My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught Me About Life, Love and Laughing Out Loud (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's hard to believe, but it's been more than 20 years since beloved preschooler icon Elmo made his debut on Sesame Street—in fact, Clash wasn't even the first puppeteer to try his hand at bringing the "baby monster" to life. It was Clash, though, who gave the character the high-pitched voice and distinctive laugh that quickly endeared him to young viewers and eventually led to his own spinoff series. When he writes about Elmo, in fact, he verges on describing the Muppet as if it possesses its own personality. Clash's working relationship with Elmo is used as a starting point to discuss basic themes like love, tolerance and courage, but it's the story of his life before meeting his furry partner that often holds the most interest. He talks with obvious affection about his childhood growing up in an African-American suburb of Baltimore, encouraged from a early age to follow his talent for designing and performing with puppets. Though generally upbeat, this is no sugar-coated tale; Clash describes his initial struggles to make a name for himself on other children's shows, and speaks frankly about the toll performing on Sesame Street took on his marriage. (Sept. 25)
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Review

Praise for My Life as a Furry Red Monster:

“It should come as no surprise that the man behind America’s most beloved red furball is as wise, warm, witty, and wonderful as Elmo himself. My Life as a Furry Red Monster is an entertaining sneak peak at the life and times of one of the most endearing and enduring characters ever created.”
—Katie Couric

“I love Elmo and I love this book. What a cutie-patootie. Thanks, Kevin!”
—Rosie O’Donnell

“This delightful book illuminates a man’s journey from child to parent, student to teacher, puppeteer to Muppeteer, and reveals to us who our favorite red furry monster really is—a gifted, humane, empathetic entertainer named Kevin Clash. His book is a meditation on the things that really matter—to Elmo and to all of us.”
—Julianne Moore

“In lively and wonderfully written prose, Kevin tells the story of how he came to be the most popular educator and entertainer of children in the country. His riveting tale weaves together the adventures, idealism, love, and optimism that Kevin has experienced both as himself and as a furry red monster.”
—Joan Ganz Cooney, cofounder of Sesame Workshop and creator of Sesame Street

“Kevin has given life and breath to one of the most beloved characters in contemporary pop culture. His heart and soul radiate not only through Elmo, but up and down Sesame Street, through this book, and around the world. Not only is Kevin a brilliant artist, but he’s a fabulous human being as well.”
—Vanessa Williams --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767923758
• ISBN-13: 978-0767923750
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #134,779 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a childrens book - but very interesting :-), September 6, 2006

By	Little Miss Cutey (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

When you see furry characters like Elmo and all his little buddies, you often wonder about the people behind the characters. I saw Kevin once on Oprah and he's very different to how you'd imagine (6 Foot guy with a deep voice) - you'd almost think Elmo was brought to life by a female. Kevin has writen this book because while everyone is so excited about meeting and knowing Elmo, but he wants the public to know what Elmo has meant to him over the past 20 years or so.
Kevin (as Elmo) has had a whirlwind of fun bringing Elmo to life. He's gotten to travel the world and meet so many amazing people. He watched Seasame Street for the first time when he was 10 years old and he was hooked by the puppetry. Right out of high school he started to get involved. He has his own daughter and he learned from her that he acts out Elmo based on his genuine love not only for his daughter Shannon but also all kids.
He says in the book that if you wonder what it is about this loveable character that makes him so popular and why he's such a phenomenon; the answer is love. Elmo "conects with children and adults on the purest and most fundamental level, and that's the human desire to be loved. It's as simple as that". And I think he's perfectly correct (even I as an adult love Elmo).
If you have kids of your own or even friends and family with little kids or even if you're just like me who's really a big kid at heart, you will love this book. It's well written and interesting and fun and you'll love every minute of reading it. I did. It's great.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love is his favorite word, September 22, 2006

By	Reader Views "www.readerviews.com" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

Reviewed by Audrey Hauser for Reader Views (9/06)

The subtitle, "What Being Elmo Has Taught Me about Life, Love, and Laughing Out Loud," pretty much lets you know what this book is about. Kevin Clash didn't just create Elmo, he is Elmo. "Elmo's World" is based on the world that Kevin grew up in. Much of his experiences of growing up sharing a bedroom with 3 siblings, yet finding room to have his own creative space, lets us see how the author has drawn from his early life's experiences to create puppets that can act out real feelings on the puppet stage. All through the book, the author gives us glimpses of how he related to his older brother and two sisters in those years of growing up in the house in Turner Station. He also shows how the strong influence of supportive parents let him be different from other children by making his puppets and performing. He was allowed to use "found" objects for his puppets and this could be anything from his mother's fluffy slipper to a piece of wood found on an abandoned lot. The gift of their love is with him throughout his book. Early breaks brought him the opportunity to work with Muppet creator Jim Henson on a temporary basis, but this was the opening to his life as a puppeteer for the show "Sesame Street."

