Thursday, October 8, 2009

About A Boy - Me

As I wrote in the last post, people want to know a little bit more about me and my story. I decided that now was probably as good a time as ever, so here we go, you'll learn more than you probably care about.

My name, as said, is Jarrod Fairclough, and I'm 20 years old. I was born May 26th 1989. It was around this time Sesame Street got introduced to my life. I can't be sure of the exact age, but within the first few months of my life Sesame Street was a huge element. There's a great photo somewhere of me on my first Christmas, opening a Sesame Street night-time projector, with a HUGE smile on my face and reaching out for it. It was probably the countless hours I watched this that brainwashed me into a Muppet fan! As I grew up, I was given more and more Sesame Street toys and t-shirts, the toys of which I still have in storage somewhere. And the reaction would always be the same. Giant smile and "gimme!" Through the years I ended up with loads of Sesame Street books, too. I would constantly flick through them, looking at all the characters.

Then I sorta grew up a little. Sesame Street took a backseat to things like Power Rangers (sheesh), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and even things like Garfield. But one day when I was at my best friend's place, I came down with tonsilitis, and my friend's Mum put on The Muppet Movie. This was the first real time I'd ever taken much notice to The Muppets, besides a fleeting interest in Muppets Tonight. I LOVED it! So then The Muppets became my main interest, and that lead me back to Sesame Street. Except now I found myself a little more interested in the puppetry side of things. While at a market one day, I found a puppet stall, and they sold mainly "Punch and Judy" style puppets. But I saw one crocodile puppet with a moving mouth. I instantly fell in love. I bought him (this was around age 10) and I took him everywhere with me. He became my grade 5 mascot, and everyone would want to borrow him for the day, or the weekend. And I would let him. But when I had him on, everyone would seem to speak to him as if he were real, completly ignoring me! It was a strange feeling, but I loved it! Unfortunatly I don't know where the puppet is, but I'm pretty sure he's with my childhood toys in storage.
Through my teenage years, I never got a huge chance to play with puppets. They aren't sold a whole lot around where I am. Then, when I was 15, I was given for Christmas a dog ventriloquist doll, a very Muppet-looking thing I called Gus. To this day I still get him out as much as possible and play with him. A couple of years later I added rods to his arms, and I really got a feel for moving the arms while puppeteering.

When I reached 18, and could drive, I'd have a few classes off school in the morning, and would sleep in, get up and watch Play With Me Sesame. I'd imagine the puppeteers undernearth running around, and take great interest in the puppeteer credits, later looking up their names on Muppet Central and later Muppet Wiki, learning things about them. I'd go to school and whoever else had watched it that day would laugh at certain bits, and quote certain lines. It drove my teachers crazy! My friend and I made a live-hands-puppet, who recently got an eye-makeover (thanks to the Magic Triangle theory)
I also loved Avenue Q, and would love seeing the puppets being performed. I always took a real interest in seeing behind the scenes.

In 2008, a few of us decided to go to New York City for a couple of weeks. My friend Sean, a music theatre buff, decided to create a YouTube series about going, and dedicated it to [title of show] and we all starred. Matt Vogel worked on [title of show]'s own YouTube series, as Mindy and as their editor. The people from this show saw ours, and were in regular contact. While we didn't get to see [title of show] as it had closed before we arrived, we were still going to catch up with the guys, Matt Vogel included. I was very excited by this. I added him on Facebook, but he never spoke to me (which I later found out was because Sean had told him not to, in order to surprised me with the Sesame Street trip).

As I mentioned, I was surprised with the trip to the set. Later that day, I e-mailed him thanking him for the oppurtunity. He was very nice, saying it was great to see us etc.
As I got back to Australia, I'd constantly be in contact via Facebook with him and Paul McGinnis, and also John Tartaglia (if you watch our YouTube series, you'll find out why)
I had, over 2008, done a year of university, learning education, but decided to leave that because it wasn't what I wanted to do. I spoke to a few friends, and they all said "Why don't you go work on Sesame Street?" After hearing this loads of times, I decided to bite the bullet, and e-mailed Vogel and Paul on their opinions. They were both huge helps, and gave me LOADS of tips on what to do.

More on my audition tape process next time. I hope that's let you get to know me a little better! Any questions just ask! As for now, I have to go to work. I work in a grocery store, but I'm half in-charge tonight so I don't mind! Until tomorrow (probably)
Cheers,
Jarrod

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