Juno-winning children’s performer Norman Foote was in the Humboldt Collegiate Institute to put on a show for kids and parents alike on Nov. 15.
The stop in Humboldt was sponsored by Arts Humboldt and Potash Corp. and was the first step of a tour that will take him to Prince Albert, Moosomin, Estevan, Leader, and Kindersley, among others.
Norman Foote is originally from Vancouver and has been nominated for a Juno four times, winning for his last album in 2010. He has written and recorded songs for Disney Records, Shari Lewis, CBC, and others, as has worked with a variety of choirs and symphonies in addition to his children’s work.
“I never really decided to be a children’s entertainer,” he said. “I just kind of fell into it.”
He always wanted to be an entertainer, and then he was introduced to children’s music and liked it.
Foote relied a lot on audience participation, and while it took the kids in the audience a bit of time to get into the performance, eventually they got into it.
“I think it went well. I thought I had a lot of fun,” Foote said. “I had to warm them up a little bit and eventually I kicked it into gear and we really rocked it out.”
He called a little girl onstage to sing for him and she performed a rousing rendition of Let it Go from Frozen. She also guessed the 60-year-old performer’s age at 28.
“That was funny,” he said. “I didn’t correct her.”
He added that when he asks the same question he’s gotten any number between 20 and 100.
He also brought someone else on stage to wear a giant puppet head.
But it wasn’t just kids who were asked to participate: two dads were really good sports about wearing flower headpieces and dancing onstage.
The performance came about because members of Arts Humboldt realized there hadn’t been a standalone children’s entertainment performance for awhile. There have been performances at the Summer Sizzler and such, but never a single show.
“We hope the kids gain an appreciation for live performance,” said Brian Grest of Arts Humboldt. “Maybe they themselves will someday be up there onstage.”
Though he said that the attendance didn’t meet expectations, they had to try.
“Because it’s not very commonplace to have children’s performers in town, we had to do it, set a precedent, and hopefully next time we do something similar, people will embrace it a little more,” Grest said.
Arts Humboldt will have a meeting to evaluate how the event went to see if something similar could be planned in the future.
For Foote, the participation isn’t the most important part.
“I like to hear them laughing … you have to have the heart for it,” he said. “You can’t just think you’re going to learn a lot of kids songs and that’s it. You have to find material that they will participate in and as a grown man, that you can sing and you feel good about it.”
