(upbeat music) (Tango barking) - (laughs) It's not time to play, silly.

- Looks like Tango wants to play hide and seek, Elmo's daddy.

- Well, she sure does.

Only I need to give her a walk before her checkup.

- Ooh.

Can I help you and take Tango for a walk?

- Well, that would be very helpful.

Thank you.

I know Elmo is busy in Hooper's for Jobs Day.

- Oh, I'd love it.

I was just talking about how much I love animals.

Want to finish your walk with me, Tango?

(Tango barking) - Oh, I'd say that's a yes.

- You were just watching a clip from Sesame Street.

That was Gabrielle, and the puppeteer behind Gabrielle is with us right now.

Megan Piphus Peace, who is a puppeteer on Sesame Street making history over on Sesame Street.

Great to have you with us, Megan.

- Thank you for having me.

So excited to talk with you.

- Well, it's exciting to have you.

Let me ask you this.

You are the first African American woman puppeteer to perform on Sesame Street.

Give us your version of that journey, not only why it took so long, but more importantly for you, some of the barriers that you had to overcome.

Please.

- Yeah.

So puppetry has been a huge part of my entire life.

I grew up watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers and Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop.

Shari Lewis was so good that I actually didn't know that she was a ventriloquist until I became a ventriloquist myself.

And I appreciated and adored her even more after I learned the art of puppetry.

But I always lived in a very imaginative and creative world.

So puppetry spoke to me in being able to make something that's inanimate come to life.

So I started puppetry and ventriloquism when I was 10 years old.

And I started off by performing for classmates at school.

I was trying to make new friends and I thought being a ventriloquist would help me do that.

Now that I'm older, I realize that's probably not how most people make friends but my parents were very supportive and helped me find a puppet.

And I started performing at school and it gave me so much joy to make other children laugh and smile.

So it became my passion and I started performing at other schools, at my church, other churches, and it really became my outlet to opening up as a person and the journey to Sesame Street.

So I was first inspired to become a puppeteer and ventriloquist when I was introduced to female puppeteers and ventriloquists.

So seeing myself represented on stage made me wanna become a ventriloquist.

So now that I'm with Sesame Street, I know that my presence there as an African American woman is gonna inspire other young ladies and boys to pursue very unique career paths.

- But you know, Megan, real quick on this my notes, our producers who did a great job on this shared with notes with me that tell me that you auditioned 2017.

Okay.

Talk about grit, talk about persistence, perseverance and dealing with rejection or even being ignored.

You don't get a call back till 2020?

- That's right.

I've had a lot of setbacks in my career.

I've been, you know, performing since I was 10 years old and always waiting for, you know, the great opportunity of being able to be on a television show.

And that opportunity didn't happen until 2020 when I was I think 28 years old.

And I had already been performing for 18 years.

I went on America's Got Talent when I was in college and hoped that that would lead to a television show role, but it didn't.

I didn't give up.

And Howard Stern was a judge at the time.

- And what did Howard Stern say?

- So I got all yeses from the judges in the first round.

The second round I was eliminated and I was very disappointed.

I thought, you know, my career is over.

My ventriloquist days is over.

I'm gonna need to be like, an attorney or something.

And Howard Stern, he said, you know I think you're a wonderful ventriloquist but I get nos all the time.

People still tell me, no, failure is not a no.

Sometimes it's a step to where you're meant to be.

And so I took that as an impetus to, to keep going.

I worked in real estate for seven years but never gave up on my dream of still doing puppetry.

I would perform on the weekends.

I'd get up early in the morning to write and to practice.

I connected with the Sesame Street puppeteer through Instagram in 2018 and just told her, you know, how much I loved her work.

She's the performer of Abby Cadabby.

Her name is Leslie Carrara-Rudolph.

- And she- - We know that character.

Is that the first, I don't wanna get this wrong, is that the first puppet on Sesame Street with autism?

- No.

Abby Cadabby is a fairy.

So you're thinking of Julia.

Julia has that.

- Julia, we did something.

I apologize.

My bad.

- No, that's okay.

