Funny Boy
The Richard Hunt Biography
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- 369,00 kr
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- 369,00 kr
Beskrivelse fra utgiveren
“The most sensational, perpetual teenager in the world.” —Jim Henson
“To know him was to love him, and we do.” —Mark Hamill
Funny Boy: The Richard Hunt Biography tells the life story of a gifted performer whose gleeful irreverence, sharp wit and generous spirit inspired millions. Richard Hunt was one of the original main five performers in the Muppet troupe. He brought to life an impressive range of characters on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and various Muppet movies, everyone from eager gofer Scooter to elderly heckler Statler, groovy girl Janice to freaked-out lab helper Beaker, even early versions of Miss Piggy and Elmo. Hunt also acted, directed and mentored the next generation of performers. His accomplishments are all the more remarkable in that he crammed them all into only 40 years.
Richard Hunt was just 18 years old when he joined Jim Henson’s company, where his edgy humor quickly helped launch the Muppets into international stardom. Hunt lived large, savoring life’s delights, amassing a vivid, disparate community of friends. Even when the AIDS epidemic wrought its devastation, claiming the love of Hunt’s life and threatening his own life, he showed an extraordinary sense of resilience, openness and joy. Hunt’s story exemplifies how to follow your passion, foster your talents, adapt to life’s surprises, genuinely connect with everyone from glitzy celebrities to gruff cab drivers – and have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stein, an English lecturer at Hunter College, traces in her affectionate debut biography the life and work of Richard Hunt (1951–1992), one of the "Original Five" performers who propelled the Muppets to international acclaim in the 1970s and '80s. Growing up in post-WWII New York and New Jersey, Hunt was part of a large, boisterous family who encouraged his love of performing. Success during his teenage years as a children's birthday party puppeteer hinted at his future career, which began when he cold-called Muppets creator Jim Henson's entertainment company, "bounded like a big puppy into his June 1970 audition," and was hired as a puppeteer for The Muppets, then a bare-bones enterprise with segments on such TV shows as Sesame Street. Hunt began by operating the right hands of puppets voiced by Jim Henson and his longtime creative partner Frank Oz, but soon started developing and voicing his own characters, including Janice, the hippie singer in the Electric Mayhem band, and Beaker, the long-suffering assistant to Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. Mining interviews with Hunt's friends, colleagues, and family, Stein perceptively captures how the puppeteer's edgy energy and unique, irreverent humor proved instrumental to the show's success, particularly as The Muppets transitioned toward more adult-centered programming in the 1970s. The result is a nuanced and meticulously detailed tribute to the artist once described by Jim Henson as "the most sensational, perpetual teenager in the world."
