Tag Archives: puppets

The Muppets Meet The News At Ten: How a New Kids News Show is Bringing Positivity Back to TV.

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How Puppets and Positivity are Changing Kids TV.

There my kids are again: sitting in front of their screens, their faces bathed in the flickering lights of colourful videos. Frenetic and yet,… empty.

I’m working because I must. I’m tidying or washing up or sorting laundry. I’m unable to follow what they see.

Somewhere in the next room I hear the inane chorus of fast-food “content” being funnelled into the eyes and ears of my little ones and I wither in guilt.

What withers me more, however, are the moments when my kids ask me about the wars and tragedies that they hear about – things they’ve heard in the playground or have caught on the nightly news. Sometimes I have to catch myself from talking about the dire state of the world over the dinner table, in case they hear. And they do.

Is this the world as they see it? Either dumbed-down nonsense or an overbearing sense of hopelessness? Because that seems to be the world they’re presented with.

It occurred to me that we should be doing better. So I set out to make it happen.

I’ve been putting together stage shows for nearly 30 years – most of those for family audiences. I’ve scripted, cast, produced and toured theatres, streets and schools. So, when the pandemic hit and work dried up, I set myself to thinking what kind of screen-based kids show I wanted to make. 

Many ideas came and went, funding popped up and dropped away and nothing much seemed to come together until, one day, in 2023, I was talking to a producer friend when I happened to muse “why aren’t there any news programmes just talking about all the good stuff that’s happening?”

My friend jumped at this.

“YOU should make it!!” he said.

I blinked. Then frowned. Then smiled.

“Okay.”

Within a month I’d created a pitch document and commissioned two new puppets.

By the end of the year, my partner and I had shot a full pilot and started gathering audience feedback. It was universally positive.

“Al and Kai’s Faboo News” was off the starting blocks and now it’s running.

A cross between The Muppets and News At Ten, Al and Kai’s Faboo News is a frantic and 25 minutes of News Stories, Activities, Facts, Jokes and Shadow Puppet Storytelling – wrapped up in Muppet-esque Comedy.

Puppets Al and Kai explore news stories about science, the environment and people doing positive things in the world. They then use these stories as inspiration for exploring our planet and our people to show child viewers that there’s so much more to planet earth than they see and hear elsewhere.

Since screens first invaded our world, parents have shared their child entertainment duties. The BBC began programming TV for child audiences from the very start, seeking to educate and entertain.

Today, however, Kids TV is in the doldrums, with fewer and fewer original programmes and far less focus on quality and education in the shows themselves. More and more, kids find their entertainment online.

We aim to take our place in this online sphere and show that Kids Content doesn’t need to be “fast food” – it can be something more.

Now, when I find myself doing housework when the kids get back from school, I find my little ones asking to watch Al and Kai, because they want to learn more about the world.

We want to make more, however. We want to keep this running and running far into the future so kids across the world get to see that things aren’t quite as bad as they fear. 

We’ve set up a crowdfund to pay for an initial series of 24 episodes – you can find it at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/al-and-kai-s-faboo-news-positive-news-for-kids#/ or by visiting http://alandkai.com 

We’re looking for parents, just like us, who want to promote healthier, more positive and enriching TV for their children to enjoy. We’re looking for people to join the Faboo Crew and help bring this show to life for longer.

Kids TV doesn’t need to be Fast Food and it doesn’t need to be negative. 

It’s time we did better.

One Pill Makes You Larger – Raving Puppets

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So. Festival Season is upon us – at least, in those rare glimpses of summer between the monsoons.

And yet again, Glastonbury provided some superb spectacles, and I don’t mean Bono’s rain-spattered shades. No, I’m talking about all those sideshow acts and crowd-brought additions that give any show that bit of extra atmosphere.

My personal favourite was from Glastonbury 2005. While The Kaiser Chiefs rattled through their set, a giant, inflatable, long-necked dinosaur loomed over the crowd, watching the Leeds outfit with a beatific smile.

And carrying the theme through, Garbage’s Shirley Manson later borrowed an inflatable doll from the front row and used it as a prop during ‘Why Do You Love Me?’

Now, a Rugby-based company are taking that crowd involvement one step further.

Raving Puppets raison d’etre is to provide fun and interactive entertainment on the dance floor itself.

Says Edward Allan: “People are constantly complaining to me that there isn’t enough in the way of stuff to do or see in raves and this is something Raindance have always appreciated and approached by hiring performers such as dancers and stilt-walkers – turning their event into a proper mini-festival.

“We’re different to every other entertainment because we’re not on the stage or on the sidelines, we are actually on the dance floor with the clients – something no other entertainers can do.

“We’re also a lot more interactive with the crowds, chasing people, dancing with people and playing tricks, like stealing hats and coming up behind people who are in groups – so everyone else sees them except the victim.

“Think mischievous spirits,” he adds.

The puppets are operated ‘muppet-style’ by a black-clad performer who wears the puppets on his or her shoulders, ensuring the focus is on the puppet.

Raving Puppets have appeared all over the UK, including Glastonbury, Reading and Raindance among others.

So, next time you’re approached by a 10 foot tall puppet who decides you’re the perfect dance partner, it’s probably not time to stop drinking or blaming the dodgy tablet a shadowy figure gave you earlier.

It might just be a Raving Puppet.

www.ravingpuppets.com