Why The Wiggles Suck Now

The original Wiggles

Disclaimer:  I feel qualified to grouse about the Wiggles because I have been watching them almost daily for around nine years now.  (Aliza loved them before the boys did.)  I see them on You Tube. I've seen all their DVDs, including the bonus features. Some parts of some of their videos I've seen and heard hundreds of times. I bet I've seen "Do the Monkey" thousands of times, because AJ's been loving that video for 5 years now. Seen them in concert twice. I haven't read Anthony's book yet, but it's on my list.  (What?  You didn't know Anthony had written a book?  Then you aren't as into the Wiggles as we are.)

(Quick background:  Greg, Murray, Anthony and Jeff formed a children's song and dance group in 1991 in Australia.  Found early popularity worldwide.  In 2006 Greg retired due to health issues, and Sam took over as the 4th Wiggle.  Six years and countless DVDs and live shows later, in early 2012, they announced that Greg was returning to his role and Sam was out.  Audiences were disturbed about this, since they'd become accustomed to Sam and most of their followers, being young children, didn't even remember Greg.  It was controversial.)

At the end of last year, Greg, Murray and Jeff retired, which was probably a good thing because two summers ago when we saw them in concert, Jeff was absent because he'd just had a Pacemaker put into his chest, which would have told anyone else hey, you might be getting too old to be playing children's shows, but not these guys.



Greg is out, Sam is in

And frankly, to me, with Sam in the group, it became "three old guys and one polished, young, cute professional."  Sam looked out of place.  He was too much better than the other three.  But the kids and I got used to him, and began to like him and accept him as one of the group.

Which is why we were all mad about how, last year, they gave Sam the boot unceremoniously and under the table, and then expected cheers and joy for welcoming Greg back into the group.  Nothing against Greg, we liked him back in the day, but Sam was well liked, too, and we didn't like the way they treated him. 

And there was an interview with Anthony on some Australian news program where he was asked about Sam and how Sam was let go, and how he felt about it, and Anthony acted like it hadn't occurred to him to ask Sam how he felt, and he admitted he hadn't even talked to Sam.  I don't know how they announced to him that he was fired, maybe they left him a post-it in his dressing room.



Sam is out, Greg is back

After all those years of singing and dancing right alongside him, Anthony couldn't figure out why people would think the group should have shown a little respect and courtesy toward Sam.

And now that all of them but Anthony have retired, The Wiggles is an almost completely unrecognizable group of people.  Anthony has always been the "cute" one, the one all the moms like, but now that Jeff, Murray, and Greg have been replaced by three very cute, young, bouncy people, Anthony is now the "old" one. 

They used to be this neat group of very ordinary, regular guys who got together and thought, why don't we start a kids' band?  And they hit it big, and that's what was great about them, was their normalness.  The fact that they weren't "Hollywood," that they were just like all the dads of the kids who loved them.  They were gawky and nerdy and we loved them for it.  Now The Wiggles are group of three beautiful people who went through auditions and tryouts and are professional and amazing and polished and perfectly adorable.


The new Wiggles - and Anthony

And Anthony.  The old guy.

(By the way, at the moment I'm publishing this, AJ is behind me at the kitchen table, watching "Do the Monkey" on the iPad.  I swear I am not making this up.  It's 8:15 AM and I've heard it around 15 times just so far this morning.  Which is why I don't think my above estimation of thousands is off base.)

The Greatest Wiggles Show on Earth

Barnum, you ain't got nothing on The Wiggles!

 

Oh yes, it went well.  It went great actually.

Zack and AJ loved the show.  Nobody threw up.  Nobody had to go for a drive.  We had perfect seats -- last row of the balcony, plenty of space to bounce, jump, and dance.

Of course Zack spent the entire concert with his fingers in his ears.  (Yes, we've tried to get him to wear headphones or something to muffle noise.  He won't wear them.)

 

By the way, it's okay that I took a bunch of pictures, because Anthony (the blue Wiggle, for the non-Wiggle initiated) announced at the beginning of the show that their movie-and-photo-taking-policy was that anyone could take any photos or movies they like, because The Wiggles have more money than God and really don't care if we never buy another video from them.  Or something like that.  I may be paraphrasing.

I am absolutely positive nobody had a better time than I did.  They only got to see The Wiggles live in concert.  I got to see my two little boys who struggle so much every day for the little things others take for granted, enjoy a kids' show as much as any other kid there. 

Two times I fought tears as I watched their big brown eyes shine and their faces light into tentative smiles.  They were anxious, yes.  They were overstimulated.  But they overcame it.

I was so worried that they wouldn't perform The Monkey Dance.  You know -- AJ's favorite?  Imagine our relief and joy when we heard the opening bars.

After The Monkey Dance AJ ran down toward the front of the balcony.  I think he wanted to go right onstage and ask them to do it again.

Actually if they could have just alternated between The Monkey Dance and Rockabye Your Bear for about 2 hours, we'd have been in Wiggle Heaven.  But truthfully they did do a nice mix of new songs and their traditional classics.  The boys could take or leave the new stuff, but they paid attention and bounced for the songs they know so well.

Oh, and this girl right here?  On the left?  Told me she didn't even like The Wiggles.  And look at her dancing!

Of course we did have to take some little breaks and go run around in the lobby area.  It wasn't exactly a playground, but it allowed us to escape the lights and noise for a few minutes.

 

They were rather exhausted by the end of the day.  I wonder how many of the kids who attended The Wiggles show yesterday afternoon went straight home and watched a Wiggles video, like we did.

Would Temple Grandin go see the Wiggles?

