It’s a long way from trash cans to quarks. About two minutes long, in fact.
Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke, a rollicking musical duo, roared through their semi-scientific song in record time on Wednesday to conclude the annual Arts in Education Showcase by the Arts Council of the Morris Area.
Angling to get hired for school assemblies, 30 acts paraded before area educators and parent groups over two days at Drew University in Madison.
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“I’m very pleased,” said the Arts Council’s Barbara Reuther, looking none the worse for wear.
Storyteller Queen Nur of Sweet Potato Pie and Such brought along such favorites as “Giraffes Can’t Dance” and “Anansi the Greedy Spider.” Kinobe performed songs and stories of Uganda. The Princeton Tigertones sang a capella numbers.
Gina Moran of the Morristown-based Arts Council went home with a colorful dragon-slaying motif on her face, courtesy of Transformation Storytelling.
Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke became children’s entertainers almost by accident.
Two decades ago they were playing the singer-songwriter circuit. A few years later, Key got in the habit of taking his guitar to daughter Ilona’s preschool.
During his show-and-tell performances, he discovered that kids preferred his original songs to “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”
The duo experimented and knew they were onto something.
“We get a more natural reaction from children. They’re very enthusiastic,” said Mr. (Richard) Clarke, a native of Birmingham, England, who resides in New York.
“Kids are less inhibited,” Key agreed.
At a recent performance on Kids Place Live at SiriusXM Satellite Radio, young fans danced up a storm even though glass walls separated them from the singers, said Ilona, now an eighth-grader in Pittstown.
Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke can’t quite quit their day jobs. (Key is an illustrator, Mr. Clarke teaches high school science.) But they enjoy playing for pint-sized fans with king-sized energy.
And the whole thing has come full circle: Ilona now is part of the act, running the multimedia portion of the show.
