Bein' Green by Kermit the Frog
Sitting in Big Bird's nest. It's huge! I wish I had one.
Big Bird's toys and pictures. The drawing, done by Caroll Spinney, is of Mr. Hooper, who was on the original Sesame Street.
Here I am peeking out of Oscar the Grouch's trash can. Caroll Spinney used Oscar's voice and said, "Hey, get out of my trash can." It was so cool!
Here he is! Elmo...or the guy that plays Elmo, Kevin Clash. He let me use the 'Waldo', an electronic, remote controlled Elmo. You ought to see him talk using Elmo's voice. See the microphone by his mouth?
The control room where all the video and sound comes together for editing.
The man pretending to choke me is Marty Robinson (he's really nice)...who plays Telly Monster. The other guy is originally from New Philadephia, Ohio, just an hour from where I live.
This is Alan Murakoa , Sesame Street's grocier. He put his towel over my shoulder. Notice the 'green board behind us..they use that to do special effects
Here is Alan and Big Bird singing on the set. Notice Kevin Clash, Elmo, in the white shirt, is also performing using the "Waldo" offstage. If you look you can see me off to the far left in the dark.
This is a scene with Big Bird, Telly, and Elmo. This was taken while they were filming. It was about different kinds of transportaion. Notice that Elmo is on a tricycle, and that is why they have to use the Waldo to make him move.
Here I am with the set behind me. The man sitting down is Caroll Spinney, who is both Big bird and Oscar the Grouch. He is 74 years old and was on roller skates! It gets very hot having Big Bird's costume on for too long, so they have to take it off a lot. Kevin Clash is on the far right.
This page was last updated: March 4, 2008
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Caroll Spinney came over to me between takes. He knew who I was and that I wanted to be a puppeteer. He told me about the first puppet that his mother made for him. It was a ghost puppet. He talked with me about how he got started as a puppeteer. We talked for a long time. He is really nice. See the bottom part of Big Bird that is still on him? And, he is on roller skates!! The picture to the right is Caroll Spinney in full costume, and he is rolling on his skates.
This picture is blurry, but it shows Kevin Clash (Elmo) and me just after I made a funny. I put my hand in the Waldo and made Elmo say, Ribit, Ribit., like Kermit the Frog. Everyone laughed.
This man is operating the tricycle that Elmo is on. He operates the tricycle, and Kevin Clash operates Elmo's body and mouth, while talking like Elmo. That's me, standing behind him.
These are pictures of my visit to Sesame Street on February 26, 2008
Here I am sitting on the floor, just a few feet away from Kevin Clash, watching what everyone is doing.
Same thing...another shot of me watching the crew and puppeteers of Sesmane Street make another show.
This was the best photo of my visit (the picture on the left). Marty Robinson, who plays Telly Monster, came over and let Telly put his arms around me. Do you see the woman's head behind us? She is behind Marty's right side. Since Marty uses one hand for Telly's left arm and the other for Telly's mouth, someone else has to be Telly's right hand, and that is what she does. Maybe I can be Telly's right arm one day, if Marty thinks I am good enough! Just another thing that I learned about puppetering.
Oh man! Caroll Spinnney is drawing me a picture of Big Bird and giving me an autograph. Someone pinch me, I must be in dreaming!
Do you see how big Caroll Spinney's arm is? Puppeteers have a lot of muscles in their arms because they have to hold up their puppets for long periods of time. The arm you see here operates Big Birds head and mouth
This is a shot of the ceiling...and I have no idea why we have it, but here it is. See the TV monitor? The round white light makes the set look like we are outside.
We couldnt' use flash with our camera, because the show was being filmed, so some of our pictures turned out blurry. Here is someone controlling the newest character on Sesame Street - Abby Cadabby!
