Daniel

Jan 2005

Age: A quarter century

 

Location: Madison, WI

 

Live with: Ol' buddy Pat

 

Job/Passion: Currently, I'm an office manager for an overpriced apartment complex. It makes me feel dirty. My majors were Theater and Art. I've also been learning web design and flash animation, and I hope to have a few toons ready soon. We'll see.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I have a crude Kermit drawing that I made as a two year old. It's great. Big circle head, crosses for pupils and triangles around his neck. I will also never forget receiving my first Kermit for Christmas. It was the Fisher Price reporter Kermit. Kick ass.

 

Favorite Muppet: I will always have a certain kinship with Kermit as we both serve the same purpose in life in our respective theater companies, as well as share a very similar outlook on life. It's an outlook I credit to Jim's work, as he was kind of a fantasy father figure for me growing up, as I imagine he was for so many of us here. His characters have a very special place with me; Kermit, Rowlf and Ernie especially. I think it's their purity of self. I also have a deep respect for Gonzo and his soulful brand of self-exploration, and willingness to humiliate himself in the name of his art.

Danny

May 2006

Age: 35 years old

 

Location: Just outside of Philadelphia, PA

 

Live with: My partner Ed, my cats Darwin, Natalie, and Samantha, and my monkeys Punkimonkey and Mooch. It's a lively household.

 

Job/Passion: Between gigs

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Three years old -- being given a Cookie Monster doll for Chanukah that was as big as I was, and being totally excited about it.

 

Favorite Muppet: Miss Piggy

 

Website: Tough Pigs

David

Jan 2005

Age: 23

 

Location: New York, New York -- a town so nice, they named it twice.

 

Live with: My roommates, Pamela and Kate.

 

Job/Passion: I'm a jack of all trades (temping/cater waitering), but I want to be an actor. I'm auditioning and all that jazz. It's tough, but it'll pay off someday.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: My earliest specific Muppet memory is my mother buying me a Muppet Babies book in a supermarket. But they've always been there somehow. My parents used to tape TMS on Saturday mornings for me, and when I'd wake up, my first words would be, "Who's the guest star?!" Awww, ain't that cute?

 

Favorite Muppet: Animal, Beaker, Crazy Harry, Grover, Lew Zealand, Link Hogthrob, Dr Teeth, Beauregard, Sweetums, Janice, GMC era Miss Piggy, random rare characters, etc.

Doug

June 2004

Age: 24

 

Location: Rochester, NY

 

Live with: My parents. I'm pathetic. 

 

Job/Passion: I'm a graphics guy at a scrapbooking company.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I remember going to the store with my mother when I was, oh, about five, and every week she'd buy me one of those Fisher Price Muppet stick puppets. I still have them all. 

 

Favorite Muppet: Gonzo the Great. The Great Gonzo. Charles Dickens. Whatever.

Emmy

May 2006

Age: 23

 

Location: Dayton, Ohio

 

Live with: My family

 

Job/Passion: Substitute teacher during the week. On weekends I work at the Air Force Museum. And by night I fight crime. Unless something good is on TV.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I would lay down on the television and watch Sesame Street, and think up plans to get my parents to take me to Sesame Street Live. Those plans never worked.

 

Favorite Muppet: Way too many.

 

Website: Your Face!

Grant

Jan 2005

Age: Twenty and Still Counting.

 

Location: Sometimes in a house in Ottawa, Ontario; sometimes in a dorm room in Sackville, New Brunswick. Sackville is better.

 

Live with: In Ottawa, with my parents. In Sackville, I'm in a single room "with all my many friends right there outside my door," as Tutter would say.

 

Job/Passion: Studying biology in university. Thought about careers in science, science journalism, puppetry, set design, housing development, environmental education, subsistence fishing, and a million other things.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Vague snippets from the original run of Fraggle Rock on CBC. 

