Kevin Clash delights in My Life as a Furry Red Monster
My Life as a Furry Red Monster by Kevin Clash
These days it is rather remarkable to read a memoir of an actor/performing artist that is unrelentingly upbeat, positive, and optimistic. Then again, would you expect anything less from the puppeteer who creates Sesame Street's Elmo?
Kevin Clash's memoir, My Life as a Furry Red Monster, co-written with Gary Brozek, is a warm autobiography of a man who has made a career out of being three-and-a-half. Like Elmo, Kevin Clash's enthusiasm jumps off the page. He is sensitive, caring, and possesses a vision that allows him to see the good in all situations.
In other words, it is a highly refreshing book that leaves the reader with warm fuzzies.
His memoirs, complete with illustrations of Elmo, are divided into chapters titled Love, Joy, Creativity, Tolerance, Courage, Friendship, Cooperation, Learning, and Optimism. He starts out telling you that the life he shares with Elmo is a fairy tale filled with knights in shining armor and a few villains. Don't be fooled though, even the villains get incredibly gentle treatment at the hands of this children's entertainer and educator.
Kevin Clash has spent 26 years with Sesame Street and before that was a puppeteer for Captain Kangaroo. He first began puppeteering as a child, making his own puppets and putting on shows for the neighborhood. He began earning money for those shows by the time he was 12. In his work with Elmo, he's won three Emmys for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and six Emmys for an Outstanding Preschool Children's Series as the coexecutive producer of Elmo's World.
Throughout the book, Kevin Clash tells his own story with a sense of humility, wonder, and gratitude. He constantly praises the people around him and those who contributed to his life. He still delights in the surprise that others have that the person behind Elmo is a six-foot tall African American with a deep voice.
Kevin Clash also appears to be the rare celebrity who is in possession of a happy childhood. He tells wonderful stories about his childhood and the encouragement he got from both his parents to explore, be creative, and to pursue his own dreams. He praises the environment that they provided for him — surrounding him with other children and teaching him values that would stay with him his entire life.
He also sweetly reminisces about starting his own family and how he used Elmo to talk to his unborn daughter up until the moment he held her and began connecting with her as a father rather than through the puppet. Even his divorce he handles in a gentle and compassionate manner, spending as few words as possible and making it clear that he still sees his ex-wife as a friend and as part of the family through his daughter, Shannon.
Even in the chapter on tolerance where Kevin Clash touches upon such volatile issue as the 1968 riots he manages to inject humor. He talks about some of the bigotry that he's come into contact with but takes a very humane approach to it. He is far more eager to focus on the people who bridge the gap rather than those who would try to tear it down. He'd far rather call attention to acts of tolerance than acts of intolerance, a trait that makes this book uplifting and sweet.
My Life as a Furry Red Monster also gives a wonderful inside look at Sesame Street and its commitments to education. He explains how learning objectives are set and the curriculum developed. Also, if you didn't love Jim Henson before reading this book, expect that you will afterward. Here was a man who was not only a creative genius but an incredible manager who ignored most conventional business wisdom and treated his employees like friends.
The book is also the story of Elmo. We learn how he was created in a spur of the moment, the inspiration ignited from a spark of Clash's past. Kevin Clash frequently refers to Elmo as a real person, never reducing him to fur and fabric. He has an intimate understanding of why Elmo is so beloved of children and the power that Elmo has to heal and nurture. He shows us happens in Elmo's World and why it has such great appeal.
Kevin Clash's subtitle is a fitting summary for the book. For the book is, like the subtitle claims, What Being Elmo Has Taught Me About Life, Love, and Laughing Out Loud.
