Following the huge success of last year’s Kevin Clash documentary Being Elmo comes the news that Sesame Street’s Caroll Spinney will be profiled in a documentary currently in production called I Am Big Bird. The filmmakers promise that the film will make extensive use of Caroll’s personal archive of photos, films and videos and include lots of never before seen material. No release date has been announced yet, but it looks like this will be a fascinating look at the life and work of one of the world’s most beloved puppeteers.

More information about the film and nice gallery of production photos can be found at www.iambigbird.com.

Constance Marks’ documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey (see previous post) has been a huge hit on the film festival circuit. It’s won a number of accolades, including a special jury prize at Sundance and numerous audience awards at other festivals. The film explores Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash’s childhood fascination with puppetry and traces his career from its earliest days on local TV in Baltimore and The Captain Kangaroo Show, to his work with the Muppets and Sesame Street that continues to this day.

Kevin is a brilliant performer and most of the reviews of the film so far have focused on the aspirational aspects of his story, but this film isn’t exactly a puff piece. Being Elmo portrays not only Kevin’s triumphs, but also the realities of being a television puppeteer (there are mentions of contract work and offers of low pay while trying to break in to the industry) as well as the toll success can take on your personal life. Production commitments on Sesame Street, Elmo’s worldwide popularity and Kevin’s insistence on performing Elmo at every engagement around the world leave him with a brutal schedule. He’s so busy that during one emotionally raw sequence in the film his teenage daughter writes him a letter asking for the opportunity to get know him before she goes away to college. It makes Kevin’s story very human; here’s a man who literally entertains millions of children everyday and yet he’s obviously struggled to have a strong relationship with his own daughter.

Being Elmo is a great film that paints an emotional and moving portrait of a man who has followed his passion and is living out his dream. It opens in select U.S. cities beginning October 21st (click here for the current release schedule) and I highly recommend it.

This is a classic Muppet sketch from Sesame Street’s 42 season, which is in full swing on PBS in the United States. The show seems to be staying true to its roots in classic Muppet puppetry while also finding new and interesting ways to incorporate a lot more computer animation and raise the show’s production values.

For example, have a look at the fancy new Super Grover 2.0:

While the Sesame Street’s production values look better than ever before, a lot of people have raised concerns about the quality of the show in recent years. Some fans complain that it’s not as good as it used to be, but is that actually true or are those just the grumblings of adults who are nostalgic for their childhood? ToughPigs decided to do a little experiment about Entertainment vs. Education on Sesame Streetwith a Muppet fan and a professional educator. You can review the resulting review of Sesame Street’s season 42 premiere at ToughPigs.com.

If you want to see the new season for yourself, Sesame Street airs weekdays on PBS stations in the United States (check your local listings). If you live outside the U.S. or want to watch online, lots of videos from the new season can be found in the Sesame Street YouTube Channel.

You may have heard that a gay rights group is trying to petition Sesame Workshop to have Bert and Ernie “outed” as gay and have them married on Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop has already reiterated their long-stated position that Bert and Ernie are puppets and don’t have a sexual orientation, but I think that Channel 12 news in Phoenix, Arizona came up with the most appropriate way to address the story earlier tonight.

“Digby the puppet” was performed by Stacey Gordon and I don’t know about you, but there’s just something about otherwise serious journalists having to conduct an interview with a hand puppet that I find endlessly amusing.

Despite their status as semi-retired puppeteers, Jerry Nelson and Frank Oz occasionally still come back to Sesame Street to tape a few skits with their classic characters and it doesn’t get much more classic than Grover (Frank), who’s been providing lousy service to Mr. Johnson (aka “Fat Blue”, played by Jerry) since the early `70s. Their decades-long antagonistic relationship continues in this new sketch, which sends up the much-maligned Broadway musical Spiderman: Turn off the Dark.

Special thanks to everyone who sent this in!

I know that Sesame Workshop swears that everything they do is “curriculum based”, educational and what not, but sometimes I think it’s just a bunch of people sitting around a room trying to entertain themselves. Watch this video of Bert and Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg see if you can disagree.

Thanks to Gordon Smuder for spotting this!

Tau Bennett is an 11 year-old boy from Augusta, Georgia who loves building and performing puppets. He met Leslie Carrarra-Rudolph at the Center For Puppetry Arts in Atlanta and Leslie was so impressed with him that she invited him to the Sundance Film Festival, where the Kevin Clash documentary Being Elmo was premiering (see previous post). Tau must have made an impression on Kevin too, because now he’s headed to the set of Sesame Street where he will get the chance to perform onscreen.

Isn’t that a great story? Something tells me we’ll be hearing more about Tau in the years to come…

I’m in the middle of a move and between all the packing, planning and disruption to my internet access posting might be a little light (or even non-existant) over the next week or so.While I go to pack some more boxes I leave you with that wise sage Oscar the Groch, making his picks for this weekend’s Oscar ceremony.

Via Tubefilter.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, a new documentary about the life and career of Kevin Clash premiered at Sundance this weekend and has been receiving tons of buzz and lots of solid reviews. All signs seem to point to it becoming a big (and well-deserved) success for the filmmakers, who spent several years producing it. A full review can be found over at /Film.

The team behind the film have uploaded a video from the Q&A session after the premiere to YouTube. You can watch it below:

There’s no word on distribution plans for Being Elmo yet, but I’m sure it will be touring the film festival circuit and we can look forward to a theatrical and/or DVD release in the near future.

It’s been two months since the Katy Perry/Sesame Street fiasco and there have been so many parodies of it that it’s practically become a cliché, but I think that the folks at College Humor may have saved the best for last (or at least latest).

Featuring puppets by the always-prolific James Wotjal and puppetry by David Kerns, Stubby Dorrance, and Jonathan Carlucci.