question is, what are
28:27
your 3 threats? And everybody was unsakeling
28:30
like, Oh yeah. And me coming from like the non
28:34
theater world come from like TV. I'm like, why would you ask
28:37
somebody what threatens them? What, what kind of question is
28:40
that? And then it was explained to ME3
28:42
threats are your talents like singing, dancing and one more
28:45
thing. And I said, oh, OK, see, I'm not
28:49
from the world of theater. So for me, when you ask me what
28:53
are my three threats, they are being pushed onto the subway.
28:58
Another pandemic and Republicans.
29:03
But obviously, you know, in terms of the theater threats,
29:06
you've got those down pat, too. Though, because.
29:08
You you can sing and dance. I can.
29:11
It's like which you'll hopefully you'll see that work well on
29:14
March 24th. But yeah, it's like it's, it's
29:18
it's wonderful. The West Side Theater is a great
29:19
theater. If you're in New York and you
29:22
have a chance, come by and see the show.
29:24
Because it's one of the things I've learned is that this show
29:27
written by Howard Ashman is, is one of those rare shows where
29:31
it's it's perfect. It's like the script is perfect.
29:35
The songs work. You don't have to do anything to
29:38
like, fix the show. This show doesn't need fixing.
29:41
It's just perfect. It it works.
29:44
And it's been amazing the different people who've come in
29:47
to be Audrey, to be Seymour, to be Oren and the others, because
29:51
the actor is Oren has to do all these other characters.
29:56
And it's been amazing to see everybody find their little
29:59
takes on each character and how they do a line or react to a
30:05
line and giving their own little twist to certain things.
30:08
And everybody's different and everybody brings something new.
30:13
And it's going to be great seeing, seeing what the the
30:16
three new leads, Jeremy, Milo and Liz do.
30:20
I've seen it in in rehearsal so far and people are going to love
30:25
it. And, and it's, it's, it's great.
30:27
And we also realized that that Liz and Milo are going to bring
30:33
their fan base from Disney Channel and Nickelodeon Foo a
30:38
lot will probably this will probably be their first theater
30:41
experience of sitting in the theater and watching like a a a
30:46
a show. So, you know, if you're coming,
30:49
keep in mind, you know, turn off your devices.
30:51
You can't record, you can't photograph.
30:54
Don't talk. It's not TV.
30:58
Don't sing along, but feel free to clap, feel free to laugh,
31:03
feel free to whoop it up. So yeah, I'm looking forward to
31:07
it. Yeah, no, I mean, again, it's,
31:10
it's such a great show and it's, it's, do you think you'll you'll
31:14
do more like Off Broadway, Broadway shows?
31:17
Yeah, I, I loved I've I've, I've been actually I'm with the the
31:22
Lewdaic agency and so I've gotten auditions for non puppet
31:25
things and I've submitted myself.
31:27
And so yeah, it's like, why not? Yeah, open up, open up that
31:32
world. Yeah, exactly.
31:34
It's like just, yeah. It's one of those things where
31:36
it's like, I never thought of it before.
31:38
Actually. That's why I became a puppeteer,
31:40
because I kind of always wanted to be an actor.
31:44
But I realized, like, I grew up in the 70s, so representation
31:49
for me on camera was either, you know, drug dealer on the left or
31:53
gang member on the right. And so I realized I couldn't be,
31:58
you know, Abraham Lincoln, but I could be Abraham Lincoln's hat
32:01
if I were a puppeteer. And this was long before Lin
32:05
Manuel Miranda blew the lid off of that.
32:08
And now we have blackballed George Washington's running
32:11
around. So.
32:12
So if I had that growing up, I probably would have been a full
32:15
time actor. But as it is, I became a a
32:18
puppeteer, which has been very gratifying.
32:22
Gratifying. Wow.
32:23
That's like, that sounds like an honest term.
32:24
Gratifying. And yeah, so I'm sorry, I'm just
32:31
scanning through some of the some of the other things like I.
32:35
Said I can rather like nobody's. Business.
32:37
Yeah, No, I mean listen, listen, I.
