I can tell you how to get to Sesame Street. It involves good timing, a bit of luck, and a dozen or so years of practice.
Of the handful of Sesame Street projects I was lucky enough to have a hand in (get it? hand? puppeteer? funny?) Elmo's Christmas Countdown was by far the most memorable...partly because of the soap bubble snow that caused us to constantly slip and fall all over the place, and partly because of the celebrity guest stars who were always parading through the legendary neighborhood.
Admittedly, I am not a pop culture guru. (I'm certain that both of my readers are gasping in shock at this revelation.) In fact, I remember sending harried text messages in a pathetic attempt to find out who was who. Kevin James? No idea. Brad Paisley? The name rang a bell. I was informed via my outdated wireless mobile device that he was something of a mucky-muck in the world of country music. Awesome.
Imagine, if you will, being yanked from the sidelines and thrown straight into the lion's den to perform with a Grammy Award winning country superstar mucky-muck. No warning. No rehearsal. Nothing. Zip-doo-dah.
Anxiety, much?
That's precisely what happened to me. For one reason or another, the regularly scheduled, A-list puppeteer had to depart and yours truly was given the opportunity to try and fill his Paul Bunyan-sized shoes. The character was a blue-billed penguin that was perched up on a sleigh - right next Brad Paisley's million-dollar guitar strummin' hand.
Long story short, it was at once nerve-wracking and marvelous.
Enjoy Brad and the Sesame Street Muppets. And pay special attention to the lone, slightly terrified, blue-billed penguin on the left.
