The new face of American educational children’s television may be Omaha’s own Kerron Stark, founder, producer, creator and host of “Mr. K’s Clubhouse.”
Available on DBTV via Roku and on Fire Stick, Omaha Public Access (Cox Channel 22) and YouTube, it’s the realization of a dream shared with his late mother, DeSadie.
Stark, a lifelong performer who as a toddler reenacted entire “Barney” episodes, became “a theater kid” in elementary and high school. During four years at arts magnet Omaha South High, the Gen Z creative appeared in all its stage and film productions. After graduating he headed to Los Angeles to pursue a screen acting dream.
Things didn’t work out the way he imagined.
“I auditioned for all kinds of movies and shows that held casting calls and I never made any of them. The last show I auditioned for was the reboot of ‘Blues Clues,’” Stark said. “My mom was the one who really encouraged me to jump into it and do it. At that point I’d been told no so many times I kind of didn’t want to audition anymore but she was like, ‘Hey, I think you should give it a try – you would be a good fit for it,’ so I auditioned. Didn’t make it.”
Though that last rejection cut, it proved a turning point.
“That was the moment when kind of as a joke I told my mom, ’I’ll make my own show and that way I won’t have to audition.’ But I didn’t know what making my own show meant – whether it would be working with kids or not,” Stark recalled. “And then it got put on the back burner.”
Stark, 32, articulated that desire the same year he decided to give Hollywood one last chance. He had returned to Omaha, dejected by his earlier experience before opting to move to Sacramento.
“I wanted to get closer to the acting scene but not go to Hollywood because I had been there before and I honestly didn’t like it,” Stark said. “I moved to Sacramento on Sept. 6, 2018. Exactly a month later, my mom unexpectedly passed away.”
The devastating news of her death brought him back home to grieve and sort things out.
“I went through a deep depression for about half a year,” Stark said. “I stopped doing acting and music and all the things I loved. I just lost the interest for it.”
Then a night dream redirected his life’s course.
“The kind of thing I didn’t used to believe in happened to me, when I dreamed my mom cheering me on like she’d always done,” Stark said. “I couldn’t see what she was cheering me on about, but I took it as a message I should get back to performing.”
He auditioned with local theater companies and earned parts in productions by Radio Theatre Omaha, the Blue Barn, the Chanticleer and SNAP! Productions.
“I just started going down the list of things I talked to her about wanting to do, and one of those things was a television show,” he said.
Stark grew up enamored with live action 1990s-era children’s TV shows such as “Mr. Rogers,” “Sesame Street” and “Barney.” The single father of two has a natural way with children as well as mentoring skills honed in his grandmother Della Stark’s in-home daycare, Momo’s. At 8 or 9 he moved in full-time with her.
“She took care of me and I was there as her support,” he recalled. “I helped raise a generation of kids just by being involved with them as kind of the big brother or family figure.”
His grandmother still operates the daycare. He takes satisfaction in seeing children he helped raise go on to achieve success.
“There’s a young man by the name of John Tonje who just got drafted by the Utah Jazz of the NBA and he’s like my little brother,” Stark said. “He was in my grandma’s daycare from the age of 4 and I was with him as he talked about his dream to be an NBA player. And now he’s there. I’ve had the opportunity to have those experiences of impacting children and getting to see them grow up and do something great.”
Besides his affection for the TV shows he watched, there’s a practical reason why they became so paramount for him.
“Growing up we couldn’t afford much,” Stark said. “The only channel we had was PBS because it was free, so I grew up in the 1990s watching live-action educational children’s shows. All those shows were so important and rooted in education. That’s all I knew as children’s television until we got cable when I was 12 or 13. Those shows formed me.
“Sure, there was animation but a lot of it was rooted in live action, so I’ve always had a deep respect for that. Being a ‘Barney’ fan and living in that daycare I stuck with that show even as a teenager because that’s what the kids watched. It was just always a part of my life.”
That “love of performance carried through” (to him appearing as Barney at parties and other events). When Stark committed himself to his DIY show, it was just him and longtime friend Terrell Wilson.
“He’s been with me from day one,” Stark said of Wilson. “He does all of the music for the show.”
