My childhood image of Steve slowly melted as I listened to this.

October 4, 2010 9:20 PM

Steve Burns of Blue's Clues fame goes on-stage and talks about being Fameish.
posted by Taft (37 comments total)

Groupies that would make Skwisgaar from Deathklok blush. Amirite?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:33 PM on October 4, 2010 [3 favorites]

MAAAAAAAIL TIME!
posted by GuyZero at 9:41 PM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

That was pretty charming! Glad to hear he's doing well these days.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:50 PM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

Sing the mail song for me Steve. Sing it.
posted by andendau at 10:00 PM on October 4, 2010 [3 favorites]

His album Songs For Dustmites is charming and fun. Possibly the only album I've ever heard with a song about string theory.
posted by hippybear at 10:04 PM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

OK, this is pretty awesome.
posted by GuyZero at 10:15 PM on October 4, 2010

I suppose Dora and Diego and Blue's Clues have a place in the grand scheme of things, but I was so goddamn happy when my son outgrew those boring, inoffensive and utterly unentertaining shows in favour of Spongebob Squarepants and Clone Wars.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:15 PM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

This is pretty awesome though, thanks for posting.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:29 PM on October 4, 2010

steve burns shows up unannounced at a kid's blue's clues party. ever since i heard that story i thought he was just the raddest dude in the whole world.
posted by nadawi at 10:42 PM on October 4, 2010 [4 favorites]

nadawi: that's a small part of the story he tells in the link!
posted by zsazsa at 10:51 PM on October 4, 2010

I brought my son to see a musical stage adaption of Blue's Clues back when it was still a thing, it was pretty fantastic. They did this one skit about the planets of our solar system with actors dressed as the planets and the stage darkened to be the universe. Good stuff.
posted by cj_ at 11:04 PM on October 4, 2010

hippybear, I totally agree about Songs for Dustmites (my very favorite track is "A Reason"--but the whole thing is lovely)! I went to see him play live when that album came out (not even because I was a Blue's Clues fan or anything, but because a friend had gotten me to listen to a track from the record and then told me it was Steve from Blue's Clues and I was like WTF REALLY? BUT THIS IS SO AWESOME), and he was great and funny, and really earnest about playing music, and he said some swear words. I froke out.
posted by so_gracefully at 11:33 PM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

Came in here to be all 'isn't Songs For Dustmites just wonderful?' and found the love in full effect. so_gracefully, I did that exact thing to just about everyone I knew back when it came out. I'll just link my favorite track instead. Troposphere
posted by carsonb at 11:42 PM on October 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm also a huge fan of Songs for Dustmites and Steve's webpage is also pretty awesome (seteveswebpage.com). Hmm. Or I should say was as it currently appears to be suspended (hopefully for being too popular?). Anyone who makes male pattern baldness both funny and sexy is all right in my book.
posted by shelleycat at 11:58 PM on October 4, 2010

Now I've listened to the podcast Steve has jumped right to the top of my list of favourite people.
posted by shelleycat at 1:49 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

My Mom was still teaching preschool at the time BLUE'S CLUES was still on, and she thought that it was the best of the lot when it came to children's programming. She even decided to use "clues" in her "handy-dandy notebook" to gently break it to the kids at the school that she was retiring.

But I always got the sense that Steve had a good ear for his "audience" -- both of them. He was uncannily good at relating to kids, but a witty dude around adults. I always respected that.

...Someone on my Facebook list now has Steve on HIS friendslist because Steve was just in a show he wrote. And Steve's comments have been pretty dang cool.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:27 AM on October 5, 2010

Ha! This is a great post. I had heard that Steve was a headbanger after his stint on BC.

My son LOVED "Blues Clues". I remember watching the Macy's T-giving Parade on TV one year (in the heyday of Steve) and seeing the BC float with Steve sitting in the red chair. It was about 10 degrees out that day and the camera caught a shot of Steve sitting huddled over in just jeans and The Shirt. The look on his face was so pissy and spoke of, "WTF am I doing here? It's 10 fucking degrees out!".

Made me sad and cracked me up all at the same time.
posted by sundrop at 4:29 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

What an awesome storyteller. And, uh ... yeah. Totally had the hots for Steve when my kids were wee ones. Him and Major Bedhead from Big Comfy Couch.
posted by drlith at 4:39 AM on October 5, 2010

"Is that true? Am I saying the right things to all those kids? A tremendous responsibility."

