The "Yo Gabba Gabba!" gang. Christian Jacobs (left), Biz Markie (center), Scott Schultz (right) with DJ Lance Rock and the YGG! Gang.As a former child actor, indie rock musician and kids’ show creator, it can be argued that Christian Jacobs is a man who has never truly grown up.
He has channeled that love of childhood into his Nickelodeon show, “Yo Gabba Gabba!,” which he co-created, co-writes and co-directs. The show follows DJ Lance Rock and his adventures with colorful toys Muno, Foofa, Brobee, Toodee and Plex.
The show is coming to Hershey Theatre on Sunday for a special live performance.
“It’s a big party for kids,” Jacobs said.
Although the event is not just for children, Jacobs kept the interests of parents at heart in designing it.
“Most preschool shows you go to live, it’s like a play or a narrative. As a father of four myself, we’ve been to plenty of them, but everything in this show is to counter the feelings I had on the other shows, stuff like ‘This is boring,’ ‘Why am I spending all my money on this?’ or ‘This is not fun,’¤” he said. “We wanted the parents to have as much fun as the kids.
Taking the standard preschool show and turning it on its head is exactly what “Yo Gabba Gabba!” is about.
Before coming up with the show, Jacobs and fellow “Yo Gabba Gabba!” creator Scott Schultz were just two fathers with preschool-age kids.
“We were watching the shows our kids were watching, and we noticed there was a little something missing for our generation of parents in kids programming,” Jacobs said. “We grew up watching ‘Sesame Street,’ and it just felt like there wasn’t anything out there like that for kids.”
One of the main faults in kids programming as far as Jacobs and Schultz were concerned was music.
“The musical landscape in children’s programming was pretty bleak,” he said. “It seemed like it could use a shot in the arm, so to speak.”
To that end, “Yo Gabba Gabba” features such indie-rock bands as The Aquabats, of which Jacobs is the lead singer. The list of musical guests rolls out like a college student’s playlist: MGMT, The Shins, The Ting Tings, Jimmy Eat World, Hot Hot Heat, Chromeo, Black Kids, The Killers, Band of Horses and more.
The show’s structure is as spontaneous as the show itself.
Take the “Biz’s Beat of the Day” segment, for example.
"Scott was one day just like, we need Biz Markie on the show," Jacobs said. "He just said let's have Biz come in and teach kids a dance, which is where the 'Dancey Dance' was born."
But Biz’s dance just wasn’t exactly what they were looking for.
“It didn’t feel as magical as we wanted it to be,” Jacobs said.
Biz mentioned that he would like to teach kids how to beat box, and suddenly a light bulb went on. They grabbed a camera, a blue screen and shot it right then and there.
“A lot of things like that seem to just organically happen. It all comes from this feeling from our generation to give back to the kids,” Jacobs said. “We don’t feel like we have to tie into anything structurally hard-core that we couldn’t change suddenly for the better.”
“I think that’s another thing that makes our show different from the other preschool shows,” he said. “We try to switch the formula a little bit.”
“I think it’s good to have that, because that’s what you can expect from life: the unexpected. That’s really what we’re teaching kids about life, in a weird away, what to expect,” he said. “If we can teach them to expect the unexpected, that’s great.”
IF YOU GO
WHEN: 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Hershey Theatre, 15 E. Caracas Ave., Derry Twp.
COST: $30.75, $36.75, $45.75
INFO: www.hersheytheatre.com; 717-534-3405