EVENT PREVIEW
“Lamb Chop 2.0: Everything You Wanted To Know About Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, But Were Afraid to Ask”
3 p.m. April 26. $20.50. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-873-3391, www.puppet.org.
Part of a celebration of the National Day of Puppetry, including performances of “Charlotte’s Web” at noon and 2 p.m. ($16.50), make your own sock puppet workshop (anytime between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m., free with show ticket) and walk-around puppetry demonstrations by the Atlanta Puppetry Guild, from 4 to 6 p.m. (free).
Lamb Chop is b-a-a-a-c-k, boys and girls, and heading to Atlanta for an appearance Saturday as part of a larger National Day of Puppetry celebration at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
The ageless sock puppet’s one-hour show, “Lamb Chop 2.0: Everything You Wanted To Know About Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, But Were Afraid to Ask,” co-starring the late puppeteer’s daughter Mallory Lewis, features comedy, songs, vintage videos, stories from a sweeter time in children’s entertainment and a Q&A.
Lewis and Lamb Chop also will unveil a commemorative postage stamp painted by Chicago-based pop artist Nicolosi, with the collectible available for sale before it arrives at post offices.
We caught up with Lamb Chop one recent morning from the Malibu, Calif., home she shares with Lewis, and posed some seriously silly questions.
Q: I understand the audience at the Center for Puppetry Arts will be encouraged to “grill Lamb Chop” as part of your appearance this weekend. Isn’t that a little, uh, rude?
A: I really enjoy any questions that are appropriate. I'm only 6, so you can't ask anything naughty.
Q: So you don’t work blue? That’s reassuring to hear in this day of celebrity misbehavior.
A: Baby blue!
Q: How is performing for Mallory different than working with Shari?
A: Shari was my mom. Mallory is my sister, so she's not the boss of me.
Q: You’re being cheeky. Are you that way when you appear with Mallory?
A: I'm not being cheeky. I'm being sheepish!
Q: Here are a couple of questions that tap your lamb expertise. It’s said that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Why not in like a lamb and out like a lamb?
A: We live in Malibu, so everything comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lamb.
Q: Ah, true that. OK, back in the 1970s, Peter Gabriel wrote a song with his old group, Genesis, called “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.” Can you explain why a lamb would lie down on such a busy street, with all those yellow taxis speeding by? Wouldn’t a lamb instead want to appear on one of those Broadway stages?
A: Well, Peter never said that the lamb wasn't lying down on the stage.
Q: Oh. Speaking of entertainment, do you prefer Kermit or Miss Piggy?
A: You know, Piggy and I have been competing for Kermit's attention for years.
Q: That’s some tough competition!
A: Oh, no, she's not kosher.
Q: But you are?
A: Of course I am. I'm the Paschal Lamb (aka the Passover Lamb)!
Q: You’re not exactly a spring chicken. How do you maintain your beauty?
A: I have a great seamstress.
Q: She hides this and that?
A: Yes, but a lady never tells.
Q: The national tour of “The Lion King” is in Atlanta. The Muppets are back in movie theaters. Are puppets poised to take over the world or something?
A: I am ready to run for president of the United States of America. But I'm willing to be vice president for Hillary.
Q: Wasn’t it Herbert Hoover’s campaign that promised “two cars in every garage”? What’s your promise?
A: A puppet in every bed.
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