In the News: Comedy is comedy for kids and adults, an interview with Mo Willems

Gina Kaufmann, KCUR
December 13, 2018

Gina Kaufmann, KCUR: We’re talking with Mo Willems, he’s a children’s book author and illustrator, also an animator. He’s coming from a background in comedy and Sesame Street and he has an exhibit right now: The Pigeon Comes to Topeka! A Mo Willems Exhibit on display in Topeka at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center through January 4. And Mo, tell me more about that exhibit. It’s character driven, right? | Mo Willems: Yes. This is a children’s museum exhibit, so everything is physical. You can play with it there are games, you draw, there’s a hot dog tosser and there’s a lot of animation stuff, learning how to make drawings, learning how persistence of vision works. It’s something that I worked with the museum in Pittsburgh for several years on and it’s just been a joy because it is interactive. You know, I make that sure all the characters I create are designed so that they’re simple enough for a five year old to draw them reasonably. I really want my work not just to be read but to be played. And in order to get kids to draw, grown-ups have to draw as well. Because parents forget that they’re cool, but if a parent sits there and doodles, a kid will. Everything in this exhibit is really made to get both the kids and the grown-ups in the kid’s life, get them together, playing together, drawing and creating together.