 

Favorite Muppet: It changes all the time, but Grover's definitely near the top of my list. You can't not love Grover. (Some of my friends say I am Grover.)

 

Website: The Abstractions -- my puppet website, currently featuring no content.

Guillermo

Jan 2005

Age: 21

 

Location: Sunnyvale, CA

 

Live with: Myself, a refrigerator, a stove, a few tables, a computer, a sofa, a bed, some lamps (including a lava lamp), a dry-erase board, a filing cabinet, 3 VCR's, a TV, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, and some 600-odd VHS tapes.

 

Job/Passion: Student / aspiring animator (wish I had the opportunity). 

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Listening to the Great Muppet Caper LP (and several Sesame Street LP's)... watching Sesame Street on a small B&W TV, before we switched to the big color one... renting the Playhouse Muppet Show videos and the Fraggle Rock HBO videos.

 

Favorite Muppet: Hard to choose... Cookie Monster (especially the way he looked in the first two seasons -- what a cute mouth!)... and Boober Fraggle, because just like him, I have Asperger's, but I also have a "fun side" that I keep on the bottom.

Jenny

Apr 2009

Birthday: Aug. 22, 1984

Location: MN

Job/Passion: Not-so-starving artist

Earliest Muppet Memory: Put Down the Duckie

Favorite Muppet: Hoots (see above)

Useless Superpower: Reading subliminal messages

Jess

Jan 2005

Age: 25

 

Location: In a lovely and small apartment in the snow.

 

Live with: It's just me and my toys, and a plant or two.

 

Job/Passion: I have a nifty new job doing sciencey stuff at a pharmaceutical company. (And someday I still hope to work in water resources, restoration, and/or sustainable design for an environmental consulting firm or a non-profit organization.)

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: My earliest Muppet memory involves 3-year-old Jessica watching Sesame Street on the couch with her parents.

 

Favorite Muppet: No fair making us pick favorites! (Oh, hell. Just put me down for the entire cast of Fraggle Rock.)

Jessica
2003

Age: 33 years old

Location: Central Jersey Shore

Live with: I live with my four-year-old daughter Emileigh and our small, brown rabbit Chatter.

Job/Passion: I am an Art teacher at Catholic school. I teach grades K-8.

Earliest Muppet Memory: My first memory is receiving the original cast SS album as a Christmas gift when I was four. I listened to it under the Christmas tree while staring at the twinkling lights and desperately wanted to move to SS immediately.

Favorite Muppet: My favorite Muppets are all SS characters -- Bert, Telly, Prairie Dawn, Grover, you know, all of them.

Joe

Apr 2009

Birthday: Jan 1, 1982

Location: Brooklyn, New York, Outer Space

Job/Passion: I write about Muppets every day for free.

Earliest Muppet Memory: I'm pretty sure I watched Sesame Street in the womb. Oh, my poor mother!

Favorite Muppet: It's a tie between Cookie Monster and Rowlf the Dog. So... Cookie the Dog?  Rowlfie Monster?

Favorite Ninja Turtle: Donatello (he does machines!)

Website: ToughPigs.com

Jog

Apr 2009

Age: Feb 3rd, 1983

 

Location: Haarlem, The Netherlands

 

Live with: Myself 

 

Job/Passion: Puppeteer (stage & television)  

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Dad playing a record and telling me, "Know who this is? It's the English Kermit!" That song was the Rainbow Connection. He gave me the sleeve of the Muppet Movie record and I just gazed at the pictures while listening to the music.

 

Favorite Muppet: Rowlf. Also Scooter, Grover, Wembley and of course Kermit. And there's this cowardly rabbit reporter on the Dutch Sesamstraat that I'm particularly fond of.

Things I dig besides Muppets: Taoism; Arlo Guthrie; making music (piano, harmonica, tenor banjo, uke); writing journals; coffee

Julia

Jan 2005

Age: 28

 

Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Home of stroopwafels, tulips and Pepe shirts.

