Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey

I have mentioned before how much I was looking forward to watching the documentary on Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind Elmo.  The documentary, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, was released last year, and Mr. Y and I were lucky enough to catch it on PBS recently. 

The documentary was very interesting and enlightening.  Kevin grew up in Turner's Station, a predominantly black suburb of Baltimore, Maryland.  He had wanted to be a puppeteer since he was very young.  How many kids start making puppets at the age of 10?  It was great to see how supportive his parents were, and they were so cute when they were interviewed about him.  They told the funny story of how Kevin took his dad's furry overcoat to make a monkey muppet when he was really young, and they were more amused than angry. 

Kevin started his career by putting on puppet shows to the kids at his mom's daycare, and started working professionally for a CBS affiliate in Baltimore.  He went on to work with Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo himself) and on The Great Space Coaster.  He met Kermit Love, one of the Muppet designers, on a school trip in high school, and Love became his mentor.  It was Love who got Kevin started on various gigs with Jim Henson, which eventually led him to Sesame Street. 

While on Sesame Street, Kevin started with Hoots the Owl and Dr. Nobel Price.  Elmo was already on the show, but as a minor character with a deep voice as played by Brian Muehl and Richard Hunt.  One day Richard Hunt was complaining about how he didn't know what to do with Elmo, and threw the red puppet to Kevin, telling him to see what he could do with it.  Thus Elmo as we know it was born.

It's clear that Kevin loves his job.  He travels all over the world training other puppeteers, doing appearances and charity works, and he's also now a co-executive producer on Sesame Street.  It's also clear that this job took some personal tolls on him.  His marriage broke up because he was always gone, and he missed most of his daughter's childhood.  It was sweet to see him with his daughter, Shannon. 

Overall the documentary presented an very fascinating and uplifting picture of Kevin Clash, and worth watching if you catch it on TV.