![]() ![]() "I tried to pull them away from it as much as possible. ", 'Give Elmo a hug and let's sing,' " he says. 11 were really scary, and that Elmo was there for them. I was there to entertain them and take them away from that."Ĭlash says he told the children that the events of Sept. It's very hard for me, because I don't know what to say to them. And it was very scary to see the children bringing up drawings of a tower and the planes hitting the towers. they used to come up and give Elmo a drawing of Elmo. "A lot of children were relocated from schools down in that area, and so they asked Sesame Street if some of the puppeteers and the characters could meet and greet these children. "The time that it really changed - when it really scared me - was when 9/11 happened," he says. And occasionally, they'll open up about other parts of their lives. We've found that the delusion is not broken by seeing us puppeteers.Ĭlash says that children who visit the set of Sesame Street will often tell Elmo if they've gotten a new pair of shoes or a new brother or sister. They run to Elmo because it's a friend of theirs that they've been talking to and communicating with and singing with for so many years. ![]() They really don't look at me when they see Elmo. So I really was influenced by TV and music, and incorporated them into my live shows." "All my puppets knew how to do The Bump and The Robot and all the dances that were out at the time. "I grew up listening to Motown and watching commercials, so the live shows that I was doing, I really used all of that," he says. His first puppet was Mickey Mouse, followed shortly by his own creations, who often danced and sang like the people Clash saw on TV. And if they crawled away, I knew it was something I should take out of the show."Ĭlash was barely a preteen when he started crafting his own puppets from scraps of material he found at his parents' house. When I started doing live shows, I would try the show out. "I definitely pull back into my childhood and how I was as a child. ", I really go back to being me as a child growing up," Clash says. Movie Interviews The Muppet Fans Who Made 'The Muppets' MovieĬlash describes Elmo as "a 3-1/2-year-old with a lot of energy loves hugs and kisses, and loves to laugh."Ĭlash thought that a falsetto voice would work well for a toddler-aged puppet. ![]() Over the past 25 years, Clash has transformed Elmo into one of the most recognizable characters on Sesame Street.Ĭlash's story is told in the new documentary Being Elmo, which chronicles the puppeteer's journey from performing in backyard shows for his mother's home-based day care center, to working with Jim Henson and the rest of the Muppeteers, to becoming an integral part of the Sesame Street cast. Clash, now the senior puppet coordinator and Muppet captain on Sesame Street, further developed Elmo's lovable personality and started providing his trademark voice. But then puppeteer Kevin Clash started working with the furry red creature. When Elmo first appeared on Sesame Street, the little red monster had a deep voice and rarely laughed. Being Elmo premieres on the PBS program Independent Lens on April 5th. This interview was originally broadcast on December 15, 2011. Photo courtesy of Scott McDermott/Being Elmo Clash has also performed in Labyrinth, Muppets from Space, Follow that Bird and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Elmo and Kevin Clash have been working together for more than 20 years.
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