Foote’s Show Not Just for Children

He’s apt to sing about armadillos and rampaging eggplants. His bizarre onstage companions aren’t puppets, they’re “props with attitude.” His musical influences range from Van Morrison to Al Jolson.

As a children’s entertainer, Norman Foote, the Canadian singer-guitarist who now records for Walt Disney Records, isn’t exactly all sweetness and light. His fans like it that way.

On the road since January with his pop, jazz and country-flavored tunes and loony prop comedy, Foote’s next tour stop is a pair of afternoon concerts Saturday at At My Place in Santa Monica.

“The American audiences are absolutely fantastic to me,” a slightly jet-lagged Foote enthused from his Vancouver home. “They seem to just soak up what I do.”

Indeed, if parents seem to have as much fun as their kids “or more” with Foote’s often wicked humor and sardonic lyrics, that’s fine with this 37-year-old father of two. His favorite audience is a mix of adults and school-age children.

“I’m not really trying to integrate the preschoolers,” he said (although his latest release for Disney, “If the Shoe Fits,” is geared to a much younger audience than his first, “Foote Prints”).

Still, Foote’s in-concert take-offs on Sinatra and Dylan are not exactly 4-year-old fare. Nor is his combination of stand-up, improvisation and puppetry.

He’s been known to mix it up with Sasquatch (Canada’s version of Bigfoot), take over an audience volunteer with a giant talking head and sit on the shoulders of “The World’s Strongest Baby” as he strums what has become his trademark sign-off: “His Majesty the Baby,” a loving but ironic ode to infant demands.

Foote, who worked for some years as a puppeteer before the music took off, said it “gave me a lot of insight into children’s theater and fantasy,” but he doesn’t like to talk about it too much “because you say ‘puppets’ and people think of a little show in the corner of the library and they don’t come.”

Foote is a tad stiff when asked about the adult appeal of his wild onstage silliness. “I’m an adult. I have to do material that I find within myself and that I like. But I really think it sort of appeals to that spot in everybody . . . it’s putting a twist on everyday things--rewriting tradition.”

There’s no danger he’ll forget younger concert-goers to please adults, he said, because he carefully gauges the make-up of each audience.

“I’m very aware of who my audiences are. Older kids are pretty sophisticated, but if I see people have brought kids under 5, I have the material to entertain them. I tone everything down and (do) a lot of sing-alongs. If you’re labeled as a family entertainer, you have to be prepared.

“There’s nothing in the audience that will derail the show,” he promised. “I’ll dig into my bag of tricks and make it work.”

* At My Place, 1026 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, Saturday, 1 and 3 p.m., $6.50-$8.50; (310) 451-8597.

The Wolf on Trial: The Big Bad Wolf goes to court for Grandma consumption and Prince Charming is charged with bigamy by Cinderella, Rapunzel and Snow White in “L.A. Story Book,” a play written and performed by members of the Kids on Stage theater arts program, ages 4 to 13. The culmination of a semester’s studies, the show is directed by Elaine Hall Katz and will be presented at the company’s home base, the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A. on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets are $5. Information: (310) 473-4088.

Let’s Put on a Show: Professional director-choreographer Murphy Cross is staging the musical comedy “Big Tush, Little Tush,” by sixth-grade teacher Jeff Lantos and Robyn Hutter, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 5 p.m. This benefit for Hancock Elementary School uses a mix of adults and children to tell the story of a 5-year-old who’s self-conscious about her size, until it comes in handy in a family emergency. Tickets are $3 for children, $8 for adults in advance or $10 at the door. Information: (310) 552-1290.