But first Stark said he had to conceive how to make a children’s show that stood out.
“Today’s children’s television media is animation more than anything. It’s all about ‘let’s have an adventure,’ which is fine,” Stark said. “But the thing it’s missing is any educational value. When a child leaves those shows there’s nothing of substance that I feel they’re being provided.”
His survey of the modern kid TV landscape convinced him his show needed to largely be like the shows he was weaned on.
“I did a lot of research looking at the shows I grew up with. I binged ‘Mr. Rogers’ and ‘Barney’ episodes. I also went further and looked at ‘Captain Kangaroo’ and ‘Romper Room’ and those shows that preceded the ones I grew up with. Having a human interaction through the screen with kids is, I think, a very powerful thing that I’m not sure why we left. I knew it needed that element.
“We had to figure out how we make the educational lesson we’re trying to teach fun, and that’s where adventures in imagination come in.”
That’s where music comes in, too.
“Music is great for language development,” Stark said. “My senior year in high school I started writing music. Friends like Terrell taught me recording vocals. I was singing, rapping, songwriting, performing for about 10 years before I started the show.”
Children he casts through auditions appear on the show and interact with him and adult guests.
“We cast between the ages of 8-10 so that they look young enough that kids watching the show can see themselves in them but old enough to be able to take direction and give us the energy we need.”
Perhaps the most crucial building block in structuring things was creating the warm, inviting, nerdy and positive Mr. K persona and recurring characters who visit him. A guest storyteller, Sadie Sparkles, is named after Kerron’s mom. The show’s tagline, “Follow your dreams and you will be simply amazing,” defines what “Mr. K’s Clubhouse” is all about – affirmation and validation.
“I’m really big on dreams, following your dreams, imagining things and having people in your corner who champion them,” he said.
The show also reflects his deep-seated belief in using entertainment as a teaching tool.
“We prioritize the educational messages we teach through the entertainment,” he said in a KMTV 3 interview. Every episode has a theme and lesson.
Angela Rhodes was impressed enough to allow daughter Nyla to audition. After Nyla earned a spot, Rhodes visited the set to see the whole process from the studio to the screen.
“So much hard work goes into making each episode.” Angela said. “The program is… such a refreshing break from some of the content today.
“I have a lot of energy and love to have fun and Mr. K let me use that in my acting for the show. It was hard work learning my lines, but he let me keep trying until I got it just right. It’s fun to think I am teaching little kids how to zip their zipper. I had such a great time.”
Stark’s experience growing up in a household of meager means makes him acutely aware how “many parents can’t afford Head Start programs,” he told KM3.
“We’re trying to do the important work from the very beginning and then hopefully give them the tools they need to succeed later,” Stark said.
He developed the show weekends after working 14-hour days during the week driving a truck (he got his CDL or commercial driver’s license from Metropolitan Community College in 2017).
“I set up a small set in my basement and started figuring out how to make it work,” Stark said. “We filmed the pilot in 2020.”
He and Wilson figured out lighting, sound and editing. They used a DLS-R camera at the start. Initial efforts were discouraging.
“I edited it and everything and I didn’t like what it looked like, so I deleted it all and we re-filmed it,” he recalled.
An Amplify Arts grant was a difference-maker early on.
“It was the first of any money provided to me to work on the show,” Stark said. “We found a Sony Handy-cam on QVC and that’s what we used for the first set of episodes (that debuted in 2021).”
All of season one was produced in his basement.
Since setting up a non-profit, Dreams V Reality, he’s found funding from the Lozier Foundation and the William and Ruth Scott Foundation. A recent grant came from the Omaha Community Foundation’s African American Unity Fund.
“We got incorporated two years to the day that my mom passed away,” Stark said. “Now that day has a whole new meaning to me by way of that association.”
For him, the show is done as a public or community service, not a moneymaker.
“I never wanted to be famous or rich, I just wanted to provide something of quality to children,” Stark said.
The crucible moment in the show’s history came in 2022 when he went all in on his dream. “I decided to fully jump in doing the show. I let the CDL drop because I felt if I kept it, it was an excuse for me if things didn’t work out to just go back to driving a truck. I figure if I don’t have it to fall back on, I don’t have any choice but to make this work. I just believe enough in what I’m doing to make that happen – and so here we are.”
