Your Thoughts: Kevin Clash Biography

minor muppetz

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It seems like Kevin Clash spends too much time talking about his personal, non-Muppet life, almost as much as he talks about Elmo. It is cool that he frequently mentions non-Sesame productions with the Muppets that he performed in, even if he doesn't specifically say who he performed. He also sort of repeats a quote he made in Jim Henson: The Works, where he talked about the closing sequence from The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years.

He talks about Elmo being popular, but as far as I've read he never talks about Baby Sinclair. I mean, Baby was probably his most popular character at the time that Dinosaurs was on (I know Elmo was already around, and quite popular, but Baby Sinclair was marketed more during the time Dinosaurs was in production).

It would have been great if he talked about The Jim Henson Hour and Muppets Tonight, and how he felt about performing Clifford as the host of Muppets Tonight as opposed to a supporting character/ musician.

I've seen a few things that mention Caroll Spinney talkign about Elmo originating as Baby Monster, and then later becomming Elmo. It is cool that Clash mentioned that Elmo was called Baby Monster by the studio, too, though it seems like he was saying that he was called both at the same time. It's also interesting that he mentions that Elmo originally had a lot of performers, and then says "Including Brian Meehl". Of course, Brian Meehl was Elmoi's main performer during his first few years, but it sort of seems like Kevin Clash was randomly mentioning Meehl, and not others. He could have said that Brian Meehl was Elmo's main performer, as opposed to it sounding random as if Meehl was/ is a big-name celebrity. It's cool that he talked about some of Meehls other characters that he originated.

I do find it sad at times, mainly when it talks about how he became so close to being a Muppet performer. I fidn it sad when it mentions that he was given a contract to perform in 10 episodes in 1983 and then it had to be torn up because the producers of the shows that he performed in full-time refused to work around hiss chedule. And it is sad when Kermit Love talked him out of performing in The Dark Crystal. I mean, if he had to leave those TV shows that he worked on, couldn't he at least try to come back to either (or see if Kermit Love could get him a job on Sesame Street)?

He mentioned filling in whenever he could. Does that mean performing? I've read a post by Michael Earl Davis that stated that he originally performed Buster the Horse. I always thought that meant he performed Buster in 1980, since I've heard of that year being the year Buster debuted. It is strange that a part-time performer who only performed whenever he could would perform a regular character, unless Buster wasn't used much at first. And I wonder when he first performed Ferlinghetti Donnizetti. I think he first appeared in 1983. Did Kevin perform him originally, or did another performer (maybe Brian Meuhl) have the role?

I wish he talked about more of his characters who didn't last long. Most of those characters are ones I never knew about. It would have been great if he discussed Kingston Livingston III and Dr. Nobel Price (or, when he mentioend that Brian Meuhl performed Elmo, he could have mentioned that he also performed Dr. Price, another character he took over as).

If Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Steve Whitmire, or Dave Goelz ever write autobiographies, I hope that they talk about more than just their most famous characters, very little about their personal lives, and talk more about performing as opposed to life lessons.
 

BEAR

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minor muppetz, I don't understand. It is an autobiography which mean that it is a book about them...their lives. Don't you want to know about these people? That's the point of the book. It is about how Sesame Street has effected their lives also.
 

minor muppetz

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BEAR said:
minor muppetz, I don't understand. It is an autobiography which mean that it is a book about them...their lives. Don't you want to know about these people? That's the point of the book. It is about how Sesame Street has effected their lives also.
I didn't think about that. I guess I haven't read very many autobiographies (as far as I know, I've only read this and Caroll Spinney's autobiography). I've read a lot of biographies, which talk alot more about peoples careers in show buisness, but I never thought that somebody in show buisness might want to write more about their non-show buisness life. If I was a celebrity, I'd really only want to talk about my pre-celebrity life in chapter one, and make it short.

We all want to know more about the Muppets. There are a lot of interesting facts about Kevin Clash that I didn't know untill reading this book. For an autobiography who has worked for the Muppets for a long time, I'd expect more to be said about how he liked the characters he performed, characters he disliked performing, characters he turned down opportunities to perform, and more about the productions that he performed in. Maybe talk about some inspiration for some scenes or characters. For example, it would be interesting if he talked more about the song Put Down the Duckie (I'm guessing that he didn't... I'm not finished with the book), or Elmo's Song. I am also for interesting facts about some productions that, while interesting to read about, might not be worth putting on the Muppet Wiki website (or in the trivia section of the Internet Movie Database, or trivia sections on any sites about movies and television).