32:39
Drone on for an hour, so go for it.
32:43
Well, you know, again, so, so again, going back to the
32:46
directing, you know, you, you mentioned to me that you're,
32:49
you're going to be teaching directing at the O'Neill
32:53
Puppetry conference this year, teaching directing.
32:56
And we kind of talked already a little bit about like what's,
32:59
what's different about directing puppets versus people?
33:03
But like, let's talk a little bit, you know, again about,
33:06
about teaching. Have you, have you taught a
33:08
class like that before? Like is this a new a new angle
33:12
for you or is this something that feels very natural coming
33:16
up? Well, I've been lucky with
33:19
Sesame. I've also, I'd worked with the
33:21
Co productions, the international versions of
33:24
Sesame. So sometimes when I've gone to
33:27
audition and rehearse puppeteers for their incarnations of
33:32
Sesame, I've also worked with the writers and kind of guided
33:38
them towards the Sesame way of writing and teaching.
33:41
That's still fun. And also the directors are like,
33:44
this is how you direct a puppet and this is like what you need
33:48
to be aware of with a puppet. So I kind of have done that
33:52
before. And so with your Neo, what's
33:55
interesting is you'll have people who obviously like love
34:00
puppets because that's why they're there and they've done
34:03
puppets. But now there's so many.
34:04
It's not just like live puppets. Now there's so many other
34:08
resources for puppets. So it's like, you know, taking
34:11
your live piece. Well, how would you direct this?
34:14
How would you shoot a live piece for, you know, for TikTok, for
34:19
YouTube, for, you know, for a short for TV?
34:22
How would you take this and adapt it for that?
34:25
How do you direct, you know, more than one character in the
34:32
scene? One of the things I've done with
34:34
the puppeteer that I've trained is I've shown them examples of
34:38
like I did so Gethful Jones was a character on Sesame Street
34:43
done by Richard Hunt and I was Richard Dry Hand for this bit
34:49
called E Clahoma. And it is Forgetful Jones on the
34:54
movie set and he supposed to think Oklahoma Kermitz is the
34:56
director and you got all these characters, you got these Muppet
35:00
cows and Muppet horses in the background that do the same
35:03
little choreography as we Gethful comes up and forgets
35:06
this say the word Oklahoma. And I use this as a as a as an
35:10
example for many things. One, the cows and the horses
35:13
have to stay up. They can't they can't leave.
35:15
They're always there. And so you have to be alive.
35:20
You can't just like drop your puppet or you're you're you're
35:23
tired. Oh no, you have to stay up it.
35:26
It's a crowd scene. And also in terms of like acting
35:30
like Kermit gets more and more flustered, but it's it's, it's a
35:35
build, it's an arc until he finally just loses it.
35:38
And that's another example of like, it's controlled flailing
35:42
because Kermit is just like losing it, but it's not just
35:46
wiggling the doll. I mean, it's very controlled and
35:48
very precise. And that was Jim.
35:51
And so it's a very funny bit that's on YouTube.
35:53
You can watch it. It's one of it's one of my
35:56
favorites. I got so excited when you
35:58
mentioned, when you mentioned it, It's one of one of my
36:01
favorites since I was a kid. And, and it, it still holds up
36:04
and it holds up exactly like what you're saying because of
36:08
just like the, the, the, the sheer technique at play and that
36:13
there's, there's a build of just both acting, you know, vocally,
36:18
but also manipulating the, the puppets.
36:20
It's really an incredible thing and it's it's.
36:23
And it's also straight through. It's one of the rare bits where
36:25
there were no, there's no edits. Like once it starts, we just go
36:29
straight through. And we did it twice.
36:31
So we're just seeing, we're just seeing is the second take and it
36:35
goes through twice. And what's great is Jerry Nelson
36:38
is the Bale of hay at the end. So Jerry's literally like
36:42
sitting under there just waiting.
36:44
And but before that, whenever Kermit says like it's like and
36:50
roll camera, Jerry says Spade, that that's Jerry's voice.
36:54
He just says spade, which is great.
37:01
Incredible that it you only took 2 takes.
