Enid

I performed today at Enid. People were having trouble finding parking because several streets were closed due to the filming of a Hollywood movie, which was happening right across the street from the program.

Here I am talking with some kids before the show.

Posing with fans afterwards:

Here's a shot Lisa took of the film crew working across the street:

Okeene and Watonga

Two more great groups today. First in Okeene. Here we are shaking our hands like two maracas. Note the fishy mural in the background which the kids helped create!

Evalyn has visited the Watonga library every summer of her life. She says she loves it there because they always go all out with their decorations for the theme. Here she is posing with a giant watercolor set!

Goofing around before the show:

Exchange with a girl of about seven before the show:

She: "You're a dork" Me: "I know you like me" She: "I do like you but you're still a dork"

Singing underwater...

Posing with the kids after the show...

Check out the giant markers, crayons, and pencil!

Lost photos from Cushing, OK and Holton, KS

Just catching up a bit here. I missed posting these photos from a couple of weeks back!

These are from June 8 at Holton, KS. My audience was in two sections, at right angles to each other, so you see about half of them here.

Next are some shots from June 9 in Cushing. The library was built in the late 1930's, and still has many of the original features. The program was in a funky little basement room that we had to ride an elevator up, then a different elevator back down, to get to! One side of the room is dominated by a checker-tiled semi-circular stage area. The colorful frescos on the walls are original, and much of the furniture is original. The folding chairs from the 30's have only recently been replaced with new ones. It was a fun space to perform in.

Hartshorne and Wilburton

Yesterday I had two wonderful shows, at Hartshorn and Wilburton, despite the fact that Lisa and I were operating on practically no sleep, thanks to the dog next door. Evalyn's cousins were in town, so we left her at her grandma's where she could play with them.

Below are a couple of photos from the Hartshorn show. Unfortunately the batteries in the camera died, so we have nothing to show you from Wilburton. There was a family there who have been fans for thirteen years! The dad thanked me for all the pleasure his kids have gotten out of my music. It's nice to get those little reminders of why I do this!

On the way home, Lisa and I (mostly I) were completely silly with exhaustion. We spent much of today - napping! Next shows are Monday at Okeene and Watonga.

Owasso

I did two really great shows in Owasso today; the kids were interacting quite a lot with me and they were fun.

Here's a photo of the first group, watching Evalyn sing "Don't Look, I'm Making a Book."

Posing afterwards with a fan:

Here I am being chased by a "lion" during "Silly Song" in the second show:

A group of kids wanted to be on stage to help me sing "Trick or Treat":

Several kids from the second group wanted to pose for a photo:

Woodward

Lisa and I left Evalyn with her grandma Friday to give her a break, and we capped off a jam-packed week with a fantastic show in Woodward, OK. The kids were just great, and I was able to work their creativity into the show. One highlight was "Silly Song" where an impromptu verse had me being chased around the room by a volunteer "lion" while singing, "Silly silly silly silly..." Another highlight was a new approach to "Reading Makes Me Want to Dance Out Loud."

Here are a few photos:

"I read the book - ME!"

I put Lisa on the spot and asked her to help me demonstrate the new dance moves for "Reading Makes Me Want to Dance Out Loud." Here she is dancing like a dinosaur!

And here is a good portion of the audience posing with me after the show. What a good looking group!

P.S. I post small versions of these photos online, but if you would like an original at high resolution, just write to me and I'll send it. (monty at montyharper dot com)

Skiatook, Tulsa

We had quite a tight schedule today, with a program at 1:00 at Skiatook, and another at 3:00 at Schusterman-Benson, in Tulsa. We didn't have time for photos after the Skiatook show, and the second show had a very small audience, so we didn't end up with many photos to share.

Both shows went really really well, though, and were a lot of fun. I got into a big discussion with the kids before the first show about Sponge-Bob Squarepants. (One of the girls had him on her shirt.) The whole room got into it - we were trying to remember the words to the Spongebob song, and then we were trying to figure out whether he actually lives underwater or not. Supposedly he does, but so many things go in in that cartoon that don't make sense underwater, nobody really seems sure. What do you think?

I'm adding a story to this post that I forgot to tell, but this is really wild. At the Schusterman-Benson show I had a pretty young audience, so I decided to do "Big Red Fire Truck." Very visible right outside the large window at the side of the room, there was a maintenance man doing some work on the lawn. Exactly at the part of the song where I sing "See the ladder go up...", the maintenance man lifted a ladder up against the building. Everyone could see him and we all just cracked up. I looked expectantly over on the line "See the people climb down," but nobody climbed down the ladder.

Anyhow, here are a couple of photos from Skiatook, during the show.

Lawton

We were back at the Lawton library today. We'd been there many years in a row, but missed last year. It was good to be back! (I made sure to say hi to the big paper mache dinosaur!)

We had three large groups. Here is from the first performance, "Reading Makes Me Want to Dance Out Loud":

We were surprised and pleased to see that the program room had been remodeled in our absence. (I'm sure they wanted to impress us for our next visit!) The friends of the library had provided all these colorful carpets for the kids to sit on. Here I am posing with some kids on one of them after the first show.

The third show was the most crowded. Look at this huge group!

Not sure what I'm doing here, but Lisa managed to capture a different gesture than usual.

"Hanging Out With Heroes" (Dr. Seuss version) - and the answer is...

More posing with kids on the carpets:

Atoka and Tishomingo

Two great shows today, in Atoka and Tishomingo. We did the taking suggestions thing during "Silly Song" again in Tishomingo with hilarious results. I'm getting pretty confident at that, though still unsure about doing it with a larger audience.

We had a lot of kids wanting photos at Atoka, so here they are!

I took this shot of Evalyn and Lisa at lunch. We ate at El Adobe in Atoka, which Evalyn later referred to as "El Mud," not because the food was bad - the food was very good - she was just playing with the words.

Evalyn in Evalyn Paradise:

Posing with some fans in Tishomingo. Isn't this a fantastic shot? Lisa rocks!