 

Live with: The infamous Thijs

 

Job/Passion: I'm a writer for theatre, TV, and film. Just because I can't sit still all day, I'm also doing production work for film (and sometimes theatre). Next to that, I lead an organization for film education -- Dutch film makers give classes in high schools. 

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Watching Sesamestreet, of course. But my real fandom started out with the Fraggle, and the serious fandom really hit off with the singing fruit in Muppet Christmas Carol.

 

Favorite Muppet: Rowlf and Red Fraggle.

Julian

June 2004

Age: 25 years old

 

Location: In a nice flat with a great view over the rooftops of the very green city of Hamburg, Germany.

 

Live with: My sis, dad and his  almost-same-age-as-me-asian-actress girlfriend, her psycho dog, some fish, and sometimes my little brother and mother who live just around the corner. 

 

Job/Passion: I'm a student, trying to become a teacher (grades 1-10) for Arts and (the foreign language) English. I love to "photoshop" and to draw, especially cartoons (my fav artists: Jeff Smith, Carl Barks, Don Rosa, Barbucci/Canepa). Love the Muppets, of course! Mon raison d'être est de faire le monde une meilleure place. Pardonnez-moi mon mauvais français, svp!

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Being fascinated and frightened of Samson the bear (German Sesame Street) and getting a Fisher Price Kermit for Christmas.

 

Favorite Muppet: Pig..., no wait, Gonz..., no, Pigg..., no, Gonzo..., no, Piggy! Hmm, both!

Kellie

Jan 2005

Age: 31

 

Location: Washington, DC

 

Live with: My husband and two cats

 

Job/Passion: I work at the Chronicle of Higher Education, which is a weekly newspaper for college professors and administrators. I write stuff for the website, which means I get to sit on the tech side of the building with all the fun nerds who understand my Star Trek jokes.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: My mom says she put me in front of Sesame Street in my car carrier before I was old enough to sit up by myself. But my first clear fan memory is of watching the opening to The Muppet Show and being so excited to see what would happen when Gonzo tried to blow the horn.

 

Favorite Muppet: Boober

Kevin

June 2004

Age: 31

 

Location: Memphis, TN

 

Live with: My mule

 

Job: Sales. School: Drop-out. Passion: Blues, Muppets, Peanuts, Ghostbusters, Blues Brothers, paranormal research. Raison d'etre: I don't know (even after 3 years of French).

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Sesame Street.

 

Favorite Muppet: That fabulously furry fuzzy funny man, Mr Fooooziieee Bear!

Kynan

June 2004

Hey kids. My name is Kynan and I'm an Australian. 

 

Age: I'm 25 human years old, with the heart and energy of a newborn 24 year old.

 

Location: "Dear Nephew Gobo. I am investigating a part of outer space called Australia. It's a beautiful place where the silly creatures are even sillier than usual. They cook themselves in the sun. They even paint their food red before they eat it! But the silliest thing of all is that they're always throwing things on the ground. How long do they think this land will stay beautiful? Sometimes I wish I were back with all you sensible Fraggles in Fraggle Rock." -- This Uncle Travelling Matt PSA, circa mid-80's, tells you all you need to know about the place I call home.

 

I just surprised myself by remembering that verbatim. What ELSE is still floating round in my head from the 80's?

 

Live with: My 26-year-old housemate Jessica and my 5-month-old housemate Aidan. Jessica is Aidan's mum, and I'm just the goofy guy who makes faces all day long. 

 

Job/Passion: I write for a variety/comedy show called Rove Live and a sketch comedy show called Skithouse. This week alone, I helped conceive approximately 5 minutes of quality monkey-based entertainment. When I'm not writing for moderately successful TV shows, I'm creating my own unsuccessful TV projects and breakin' hearts.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: A behind-the-scenes story on The Muppet Show on 60 minutes. (It screened on the Australian 60 Minutes, but I don't know whether this was the original US 60 Minutes story, or a separate Aussie version.) For some reason, my young self came away with the impression that the microphone mouth-pieces carved into character shapes actually turned the performers' voices into the characters' voices.

