<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><b>How a South Euclid kid grew
up to become one of the world’s foremost Muppet experts</b></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">By Joey Morona, <a href="http://cleveland.com">cleveland.com</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><font color="#cc0000">“The Magic of the Muppets”
with Joe Hennes will take place at 4 p.m., Saturday, May 30, at the Irishtown
Bend Taproom, 1849 W. 24th Street, Cleveland. Tickets are $20 and available at
<a href="http://clickgobuynow.com/jwp">clickgobuynow.com/jwp</a>. The multi-media show
is approximately 2 hours long. It is
aimed at adults, but it is safe for kids.</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The
Muppets appear to be on the brink of another resurgence. A special episode of
“The Muppet Show” featuring Sabrina Carpenter drew nearly 8 million viewers in
its first few days on ABC and Disney+ in February, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
in New York City recently opened for tours, and the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
starring the Muppets is now thrilling tourists at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in
Florida.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">It’s enough to make you say,
“Wocka, wocka!” Just ask Joe Hennes.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">The South Euclid native has
spent the better part of two decades immersed in all things Muppets as
editor-in-chief of ToughPigs.com, the authoritative website for adult fans of
the franchise.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“Somebody’s got to do it,
right?” Hennes said. “Why not a kid from Cleveland?”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">On Saturday, Hennes will
present “The Magic of the Muppets,” a TED Talk-style event exploring the life,
career and legacy of Henson, at the Irishtown Bend Taproom in Ohio City.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“It’s going to be a microcosm
of some of the best, most interesting and most important Muppet content from
over the years,” said Hennes. “But there’s also a throughline about creativity
and inspiration that I’m really excited to share with everybody because that’s
really what Jim’s greatest strength was.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">But how exactly did Hennes,
also an editor for Random House Children’s Books, become one of the foremost
Muppets experts in the world? Like many from his generation, he grew up on
“Sesame Street.” But as kids his age moved on to other things, Hennes never
stopped watching. He followed Henson’s creations to “The Muppet Show” and the
big screen, then fell into a rabbit hole that included the puppeteer’s early
work in advertising and fantasy films like “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Hennes eventually moved to
New York City to pursue a career in children’s media.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“I found a whole community of
people who felt just like I did,” he said.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">That included Danny Horn, the
founder of ToughPigs (<a href="http://www.toughpigs.com" style="color:rgb(70,120,134)">www.toughpigs.com</a>)
. When Horn left in 2005, Hennes and his friend Ryan Roe took over. Since then,
the site has published thousands of articles and produced hundreds of podcast
episodes. Hennes has moderated panels at comic-cons and interviewed Frank Oz
(the voice of Miss Piggy), Caroll Spinney (the man behind Big Bird) and Kermit
the Frog himself. When Fathom Events brought “The Muppet Movie” back to
theaters for its 45th anniversary in 2024, Hennes recorded the introduction. </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">His work on ToughPigs, which
Hennes characterizes as a labor of love rather than a money-making venture, has
given him a front-row seat to why the Muppets inspire such devotion, even as
the fandom has been tested over the years. Unlike “Star Wars,” Marvel or Pixar,
the Muppets have never been a billion-dollar franchise for Disney, and fans
have sometimes felt the brand has been pushed aside in favor of bigger
properties.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">But Hennes says the Muppets
have always had something those franchises can’t manufacture: the ability to
work on multiple levels at once — silly enough for small children, strange
enough for older kids and nostalgic enough for the adults who grew up with
them.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“We know that Muppets can be
a really successful franchise,” he said. “It seems like they are on this upward
trajectory that I’m really excited to be riding on.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">It wasn’t always like that.
Hennes got a firsthand look at the challenges facing the IP during nearly a
decade working at Sesame Workshop in the 2010s. His feelings about his time
there are “complicated,” he said. While it was cool to see “how the sausage
gets made,” he ultimately left frustrated.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“The trouble I came into with
Sesame Workshop was wanting to be a part of the creative process and help both
push it in a new direction and remind the company where its roots were,” he
said. “A lot of the people at Sesame Workshop who are currently running the
show could stand to use a little reminder.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Still, he looks back fondly
at his favorite project there. Hennes wrote a parody of the movie “Birdman”
starring Big Bird and Spinney, who appeared in the sketch as himself. (You can see this short parody by clicking <a href="https://youtu.be/lnfAxUjRQAo?si=DdrZ9tIz9_VPvj-L">here</a>.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“It’s like getting to work
with one of the Beatles,” Hennes recalled. “It doesn’t get any better than
that.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">His interactions with
Spinney, members of the Henson family and current and former staff at the Jim
Henson Company have unlocked unique insight into and appreciation for the man
behind the Muppets. He learned that Henson’s superpower, beyond his creative
genius, might have been his ability to create a positive working environment
where employees felt valued and heard.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“He really encouraged Frank
Oz, the closest thing he had to a creative partner, to follow his dream of
being a film director, which meant working on non-Henson properties,” Hennes
said. “To do that, he would say to him, ‘I’ll work with you on a movie or I’ll
help you make connections.’”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">For Henson, it was about
figuring out how to create and keep the inspiration moving forward without
getting too complacent. That message is the heart of Hennes’ “The Magic of the
Muppets” talk.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">“It’s a tricky balance,” he
said. “Jim was able to ride that line in a beautiful way that I think that we
can all find a little inspiration in as we look toward whatever our next
creative endeavors might be.”</span></p></div>