Tag Archives: fun kids shows

“Al & Kai’s Faboo News” Series Premieres Tomorrow!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Tim Austin & I have been working incredibly hard on a new TV series for kids which premieres tomorrow.

As some of you already know, it is a positive news and entertainment show with puppets. Think The Muppets meets Newsround. We have also been inspired by some of the TV shows we used to watch as kids such as Rainbow.

It is an antidote to the majority of news in the mainstream press which is depressing and overwhelming to say the least. The things we watch, read and listen to have a profound effect on our mental health and our experience of day to day life. This show is something positive, silly and fun to sit down and watch with the kids, or on your own or let the kids watch on their own while you grab a sit down and a cup of tea or get a bit of housework done with the knowledge that it is full of wholesome, uplifting stuff.

The series is starting tomorrow and there will be a new episode every Saturday for the next 12 weeks (with a break for Christmas).

We have the next 3 episodes already made and we are looking forward to creating the rest for everyone to enjoy.

We would love for you to watch and share the show with all your friends and anyone you think might be interested.

There is also the opportunity for you to get involved and BE IN THE SHOW by getting in touch with your own Faboo News. Just click “Faboo Yous” on the website to get in touch.

You can watch the show at faboonews.com or on the Youtube channel. Please like, subscribe and follow our socials to find out when new episodes and content are available.

Each episode has a theme and the first three coming up are “Transport”, “Halloween” and “Peace & Quiet”.

As well as puppeteering Kai, I have been designing and making costumes, props and a couple of sock puppet characters, “Tony” and “Ped”; who are socks that live in Al and Kai’s basement and act as the Faboo News production crew.

Tim came up the initial design for these and wanted them to be very mobile and expressive like Kermit the frog, so was at first not keen to let me add a mouthplate. However, he soon found that it was very difficult to operate them without and agreed to let me add one afterwards, (the eagle eyed will spot which episode the mouth-plates were installed and which they were not 🤣).

I am also appearing in the show as “Mom” (Al and Kai’s mum) and Tim (who came up with the entire concept for the show and is currently doing, puppeteering, filming, editing and promo.) is playing “Dad” (Al and Kai’s dad). It’s just your conventional family group (human mum and dad with Anteater and Capybara children/siblings).

“Little Miss Seamstress” did an excellent job of customising Dad’s jacket for us. Check out her Facebook Page HERE.

Mom (amongst other things) will be doing a “Mom makes” segment where Mom will be doing various fun and simple crafts for kids to make (some may require a bit of help from adult helpers depending on the craft and the kids’ age/ability level). We aim to use materials you can easily get hold of and are inexpensive (reusing/recycling as much as possible).

While Tim came up with the initial design for the Al & Kai puppets, the excellent Joe Peek made the puppets in consultation with Tim and we are very happy with how they came out.

The Patreon page is now live and you can access it from faboonews.com. Patrons will be able to access all the episodes a week early and also access exclusive behind the scenes content and other goodies. So, check it out to see how you can support us and what fun rewards you can get!

We are currently putting this together on a shoestring budget and we hope that if you like the show you will help us to make it more sustainable going forward (e.g. paying ourselves properly and being able to afford to bring in others to help with editing etc. so Tim doesn’t have a nervous breakdown trying to do everything himself).

So to recap, things you can do to support us are:

  1. Watch the show!
  2. Tell all your friends and family about it.
  3. Follow us on the social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and of course Youtube) links are on the website HERE
  4. Become a Patron (access the Patreon page from faboonews.com)
  5. Send us your Faboo News and BE ON THE SHOW!👍😍

(A big thank-you to everyone who already supported our crowdfunder for the show 😊).

See Rough Magic Theatre’s Crown Jewels!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Hi folks, here’s the latest installment of stuff from our upcoming Glastonbury Festival Show “Clueless & Wuffles – The Case of the Missing Jewels!”

Obviously as the plot involves the theft of the Crown Jewels we needed something to represent the Crown Jewels.  I had a look at things that were available to buy but wasn’t impressed with the quality or price of anything I saw on a certain well known internet auction site.

So instead I scoured the local pound shops to see what they had in the way of sparkly plastic tat for girly little girls and also sparkly plastic tat for girly hen nights.  The magnificent effigies of the crown you see in the pictures are lovingly glue-gunned together from 3 headband/ tiaras, 12 tiara hair combs and a selection of delightfully gaudy and tacky party favour necklaces.  The orb is a mini disco mirror ball with various additions of beads/ribbons etc. that have been hoarded for many years in the hopes of them coming in useful.  I am a great hoarder of things which makes our house rather untidy, but you always find you need something just after you’ve decided to throw it out!

The sceptre is exactly as purchased though was described as a “fairy wand” I think.  I imagine the real Crown Jewels do not have tiny pictures of Disney characters painted on but who knows?

I am not a girly person hence my pouring scorn on pink glittery plasticky tat.  However, I have to confess that on bringing my sparkly haul back to the house I could not resist bedecking myself in sparkly plastic grandeur and indulging in some dancing about and giggling.  I would never have expected to feel such a sense of innocent delight at this girly dressing up ritual.  It would be amusing if the Queen did this occasionally with the real Crown Jewels but I suspect dressing up is too mundane a procedure for her.

The portrait of the Queen in the background of one of the pictures was drawn by me onto a flip-chart pad that is going to be one of the major props for the show.  I used a photo from the Queen’s Coronation day as the basis.

Have a lovely Easter everyone and I’ll be back with more news soon!