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On a cool, overcast day in September, Toe Jam Puppet Band — the duo of Tom Poitras and Vinny Lovegrove — brought the sunshine to Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford.
A lively gaggle of toddlers bopped to the music, chased giant bubbles, and squealed as they were spritzed with water during “The Car Wash Song.” Even their adults got drawn into the inspired silliness, do-si-do-ing with the kids to a square dance tune.
Far from saccharine, the songs, like “Mermaids Never Wear Shoes” and “Moon Rock ’n’ Roll,” have plenty of quirky humor and catchy rhythms to keep the grownups amused while the youngsters have a blast.
For 25 years, Lovegrove and Poitras have been spreading the joy with zany kid shows that blend rib-tickling songs, energetic movement, and gentle humor into an effervescent elixir.
Toe Jam Puppet Band came to life in September 2000, entertaining at the Creative Arts Playgroup that was established at the First Unitarian Church in New Bedford thanks to a grant secured by Cora-Dorothy Peirce, who was then working for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
The key to their long partnership, Lovegrove and Poitras agree, is finding a talented collaborator who shares your interests, has a great work ethic, and is easy to get along with.
Together, they stage more than 250 Toe Jam shows a year across southern New England, in addition to the performing they do independently. They entertain at libraries, festivals, schools, private parties — even a few weddings — and are a staple at the zoo. Toe Jam Puppet Band has taken the Z stage before a large audience, and played to small groups of patients at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
Back in the early ’90s, Lovegrove founded Miracle Fish Puppet Theater, memorable for its motley crew of giant characters at events such as First Night New Bedford. This fall, the Marion resident is continuing a years-long run as a roving performer at King Richard’s Faire in Carver.
Poitras, a not-quite “silent partner” to the effusive Lovegrove, writes most of the songs, plays guitar and banjo, and sings with a sound reminiscent of folk legend Pete Seeger.
The Freetown man also plays in a band, Moonbellies, with his sons Hank and Jack and two other musicians. They perform a potpourri of original, Americana, Québecois, Irish, and Cajun music.
In July, as part of the “Kids Rule” AHA! Night, they celebrated their milestone anniversary with a performance on the Whaling Museum plaza, with guest appearances by more than a dozen musicians who have sat in with Toe Jam through the years.
In a conversation with the Light, Lovegrove and Poitras talk about Toe Jam Puppet Band’s history, what makes their show tick, how to keep it fresh — and oh yes, that name.
New Bedford Light: Who came up with the name?
Vinny Lovegrove: I’ll take some credit for that. … It was around a time when there were a lot of very nice but very sincere kids entertainment sort of things. So, we wanted something that was going to be a little gross and something that was a little wink at the kids to be like, “We’re going to be silly and we’re going to be maybe a little obnoxious.” …
I said it for the first time to somebody just the other day, and they couldn’t help but laugh. So, yeah, it’s a good thing.
NBL: Who is your target audience?
Tom Poitras: When school is not in session, I’d say we get up to maybe 8 years old, and during the summer, we get a big audience at the park, because we’ve got the little ones that come and the older ones.
NBL: Many bands have groupies. Do you?
TP: It’s interesting because we play every week at the zoo, and moms and dads and grandparents are looking for something to do with their kids, and invariably, they come every week. They hear pretty much the same material, and they’ll have their favorites. They’ll come up to us before the show, and we take requests, like David today wanted “Little Red Caboose.” And Grayson, one of our little ones, sometimes he comes with a printed-out sheet of his requests, which makes it easy for us — we know what to play.
VL: We have a lot of regulars. We do shows all over southern New England, and we’ll see a lot of new people, first-timers. We’ll see some people who have seen us before. But the zoo is very special in the way that we’re here every week. So, like Tom says, we will have people who come every week.
TP: We have something really sweet happening: That some of the kids who saw us in the beginning are now having kids. They come and they’ll say, “Yeah, we used to come all the time. Now I’ve got my own little ones.”
NBL: What’s the magic ingredient that makes your shows work?
TP: It just worked from the beginning. We had no idea. I come from punk rock, rock ’n’ roll. I never played kid music until I had kids. I started writing for my firstborn (in 1999).
Vinny and I would see each other — I ran an open mic at the New Wave Café (in New Bedford) for seven years. He’d come in and do his bit on stage, and we started talking, became friends, and I said, “Vinny, I know you do kids stuff, and I’m starting to write children’s music. Maybe we could collaborate.” From our first show, it just worked. And we were like, “OK, let’s keep going.” Yeah, 25 years later, we never thought it would last this long.
VL: Tom mentioned about the kids having kids … there was a point towards the beginning where we’re like, “This kind of has momentum” and … we said to each other, “Do you think we’ll do this long enough to see the kids of kids?” And in part, it was because we kind of felt things moving and all, but as far as making a living doing this and still loving it and being embraced by the community? (We) just kind of went for it and I still feel really grateful for that. …
We were really lucky to find each other, because we both really like working at the community level, being in a certain size pond. To find somebody else that you know likes to work hard, that is really talented, that has a drive, that …
TP: Arrives on time.