 

This wasn't my watershed moment, it's just the earliest thing I remember.

 

Favorite Muppet: What, you want me to choose between my own children?

 

Website: rove [live]

Lara

Jun 2009

Location: Fayetteville, NC

 

Live with: My parents. Garr. 

 

Job/Passion: Student/Acting

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Watching Sesame Street with my brother. Hiding behind my First Muppet Dictionary while my brother and babysitter watched "Flowers in the Attic". Looking for Fraggle holes in old relatives' houses with my bro. 

 

Favorite Muppet: Gonzo, Rizzo, Bean, Kermit, Gobo, Digit, Wembley, Boober, Scooter... Oh hell, all of 'em ever made.

Favorite Tom Hanks role: Uncle Ned in "Family Ties"

Laura

Jan 2005

Age: 32

 

Location: Hanover, MD

 

Live with: One husband and one four-year-old son. 

 

Job/Passion: I help rocket scientists use their computers as a job type thing.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I remember getting so excited about Sesame Street coming on, I would race around the coffee table to burn off excited energy, and being stopped for trying to take apart the TV with a butter knife to free my Sesame Street friends. I was also so attached to a Cookie Monster puppet that I wore it like a hat. 

 

Favorite Muppet: I'm partial to Herry, Sweetums and Lew Zealand.

Marianne

Apr 2009

Birthday:  March 11, 1992

 

Location: Suburban Maryland

 

Job/Passion:  Intern at a puppet company and student. Passion is more film performance and editing related than what I'm doing at the internship, but building puppets is pretty nice, too.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: When I was four, I was playing Detective Barbie, and there was a really long and boring cutscene, so I rolled over in the chair to my parents' bookshelf and started flipping through The Works. Saw the Harry Belafonte episode a year or two later. There was probably some Sesame stuff going on before that, though. 

 

Favorite Muppet: Gonzo, The Muppaphone, and Emmett Otter, specifically in that outtake when he was like "My feet are stapled".

 

 

   

Martha

Apr 2009

Age: Chronologically, 38, but I'm really still lurking somewhere around 10.

Location: Massachusetts, northwest of Boston.

Job/Passion: Teacher at a school for kids with severe behavioral, emotional, and social special needs, which qualifies as both job and passion.

Earliest Muppet Memory: Watching Sesame Street when Oscar was still orange.

Favorite Muppet: Tough choice... Grover is a longtime fave, followed closely in no particular order by Kermit, Ernie and Bert, and Cookie.

Random Facts about Me: My car's license plate is "MUPPET," and I love to cook.

 

 

   

Mary Catherine

Apr 2009

Birthday: February 9, 1988

Location: Albany, NY, formerly Milwaukee, WI. I often feel like the Midwest's ambassador to upstate New York, considering the number of people I've met here who haven't been farther west than Buffalo.

Job/Passion: Working with kids in any/all capacities, for any/all money. But mostly for the joy of teaching them and having them teach me.

Earliest Muppet Memory: Watching Muppet Babies with my brothers

Favorite Muppet: Gonzo is truly the greatest in my book, but Ernie, Wembley, Sherlock Hemlock, and Red are favorites, too.

Random Fact about Me: I am virtually unbeatable at Boggle, but have never won a game of Scrabble.  

 

     

Michal

Jan 2005

Age: Near geezerhood: 21.

 

Location: New York City, the second floor. When I get hungry I either go to New Jersey or Long Island.

 

Live with: The beautiful, the indefatigable, the exceedingly talented and high-strung Tamar.

 

Job/Passion: Someday I plan to sing, dance, and make people happy. Right now I'm studying dance and anthropology, which keeps me out of trouble. I also like to eat. 

