ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Children's character Blippi is a little more than annoying for adults — an energetic and curious (read hyper) man-child who borrows heavily from Pee-wee Herman.
But parents put that aside because he also teaches kids stuff — or at least engages them for extended periods.
And he's huge these days — a rock star for the preschool crowd, and even for those slightly older on YouTube, Netflix, HBO Max and more.
At the Allentown Fair grandstand on Thursday, that hyperactivity was dialed back a measure for Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour, and the kids — who made up about half the audience of perhaps 3,000 — were at least exposed to learning.
"Some of our friends are even dressed like you."The Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour cast
(A measure of Blippi's popularity was that the cast noted to Blippi that "some of our friends are even dressed like you." And there were, indeed, several mini-Blippis in the audience.)
There were lots of songs, 16 of them — your typical simplistic, child-friendly tunes with "messages," such as "Rainbow Day" (teaching colors), "The O. J. Twist" (touting the benefits of juice), "Animals in the Ocean" (identifying animals in the seas), "Stop and Go" (explaining the difference) and, well, you get the idea.
The show started with Blippi's friend Meekah introducing the show and using a "song spinner" that, not surprisingly, stopped on "The Meekah Song," letting her introduce herself.
The cast made the effort to localize the show — talking about Cedar Beach Park, Lehigh Valley Zoo (cast members did animal impressions) and Allentown in general.
Meekah was joined by four other "Blippi Buddies" before Blippi (spoiler alert: Blippi was played by an actor and was not originator Stevin John, who you see on the platforms) came onstage in his Blippi Mobile seven minutes later.
That started the third song, "B-L-I-P-P-I" (it helps kids learn spelling).
If you're getting the idea that the show was fast-paced, you're right.
Attention span and trucks
That, of course, is a hallmark of Blippi — and children's programming in general: Pay attention to attention-span, which for Blippi's target audience is short.
For example, perhaps the show's best song — certainly the one that got the children most engaged — was "The Dinosaur Song," which listed types of terrible lizards and their identifying characteristics and even had a costumed T-Rex come out on stage.
The fact that it got the kids' attention pointed out that some of the show didn't. "The Blippi Boat," "The Taxi Song" and "Tick Tock Rock Song," for example, were less engaging, at least for the kids present.
When Blippi showed a blurred excavator on the big screen behind him and guessed wrongly what it was, pretty much every kid in the crowd shouted that it was an excavator.Blippi: The Wonderful world Tour
Even the song "Get the Wiggles Out," during which kids are supposed to, well, wiggle their limbs and bodies, and "The Blippi Dance" — sort of a basic version of what used to be called "locking" to funk music — got less of a response than you might expect.
But maybe that, again, can be attributed to the kids' ages; perhaps they just were enrapt.
That argument could be made by the fact that, when Blippi showed a blurred excavator on the big screen behind him and guessed wrongly what it was, pretty much every kid in the crowd shouted that it was an excavator.
That points out another criticism: The show used a lot of background scenes and basically relegated real action to a small area, with a small cast.
Even the show's closing highlight, when it brought out a monster truck for the song "Monster Truck" and the aforementioned excavator for the song "The Excavator," they seemed like disappointingly small, stage-friendly versions, not real machines.
For the song "Garbage Trucks," there was only a garbage truck on the screen — something you could see better on Blippi's videos.
All of that made you feel that Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour would have presented better in a smaller theater, where there's no space for real trucks and a small cast fills the stage.
But a bigger problem may have been that child attention span. The cast's entire time on stage was 55 minutes, plus a 20-minute intermission.
Blippi was there a few minutes less.