Yeah.

So I've always loved Abby Cadabby.

I've watched Sesame Street as an adult and so that's how I knew the character because she wasn't around when I was younger but I told her how much I loved her character and she responded to me and said, hey, I checked out your work.

Would you mind if I send some of your materials to the producers at Sesame Street?

I said, of course.

And I wasn't expecting to hear anything back.

But in March of 2020 when I least expected to receive any opportunities in the entertainment... - The pandemic exploding.

- With the pandemic.

Yeah, I had a toddler son, I was six weeks pregnant, so it was not the the best of circumstances, but two puppet captains, Matt Vogel performer of Big Bird, and Marty Robinson performed Snuffleupagus.

They messaged me and said, hey, because production stopped because the pandemic, we've had time to go through old submissions and saw your tape.

Would you be willing to give us a try?

So my patience and persistence and not giving up definitely paid off in that moment.

- Real quick, Gabrielle on Sesame Street, describe her character as a Muppet.

- Gabrielle is a six year old black girl Muppet who loves her family and her Sesame Street family.

She has a great sense of herself.

She loves to sing and dance and play with her friends, Elmo and Abby Cadabby.

And she has something special coming up where she will explore nature with her friends.

- Is it fair or unfair of me, Megan, to ask you... can- her voice, is it fair of me to ask?

- Oh yeah!

I can be Gabrielle!

Hello!

(giggles) - On and off.

Just turn it on and off.

- Yeah, I can turn it on and off.

I do it all day long on Sesame Street.

- I'm a student of leadership, try to understand it, and I always tell folks make mistakes at it all the time, and try to learn from it.

But one of the things I've learned is that the best leaders have tremendous grit and tenacity and strength.

Where do those traits come from in you?

- Oh man.

So I actually, I guess I do have a puppet with me.

- Go ahead.

- My tenacity and grit comes from the Lord.

(laughs) - And that's where it comes from.

- Yeah.

Comes from the Lord.

You know, it comes from up above.

I do a lot of prayin' and meditation.

- From the beginning, you were exposed to the church.

- Yeah, that's right.

So I grew up, you know, with a very strong community... - Where?

- I grew up in Lincoln Heights and I grew up around a community of just people who had strong faith and values.

And so I just learned by proximity to the people that I grew up around.

- Wait, you said that town as if I know.

Where is that?

- It's in Cincinnati.

- Okay, come on- - Yeah.

- Listen, I'm from New Jersey.

We're very provincial around here.

So I'm thinking, is there a town called Lincoln Heights, is it?

- Yeah, Lincoln Heights in Cincinnati.

- Real quick before I let you go, I'm curious about this.

Growing up you're 10 years old, you've got this talent, you've got this extraordinary talent.

You said your family was supportive.

Siblings around?

- Yeah, I have an older sister, she's six years older.

- Everyone was supportive of you.

- So my sister, I'll be honest, she was a little creeped out.

(Megan and Steve laugh) And I was not the nicest in knowing that she had a fear of my puppet.

So there would be times, if she had her door closed, I would sit up my ventriloquist doll, who probably was a good four feet tall, and I would sit him up on a stool and just put him in front of the door so that when she opened the door he would just be staring at her.

- That is awesome.

Listen, we are glad that you have the grit, the tenacity, the faith, everything that you need to, and the toughness to stay in the game and to be the puppeteer behind Gabrielle.

Everyone can find Gabrielle and her friends, I'm reading obviously off the script over here, on Sesame Street episodes.

HBO Max, that's where it's streaming.

I wanna get that right Megan, right?

- That's right.

HBO Max and PBS Kids.

- And you are a pleasure to work with, and to all the folks in Cincinnati outside Ohio, they're proud of you.

What's your town again?

- Lincoln Heights.

- Yeah.

Just want a shout out for Lincoln Heights.

That is Megan Piphus Peace.

Wish you all the best.

Thank you very much.

- Thank you.

So nice talking to you.

- Same here.

Thanks folks.

I'm Steve Adubado.

That's Megan.

We'll see you next time.

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