Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey: The Hand Beneath the Muppet's Butt

beingelmo.com

From Sesame Street to the snow.

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Varsity

4329 University Way N.E.
Seattle, WA 98105

Category: Movie Theaters

Region: University District

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Runs at Varsity, Fri., Nov. 4–Thurs., Nov. 10. Not rated. 85 minutes.

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More About

• Kevin Clash
• Constance Marks
• Kermit Love
• Puppets and Puppetry
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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Constance Marks' documentary on Kevin Clash, the kind, gentle man who created the Muppet beloved by every single child in the world, rushes through the intriguing points its interviewees bring up to devote more time to banalities. Instead of hearing more from the colleague who exhorted Clash, "Jim [Henson] doesn't have any black puppeteers, so you need to tell him what you do," we must endure Whoopi Goldberg's snoozy voice-over: "Kevin loved watching television." Clash, born in 1960 outside Baltimore to two devoted parents (on camera infrequently, like most of the amiable subject's family), had built 85 puppets by the time he reached his teens, entertaining the kids at his mom's day-care center and soon working on local TV shows. At 18, he attracted the attention of Noho-based Muppet designer Kermit Love; Marks dramatizes the young man's trips to New York City by unnecessarily including stock footage of an Amtrak train traveling along the Northeast Corridor. After the meeting with Love, the film settles on a bullet-point trajectory of Clash's career, leaving out any mention of his personal life other than one offhand remark about "my ex-wife, Gina" and a too-long scene at his daughter's 16th birthday party. Of his furry red creation, we learn that Elmo was first operated by Sesame Street's Richard Hunt, who gave the puppet a "caveman-type voice" and despaired of what to do with it, tossing it over to Clash in 1984. His makeover was simple: "I knew that Elmo should represent love—just kissing and hugging."