Jim Henson biographer Brian Jay Jones and I at the BIO conference in 2014.
I’m proud to announce that Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography is one of three finalists for the Hazel Rowley prize from the Biographers International Organization. The prize helps first-time biographers find publishers for their books. Sweet email this morning with the news: “Members of the committee enjoyed getting to know Richard Hunt.”
I am sorry to mark the passing of Michael Earl, a longtime puppeteer, whom Richard Hunt mentored as a young performer on Sesame Street. Earl briefly played Snuffleupagus, Forgetful Jones, and dozens of other roles in The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and various other Muppet and non-Muppet productions. Earl also passed on the craft of television puppetry, founding Puppet School with his partner Roberto Ferreira. Here’s a brief excerpt from our 2011 interview. Continue reading
The Muppets passes my most important test – it’s funny as hell. At moments, it’s old-school, Muppet Show funny — and that’s my highest praise.
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Puppets are a great art form: They don’t die. The most beloved outlive those who brought them to life. Jim Henson’s been gone for 25 years, and the Muppets are back on primetime television – on ABC, which rejected The Muppet Show forty years ago, making their zealous promotion of the new show especially sweet.
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Writing is solitary, so it’s easy to forget that an audience is out there waiting for the book – until you get a wonderfully encouraging email from a complete stranger! Thanks to Julia Kosier of Wisconsin for this wonderful message. Continue reading
“Queen Elizabeth’s Purse” is a bright red, 50-page story of my 2014 trip to London – my very first time in Europe – to research Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography. It’s a story about how to do things you didn’t think you could, and enjoy yourself to boot; or, how I learned to love London. The zine provides an inadvertent advance behind-the-scenes look at the biography, taking the reader along on six interviews with Muppet producers, writers and performers, as well as a pair of Hunt’s London pals. 17 photos and drawings. Bonus: Find out what Queen Elizabeth really keeps in that purse!
Updated: Out of print!
