Here's something that amazes me about Raffi, how easily he can hold the attention of an auditorium full of kids bumping up and down in the little red wagon, bumping up and down. I keep thinking about this one Raffi concert video, in particular, whoa to be My Raffi is physically jumping up and down in his seat. The camera pans up to the balcony to show a pair of kids mimicking his movements. In fact, the entire concert hall of kids is bumping up and down in Unison's Hey, this wagon is still busted. The stick of the song is that the wagon keeps breaking down. By this point, the kids are losing their minds, yelling out the names of tools Raffy could use to fix the lagon. Listen to those ideas. This place is full of mechanics today. And just when you think a riot is about to break out, if Rafee stalls one more minute, he comes in with a punch line. I wonder what I've used to fix the wagon? Raff He's gonna fix it with those sandwich Raffy's own fix it with This man's got time with sandwich so that he can eat it down wagon. We had fun singing these songs together. And then I would meet the audience after the show, and that was kind of neat because kids with their parents would come up and the child would be trying to say something to me, and maybe it was taking their time, and the parents would be trying to hurry them along. Sometimes I'd say wait, let's just listen, please, and then the child would have time to say something. And kids would ask wonderful questions of me. In those days of cassettes, Raffie, how did you get out of my tape? They would say, well, it wasn't me who was in there in the first place. It was just my voice. That's what you're hearing. Oh, that's say. These early days of success were thrilling, but Raffie notes they were also stressful. Back then, he thought they had serious work to do. You know, I've had periods of my life where it's you know, I've had challenges to go through. You know, I'm no different than anybody else, personal challenges, professional challenges. At one point I said to myself, I keep falling up hill. Here's Ralfie's longtime collaborator and friend, Bert Simpson. Raffie will spend a lot of time on the tiniest details of things, getting them exactly the way he wants them to be. And that's just the way he is. The perfectionism could be tiring. Sometimes sometimes I just go on and say, okay, well let's just pick one show, you know, and get on with it. But it's not like that. So if that's what he meant by taking himself seriously, you know he did. Ralphie's attention to detail and commitment to excellence to the point of perfection put work ahead of fun. He writes that he could be controlling and moody if things didn't go his way, and that he often put too much pressure on others, but especially on himself. The friends in our lives can be a huge support to us. A prayerful attitude can often help in many ways. You know, I'm just grateful to always return to a place of love and joy. Meanwhile, as Ralphie's family audiences kept growing, his dream of becoming a folk singer for adults started to fade. He kept some of his night gigs, but the dream started to feel too distant, so he decided to fully commit to his children's music career. Soon he would start selling out thousand seat venues and festivals from coast to coast. He'd make hit album after hit album. He'd be off, movie deals and endorsements. The path to superstardom was knocking on his door, but Raffie said no, No toys, no fast food deals, no corporate endorsements, no to the industry standard. Raffi was determined to forge his own path, and he was gonna make it happen his way. I'm Chris Garcia, comedian, new dad and host of Finding Raffie, a new podcast from my Heart Radio and Fatherly. Listen to Finding Raffie on Janu on the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts

Here's something that amazes me about Raffi, how easily he can hold the attention of an auditorium full of kids bumping up and down in the little red wagon, bumping up and down. I keep thinking about this one Raffi concert video, in particular, whoa to be My Raffi is physically jumping up and down in his seat. The camera pans up to the balcony to show a pair of kids mimicking his movements. In fact, the entire concert hall of kids is bumping up and down in Unison's Hey, this wagon is still busted. The stick of the song is that the wagon keeps breaking down. By this point, the kids are losing their minds, yelling out the names of tools Raffy could use to fix the lagon. Listen to those ideas. This place is full of mechanics today. And just when you think a riot is about to break out, if Rafee stalls one more minute, he comes in with a punch line. I wonder what I've used to fix the wagon? Raff He's gonna fix it with those sandwich Raffy's own fix it with This man's got time with sandwich so that he can eat it down wagon. We had fun singing these songs together. And then I would meet the audience after the show, and that was kind of neat because kids with their parents would come up and the child would be trying to say something to me, and maybe it was taking their time, and the parents would be trying to hurry them along. Sometimes I'd say wait, let's just listen, please, and then the child would have time to say something. And kids would ask wonderful questions of me. In those days of cassettes, Raffie, how did you get out of my tape? They would say, well, it wasn't me who was in there in the first place. It was just my voice. That's what you're hearing. Oh, that's say. These early days of success were thrilling, but Raffie notes they were also stressful. Back then, he thought they had serious work to do. You know, I've had periods of my life where it's you know, I've had challenges to go through. You know, I'm no different than anybody else, personal challenges, professional challenges. At one point I said to myself, I keep falling up hill. Here's Ralfie's longtime collaborator and friend, Bert Simpson. Raffie will spend a lot of time on the tiniest details of things, getting them exactly the way he wants them to be. And that's just the way he is. The perfectionism could be tiring. Sometimes sometimes I just go on and say, okay, well let's just pick one show, you know, and get on with it. But it's not like that. So if that's what he meant by taking himself seriously, you know he did. Ralphie's attention to detail and commitment to excellence to the point of perfection put work ahead of fun. He writes that he could be controlling and moody if things didn't go his way, and that he often put too much pressure on others, but especially on himself. The friends in our lives can be a huge support to us. A prayerful attitude can often help in many ways. You know, I'm just grateful to always return to a place of love and joy. Meanwhile, as Ralphie's family audiences kept growing, his dream of becoming a folk singer for adults started to fade. He kept some of his night gigs, but the dream started to feel too distant, so he decided to fully commit to his children's music career. Soon he would start selling out thousand seat venues and festivals from coast to coast. He'd make hit album after hit album. He'd be off, movie deals and endorsements. The path to superstardom was knocking on his door, but Raffie said no, No toys, no fast food deals, no corporate endorsements, no to the industry standard. Raffi was determined to forge his own path, and he was gonna make it happen his way. I'm Chris Garcia, comedian, new dad and host of Finding Raffie, a new podcast from my Heart Radio and Fatherly. Listen to Finding Raffie on Janu on the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts