My early influences into puppetry .
I meet Jane Henson once and she suggested me to make my own puppets . I was still a kid but that advice I still kept to this day and I have . :)
Muppets Tonight is still one of my all time favorites as well as a strong influence to me as an artist . It's interesting. Around the time when The Secrets of The Muppets was shown on Nickelodeon , I wanted to learn about puppeteering and everything about the behind the scenes of The Muppets , Jim Henson and the performers . And when The Wubbulous World of Dr Seuss and Muppets Tonight came out , I REALLY wanted to go on television and be a performer. :) What's interesting is Muppets Tonight ended in 1998. However something special happened to me in that year. I got a private tour of Henson Townhouse and The Muppet Workshop. :) My mother overheard someone in a Pizza polar talking about someone they knew that worked for The Jim Henson Company and my mother raced to them and told them all about me and I got in. :) I think my mother still has pictures that we've taken of us at the Henson Townhouse door. It was amazing ! They were building for " Elmo in Grouchland " at the time. And one of the tricks that I've learned when I visited there was they kept all their foam scrap in a fabricated laundry hamper trolly thing . I should do a blog post talking about it one of these days. I was 10 years old and that and going to MuppetFest was the greatest times in my life as a Muppet fan . :) And the next year In 1999 , I had an idea for a puppet comedy show and today it's a satirical web series that I'm still doing since 2006. :) Long story short , Muppets Tonight and even The Muppet Show and Dinosaurs inspired me to wanting to do my own puppet comedy show and I'm fortunate to have made my dream come true through indie film and the internet. :) _ Erica
More from Erica Crooks check out ericacrooks.com and officialericcrooks.com