VL: Arrives on time, lots of little things … I really like working with Tom. I can really count on him. He’s really fair. There is such a low-to-none level of pettiness and drama, so that you can do 25 years.
We both love doing it. We both love kids. We both like hitting a certain kind of tone where it’s silly and absurd. He’s really good to work with, and I try to meet that as well and be really good to work with. If it were just a great gig, and he was really talented, I don’t think I could do 25 years.
TP: Vice versa, everything he said. Also, from the beginning — you know, with all the bands I’ve been in since the ’70s, it’s tough to get gigs, and this has never been difficult to get gigs. We’ve always been in demand. A lot of our clients just keep calling us year after year after year — unlike all the other bands that I’ve been in. We’ve been lucky that way.
NBL: How would you describe yourself as a kid?
TP: Very shy. I didn’t start music till I was in college and then got very serious about it outside of college, and played with my brother. We were in the Gluons together, and Blue Hollow.
We used to play post-punk, and I kind of was on that trajectory, playing in a lot of bands like that, till I started an open mic at the New Wave Café. That’s when I met Vinny, and all my friends that I play in various bands with. It just (introduced me to) all my musical friends that play all kinds of music.
VL: I was a shy kid, too. … Inevitably, there’ll be folks who come to these shows and be like, “I don’t get it. He (or she) never leaves our lap, and at home, all they talk about is Toe Jam.” We say that we would not be the kids in the front row. I was a shy kid too.
I didn’t get interested in performance till after college. I went to school for visual arts down in Baltimore, and I thought, “I’m going to make things, I’m going to leave it in a room, and then people will go see it.” And I found that very unsatisfactory.
In college, I met folks who were doing theater, and specifically big puppets, and that got me interested in performing. And I don’t know why I didn’t discover it earlier. It was always kind of peeking out.
NBL: Tom, do you write all of the songs?
TP: That’s how we started. I was writing songs, the laundry song (“I Got Laundry Everywhere”), “The Car Wash Song,” and I just asked Vinny, like, “What do you want to do with these?” From the first show, he was throwing laundry at the kids, and they would throw it back in the basket, or “The Car Wash (song)” and squirting the kids. The songs we did for the first show we’re still doing today. Kids really respond.
I think children are the best audience in the world because there’s no polite clapping. If they like it, they’re rocking and rolling to it. If they don’t care for the song, they’re walking off. So, it’s the best audience. You know when you’ve got a stinker or when you’ve got a good song.
VL: Mostly, Tom’s writing all the songs, and I’ll come up with how to engage with the kids: the mime stuff, and how to introduce it, and the play acting and things like that.
NBL: I often feel sorry for James Taylor having to sing “You’ve Got a Friend” for the millionth time. Do you sometimes wake up and say “I’m not feeling it today” and struggle to keep up the energy?
TP: Well, it’s really interesting, because we, especially in the summer, could be doing this three to four times a day. We play pretty much the same set. We’ll change out things here and there, depending on the audience. But it’s the kids that make it different every single show. The kids just do the unexpected sometimes that crack you up onstage, because they come with this energy and this joy, and that just fills you. It’s been a very unique musical experience for me, that’s for sure.
VL: I would back that up. The live performance and the kids make it new and different. I think we can take credit, both of us, for having a little skill at, “OK, how do we make this new and alive again?” I think that also is a little bit of a skill to make it work for 25 years. …
We get a live audience, and like Tom says, we have kids in front of us. It might be the first time they’ve ever heard it, or it might be the thing that they want to hear over and over again.
TP: And we love getting the parents involved. When the parents get involved it’s really special. …
NBL: Even little kids spend a lot of time enthralled by their devices these days — smartphones and tablets and so on. Do you think activities like Toe Jam concerts are more important than ever?
VL: Hmmm. Live stuff, meeting actual people, getting together — it’s a good thing. I mean just getting your body out with other bodies and negotiating how do you run around, how do you jump around; don’t bump into people, what do you do when you bump into people…
We meet a lot of kids at the beginning of that: here’s the boundaries, here’s the lines, we’re all working together. You talk, I talk, he talks (gesturing at Tom) … sometimes. Yeah, I think it’s important.
TP: What he said.
Joanna McQuillan Weeks is a freelance writer and frequent correspondent for The New Bedford Light.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Learn more at toejampuppetband.com
Awww…. Toe Jam! With the Vinny of Lovegrove & the Tom of Poitras, that’s a lotta. They’re larger than the sum of the parts. They have the children being happier, dancier, childer.
Toe Jam is a big little good story, well told. Thanks Joanna. You too, Cora. You knew.