OK, let's you and I have a personal share, readers. Here goes:

I've always had a hankering for puppets. As a small kid, I'd put on elaborate puppet shows for my family. As an adult, I own 'The Muppets Take Manhattan' on DVD. Hell, I've always thought Guy Smiley was cute.

So mixing my pleasant passion for puppets with my still-high Tony Award fever, I paid a visit to 'Avenue Q,' the 2004 Tony winner for Best Musical. (Does the Q, by the way, stand for "quirky" or "queer"? Whatever.)

It was there where I sat down with one of the show's stars, Nicky (he's the upside-down green dude to your right) and his very talented handler and confidante, Christian Anderson.

You see, Nicky's roommate, Rod, is a puppet homosexual. And if that wasn't blasphemous enough, Rod has a same-puppet crush on Nicky, who's straight.

So I thought it might be interesting and fairly educational (I'm doing this all for you, readers) to ask a straight guy (um, puppet) what it's like to be the subject of a same-sex (er, puppet) crush. I mean, this very thing has happened to a lot of us, right? Um, anyone? Yoo-hoo!

Darn, I'm hearing crickets.

Well, OK fine ... it's happened to me. And with that, tons of questions ran through my mind:

- Did swishy Rod ever cause Nicky to "turn," maybe just a little, maybe just for an hour? (One can fantasize; Nicky's really cute in person.)

- Was Nicky supportive of his fey roomie and attend PFLAG meetings? (Um, that would be Puppets & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, people.)

- And what's it like, exactly, to have a dude's hand up his tush two hours a day, eight times a week?

Watch the video interview after the jump ...





Click To Play


Whew! Good times! And frankly, I think I have a new puppet crush; Guy Smiley's got nothin' on Nicky. (Pssst, Nicky: call me. I know you're straight and all, but, well, you know. And -- ahem -- I'm listed.)

To check out all things 'Avenue Q,' visit www.avenueq.com.

Video shot and edited by Mary C. Matthews. For more of Mary's work, check out www.videopancakes.com.