Tricia Haynes, creator and co-star of Tricia and the Toonies, described the upcoming performance as a “fun family show”.

“It’s always different because there’s improv with kids on stage with us, so it’s never the same,” she said. “We follow a format of songs, dialogue with puppets, children on stage, me in the audience. It’s never the same. It’s a high energy combination of those things.

Haynes was born in Toronto, Canada, the youngest of 4 children. She moved with her family when her father took a job in Manhattan. Home became Long Island, New York, where she grew up and was educated. She came from a family of musicians, so she remembers being a toddler and listening to her older brothers’ rock band.

“My mother always played the piano and we’d be in front of a mirror lip from Broadway songs,” Haynes recalled. “I started the guitar at 11 years old. I took it seriously when I was 16. I was on stage at 19. That’s how I make a living ever since. I’m 66 and still in demand. I thank my lucky star.

Although she enjoyed acting, she didn’t feel like she made a difference since most of her gigs were in bars.

“So I went back to school and studied music and songwriting,” Haynes said. “I moved to Minneapolis in 1990 and did some research and found there was a pretty big market for family entertainment here, which isn’t the same in many states.”

Haynes dug into and wrote children’s songs and created a puppet troupe. The goal was to make a difference by sharing love and family values ​​with the community. It worked because her new show took off.

“It seemed like something people really liked,” she said. “My first show was solo. My vision was too big for me alone. I interviewed people, I found a comrade – Pete Cappello – (who moved from Los Angeles in the 1990s to join Tricia. They worked together for over 30 years.) He joined me. We did three years of libraries to start and spread the word. Libraries loved us. We found we had something special. From there , the word just came out. We did a lot of festivals and Music in the Parks, county fairs.

Haynes then created a new show based on the environment for the Mall of America. It was to feature “Sesame Street” character Elmo, who was going to be in Minneapolis for a promotion.

“I love a challenge, so I said, ‘OK, I can do this,'” she said.

It turned out to be a good career move as the show was a big hit. From there, she modified the environment show without Elmo. Funding for the project came from the city and county waste management departments.

Haynes estimated that she and Cappello perform 80–100 shows a year, 95% of them in the Midwest. They also took the show on the road to places as far afield as the Carolinas, Hawaii and Mexico.

“I could never have a (scene) set up that didn’t take 1-1/2 hours to set up,” she says. “So no more than 2 shows a day.”

The stage is made of PVC pipes wrapped in an artist-painted backdrop. At first, she found her puppets at Goodwill.

“I did what I could,” she said. “At the beginning, I didn’t have the means to produce superb puppets. Later, I was able to have them built by puppeteers.

It happened when a producer found an investor to do a TV pilot for a children’s show that Haynes had written. As a co-producer, she was able to have professional puppets made.

“Although the pilot sold well in Canada, it was not picked up in the United States,” she said. “I ended up with the beautiful puppets. Skip the squirrel is the star of the environmental show. He has an appearance in the family show. The kids really like it. He is a friendly squirrel.

For Haynes, work has been steady or at least until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic ended life as we knew it.

“I was raised, ‘Be a good squirrel and put away your nuts.'” she says. “I had no debt. I dipped into my savings to get by. It was hard because we weren’t working. During this time, I was writing the environmental scripts and rewriting them. I would have gone crazy without it. »

Overall, Haynes said the series hasn’t changed much over the past 10 years.

“We’re doing something good because we’re being asked to come back,” she said.

When she’s not on stage entertaining families, she can be found on the pickleball court. Haynes has described herself as “a fanatic” about the sport.

While most people think about retirement, Haynes said it’s not in the cards for her at this point. In fact, she’s in growth mode, expanding her business with the addition of a two-woman comedy number featuring herself and a friend.

“We shoot with corporate parties, which is interactive and really fun,” she said. “It’s a whole other thing but still lots of belly laughs.”