With Manitoba schools set to close for three weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak, a Winnipeg comedian has come up with a way to keep local kids entertained while they’re socially isolated.
Big Daddy Tazz told 680 CJOB he plans to read to kids from the COVID-19-free safety of the Internet, by live-streaming reading sessions for kids to tune into at home.
“We’re all in a big bucket with a whole bunch of holes in it, and we don’t know what’s going on, and nothing seems to be sticking, so let’s make light of the situation,” he said.
“I know what it’s like to have kids at home, and to just keep them entertained.”
Tazz said he reads to kids — in person — every February for I Love To Read Month, and he really enjoys so he wants to “give back” by continuing through the novel coronavirus crisis and giving children who will be deprived of social lives with their friends something to look forward to.
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“A lot of these kids are uber-socialites, so what are we gonna do when you can’t have friends over, and your little sister is bugging you so much that you can’t even exist?
“I thought, I’ll read a couple of books and thought I’d get a little bit of response, but we’ve had 3,500 views on that little video I did … and hundreds of responses and DMs and suggestions for books,” he said.
“In a world where it seems like everybody else is trying to take advantage by hoarding toilet paper enough to make a two-bedroom apartment out of it and all the hand sanitizer to fill a tube … let’s all try to give back a little bit. Let’s all try to make each other laugh and feel a little bit at home and give a bit of normalcy.”
While he’s still figuring out the logistics, Tazz — who admittedly isn’t very tech-savvy and will just be filming his reading sessions with a cell phone — said he’s hoping to have the project up and running by Wednesday morning on his Facebook page (under the name “Tazz Norris”) with the goal of eventually getting it onto YouTube as well.
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