Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Blog for Oct. 23rd Episode

So this is another blog for an older episode. But please don't hold it against me:

You'd be surprised how complicated interviewing a puppet can be. Before I even met Prairie Dawn, the press people at Sesame Street had to run down a list of rules. As far as the Sesame Street Muppets know, they're just regular kids/monsters that happen to live on a street and play games and sing songs together. So no questions about being on television or about being on the air for over thirty years. It's somewhat limiting, although I still had a blast talking to Prairie Dawn. Fran Brill, who performs her, was the first female puppeteer on the show and is one of the only puppeteers left from the early seasons. Meeting Sonia Manzano, (aka Maria), was a very surreal experience.

Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson were very nice and Kate was quite stunning in person. They were super strict at this junket and gave each reporter a shocking four minutes to ask all their questions. Since both Kate and Patrick were both thorough answerers that left room for about one and a half questions. During junkets there's a person in the room who gives you time cues, and as the woman was telling me to wrap it up I tried to shove in one more question. She wouldn't have it, as she stood up and vocally broke up the interview. Kate and Patrick seemed a little surprised and they asked me to finish my thought so they could at least answer it for me. For a junket for a serious movie, I was able to incorporporate a surprising number of country puns before and after the interview and Patrick was pretty impressed. After the junket, I passed him in the hallway and as he walked by he pointed to me and said, "You are a funny man." You better belize it...

You can watch the episode here:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love you Maria.
And Boaz.
And Prairie Dawn.
But not in that order.