Steve Burns, host of American children’s tv show Blue’s Clues from 1996 to 2002, is making his Fringe debut this year with his one man show Alive. Exploring themes of parasocial relationships and how the internet has changed what ‘truth’ means, The Student speaks to Steve about the experiences underpinning his inaugural Fringe appearance.
The show derives its title from persistent rumours, dating back to Steve’s time as host of Blue’s Clues in the late 1990s, of his death. Whether it was due to an overdose, a car accident, or being replaced with a doppelganger, Paul McCartney style, the internet had decided that Steve was dead. Despite actively creating new television and going on proof-of-life press tours, nothing worked; in the eyes of the great monolith that is the internet, Steve was definitely dead. In his words: “No matter what I did, no matter how demonstrably alive I was, if the internet decided I was dead, the internet would win.”
The bizarre of experience of witnessing his own mourning led Steve to wonder about parasocial relationships- in a time before social media, when terms like ‘parasocial’ were not so prominently featured in the public lexicon. The Steve from Blue’s Clues and the real Steve were different versions of the same person, which was why rumours of his death were so troubling: “Steve [from Blue’s Clues] was the one everyone preferred, and the one that I understood was the one that everyone killed.” Adding another layer of weirdness to story, the people mourning Steve couldn’t have known him personally, begging the question: “what were they mourning?” In the face of all these rumours, Steve began to doubt himself, wondering if maybe he was dead after all: “something must’ve died; what was it?”
With the nature of children’s television, especially a show like Blue’s Clues– where Steve spoke directly to the audience, asking for help- it’s no surprise that some people may have formed parasocial connections with Steve. During his time on the show, he often wondered whether the connection he had to his audience was healthy or safe. The version of himself that was portrayed on TV, that so many children connected with, was fundamentally not real- he was playing a character, “creating sincerity through a lens.” However, Steve pointed out, this parasocial connection didn’t only go one way: “I was in a parasocial relationship with you.”
Alive is a “deeply personal, deeply vulnerable” show, exploring Steve’s experiences in the public eye, and asking the audience to contemplate what it means to be the human being on the other side of the screen. Steve still aims to cultivate a connection with his audience: “it’s a scene, and my scene partner is the audience… it’s very much a conversation.” Audiences can expect “a lot of tears, a lot of laughter, and hopefully a lot of contemplation.”
Towards the end of our interview, I asked Steve, considering the character Steve from Blue’s Clues, Steve Burns the public figure and former host of Blue’s Clues, and now Steve Burns the Fringe performer; which version was the real Steve?
“Now there’s just this weird, lumpy, hybrid Steve… and I’m into it.”
“A show that asks you to question what is real as it related to the human being on the other side of your screen,” — Alive is running until 30 August at 61 Belly Button at Underbelly Cowgate. Buy tickets here.
Image by Rebecca J Michelson, provided to The Student as press material.
