My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught me About Life, Love, and Laughing

Kevin Clash with Gary Brozek
Broadway Book (2006)
ISBN 0767923758
Reviewed by Audrey Hauser for Reader Views (9/06)

The subtitle, “What Being Elmo Has Taught Me about Life, Love, and Laughing Out Loud,” pretty much lets you know what this book is about. Kevin Clash didn’t just create Elmo, he is Elmo. “Elmo’s World” is based on the world that Kevin grew up in. Much of his experiences of growing up sharing a bedroom with 3 siblings, yet finding room to have his own creative space, lets us see how the author has drawn from his early life’s experiences to create puppets that can act out real feelings on the puppet stage. All through the book, the author gives us glimpses of how he related to his older brother and two sisters in those years of growing up in the house in Turner Station. He also shows how the strong influence of supportive parents let him be different from other children by making his puppets and performing. He was allowed to use “found” objects for his puppets and this could be anything from his mother’s fluffy slipper to a piece of wood found on an abandoned lot. The gift of their love is with him throughout his book. Early breaks brought him the opportunity to work with Muppet creator Jim Henson on a temporary basis, but this was the opening to his life as a puppeteer for the show “Sesame Street.”

The concept for Elmo came about with the need for a character that very young children could relate to. Elmo is a perpetual 3 and a-half-year-old who loves everyone. Love is his favorite word. His voice and high-pitched laugh are so unlike Kevin Clash’s own voice that people are surprised that he actually performs as Elmo. The role of Elmo lets Kevin show how children express love and joy so openly and without reservations. He gains an even better understanding of Elmo’s age group when his own daughter Shannon is born. One thing that led him to new story lines and new puppets was his observation that children have such unrestrained and vivid imaginations. Elmo is a success because Kevin had the talent of seeing the world through Elmo’s eyes. Elmo became popular with grownups because he gives them the permission, even for a short time, to be children again.

Sesame Street is the avenue where the puppets can learn how to handle many issues that real children are up against. One of these is diversified races getting along together. Tolerance is something that children can learn from the Sesame Street characters who come up against the race thing in their little community. It has been an opportunity to teach children that people really aren’t so different after all. Another issue that came up dealt with bullies and how to cope with them. Loss of loved ones was not skirted around after 9/11, but instead was dealt with on a child’s level. It didn’t go unnoticed that many children in the New York City area and around the country had many fears following that horrific day. The producers of the show decided to address fears using Elmo’s fear of fire. NY City firemen took part in the show to show Elmo, and the viewers that they shouldn’t be afraid of firemen in their scary outfits because they were there to help Elmo and his friends. Elmo learned to have courage in the face of a crisis. The experience of going through his own divorce helped Kevin Clash to be able to address that issue in children’s terms on the show.

I loved the way the author used his experiences with friends when he was growing up to show how important friendships are. The Sesame Street characters were not all immediately friends, but through getting to know one another they forged the bond that would endure. This also helped the show’s producers to plan shows stressing cooperation between friends and also people of the world. When Jim Henson died suddenly, the entire show felt his death, and as a tribute, carried on with the show as they knew he would have wanted them to. The entire staff of Sesame Street helped Elmo to become the icon he is through their cooperation on the show. The Sesame Street show has always been about learning. Originally it was created for older children and, as years went on, the producers found that the average age of their audience had gone down. The show was changed to target younger children. My own children grew up watching Sesame Street and no doubt learned numbers and letters from Big Bird, Bert and Ernie and the others.

The show has stayed on top because it plays to the fact that children are eternal optimists. They still believe in starting over, pushing forward and seldom looking backward. Elmo lives his life that way. He will always be 3 and a-half, and always have that wonderful sense of love and hope, and show his enthusiasm as a child should. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all take a page from Elmo’s book, “My Life as a Furry Red Monster,” and live that way, at least part of the time?

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