The concept for Elmo came about with the need for a character that very young children could relate to. Elmo is a perpetual 3 and a-half-year-old who loves everyone. Love is his favorite word. His voice and high-pitched laugh are so unlike Kevin Clash's own voice that people are surprised that he actually performs as Elmo. The role of Elmo lets Kevin show how children express love and joy so openly and without reservations. He gains an even better understanding of Elmo's age group when his own daughter Shannon is born. One thing that led him to new story lines and new puppets was his observation that children have such unrestrained and vivid imaginations. Elmo is a success because Kevin had the talent of seeing the world through Elmo's eyes. Elmo became popular with grownups because he gives them the permission, even for a short time, to be children again.

Sesame Street is the avenue where the puppets can learn how to handle many issues that real children are up against. One of these is diversified races getting along together. Tolerance is something that children can learn from the Sesame Street characters who come up against the race thing in their little community. It has been an opportunity to teach children that people really aren't so different after all. Another issue that came up dealt with bullies and how to cope with them. Loss of loved ones was not skirted around after 9/11, but instead was dealt with on a child's level. It didn't go unnoticed that many children in the New York City area and around the country had many fears following that horrific day. The producers of the show decided to address fears using Elmo's fear of fire. NY City firemen took part in the show to show Elmo, and the viewers that they shouldn't be afraid of firemen in their scary outfits because they were there to help Elmo and his friends. Elmo learned to have courage in the face of a crisis. The experience of going through his own divorce helped Kevin Clash to be able to address that issue in children's terms on the show.

I loved the way the author used his experiences with friends when he was growing up to show how important friendships are. The Sesame Street characters were not all immediately friends, but through getting to know one another they forged the bond that would endure. This also helped the show's producers to plan shows stressing cooperation between friends and also people of the world. When Jim Henson died suddenly, the entire show felt his death, and as a tribute, carried on with the show as they knew he would have wanted them to. The entire staff of Sesame Street helped Elmo to become the icon he is through their cooperation on the show. The Sesame Street show has always been about learning. Originally it was created for older children and, as years went on, the producers found that the average age of their audience had gone down. The show was changed to target younger children. My own children grew up watching Sesame Street and no doubt learned numbers and letters from Big Bird, Bert and Ernie and the others.

The show has stayed on top because it plays to the fact that children are eternal optimists. They still believe in starting over, pushing forward and seldom looking backward. Elmo lives his life that way. He will always be 3 and a-half, and always have that wonderful sense of love and hope, and show his enthusiasm as a child should. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all take a page from Elmo's book, "My Life as a Furry Red Monster," and live that way, at least part of the time?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by Ali Jenkins, January 25, 2007

By	Front Street Reviews www.frontstreetreviews.com - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Kevin Clash's book, My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught Me About Life, Love and Laughing Out Loud kept me smiling from beginning to end. It documents the journey that Kevin had and how is parents encouraged him to keep his passion alive as he entered adulthood. This book is filled with life lessons such as love, joy, tolerance, learning, cooperation, optimism, and courage just to name a few.

This book is reminiscent of Everything I Needed to Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham, but much more reader friendly. The chapters are divided to be shorter but are quite precise in what they are trying to teach.

Kevin Clash mentions how Jim Henson, a man he idolized since childhood and who he would later work for, treated each and everyone of his employees as friends. This is just one thing that makes making working on Sesame Street such a pleasure.

Elmo was created as an inquisitive three year old who, because of his joy of learning, laughing and loving, has become a phenomenon with children and adults alike.

He has reminded me to look at each individual as I did when I was a child. Children don't judge their peers or adults, they look at them and their environment through their wide-eyed curiosity. They are so eager to learn about everyone and everything.

Elmo may have taught Kevin about life, love and laughing out loud, but Kevin has taught me that it is just his true nature shining through Elmo. Elmo is deservedly one of the most loved characters from Sesame Street, and it's because of Kevin.

Although Kevin mentions that he and others on the Sesame Street set have had thier failures, this does not discourage any of them from trying new things and taking creative risks. This is a lesson I think we should all learn to do in our life. There are so many good lessons in this book but I think the best one is, "..you can't be afraid to fail, because you never know true success unless you have a flop or two." Another note of a very valuable lesson is that his life as a performer has never been a solo act, "No life ever is." This may seem a simple statement, but it is a very deep and meaningful one. Kevin constantly describes how, with the encouragement from his family, friends and teachers, he was able to turn his childhood passion into a lifelong dream.

This book can teach or remind adults about lessons that will allow us to not discriminate, to tolerate and to know that each and everyone of us are full of courage in our own way.