I think that Caroll Spinney's autobiography has a perfect balance of info about his personal, non-performing life and his professional, performing life.
 

JJandJanice

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minor muppetz said:
I do find it sad at times, mainly when it talks about how he became so close to being a Muppet performer. I fidn it sad when it mentions that he was given a contract to perform in 10 episodes in 1983 and then it had to be torn up because the producers of the shows that he performed in full-time refused to work around hiss chedule. And it is sad when Kermit Love talked him out of performing in The Dark Crystal. I mean, if he had to leave those TV shows that he worked on, couldn't he at least try to come back to either (or see if Kermit Love could get him a job on Sesame Street)?
I have to say I didn't really think of that as "sad", I thought Kermit Love knew what he was talking about. Kermit Love told Kevin that you don't want to be known as someone who doesn't fullfil your promises of sorts. Kevin signed up to do theos shows back than, Captain Kagaroo and Caboose, I believe. And it really wouldn't have said too much about Kevin's character had he just left the characters he was perfroming on thoes shows to go off and do the Dark Cyrstal. Sure the Dark Cyrstal is a bigger deal than thoes shows, and it seems like he would of been set. But he would probably have to do resumes, just like for anyother job. So how do you think Kevin would sound if some producer guy from Sesame Street called some guy from, say, Captain Kagaroo and the CK guy says something like "well he's a good puppeteer, but prove to be unreliable." A lot of shows would want to have anything to do with him, and we probably won't have this book, because I doubt Kevin Clash would be as famous (well at least Elmo) as he is now.

Besides it's needless to say that this choice along with all his choices he's made in life were the right ones for him. He's doing really well now.
 

wes

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I just finished reading the bio, My thaughts are he really likes his charactor Elmo and it's had a profound impression on his life. I didn't realize how long he has been doing Elmo 20 something years i don't remember Elmo when I was Younger. I would have to say in all honesty i like Carroll Spinney book better may be it's because he's older. any way it was OK. I like pictures in a bio
 

rurulesunc

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Ok just finished the book a couple of days ago. The big thing that stood out to me (and that Im surprised no one has mentioned yet) is the typo that glares at you...

"Jim Hensen"

I think its somewhere in Chapter 2. I am a big spelling freak and personally I find it hard to take anything as trustworthy or from a reliable source when there are obvious typos. (Watch, now I will make some in this post)

Now having said that I did enjoy the book. I wish it would have been longer and like has been said, included more behind the scenes moments. I did enjoy learning more about him growing up and wouldnt cut any of that out, I would just add more about the more recent parts of his life.

I really just cant get over that they missed such an obvious typo. Spell check doesnt catch everything.

Anyway, just my two cents.
 

erniebert1234ss

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MY THOUGHTS:

It is obviously a great book, spelling errors overlooked. You can almost expect them these days.

Kevin actually is getting much more respect from me. I understand now what he's doing for the kids.

Maybe I should write to him and explain where I think SS needs to go in the future (i.e. being kids' friends, not their parents, etc.).

BJ
 

Blinky_Fish

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I am still reading the book... I find that it's a good book and the jumping between Elmo and Kevin's stories makes it a lot more fun. - Caroll's book and Kevein's are much different - so I feel that you can't really compare.

Go buy it!
 

travellingpat

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I thought it was a great book, well worth the money (although mine was a gift :smile: ) A definate buy for any fans!
 

minor muppetz

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I noticed in one part of the book, Kevin said that it's easier to work around the schedules of full-time performers, but part-time performers are more difficult, because they are busy working on other shows. I wonder if Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, or Richard Hunt (or even Fran Brill) were considered part time or full time. It has been said that during the early years the main performers (with the exception of Caroll Spinney) usually only speant one month per season performing in new material. Would that make them full-time or part-time? And, of course, during the late 1970s theyw ere busy with The Muppet Show, and shortly after that Jim Henson would be busy with many other productions, and Frank Oz would be busy directing movies.
 
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