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: My sister and I had a tape with a bunch of Muppet Show episodes that we used to watch, over and over again, on our scratchy old orange couch in the den of our old house. Said videocassette, along with the VCR it was in at the time, got stolen one day when we weren't home. We also had that little footstool with Ernie on one side and Bert on the other, which we would stand on to brush our teeth before we became tall enough to reach the sink.

 

Favorite Muppet: Statler and Waldorf amuse me to no end, so they're my favorite old fools to watch. Kermit, however, is my Frog in Shining Armor.

 

 

     

Mike

June 2004

Age: 23 years young

 

Location: Texas

 

Live with: My family

 

Job/Passion: Student at community college

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Going with my dad to a 7pm showing of Muppet Treasure Island

 

Favorite Muppet: From the old group, Gonzo. From the new group, Johnny Fiama and Sal.

 

Website: FAQ Fiama

 

 

     

Mo

Apr 2009

Birthday: May 5th, same as Karl Marx.

 

Location: Pikesville, MD (Baltimore County)

 

Job/Passion: Former Baker, Aspiring comedic writer

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: The Brooke Shields episode of the Muppet show. Technically, before that I used to have elaborate dreams about the Pinball sequence from Sesame Street, but that really isn't Muppet related.

 

Favorite Muppet: Wembley Fraggle.

 

Fun Facts: I possess a hairless dog who is often compared to a Muppet by people meeting her for the first time. I am a passionate Rush fan (the righteous Canadian dudes, not the horrible fat guy). I thank my family for nurturing my Muppet fandom.

 

 

 

   

Nate

July 2003

Age: 20-something (I really get tired of how old I'm getting)

 

Location: Oxford, Mississippi

 

Live with: Myself and my kitty Tibbs

 

Job/Passion: I'm a radio DJ for 94.1 the Buzz in Memphis, and since I'm still waiting for my big break with better money, I also work for the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi. My heart and passion is in acting, improv and broadcasting.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Getting John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. I believe it was my first record. I was already hooked on the Muppets before that though.

 

Favorite Muppet: I can't pick just one favorite. I mean, how can I choose between Tutter, Robin, Bean Bunny, Sweetums, and Rizzo?

 

Website: 94.1 The Buzz

 

 

   

Nick

Jan 2005

Age: 22

 

Location: Bayside, NY

 

Live with: My roommate Lilana, and her cat Gabriella Isabel Rose-Marie.

 

Job/Passion: Between jobs, but I have a passion for puppetry.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Well, when I was like ten, I woke up to watch some Saturday morning cartoons. When Muppet Babies came on, it was the episode where animated versions of Kermit, Piggy and Fozzie are all shown in adult form. The episode also had cartoon versions of Link Hogthrob and Dr Strangepork in a Pigs in Space skit. Anyway, after seeing that, I decided to rent all of the Muppet movies again, because I hadn't seen them for a long time. And that's how it all began.

 

Favorite Muppet: My favorite Muppets are Bean Bunny, Scooter, Rowlf the Dog, Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, Kermit and Piggy (of course) and my father... Fozzie Bear!

 

 

   

Patrick

Jan 2005

Age: I'm 29, and doing okay with it. I had a real problem turning 5! Can't wait to see me at 30.

 

Location: I live in Scranton, PA (Northeast PA, two hours from Philly, two hours from NYC!)

 

Live with: I live with Frank, and some puppets.

 

Job/Passion: Puppets, photography, graphic design. 

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: My earliest Muppet memory, ummm, there really are a bunch. I grew up watching the educational TV block on weekdays of Sesame Street, The Magic Garden, and The Gong Show. I had to be home Sunday nights at 6:30pm for The Muppet Show, or else I cried. (And oh, would I cry.)

 

Favorite Muppet: My favorite Muppets are Grover, Kermit, Boober, and the Whatnot Sheep. There is something about the sheep that just get me. I think they are the funniest Muppets at times. Oh, and of course Stu! Oh, and Carl the Big Bad Whatever Eater. Fuckin' brilliant.