37:04
Yeah, we just every, we rehearsed it and then we tried
37:07
to take and it was like, it was good.
37:09
Like, OK, let's do it one more time because it's now everybody
37:11
was like, OK, we can do, we can do better.
37:13
It's probably one of those things.
37:15
There used to be an expression called do or die, can we do, do
37:17
one more do or die? And so we did it and it was
37:21
great. And yeah.
37:21
And it's just straight through this.
37:23
No camera cuts, there's no editing.
37:25
It's like from beginning to end, we just kept going.
37:28
Which again, is the example I give people is like, this is one
37:30
take. You're up there.
37:32
Those horses and cows, they're up there.
37:34
So, you know, do your, you know, go to the gym, do your arm
37:39
exercises, do your shoulder presses because it pays off when
37:43
you're holding up a Muppet horse.
37:47
Yeah, you don't. You don't think it's heavy, but
37:48
then you hold it up for an entire take and it's heavy.
37:52
Actually, one of the hardest things for puppeteers to do is
37:55
photos. Like holding up the puppet for a
37:58
photo because you have to be still.
38:01
And it's like you're doing all this energy just like stay still
38:04
and be in this post. Whereas if you're moving around,
38:08
you know, oxygen is flowing, blood's flowing and it's more
38:12
comfortable. But if you have to like hold the
38:13
puppet and then just be still. And then you get a photographer
38:16
who has never shot a puppet before and will say, like over
38:20
here, it's like, and if you're underneath and can't see him,
38:23
like what does over here mean? It's like.
38:26
And so that's when someone like Michelle, again, God bless her,
38:30
stand next to the camera and say, OK, count a little down low
38:34
to the left, Elmo a little higher, Abby a little more to
38:37
the right so that you can get like the eyes focused.
38:41
Let me, let me also mention and I, I don't, I probably should
38:44
have mentioned this before, but I, I don't know if you know that
38:48
Joe and I last year we, we recorded a couple episodes of a
38:53
kind of like bear in the Big Blue House podcast miniseries.
38:59
Heard of this? Yes, and I heard about it.
39:01
I, I, I was watching, watching through it again, a show that I
39:06
grew up with and loved Joe was watching it for the first time.
39:10
But one thing, I mean, so many things that I was impressed by,
39:13
but one thing like the physicality of bear and some of
39:17
those dance moves that you do and like doing like slides on
39:23
the floor at the end of the song to, to, to show the end of a
39:27
song. Like it's an incredible
39:29
physical, physical feat. I mean, like, do you, do you
39:33
have any, have any stories about, about any of those like
39:36
dances that you had to do with Bear?
39:40
I knew that when I got the part, they started asking me and I
39:44
lived like on the Upper East Side, like 20 minutes away from
39:48
the Henson workshop. So I lived about 30 blocks away.
39:53
And when they would call me, they said, no, Do you have any
39:57
time next week to come in for a fitting?
39:59
And I said, I can be there in 20 minutes because I knew that this
40:03
guy and I were going to spend a lot of time together.
40:05
So let's make this as comfortable as possible for both
40:08
of us. And, you know, I would try
40:10
certain things. And then and then, you know, if
40:13
I felt something, that would be Bear's way of saying, oh, you
40:15
don't want to do that again. Remember that feeling?
40:19
You know what? Which is why also what I've told
40:21
puppeteers what I've trained for Sesame.
40:25
The director might ask you to do something and that you
40:28
physically either the puppet or you or both can't.
40:32
And I said you have the right to say no, but only if you have a
40:36
better idea, which would occasionally happen on bear.
40:40
The director would ask me something.
40:41
I was just like, no, but I can do this.
40:44
And it was usually, you know better.
40:46
And so you do have the right to say no, but you have to back it
40:49
up with a better idea. If you can't, then you're just
40:52
kind of like suck it up and just somehow get through it.
40:56
But yeah. But there's dance moves were
40:59
great. Especially like when I would go
41:02
to like box shows like Donnie Marie and teach them the the
41:07
bear cha cha cha. So having like human beings,
41:10
like trying to dance, like bear was always like very funny.
