0:00

Here's something that amazes me about Raffi,

0:02

how easily he can hold the attention

0:04

of an auditorium full of kids bumping

0:09

up and down in the little red wagon,

0:11

bumping up and down. I keep thinking about

0:14

this one Raffi concert video, in particular,

0:16

whoa to be My Raffi

0:21

is physically jumping up and down

0:24

in his seat. The camera pans

0:26

up to the balcony to show a pair of kids

0:28

mimicking his movements. In

0:30

fact, the entire concert hall

0:32

of kids is bumping up and down in Unison's

0:36

Hey, this wagon is still busted.

0:40

The stick of the song is that the wagon

0:42

keeps breaking down. By

0:46

this point, the kids are losing their minds,

0:48

yelling out the names of tools Raffy could

0:51

use to fix the lagon. Listen

0:53

to those ideas. This place is full of mechanics

0:56

today. And just when you think a riot

0:58

is about to break out, if Rafee stalls

1:00

one more minute, he comes in with a

1:02

punch line. I wonder what I've used to fix

1:05

the wagon? Raff He's gonna

1:07

fix it with those sandwich Raffy's

1:09

own fix it

1:10

with This man's

1:12

got time with sandwich so

1:15

that he can eat it down

1:19

wagon. We had

1:21

fun singing these songs together. And

1:24

then I would meet the audience after the

1:26

show, and that was kind of neat because

1:29

kids with their parents would come up and

1:31

the child would be trying to say something to me, and

1:34

maybe it was taking their time, and the parents

1:37

would be trying to hurry them along.

1:39

Sometimes I'd say wait, let's

1:41

just listen, please, and

1:43

then the child would have time to say

1:46

something. And kids would ask

1:48

wonderful questions of me. In

1:50

those days of cassettes, Raffie,

1:53

how did you get out of my tape? They

1:55

would say, well, it

1:58

wasn't me who was in there in the first place.

2:00

It was just my voice. That's

2:03

what you're hearing. Oh,

2:06

that's say. These

2:08

early days of success were thrilling, but

2:11

Raffie notes they were also stressful.

2:14

Back then, he thought they had serious

2:16

work to do. You know, I've had periods

2:18

of my life where it's

2:21

you know, I've had challenges to go through.

2:23

You know, I'm no different than anybody else, personal

2:26

challenges, professional challenges.

2:29

At one point I said to myself, I keep falling

2:31

up hill. Here's

2:34

Ralfie's longtime collaborator and friend,

2:36

Bert Simpson. Raffie will

2:38

spend a lot of time

2:41

on the tiniest details of things,

2:44

getting them exactly the way he wants them

2:46

to be. And that's just the way he

2:48

is. The perfectionism

2:50

could be tiring. Sometimes sometimes

2:53

I just go on and say, okay, well let's

2:55

just pick one show, you know, and get

2:57

on with it. But it's not like that. So

2:59

if that's what he meant by taking himself

3:02

seriously, you know he did. Ralphie's

3:04

attention to detail and commitment to excellence

3:07

to the point of perfection put work

3:09

ahead of fun. He writes that he could

3:11

be controlling and moody if things didn't go

3:13

his way, and that he often put too much

3:15

pressure on others, but especially

3:18

on himself. The friends

3:20

in our lives can be

3:22

a huge support to us. A

3:25

prayerful attitude can often help in

3:27

many ways. You know, I'm just

3:30

grateful to always return to

3:32

a place of love and joy. Meanwhile,

3:34

as Ralphie's family audiences kept growing,

3:37

his dream of becoming a folk singer for adults

3:39

started to fade. He kept some of

3:41

his night gigs, but the dream started

3:43

to feel too distant, so he

3:45

decided to fully commit to his children's

3:48

music career. Soon

3:51

he would start selling out thousand seat venues

3:54

and festivals from coast to coast. He'd

3:56

make hit album after hit album.

3:59

He'd be off, movie deals and endorsements.

4:02

The path to superstardom was knocking

4:05

on his door, but Raffie

4:07

said no, No toys,

4:10

no fast food deals, no corporate

4:13

endorsements, no to the industry

4:15

standard. Raffi

4:18

was determined to forge his own path, and

4:20

he was gonna make it happen his

4:22

way. I'm

4:33

Chris Garcia, comedian, new dad and

4:35

host of Finding Raffie, a new podcast

4:37

from my Heart Radio and Fatherly. Listen

4:40

to Finding Raffie on Janu on

4:42

the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get

4:44

your podcasts