A Look Back: Sesame Interviews on NPR

I thought that today, rather than bringing the latest happenings in the Muppet-world, I would share some of two fun finds from the past. So after digging thought some of my “favorite places” I found some old (but not too old) links to some awesome audio interviews with Sesame Street stars. These audio interviews are from NPR (National Public Radio), for those not familiar with NPR, check out there website at NPR.org for more information (they are like the radio equivalent of television’s PBS).

The two interviews I dug up are with Carroll Spinney (the man behind Big Bird and Oscar) and Kevin Clash (the man behind Elmo). If you missed the radio broadcast of the segments (or just want to hear them again), NPR has them on their website. Each interview is beautifully done inter-splicing Sesame music and sound clips with interview and narration. I hope you enjoy listening to these (maybe for a second time) as much as I did.

The first one, “A Life Inside Big Bird”, is a great interview with Caroll Spinney from May 5, 2003 (around the time Caroll’s autobiography came out). The interview is a little under eight-minuets in length and provides a lot of information on Caroll’s role on Sesame Street. You can listen to it here (click on the red “listen” button at the top of the article to listen to it). There is also a nice accompanying article also with a Sesame video and audio clip there too.

The second interview is with Keving Clash and Elmo, called “'Sesame Street' Turns 35: Kevin Clash and Elmo”, the interview is from the April 7, 2004 episode of the Travis Smiley Show. It runs just shy of ten-minuets in length. You can listen to it here (click on the red “listen” button right at the top of the article to listen to it). There is also a nice accompanying article with it too.