 

Website: Pdbooch's Puppet Pix

 

 

     

Paul

March 2005

Age: 30

 

Location: The Netherlands

 

Live with: My dearest wife, and my two cats

 

Job/Passion: I work with children, and that's great -- although I like Sesame Street more than they do. But they're all happy when I bring my own Cookie Monster with me to work!

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I remember the very first Sesamstraat. I remember Troel, and it was very annoying that I was the only one in my environment to remember that Muppet. Until I started to make my homepage and found evidence, others believe there was a white dog in it!

 

Favorite Muppet: Pino and Grover

 

Websites: Sesame Planet, The Sesame Times

 

 

     

Peter P

Jan 2005

Alias: Panagiotis Pantelis Papazoglou

 

Age: 24

 

Location: New York City

 

Live with: Always: roommates Mark and Jon. Sometimes: Jon's brother, Doug, their two employees, and Jon's girlfriend, Rachel.

 

Job/Passion: Assistant project manager for a general contractor / writing and directing for the theater. I'm hoping to start doing less of the former and more of the latter.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I went through a phase when I was about two years old where I called absolutely everyone Ernie.

 

Favorite Muppet: Sesame Street: Grover; The Muppet Show - Kermit; Fraggle Rock - Boober.

 

 

 

Peter S

Apr 2009

Birthday: May 2nd 1974

Location (in the physical world): Melbourne Australia

Job/Passion: Illustration/Storyboard/Concept Art/Screenwriting/Directing

Earliest Muppet Memory: Kermit in front of that famous red curtain. It was always an invitation into 'a warmth and an embrace' (thanks, Mr Belafonte) that expanded the worlds in my mind and the possibilities of life.

Favourite Muppet: The Swine Divine! That Mademoiselle Cochon! MISS PIGGY!

Random Fragment: I grew up making puppets, and my parents even funded a Miss Piggy building project for my 12th birthday... And I don't like watermellon... Tastes like a popsicle with sand in it.

  

 

Quinn

Apr 2009

Birthdate:  June 12, 1973

Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Live with: My wife Melissa, big-headed sons Miles and Carter. Oh, and Rubber Duckie.

 

Job/Passion: I've been teaching history to seventh graders for five years and love it. Teaching is my passion, but I'm pretty easily obsessed with anything that comes my way. 

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Wondering how Kermit could draw shapes and letters in the air with his finger on Sesame Street.

 

Favorite Muppet: Kermit is my hero--what I aspire to be.  But Gonzo is my brother, and may be closer to who I really am. 

 

Random Factoid:  I can't hold cotton balls between my thumb and forefinger without having a minor seizure.  

 

  

Ryan M

Apr 2009

Birthday: May 8, 1985- 99 years to the date after the invention of Coca-Cola. This must mean something, but I don't know what.

Location: Bloomingdale, New Jersey. Northwest of New York City, and hometown of no one of interest- but kinda near the hometown of Bucky Dent and the Jonas Brothers, two names always closely linked to each other.

Job/Passion: Cashier at a supermarket in Pompton Lakes, NJ. That's my job, not my passion. My passion is whatever I'm doing at the moment- I assume.

Earliest Muppet Memory: Watching Sesame Street as a very young fellow sitting in a drawer next to the television set. This memory is so early, I don't even remember it myself- were it not for photographic evidence and my mother's recollection, I would not even have an Earliest Muppet Memory.

Favorite Muppet: The Swedish Chef- partially because I enjoy imitating him.

Favorite Muppet Memory: Watching nearly 1,000 people old and young laughing at the "Oklahoma" sketch at the Sesame Street at 40 panel in Wayne, New Jersey and laughing along with them- a true testament to the Muppets' intergenerational appeal and the genius of Jim Henson and his team.

   

Ryan R

Apr 2009

Birthday: 2/27/1981

 

Location: On the couch. In my apartment. Which is in Brooklyn, New York.