Guess who's coming back to town, after three long years?

The Wiggles!

Last time they were here, it was a less than spectacular experience for us.  But, we have come a long way since then, both the boys and us.  We've learned what to do to make experiences like this better for the boys, and they have grown and matured since then and can tolerate public events and situations better.  Quite often now, we take them places (the Mall of America, the zoo, some restaurants) and are surprised at how well they tolerate it.

So last time we saw them, the Wiggles came to the Target Center in Minneapolis.  I emailed the Target Center staff beforehand and explained our situation (Fragile X, autism, anxiety, sensory issues, etc.) and they generously offered to let us sit in a suite.  The boys got to watch the show from behind the glass doors, where it was a little quieter and easier for them to handle.

This time they are doing their show at the Historic State Theatre.  This venue is a little smaller and unfortunately doesn't have suite seating.  They really don't have any special accommodations to offer us.  I know, because I already emailed them and asked.  All they could do is let us have seating way in the back of the auditorium, so we can get out easily and quickly.  There are no monitors in the lobby area though, so once you are out of the theatre, you don't see the show at all.

They were super nice and appologetic about not having what we need.  So I'm pondering this one.

Should we, or shouldn't we?

What would Temple Grandin tell us to do?
Well, it's been three years since the last time we went to their show.  They were 3 years old then; now they are big 6-year-olds.  Kindergarteners.

Age has not diminished their love of The Wiggles in the slightest.  If anything it's enhanced.

AJ watches "The Monkey Dance" and other Wiggles songs daily on You Tube.  He does seem to gravitate to the recordings of live shows.

Seriously, if I had $10 for every time I hear this in a month, I could pay our mortgage.

He also loves videos like this where you can see the kids dancing.  He and Zack both watch these videos over and over. 

So it seems like they would enjoy seeing the live show.  I should also mention that AJ tends to turn up the volume so high the neighbors can hear the strains of "Do the monkey!  Oo-oo-ah-ah oo-oo-ah-ah, Do the monkey!"  Very loud music doesn't seem to bother them, at least here at home.

Another thing to consider though, is that the show is at 7 o'clock at night.  It will go well past bedtime, and nighttime in general is not their best time of day.  I don't know yet if they will do a matinee.  So far both The Wiggles website and the site for the Historic State Theatre just list the 7 o'clock show.

So I don't know yet what to do.  Tickets go on sale next week, so I have a few days to think about it.

I'm open to suggestions.  What do you think?  Should we, or shouldn't we?

Did I Ever Tell You About the Time We Met The Wiggles?

And saw them live on stage?  No?  It was two years ago this week.  Here's how it went.

I found out The Wiggles were going to be in town and being momma to their two biggest fans, I couldn't resist getting tickets.  I knew, though, that sitting in a crowded auditorium full of screaming Wiggles fans was in no way going to work with my crew.  A crowd of five people is often too much for them.  They'd scream, alright, it just wouldn't be screams of joy and happiness.

So I emailed both the Target Center, who was hosting the concert, and the Wiggles themselves.  The Target Center emailed me back and very generously offered me tickets to sit in a suite with the kids, where we could go in the back lounge area and shut ourselves away from the excitement and noise, if need be.  We could have up to 10 tickets, so our cousins who were almost as big fans as we were, could come too!  I was so grateful to them.  The kids tramped all around the suite in their new Wiggles t-shirts.

But The Wiggles.  Now they offered something really really amazing.  They invited us to come to a "meet & greet" before the show, where the kids could actually meet The Wiggles in person!  They were so excited!

Oh alright, fine!  The truth is, Mark and I were very excited.  Aliza was very excited.  The boys ... well we hoped that they'd at least tolerate it.  We hoped that somehow they'd temporarily overcome their anxieties and magically see this for the fun and amazing opportunity it was, and enjoy it.

They didn't.

(yeah, Anthony wasn't able to make it to the meet & greet.  Something about his having an injury and having to visit the chiropractor before the show.....whatever.  Can't believe we didn't get to meet Anthony.  We were bummed.)

So meeting the Wiggles was utter torture for them.  The rest of us were quite star struck.

Then we went up to our suite and waited for the show. And waited. And waited. And waited.

Problem was, the meet & greet was three hours before showtime.  Which means by the time the show started, we'd been in a strange place full of strange people and sounds and smells and textures, for hours.  The boys were wildly overstimulated. 

The concert began, and as I suspected, the boys had to watch it from the suite, behind closed glass doors.  That was okay though, they scampered around and did seem to stand in front of the doors to watch when they heard a familiar song.

We made it through the first couple of songs before AJ threw up just a little bit.  I cleaned him up and thought, okay, we got that out of the way, they will be okay now, right?

Somewhere around the fifth song he threw up again, a lot.  On me.

I had changes of clothes along for everyone except me.  And I didn't fit into a 3T at the time.

There wasn't much else to do but leave.  I left Mark and Aliza and their cousins there and brought the boys home.  In the car the boys and I sort of changed places.  They were calm and relaxed, now that they knew they were going home.  I was fairly upset. All I wanted was to bring my twin 3-year-olds to a Wiggles concert and watch them be in awe and dance and sing, like other people's kids.  I wanted them to be even more excited about the Wiggles in person than they are at home.  I wanted them to understand it all.

Hindsight, as we all know, is brilliant.  I know now, they weren't ready -- they weren't mature enough (or in control of their anxieties enough) to handle an experience as intense as a live concert, even one for children.  I also know, had we skipped the meet & greet and ducked in there just in time for the concert, I probably could have gotten them through most of the show.  It was a long, scary day for them.  It was a learning experience for me.