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Interview Articles - Norman Foote

Norman Foote - Canadian Children’s Entertainer

Norman Foote, Canadian children’s entertainer not only has children laughing, he has symphonies laughing. Norman Foote is in demand. He was packing his bags ready to fly to a US city when this interview was conducted for the Vancouver Island Symphony’s “Super Kids Special”.

Something’s a Foote

Norman Foote

Something’s a Foote! And it’s calling all sizes, big and small, to walk into the Port Theatre on Saturday, Jan. 25th at 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. as the Vancouver Island Symphony, along with the Vancouver Island Children’s Festival, presents it’s Super Kids Special with entertainer Norman Foote.

All foot sizes will be whisked away by toe-tapping melodies, comedic stories and hilarious props down a light-hearted musical Foote path.

Foote jokes? There are many. “Well that’s what happens when you have a name like Norman Mervin Barrington-Foote?” replied Foote in a recent interview. And Foote jokes have been with him all his life. Even his first garage-band with young friend Rory Woods was called Wood ’n Foote.

Norman Foote likes to play with words, and music. “The sky’s the limit with this kind of entertainment,” he explained. “Unlike regular grown-up music you can write about an inanimate object that comes to life and fictitious characters that are so out of this world that folks have to open up their imagination.”

Norman Foote’s first guitar

That’s Foote himself - using imagination - like when he first played a guitar at age 11. “I was brought up on a small farm in Whonnock near Haney. I had a friend across the field and his mum had a guitar. We fooled around with it - I would do the fret board and he would do the strings. I was fascinated by it. That Christmas there it was, this finely crafted guitar from Simpson Sears with the strings two inches off the fret board.”

The family moved to Squamish when he was 12 and he started guitar lessons. By then he already knew that he wanted to be an entertainer. “It was my total focus to be a songwriter and a performer, but I didn’t know what kind.”
As a teen he continued with garage-bands and from the age of 21 had a children’s puppet show while writing music for adults. It wasn’t until his 30s that things started falling together. “I finally put out a children’s record of songs and as soon as I did that I got picked up by Disney records.”

“One Thousand Pennies”

Since then Foote has created six CD’s, of which the most recent, “One Thousand Pennies” has received the 2002 NAPPA Gold Award and the 2002 West Coast Music Award, to name but two honours.

Norman Foote - family man

“It’s funny where we all end up,” continued Foote, parent of four children with two grand children. “Other than being with my family, which is my number one passion, my favourite thing to do is song writing, and when I get on stage it’s about getting people to laugh and sing. I do like to make people laugh.”

Children’s Music with a symphony orchestra

Foote now has symphonies laughing. “It’s doesn’t get any better than this,” he explained. “One of the best things I did was create the symphony show - I had to get a second mortgage on my house to do it - but when you have 70-plus musicians on the stage and they are playing your tunes it’s incredible. We have a piece called the ‘Laughing Orchestra’ where different sections of the orchestra are introduced musically - and the instruments laugh.”

Helping Foote with his arrangements and performances is Bill Sample, one of Vancouver’s leading musicians, who will be joining him on stage at the grand piano. And to the right side of the stage will be John Forrest on his double bass. Forrest, a member of the VIS since its inception and known in Nanaimo for his work with youth, co-wrote with Foote for his first two CDs with Disney.

Along with the VIS, under the baton of Maestro Marlin Wolfe, Foote will also be joined by many 12-year-olds as the Ladysmith Middle School Choir gets put through its paces. “I’ve had a lot of fun working with choir groups when they join the show. I’ve sort of redefined choirs - with funny actions, sound effects - and improvization.”

And how many of those 12-year-olds (and 13 and 14) might already be dreaming about being a musician?

Believe in yourself

“It’s about believing in yourself. It’s all about saying you can do it,” added Foote who lives by those words. With a family, CDs, videos, his own record company and performances around North American he feels very fortunate. And he still has dreams - to continue putting everything into the show that he is doing at the moment, and believing in what he does.

More information on his music, CDs and tours is available from Norman Foote.
“Super Kids Specials” information can be obtained through the Vancouver Island Symphony.

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