Documentary Review: Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey directed by Constance Marks
How does a puppet (and for that matter, a puppeteer) get to be a superstar? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall, according to the old joke. You PRACTICE. And Being Elmo makes it plain no one belongs on Sesame Street more than Kevin Clash, and he got there through talent, hard work, perseverance, and a willingness to confront his own natural shyness. Being Elmo takes us from Clash’s humble, “wrong side of Baltimore” life, growing up on the banks of a polluted run-off of the Cheapeake Bay to the happiest street in the world. It’s a coming home of sorts; a journey that began for Kevin even before Jim Henson created Sesame Street back in 1969.