 

Live with: My roommate. His name is Joe.

 

Job/Passion: I’m an office administrator-y kinda guy for an audio visual company in Queens. Hopefully, somewhere down the line I can get paid to do something more... creative.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: The earliest Muppet memory I can pull out of the dark bowels of my mind (gross) is sitting on the floor watching Sesame Street, with the Honkers doing "Honk Around the Clock."

 

Favorite Muppet: All the funny ones.

 

Website: Ryan's Journals, Ryan Watches 50 Horror Movies

 

 

   

Scott

Apr 2009

Birthday: May 14, 1978

 

Location: North of Boston, MA

Job/Passion: I'm a dad.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: The Muppet Movie has been sewn into the fabric of my being as far back as I can remember. Ditto the 1979 record album, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.

 

Favorite Muppet: Kermit

The Universe: Doesn't owe you anything.

 

 

 

 

     

Scotty J

Oct 2004

Age: 29

 

Location: Columbia, MO

 

Live with: My wife, Rachel.

 

Job/Passion: I work for a church called The Crossing as the Fine Arts Director. It's a great job that allows me to integrate all of my passions... except the Muppet front... but that's cool. I'd rather alleviate the "cheesy church using pitiful puppeteering as ministry" association anyway.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I have vivid memories of being very frightened when Big Bird shaved off Olivia's hair so that she would properly look like Gordon's sister. It happened offscreen, but Olivia's protestations really troubled me... I also remember sitting down and watching The Muppet Show with my family in the late seventies. It was on right after a silly show called Bowling for Dollars. My grandfather got such a charge from Statler and Waldorf. He had a great laugh, and I remember that when I watch the show.

 

Favorite Muppet: Bert... I identify with him quite a bit. Plus, my wife thinks I'm a lot like him, and truly loves me for it!

 

 

   

Smig

June 2004

Name: Chris Smigliano

 

Age: 41 (I'm the old fart while everyone else is so young and cute)

 

Location: Salem, MA (You call THAT living?)

 

Live with: Nobody. (Alone... always alone...)

 

Job/Passion: Semi-employed freelance cartoonist

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Sesame Street every day after Kindergarten. (1969!)

 

Favorite Muppet: Beaker

 

Website: ChrisSmigliano.com

 

 

   

Thijs

Jan 2005

Age: 23

 

Location: Amsterdam

 

Live with: My sweet girlfriend Julia

 

Job/Passion: My job is comedian. My passion is cabaret, comedy, music and fantasy, either making or consuming it. And Muppets of course.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Sesame Street, or as we call it: Sesamstraat. I watched it when I was two, quit watching when I was six, and started watching again when I was ten.

 

Favorite Muppet: Sal, Scooter and Herry. And of course Tommie from Sesamstraat.

 

Website: www.thijsvandomburg.nl and Sesame Street Encyclopedia

 

Pronunciation Guide: Tay-ees

 

 

    

Tom

June 2004

Age: 29

 

Location: Los Angeles, CA

 

Live with: A couple of roommates in an apartment -- we're all guys, so the place is never clean!

 

Job/Passion: My passion is to one day write for TV and film, some of which may or may not be monkey-based entertainment.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Either getting the Sesame Street playhouse and all the Fisher-Price figures or the Muppets Comic Printer for Christmas. Not sure how much of this is memory and how much is just from seeing the photos and home movies.

 

Favorite Muppet: Gosh, how do I choose? Kermit, Gonzo, Ernie, Fozzie, and Rowlf are all funny and soulful characters. Pepe's on his way up -- I can't believe no one's listed him yet! For pure "gag" characters, nothing beats the Chef, the Newsman, or Sesame's yip-yip aliens.

 

     

Travis

June 2004

Age: 33 -- Schnapszahl!

 

Location: Salt Lake City, Yewtaw. USA!

