Toronto and Fraggle Rock

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Max

FR_19024_WrapPartyInvite_MKF I recently found a lovely Toronto blog that details Fraggle Rock‘s relationship with Toronto, situating the culture of the show within the culture of the city, including a link to my Fraggle geography map. “Given the show’s commitment to interdependence and a global consciousness,” producer Larry Mirkin told me, “I can’t imagine it being filmed anywhere else.” Enjoy!

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A Postcard from ‘Old Pete’

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Max

Pete SeegerFolk legend Pete Seeger has long been one of my heroes. A true patriot, he consistently brought together music and politics, not with dogma but with delight. Here’s a terrific postcard Seeger sent me in 2006, in response to my zine “The Long Walk Back to Myself,” about my 3-day, 50-mile walk from my home in Brooklyn to the Clearwater music festival in Croton, NY. Seeger founded the festival in 1966 with the goal of cleaning up the Hudson River. Since this walk, in 2004, I’ve traveled up the Hudson on my own power (walking and kayaking) as far as Cold Spring, and plan to go (leg by leg) all the way to its beginnings atop Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks. RIP Pete, you will be missed. Continue reading →

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Funny Boy is coming to London!

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Max

I’ll be London at Duskhopping the pond to visit “the swinging city” for the first three weeks of January 2014. If you’re a London local interested in contributing to Richard Hunt’s biography, with a story or memory to share, I’d love to hear from you! Email me (Max) at richard.hunt.biography at gmail dot com.

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Roscoe Orman: The Man Behind the Icon

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Max

300px-Gordon3You probably know Roscoe Orman best as Sesame Street’s Gordon Robinson, the iconic role he’s played since 1974. Yet Orman’s fame as Gordon masks his artistry and experience as a multifaceted character actor, performing everyone from lawless pimps to Lincoln Perry (the controversial creator of Stepin Fetchit), everywhere from Harlem’s historic New Lafayette Theater to Broadway to the big screen.

“People think what they see on TV is real,” Orman says of being mistaken for Gordon. Read our recent interview to discover the man behind the icon, including his thoughts on Richard Hunt’s “life mission,” trying his “hand” at puppetry and why Whoopi Goldberg is a “human Muppet”. Continue reading →

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The Count Writes A Haiku: Jerry Nelson (1934-2012)

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Max

Jerry Nelson and Jessica Max Stein, Truro MA, February 2010

Jerry Nelson and Jessica Max Stein, Truro MA, February 2010

Cape Cod in February has an austere beauty: sand dunes draped in snow, grey-streaked skies, a generous silence. My friend Mallory and I parked outside the house five minutes before our noon appointment and stood by the car getting our bearings. The front door seemed unused, with no path broken to it through the ice-crusted snow, yet a wall of trees blocked the driveway from the back of the house.

“Back here.” From behind the trees came an instantly familiar voice. I had known that voice, in its infinite variations, since childhood, from countless hours of watching the Muppets: the joyous enumerations of Sesame Street’s Count von Count’s (“The Count”); the easygoing, raspy laugh of The Muppet Show’s Floyd Pepper; the reedy, confiding tones of Fraggle Rock’s Gobo Fraggle (to name but three). It makes me smile, now, that I heard Jerry Nelson’s voice before I saw his face, for I had known his voice so many years.

“Do I hear a twang in your voice?” Jerry asked Mallory, once we were settled in the kitchen.

“I’m from Kansas,” she said proudly.

“I’m from Oklahoma,” Jerry said. “I like to say, I’m from Oklahoma – far from Oklahoma.” Continue reading →

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