My Life as a Furry Red Monster - Kevin Clash [65]
That’s Elmo’s world. It can be our world, too.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM SO GRATEFUL for the love and support my family has given me—Mom and Dad, Shannon, George, Ne-Ne, Pam, Genia, and especially Michel.
I thank Becky Cabaza, who really pulled everything together and made this a wonderful book.
I would also like to graciously thank Gary Brozek for his time and the endless hours spent on the phone trying to make sense of everything.
Thank you to Elizabeth Payne for her creative contribution to My Life as a Furry Red Monster.
To Gary Knell, Mel Ming, and all my friends at Sesame Workshop, “YOU’RE THE BEST!”
To Ron Kreidman, my lawyer and good friend, who is always there. Thank you.
To Jim Wiseman and Geanie Bond, my spiritual advisers, if only I listened to them.
Thanks to Peter Steinberg for seeing that there was a book here.
To Trish Medved, thank you for educating me on how a book should be done. And to the folks at Broadway Books, thanks for everything you have done to make this book happen.
Louis Mitchell, you’re a godsend.
Coop, you know what you mean to me.
To Jim Martin, you have always been there to help me out. You will always be a brother of mine.
Neil Friedman, thank you for being such a good friend to this little red monster and this tall black man.
Kimi Sokol, you continue to be the best personal assistant any crazy man could ask for (Brad, you can have her back one of these days).
Ellen Lewis, I am so appreciative of your undying support and your willingness always to go above and beyond for me.
To my mentors, Stu Kerr, Kermit Love, Bob Keeshan, Jim Henson, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Caroll Spinney, thank you for believing in me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KEVIN CLASH began making his own puppets and performing for live audiences when he was a boy. He turned his childhood obsession into a professional passion, forging a career in television and making an indelible mark on children’s imaginations. Kevin has been with Sesame Street for twenty-six years and is coexecutive producer of “Elmo’s World.” He has won three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series and five for his work as coexecutive producer of an Outstanding PreSchool Children’s Series. He has a daughter, Shannon, and lives in New York City.
Praise for
MY LIFE AS A FURRY RED MONSTER
“Kevin Clash is a wonderful storyteller. What a treat to learn about the special neighborhood and family he grew up in. The warmth and humor are contagious. This book is a delight.”
—Cheryl Henson, president of the Jim Henson Foundation
“Kevin Clash has been an inspiration to me as a mentor and a human being. I’m glad this book allows him to share his kindness, humor, and fascinating life journey with the rest of the world!”
—John Tartaglia, Tony-nominated star of Broadway’s Avenue Q
“An inspiring success story of an amazing puppeteer. Even though I’ve worked on Sesame Street for thirty-seven years, I learned things from Kevin’s book that I didn’t know before. I loved it.”
—Caroll Spinney, puppeteer, Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch
“The first time I met Elmo, I knew there was something special that lived inside of him! That something is Kevin. And there is no one kinder, more thoughtful, or more intelligent. Congratulations on a wonderful book and a wonderful life!”
—Alicia Keys
PUBLISHED BY BROADWAY BOOKS
Copyright © 2006 by Clash Puppets, Inc.
Elmo © 2006 and trademark Sesame Workshop
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States by Broadway Books, an imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.broadwaybooks.com
BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Clash,