 

Live with: Me, myself and I -- and the conflicting decisions we make. Although I must say, these days we're in pretty good harmony with each other. We all want the same thing! It's just so good and feels so right! Now if we could do something about those annoying neighbors...

 

Job/Passion: Ah yes, the yin and the yang. My current job is retrieving medical records for insurance, legal purposes, and racketeering. Not bad. Maybe I'll write a passion play about my job someday. Or a nice puppet show, that will ultimately tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street -- which is my REAL passion. That and family. Definitely family. Like my nephew Tanner! 

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Lots. In fact, I have no memories of life without Muppets. Playing with my Sesame Street puppets, making sure they were always put away in a green Rubbermaid trashcan so that if there was ever a fire in my house I could escape with them in tow! Even though, when laying out the fire escape plan, my Dad told me not to worry about saving any of my "toys." Try friends for life! (I still have 'em!)

 

Favorite Muppet: Grover (SuperGrover!), Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, and Oscar the Grouch are my Top Five, in no particular order!

 

 

   

Warrick

June 2004

Age: 19

 

Location: London, England

 

Live with: My parents and Muppets

 

Job/Passion: Passion: To be a paid puppeteer. Not that I care about money, I just want to be able to say that I'm a pro.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Watching Julie Andrews and Vincent Price episodes of The Muppet Show!

 

Favorite Muppet: TMS: Floyd, Scooter. SS: Grover, Herry. FR: Gobo, Boober, Wembley. You know there are like a hundred more, and at least two from every Henson show are my favorites!

 

Website: Sesame World -- Sesame Street Encyclopedia

 

 

   

Yancey

Jan 2004

Age: 42

 

Location: Minneapolis

 

Live with: My partner John -- we'll be celebrating our 23rd anniversary Aug 4th -- and our dog Fanny.

 

Job/Passion: I'm a costumer for the Minnesota Opera Company.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Well, I definitely was hooked on The Muppet Show in the 70's, but I think what really clenched it for me was when my little brother gave me the Fisher Price Dress-Up Miss Piggy doll in 1980. I immediately went to making her outfits/costumes out of most any fabric that had a little dazzle. I made her approximately 25 outfits.

 

Favorite Muppet: Miss Piggy rules! (Although Grover is pretty damn cute.)

 

 

   

Yossi

June 2004

Age: 22

 

Location: New York City. (All right. Brooklyn. grumble)

 

Live with: My parents, which is a rather frustrating state of affairs after four years in the Columbia dorms...

 

Job/Passion: I'm currently working as a game developer for Large Animal Games. My list of passions includes Muppets, Disney (especially Scrooge and the BarksDucks), SF/fantasy, computers in general, and computer games in particular (especially intelligent and story/character-driven computer games).

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: I've been watching Sesame Street and The Muppet Show since forever. There's no way I could extract a single memory from that heap! But maybe... standing under the huge Big Bird's Mouth bridge at Sesame Place, and being very excited about it? Last time I was there, it was no longer a bridge, which saddened me, and those custom Apple-II Sesame games had been replaced by a standard video arcade, which also saddened me. I wonder if the park these days looks anything like I remember it. (I'd imagine not, because I don't remember the presence of Elmo at all, and it seems unlikely that that state would have continued, considering. But I digress, quite wildly.)

 

Favorite Muppet: Kermit! (Though it might have been Big Bird, once upon a time.)

 

 

   

Zach

August 2003

Age: 20

 

Location: Buffalo, NY

 

Live with: Mom, Stepdad Sal, younger brother, and female cat named Boots

 

Job/Passion: Working at a pizza place for now. I'm in college. Passions are Muppets, cartoons, bike riding, going to parks, animals, drawing, video games, and doing weird things.

 

Earliest Muppet Memory: Playing with my older brother's Kermit and Rowlf stick puppets while watching The Muppet Show at my grandparents' house.

 

Favorite Muppet: Rowlf the Dog, as well as Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear.

 

 

 

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