Making the leap was a calculated risk as he had a stepdaughter and a biological daughter to support.
“It was an extremely scary decision to make knowing I still had a family to provide for,” Stark said. “But I don’t think I would change it. I get to be for my kids, other kids and adults a story that says, ‘Hey, it’s okay to believe in your dreams. But it takes work. You have to apply yourself. It’s more than just believing in something, you actually have to go out and do the work to make that thing a reality.’ I get to be kind of a testament to that.”
The next evolution saw him negotiate taking production out of his basement into public access KPAO. Amy Reiner from Blue Barn helped design and build the set still in use today.
“We have nine or 10 walls and set pieces we put together,” Stark said. “We completely take over the entire KPAO studio when we go in to set up.”
He then accepted an offer from Omaha native and veteran Hollywood creative Randy Goodwin’s production company, Fallen Giant Films, to e executive producer of the show. The partnership’s infused new resources. The fourth season of ‘Mr. Ks Clubhouse’ debuts in November.
“From a production standpoint it’s been an incredible experience,” Stark said. “We have our first actual crew of people working on our show courtesy of six interns who serve as assistant directors, script supervisors, et cetera. It allows us to have more eyes on the content whereas when it was just me I would often miss things until it came to post. Having a crew is a huge blessing. I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Stark’s learning, too.
“I’m being a sponge to the knowledge and expertise of Randy and the people he’s brought in,” he said. “The show itself is largely intact. We are changing our format a bit to better fit kids’ brain development and how they learn.”
He doesn’t currently work with professional educators.
“All the research and planning for my show is currently done by me. I am also enrolled at Metro for my Associate’s in Early Childhood Education, so I utilize the skills I’m gaining there to my work.”
Now that the show is part of the Fallen Giant family, he has access to more grants. The show’s reach also extends beyond Nebraska.
“I know we have many fans in many different cities and states because I hear from them, I talk to them. They occasionally reach out asking if we’re ever going to come to their city. We get people on our site from around the world. I don’t know how they’re finding the show but they are.”
He has a grand vision for what he feels the show’s potential reach could be.
“Once people catch on we’ll be probably one of the biggest children’s shows of modern time,” Stark said. “One of my dreams is to go longer than Mr. Rogers did. That’s a super high bar to set for myself but that allows me to continuously work for something.”
Taking a cue from his favorite childhood kids programs, Stark presented a live stage version of his show,‘Mr. K’s Toy Chest of Dreams,’ at the Benson Theatre last fall.
“It was an hour-long interactive show based off kids being able to try on their dreams of what they want to be when they grow up. We get transported to a farm and to a mechanic’s shop and to a rock concert stage,” he said. “It was our first time taking our television show from the small screen and bringing it to life with a bigger adventure on stage. We had some hiccups and bumps in the road, but it was a pretty good experience to get our feet wet in figuring out what works, what doesn’t work and making it even bigger and better.”
He’s in talks with the Rose Theatre in Omaha about revamping the live show or developing an entirely new one. He feels Omaha’s children’s theater is a logical home for Mr. K.
“We have a relationship that’s continuing to build so that somewhere down the line we’ll align together when it makes sense,” Stark said.
Another dream he hopes to realize is producing a feature-length live-action movie version of Mr. K’s world.
He’s already released three short films that are more like extended Mr. K’s episodes. Additionally. he’s published three illustrated children’s books, including “Mr. K’s Clubhouse Presents: Being Different is Simply Amazing,” music albums and a 12-inch singing Mr. K toy.
“Through the show I combine all the things I’ve always loved – work with and educate kids, music and acting,” Stark said.
Perhaps most satisfying is nurturing and celebrating dreams – something he does on his YouTube channel.
“When we find someone following their dream and there’s something special about it that we think kids would benefit from we find ways to collaborate, whether through a song or a story,” he said.
For Stark, it’s all about the power of positivity – following your dreams and going out and making it happen. He’s glad to be living proof that dreams can come true.