41:14
I could, I could I'm I'm, I'm trying to hold back on talking,
41:17
talking about Bear and because I could talk about I talk about
41:21
that. All day I was, I always had this
41:24
idea of like, maybe for like a, a charity event of doing like
41:28
like a watch party of me and Peter and Tyler and Vicki
41:34
watching an episode and commenting on it.
41:36
And people could like TuneIn and like, you know, donate money for
41:40
it. But I always wanted like, like
41:41
what it would be like for us to like go back and like watch
41:44
like, you know, that first episode.
41:45
I personally can't watch like some of the episodes, especially
41:49
the first season because because I got so much better.
41:52
And so I will see like these clips of people's babies
41:55
reacting or especially dogs reacting to bear sniffing.
41:58
And I can immediately say, well, that's season 1.
42:00
Don't, don't do that. Like it's so much better.
42:03
Later on. It's like this sniffing is so
42:06
much better. It's like, why are you doing
42:08
that? It's like, yeah.
42:09
And I'll just like critique myself, like terribly.
42:12
So I don't watch the the early episodes.
42:15
Yeah. No, like it's, it's hard.
42:18
It's hard. And again, you're, you're always
42:20
doing new things and you're always, you're always learning
42:22
and growing and, and all of that.
42:24
But you know. Well, you have to, we have to,
42:27
you have to like keep going. You have to keep moving,
42:29
especially in the, the current climate, like, you know,
42:33
creating, keep creating because that's a great form of like
42:37
resilience and resistance. Keep creating, make art.
42:41
And yeah, it just, it just helps you mentally and it could
42:47
inspire somebody else. Any Speaking of again, keeping
42:52
creating any any other future projects we should be watching
42:56
for? I mean, again, obviously this
42:57
show and you know, like like you said, you're potentially touring
43:01
with, hey, this was really fun after March 24th.
43:06
I've got a couple of Comic Con visits coming up because now
43:10
cons are back and so doing that again.
43:13
So I just did this past January in the Massachusetts, I did the
43:20
Chocolate Expo, which I'm doing again in New Jersey later this
43:26
year, which was very fun. It was, it was great.
43:31
And I'm also doing Hill Country Comic Con in April just outside
43:37
of Dallas. And then I have a couple more
43:40
cons potentially coming up, hopefully one in the UK and
43:46
possibly one in Ireland this year.
43:49
So fingers crossed kids. And if you're in those countries
43:53
and got that website of like suggesting guests suggest bear
44:00
the bear would love to go to England and Ireland.
44:03
I'm sure Scotland even. I'm actually like my ancestors
44:08
are Scottish. So hey, wouldn't buy going there
44:11
again. But this is, you know, again,
44:18
I'm going to I'm going to start wrapping things up.
44:22
But I do have, I do have one very important question.
44:26
And this actually comes from the team at Muppet Wiki.
44:30
And they, they heard that I was going to be talking to you and
44:33
they were like, can you ask, ask Noel this important question,
44:38
which is we have a thing on Muppet Wiki where we have been
44:43
trying to figure out for basically as long as there's
44:48
been a Muppet Wiki are Pip and Pop brothers or cousins.
44:55
Because because there's two camps of people who we can't
45:01
figure it out are Pip and Pop brothers.
45:06
OK, here's the thing. You see on the show, we always
45:10
thought hip and popper brothers, but Mitchell Kringman, the man
45:14
who created the show, said no, they're not.
45:16
And yet they share the same grandparents.
45:20
So it's like, So what are you talking about, dude?
45:24
It's like either they're siblings or they.
45:27
Could be cousins. They could be cousins.
45:29
They could be cousins. So that was probably the closest
45:33
thing because they're sharing the same grandparents.
45:35
So I was like, OK, they're they're cousins.
45:38
So you don't you? You don't have an answer.
45:41
You don't have an answer for us either.
45:43
No, we don't. It's just part of like the
45:45
Bethos of the house. It's like, that's it.
