Children are being educated away from the traditional classroom for the duration of the 2019-20 school year so their experience with and how they think about the internet has dramatically changed.
Computer hours are mounting, and they have become task-oriented. Frankly, kids are in need of some comic relief and so are their parents.
That’s where master storyteller Vinny Lovegrove aka “Mr. Vinny” enters stage left with his comedic puppets. Only now, it’s a one-on-one, up close and personal on Facebook.
“It’s all new to me. I’ve never been on Facebook before. For the first time, me logging on and being on Facebook. We’ve had a Facebook page for a while, and Mr. Tom would take care of that,” said Lovegrove, who had never made a video either.
Now there are several videos up on his Facebook page. “I’m having a lot of fun – big learning curve,” he said.
Having grown up with parents who were Scrimshaw artists, Lovegrove was absorbed by art and drew a lot of pictures as a kid. At the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Rochester native and ORR graduate went from producing illustrations to sculpture before the direction that has become his career.
“My friends, people I was hanging out with, they were into theater arts. It was making things and then performing with them,” he said. “I thought of myself as pretty shy, never did puppets.”
“Mr. Tom” is Tom Poitras, Lovegrove’s friend from East Freetown. An experienced musician and songwriter anticipating the birth of his first son, Poitras approached Lovegrove about sharing ideas for children’s songs. In 2000, the collaboration became the Toe Jam Puppet Band.
“What I was doing then was my big puppets, miracle fish giant puppets. Tom had been doing adult music,” recalls Lovegrove. “Tom and I started (Toe Jam), we were three-piece, then five-piece, and then depending on the venue… as many as five or more.” One concert at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford saw 15 performers on stage.
The popularity of the New Bedford-based entertainment ensemble typically makes well over 200 appearances annually including one year with 270 gigs. That schedule has obviously come to the same screeching halt in synch with the rest of the world.
“Tom and I do this full time with other stuff… We were keeping busy,” said Lovegrove.
He and Poitras had been asked if they might be able to continue performing only at outdoor venues, but they could barely give the idea consideration before the state shut down.
“I would say it was only days after thinking that’s what we’re going to do, we couldn’t even get together,” said Lovegrove, who realized the “kids are going to be at home” and the wheels began turning in the direction of Facebook.
Unfortunately, the duo hasn’t been able to do anything together in the literal sense.
“I guess like everybody else we’ve been playing wait and see,” said Lovegrove. “The first idea to do the videos was, ‘Let’s offer the kiddos something, let’s stay engaged with the community.’ But then it quickly became, ‘Let’s do something we haven’t done before.’”
Thus, Facebook videos.
Lovegrove and Poitras have performed in a variety of settings, from large crowds to small gatherings to one gig in Somerville for children learning English as a second language. Having such opportunities to perform in so many different situations over the years has been a vehicle for growth.
“I always thought that we’re lucky because we get to do gigs… Tom and I perform a lot,” said Lovegrove. “Performing without an audience, as I have been, is yet another challenge.”
If Lovegrove isn’t sure about whether his material will fly, he might bounce it off of his eight-year-old daughter Tallulah. “She’s got a great sense of humor herself,” he notes. “Sometimes you learn from successes, and (realize) that worked, it really worked. Or, you know what, it didn’t go well. (Either way), I’m fine.”
Hopefully, we all will be fine sooner than later.
Someday this year, Toe Jam Puppet Band might get back to two-a-day performances at Buttonwood Park Zoo and make visits throughout New England. Until then, there is Mr. Vinny’s brand of comic relief online at www.facebook.com/vinny.lovegrove.568
By Mick Colageo