Kids Love Puppets

I'm just about to pass out from exhaustion. I feel like Mick Jagger after a high energy tour. Yesterday I did six puppet show/sketch performances at three different elementary schools all about The Pledge of Allegiance. I recorded a rap that explained what the words of the Pledge mean. Here are some highlights.

- The hip 4th grader who asked me if I was doing any rap concerts.

- The little boy who raised his hand desperate to ask a me question and then babbled pure gibberish when he spoke. I couldn't understand a word so I asked him to repeat what he said. But when he "repeated" himself he spoke entirely different sounding gibberish. I quickly said "I agree. Does anybody else have a question?"

- My friend who played a little girl improvising funny lines about proper Dodge ball etiquette.

- The 9-year-old, Hispanic girl who asked "What's that shiny string on the puppet's neck?" I explained that the puppet character likes to dress like his rap idols and those were supposed to look like gold chains. "Oh," she said, "you mean Bling Bling."

- Holding my up and moving a puppet for over two hours to the point where I could barely lift my arms.

- Making my puppet stutter for almost a full minute and having the kids laugh at it the entire time.

- When Giggles pointed out that my white shirt was so completely drenched in sweat from the heat that it became see-thru. And that my nipples had been 100% visible to all the kids during the last two performances.

The great irony being that I am personally against blindly following a symbol or pledging allegiance to anything. The pledge reminds me of the Nazis. But the rap was about as subversive as a pro-pledge rap could get. My rap included the line "Liberty and Justice go hand in hand so don't touch my freedom Mr. Government man!" I wanted to put up a sign that said "A Buck Fush Production," but thought better of it. Yo! I got paid, so it's all butta.