45:49
I do know, I can always tell you that whenever you see Pip and
45:52
Pop, Pip is always on the left and Pop is always on the right.
45:55
It's like, and also you can tell the difference with the ears.
45:58
Look at their ears and you can tell the difference.
46:01
But yeah, whenever, whenever we would set up a a scene with Pip
46:04
and Pop, like, like they always had to be like he always had to
46:08
be on camera left and Pop Tyler always had to be on camera,
46:11
right? Because that's that's the thing.
46:14
Outside of that, everything else was up for grabs like.
46:18
Listen, Hey, that's at least an answer.
46:21
The answer that we will never know is a never know more of an
46:25
answer than we started with. Exactly like no, no, no secret
46:30
Easter egg like no, it's like that's the way it is.
46:34
I'm. I will.
46:35
I will report back. I will report back to the team
46:38
there. Right.
46:40
Just tell them like Noel said. Noel.
46:42
Says this and it's like, OK, It's like, sorry, got nothing
46:48
up. More definitive like there you
46:50
go. There's nothing else I can add,
46:53
but like I said, so if folks want to see, hey, this was
47:00
really fun. Tickets are still available both
47:04
for the the the in person in on March 24th in person in New York
47:10
City. And the live.
47:12
Stream and the live stream, yeah, and any any last things
47:16
you want to you want to leave folks with.
47:20
Basically like me doing the show and like assuming possible other
47:26
things, it's just at this point in my life, you know, I'm still
47:31
able to do this. I've been so fortunate to have
47:34
done so many things that with so many incredible people that you
47:39
know, if you if you have an interest, if you have a dream,
47:42
like go for it, try it. So I was lucky that my mom
47:46
believed in me from the get go. And so a lot of people don't
47:51
have that. So that's why you really have to
47:54
start with the one person you're always with yourself.
47:57
So just believe in yourself. And, you know, if you ever have
48:01
any doubts, I was like, whoa, look at that guy.
48:04
Like, Neil, he's done all this stuff and he's still standing
48:07
and he's still talking coherently.
48:09
And so yeah. And when the opportunity comes,
48:14
you know, say yes, yeah, there's a couple of opportunities coming
48:17
for me. And it's like, have I ever done
48:22
this before? Not really.
48:23
Am I going to say no? Heck no.
48:25
I was like, I'll do this. Why not?
48:30
That's another podcast. No, I will say, I will say,
48:33
Noel, I I'd love to have you back.
48:36
If I'm not going to say if when we bring back the bear in the
48:40
Big Blue House show, I I'd love to have you back.
48:45
But in the meantime, where can people find you?
48:49
Obviously. Hey, this was really fun.
48:51
We'll post a link, but that's on the 54 Below website.
48:55
But where can people find you? Like on social media or
48:57
websites? Like I said, My Autobiography is
49:01
on Amazon. Hey, this was really fun.
49:03
I'm on the TikTok. I'm on Instagram as as well.
49:08
Those are the the two ones that I really like.
49:11
And that's at Noel McNeil. And it's at Ann McNeil.
49:14
Instagram is, yeah, Ann McNeil. And forget what the TikTok one
49:19
is, but it's like typing Noel McNeil.
49:21
And if you see like, you know, a bear, that's me.
49:25
I'll I'll post I'll post a link in the show notes as well and.
49:28
I'm also on like Threads and Blue Sky, but yeah, mainly
49:32
Instagram and TikTok. Sure, yeah.
49:36
Thank you. Thank you so much.
49:37
Thank you so much, Noel, for for, for being here.
49:41
Hey, thanks for letting me blather on a drone.
49:44
You've been very patient. You've been very patient
49:46
listening, whoever you are out there and.
49:51
Yeah, hopefully. I can't wait to see the show and
49:55
and hopefully we'll be able to chat soon.
49:57
Oh yes, there'll be a photo op at the end of the show, don't
50:00
worry. Keep that in mind too, folks.
50:03
Exactly. I'm in New York, you'll get that
50:06
Disney experience of the meet and greet afterwards.
50:08
So. Have a good one everybody.
50:12
Thanks, Noel.