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Thomas Hobson ’04: A song-and-dance man for the preschool set.

By the staff | 1:22pm February 02 2012

One band member is named Twist, another is Shout, and they’re nearly as popular as the Beatles—among preschoolers. That’s the Fresh Beat Band, now in its third season on Nickelodeon and, as of February 2, on tour, with tickets selling out in a day.

At Yale, keyboardist Shout, aka Thomas Hobson ’04, majored in theater studies and sang in the a cappella group Shades. Now he favors red shirts, giant balloons, and a bright blue plastic car as the band performs such episodes as “Cool Pool Party” and “The Wizard of Song.”

When a friend told him about the Nickelodeon audition, Hobson recalls, “I was kind of full of myself and was saying, ‘I went to Yale—I’m not going to do a kids show.’ Then my friend reminded me that I was unemployed.” Pride swallowed, the Yalie went to the audition and the rest, as they say, is history—er, theater studies.

 

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