He’s no Mister Rogers, the king of children’s television show hosts. At least not yet. But then again, Steven Burns–that’s Steve to his diaper-clad and newly potty-trained fans–has starred in his own children’s show just since last September.
That’s when cable’s Nickelodeon debuted “Blue’s Clues” (weekdays, 8:30 and 11:30 a.m.). A live-action/animated preschool series, “Blue’s Clues” invites children to play along and solve the day’s puzzle, with encouragement from Steve and clues from his cartoon puppy, Blue. In just one season, Steve and Blue already have become beloved figures in scores of homes where preschoolers rule the remote.
The boyishly cute Burns, 23, seems honestly amazed at his new-found celebrity. After all, before heading to New York City to try the struggling actor routine, he studied acting at Pennsylvania’s Allentown College and performed in Shakespearean productions. Except for one “bit, bit, bit” part in a children’s theater production, he had virtually no experience acting for youngsters, he says. Single and the youngest of three children from small-town Pennsylvania, he also had little contact with young kids.
“I never expected anyone would pick me to do children’s television, but I’m glad they did. . . .,” says Burns, via phone from New York, where he is filming the second season of “Blue’s Clues.”
“It’s an interesting responsibility and privilege. It’s nice to walk around and have people stop you and say, `Aren’t you the guy with the dog? My kid loves you.’ “
Brown Johnson, senior vice president of Nick Jr., the channel’s preschool programming block, says Burns was a natural for the job, in part because he is so good at making an “eye-to-eye connection” with his audience via the television camera. “Steve has the ability of looking in the camera and making you feel like he’s talking just to you.”
Children find Burns appealing because he gets “down on their level,” asks for their help and never condescends, Johnson says.
“The kids call him `the big boy.’ He’s not a man to them. He’s the big boy, and he’s their friend.”
Burns’ acting technique is best described as Pee-Wee Herman Lite. With his wholesome green-striped rugby shirt, neatly pressed khakis and perfect diction, Burns lacks Herman’s avant-garde flair and goofy vocal intonations. But his high-energy antics, performed in a storybook-animated environment, hearken the dethroned children’s television star. In any given episode, Burns sticks his face right into the camera, dances the conga–sans the line–and shakes his behind.
Burns says there is “no Stanislavskian technique” to what he does and calls his style his own. Additionally, much of what appears spontaneous to viewers is not. “A lot of the silliness is very controlled,” he says. “It’s not all wild abandon. But the moments where it is are real fun. It’s fun to jump around and act like a little kid.”
Going from serious stage performer to children’s television show host has presented some challenges.
“The most notable difference is `the other actor factor,’ ” says Burns, who performs alone in front of a blue screen. The animated characters and backgrounds are added later.
“I have to imagine creatively what the other characters are doing and then react to what I’ve imagined. . . . Definitely it’s a strange experience, because I’m talking to myself, acting strangely in front of a crew. I’ve gotten over it, but the first few episodes, I felt awkward ranting to myself.”
Burns doesn’t mind that his audience has changed from serious theatergoers to apple juice swillers who can’t read or spell.
“Performing for 4-year-old kids is at least as difficult as performing for 40-year-old critics,” Burns says. “In some ways it’s more difficult. Kids know when you’re faking it. They’re a really tough audience.”
Despite his popularity with the preschool set–Steve even has one known dress-alike fan–Burns says kids never recognize him outside the studio. (Of course, Burns has yet to make an official public appearance.) When the show first started, he would approach youngsters and ask them if they watched and liked “Blue’s Clues.” If the answer was yes, “I’d say `I’m Steve.’ No one ever believed me–ever. So I stopped doing that,” he says, laughing.
Regardless of the low recognition factor, Steve still is much in demand. Burns’ father, an outplacement executive, and his mother, a desktop publisher, have “people calling them all of the time, and asking if I’ll do birthday parties,” Burns says. (For the record, Burns does not.)