Great to hear him taking his life and work seriously but keeping a sense of humor as well.
posted by acheekymonkey at 5:36 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is this the place where I admit that I watched Blue's Clues in college? Sober? And that I was Steve for Halloween my sophomore year? And that a bunch of kids pointed at me walking down the street and yelled, "Blues Clues!"? Because all of those things might have happened.

Also I thought this post was about Steve being Flemish, and I was a little confused.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:05 AM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Just starting to listen to this, so no judgement on Steve, yet, but I have to say that "The Moth" is a treasure.
posted by hwestiii at 6:42 AM on October 5, 2010

This weekend I was cleaning out a box of junk from 2002 and found several sheets of Blue's Clues stickers. I maaaaayyy have squealed. And I maaaaayyy have a Mailbox sticker on the back of my iPhone now.

PS. Steve I am very sorry I accidentally kicked you in the back of the knee when you played the Mercury Lounge in 2004.

PPS. Joe sucks.
posted by elsietheeel at 6:53 AM on October 5, 2010

That was an amazing story to listen to, and the make-a-wish at the end was suddenly and unexpectedly heartbreaking.

Steve always rocked. Death to Joe!
posted by WinnipegDragon at 6:55 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

To this day I still sing the mail song to myself when the mail comes. Actually, some great person scribbled it in sharpie on a mailbox near my house.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:53 AM on October 5, 2010

"AWWWWWW...."

**BITCHSLAP**
posted by humboldt32 at 10:21 AM on October 5, 2010

There was a time when my now-10 year old dressed as Steve every single day. He still prefers khakis and striped polo shirts!
posted by Biblio at 10:21 AM on October 5, 2010

Wow, the part at the end about the Make a Wish Foundation is going to leave me choked up all day.
posted by BenNewman at 11:03 AM on October 5, 2010

I always imagined that Steve had a roaring, filthy, kinky private life. Like, a "I'm going to need a mop, a tarp, and two buckets of sanitizer" kinky. It just made watching Blues Clues a lot more entertaining. I think I'm going to cling to that idea like the rural vote clings to guns & religion.

HAMBURGER, btw
posted by LMGM at 11:22 AM on October 5, 2010

A close friend met Steve when he was touring for Songs For Dustmites and somehow ended up with his number in her phone. When she pocket dials it's usually either me or him: "Oh hey... What? Crap... Well, thank god I didn't pocket dial Steve again, I really need to take that dude's number out of my phone talk about awkward conversations..."
posted by togdon at 12:34 PM on October 5, 2010

Hey now. No Joe hate. I actually know Joe a little bit and he's one of the nicest guys you could meet. Talented actor, too.
posted by papercake at 1:02 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Where's the video that goes with this?
posted by Caviar at 1:58 PM on October 5, 2010

Yeah, you've gotta feel sorry for Joe - "Here's a job for you. The good news is, you'll be seen by millions of people, children and their parents. You'll do your part to start the educational process for a generation. And you're going to have a lot of fun.

The bad news is that of the millions of people who see you, NO ONE will think you compare to the last guy who did it."
posted by Golfhaus at 6:27 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

My kid was in the target demo when Steve was hosting, and I found that Blue's Clues videos were one of the rarer shows that I could be as entertained as my kid was. (I also liked when George Carlin was the conductor in Thomas the Tank Engine) Steve was an excellent "interact through the screen" actor, and Blue's Clues was genuinely fun. I mean, talking soap and salt and pepper shakers? It reminded me of South Park, too, in the most innocent way possible.

I remember hearing about his retirement and subsequent music, and smiled and left it there.

This was an excellent way to visit an old virtual friend. He's a good storyteller. And that story swerved around pretty well. Thanks for this!

but yeah i cringed when he said "froke," and then repeated it.
posted by not_on_display at 7:02 PM on October 5, 2010

That was dramatic and funny. Really enjoyed it.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 7:02 AM on October 6, 2010

This link doesn't work for me. :(
posted by eatdonuts at 11:16 AM on October 6, 2010

I like all the nerds inside his head
posted by metafus at 2:31 PM on October 6, 2010

I don't get the hate or the comparisons. I thought the transition from Steve to Joe was great. They're both great.
posted by rahnefan at 3:19 PM on October 7, 2010