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Faces


Song about hair came from the heart J


oey Mazzarino has written plenty of funny and memorable sketches, stories and jokes in his 20-plus years at Sesame


Street, but none of them ever had as much impact as a song he wrote last year. “I Love My Hair” went from being a brief segment on the popular children’s show to becoming a sensation on YouTube, to going viral when the Sesame Street video was “mashed up” with singer Willow Smith’s “I Whip My Hair.” Mazzarino’s song, which celebrates the hair of African-American women, was inspired by Segi, the daughter he and his wife, actress Kerry Butler, adopted from Ethiopia. “Segi was gravitating toward white Barbies and wanting to get her hair to be long and flowing like my wife’s,” said Mazzarino, a member of Advent Lutheran Church, New York. “We thought it might be specific to white parents with African- American children. But with Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair, I realized this was a much larger issue with African-American women.”


Although Sesame Street was already 100 plus


103: Eunice Kanne, Bethany, Grantsburg, Wis.; Henrietta Loewenhagen, St. John, Alma, Wis. 102: Toine Rinne, King of Glory, Flushing, Mich. 101: Annabelle Ulmer, St. Peter, Huntington Station, N.Y. 100: Sue Bringer, Bethel, Ford City, Pa.; Evlyn S. Broyer, Faith, Meadow Vista, Calif.; Merle J. Eng, Holy Cross, Sioux Falls, S.D.; Leo Kressley, Weisenberg, New Tripoli, Pa.; Catherine Tol- lerud, Central, Bloomington, Minn.; George Van Praag, St. Timothy, Melbourne, Fla.


Share your accomplishments, awards and 100+ members in “Faces.” Send to: lutheran@thelutheran.orgor “Faces,” The Lutheran, 8765 W. Hig gins Rd., Chi- cago, IL 60631.


shooting its season, Maz- zarino received the go- ahead from the executive producer to write a song. “I Love My Hair” was born. Actor Chauncey Johnson was chosen as the voice behind the Muppet, which sports a variety of hairdos in the scene. “We’re pretty jaded around here, so people don’t usually stop every- thing to watch us shoot, but the African-American women on staff came to watch,” Mazzarino said. “That’s when I first realized we might have tapped into something.” Mazzarino’s immedi-


ate goal of helping his daughter learn to love her hair has turned into a global sensation. “I’ve received so many positive responses,” he said. “I get welled up when I read some of it.” While this may be Mazzarino’s most notable creation for Sesame


PAUL MCGINNIS


Joey Mazzarino performs as Stinky the Stink- weed on the set of Sesame Street.


Street, he has been a driving force on the show for decades. His path to children’s TV started when he was studying theater at New York’s Ford- ham University. He met a puppeteer with Sesame Street, which led to meeting Muppet creator Jim Henson. Mazzarino became obsessed by his desire to work on the show. “I spent hours at night in my basement making puppets, and hours in the day in front of a TV monitor trying to teach myself to be a puppeteer,” he said. “I would pray, ‘Please, I just want to be a puppeteer.’ ” His prayer was answered, and then some, as Mazzarino added head writer and director to his duties. Mazzarino tried his hand at writing material for adults, without much success. “Finally I realized, hey, I’m good at this,” he said. “This is what I’m supposed to be doing. I want to help educate children and to help them feel good about themselves, and that comes from my faith and from what I believe.”


Jeff Favre Favre is a contributing editor of The Lutheran.


February 2011 43


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