"If you know that someone is speaking badly of you behind your back, and if you react to that negativity with a feeling of hurt, then you destroy your own peace of mind. One's pain is one's own creation. One should treat such thing as if they are wind behind one's ear. In other words, just brush them aside. To a large extent, whether or not one suffers pain depends on how one responds to a given situation. What makes a difference is whether or not one is too sensitive and takes things too seriously."
Bill Irwin and Michael Jeter as Mr. Noodle and Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle
Kristen Chenoweth as Ms. Noodle. There is another Noodle sister, Miss Noodle played by Sarah Jones.
From Wikipedia...
The goofy-acting human characters Mr. Noodle, Mr. Noodle's Brother Mr. Noodle, Ms. Noodle and Miss Noodle all appear in Sesame Street 's "Elmo's World" segments. The characters, who do not speak, attempt repeatedly to demonstrate a particular activity related to the episode's topic, while offscreen children verbally correct their failures.
The Mr. Noodle segment typically begins when Elmo has begun to think about a particular topic, when it suddenly occurs to him to consult with Mr. Noodle. Elmo will interject, "Let's ask Mr. Noodle!" and proceeds to his disobedient window shade, who Elmo eventually coaxes open to reveal the member of the Noodle family waiting outside the window. Mr. Noodle is then asked by Elmo how to do something or how to use something.
Initially, the Noodle family member(s) will, in a vaudevillian manner, ineptly demonstrate how to perform a task, play with a toy, etc. in a clueless yet playful fashion until eventually the correct demonstration of the topic is achieved. In episode #1840, for example, Mr. Noodle is asked to jump over an object. He initially crawls under it, and the audience tells him he has made an error. He then 'uses his noodle' and the advice to come to an epiphany of what jumping is and then jumps over the object in a wild fashion. In many Elmo's World episodes, the Mr. Noodle (or whichever Noodle is outside the window) is revisited during the segment, and is again seen during the segment's closing song.
The style of Mr. Noodle, et al., is evocative of slapstick physical comedy from film of ages past. (See Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd etc.)
Mr. Noodle is portrayed by Bill Irwin. Mr. Noodle's Brother, Mr. Noodle (often referred to as "the other Mr. Noodle") was played by American actor Michael Jeter until his death on March 30, 2003. The Noodle brothers' sister, Ms. Noodle, is portrayed by Kristin Chenoweth, a noted Broadway singer and actress. A second sister, "Mr. Noodle's Other Sister Miss Noodle" is played by playwright and actress Sarah Jones.
Dear Sesame Workshop,
I would very much like to be Mr. Noodle's cousin, Mr. Noodle.
The beautiful classic whiteface and Earl Shipleyesque auguste of Roy Barrett.
Barrett, I am told, lost his standing within the professional circus clown community when he went way over the top in cruelly chiding Otto Griebling in the alley of a Shrine date about Otto's painful divorce from his first wife Hanna, who he still loved very much.
Otto took the high road and sat in silence as Barrett took great delight in mocking him.
The rest of the alley was so appalled by Barrett's behavior that they shunned him for the remainder of the Shrine date and he saw his circus bookings dwindle down to nothing as word of his unprovoked viciousness spread.
I never met Roy Barrett, so I have no first hand knowledge of him. It's unfair to judge his entire life and career by a single second hand account of one incident but that's the only story that I have on him.
I'm eager to hear any other, better stories about Roy Barrett anyone out there might be willing to share.
I don't know anything at all about Senor Miguelito other that I have his rola-bola act on an episode of Super Circus. I'll try to post it here this week.
"The creatures that inhabit the earth - be they human beings or animals - are here to contribute, each in its own particular way, to the beauty and prosperity of the world."
I grew up watching the 1970s revivals (or repeats) of 1950s and 60s TV clowns like Bozo, Clarabelle (from The Howdy Doody Show), the Town Clown (on Captain Kangaroo) and Soupy Sales.
Here in New Jersey we also got Floyd Vivino and pals on WWHT Channel 68's The Uncle Floyd Show.
Now, in addition to DVD box sets of Pee-Wee's Playhouse and The Weird Al Show, my six year old gets to enjoy...
The best known and most popular of all contemporary children's television clowns, Sesame Street's "Mr. Noodle" played by Bill Irwin (and assisted by Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle (Michael Jeter) , Mr. Noodle's sister, Ms. Noodle (Kristen Chenoweth) and another Noodle family member that I haven't yet seen) on PBS...
and The Big Comfy Couch's Loonette (originally played by Alyson Court, now by Ramona Gilmour-Darling) and all of her Clowntown friends, also on PBS...
the silent physical and visual slapstick comedy of the town's inhabitants on Discovery Kids' Brum...
the Disney Channel's Bunnytown features the Laurel & Hardy-like silent comedy team of Red and Fred...
Shane and David (The Umbilical Brothers) of Noggin's The Upside Down Show...
and Brian Stepanek of the Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, now featured in his own Mr. Bean-like series, Brian O'Brian...
So, if you've got pre-schoolers or kindergardeners at home, set your TiVOs!
I have the feeling that the essential comedy of this effect might be better served if the "puppet" character were a baby or a monkey on his hip rather than a coat come to life.
That's just my feeling. There are a few people doing "coat come to life" gags, some of them extremely well. I'm just thinking of how this might work with a different spin on it. Anyone else have any ideas?
This walk-around never looked so good as when Bumpsy did it. In my opinion however, the best walk-around Jerry produced was the Ostrich, with the revolving barber pole neck, & the monkey on it's back.
The problem with his props was that some were absolute torture for those who had to wear them, I did the Ostrich a couple times, I sure wouldn't want to do it a whole season.
"Whenever Buddhism has taken root in a new land there has always been a certain variation in the style in which it is observed. The Buddha himself taught differently according to the place, the occasion and the situation of those that were listening to him. So, all of us have the great responsibility to take the essence of Buddhism and put it into practice in our own lives.
Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality."
Click the title of this post to see two of my juggling students at Michael Rosman's Circus Camp, Sophia and Ethan Rosman, on last Monday's episode of Ellen.
Regardless of what their father says, Mark Lohr and I taught them everything that they know ; )
