Mo Willems (Mo Willems Workshop) and Justin talk about his early career in comedy, what it was like to work for Sesame Street, how he interacts with his young and enthusiastic fans and why he loves to see kids creating their own stories based on his characters. Listen to Life is Short on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ on the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/justin-long now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
We loved reading books when we were kids.
We loved having books read to us.
And there were names that I can remember from my childhood that are still exciting to say out loud, like Maurice Sendak and Arnold Lobel and Roald Dahl.
And every night I got to hang out with them and hear the adventures of, you know, that William Stig created.
And there was something just really magical about the people that were responsible for that.
Stephen Kellogg, one day at our local public library, Stephen Kellogg, he wrote the Mysterious Tadpole, among other things.
He was going to be speaking at our library and reading one of his books.
And I couldn't believe that a human being was responsible for that.
I knew his name so well because every night we would look at these books and we would see the.
But I just couldn't believe that real people, adults, had that kind of an imagination and they could create stories that I was just swept away by every night as told brilliantly by our mother.
It just seemed like Frog and Toad.
It just seemed like they were real creatures having real adventures.
I think when I was that age, I couldn't separate that.
It just seemed like I had a window into their lives together.
And it was.
I didn't really have a concept of someone creating that out of their imagination.
You both have to not have the concept that a human being created characters that you loved.
I know.
I didn't either.
It just happened and it was like I just figured one of them wrote it down, like Frog or Toad just kind of chronicled what they were going through.