Robert Munsch

I heard Robert Munsch briefly on CBC this past week as I was staving off boredom at work. He sounded neat and tickets were cheap so we decided to go to his Sunday show.

We knew instinctively that we were probably going to be the oldest ones there sans kids. And we were right. As we shuffled to our seats five minutes before show time, everyone gave us a strange look as we were not towing kids behind us. I looked around and realized we were actually the only ones there without kids.

For an hour he told stories. During first half, he made up stories using names from the kids in the audience. The second half he told the ones I remembered and liked so much like the Paper Bag Princess, Love You Forever and my favourite, Thomas' Snowsuit. He has so much energy but you have to wonder if the man burns out telling the same stories over and over again.

Sprinkled among the stories were bits for the adults. One of Munsch's stories involved a kid climbing a house but was published as the kid climbing a tree. The lawyers told him they could be sued because kids don't climb houses but climb trees and thus save them from a lawsuit. And he told this anecdote using the same voices for the lawyers as he did for a crazy mother. He has a ton of MP3s where he tells the stories so you can get a feel for his voice. http://www.robertmunsch.com/storytime.cfm

There were a few things that flew over the kids' head like the lawyer story. In Love You Forever, the man moves to a trailer in Fort McMurray which the adults found funny but the kids around us were confused.

Robert Munsch is the first in our arts calendar. We're seeing the Ronnie Burkett puppet show 10 Days on Earth. In October we're going to Carmina Burana at the Alberta Ballet. It'll be our first look at the new Jubilee. In December is Peter Pan and we went camping with the lady who will play Mrs. Darling/Smee. And in February is Barenaked Ladies.