Christian Jacobs is happy that people buy seats but rarely get to use them when they go see the touring version of the Nick Jr. series "Yo Gabba Gabba" he co-created with Scott Schultz. From the moment DJ Lance Rock hits the stage for "Yo Gabba Gabba! LIVE!: Get the Sillies Out!," the audience is urged to get up and get involved.

"That's the one thing that will never change," says Jacobs. "Once you urge a kid to get up and not veg out on the couch, you pay attention to what you are doing to make sure you keep sending that message. With the live show, the push to get everyone involved is taken to the umpteenth degree."

"Yo Gabba Gabba! LIVE!: Get the Sillies Out!," scheduled for two performances Thursday, March 7, at the William Saroyan Theatre in Fresno, is the third touring stage show from the creative team. The first tour, "Yo Gabba Gabba! LIVE!: There's a Party in My City!," launched with a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and a performance at the White House in 2010. That was followed by more than 120 performances of "Yo Gabba Gabba! LIVE!: It's Time to Dance!" in 2011.

This time, fans face the sillies, crazy little creatures that live inside everyone and have to be shaken out. Help comes from DJ Lance Rock and his colorful friends: Brobee, the little green one; Foofa, the pink flower bubble; Muno, the red Cyclops; Toodee, the blue cat-dragon; and Plex, the yellow robot. Hip-hop performer Biz Markie, Super Music Friends and Dancey Dance join the "Yo Gabba Gabba!" team on stage.

Just like the past two touring shows, Jacobs and Schultz were involved with every aspect, from song selection to picking the images that get played on the big screen. Putting together the most recent show was a lot harder than launching the first tour in 2008.

"With the first one, it was like opening up a giant box of whatever we wanted to use," Jacobs says. "For the first tour, we went in knowing what we wanted to do. Then, after we had a launch tour in Australia, we saw what did and didn't work.

"This time, we wanted to start from scratch, but we soon realized this is a giant moving thing, and we couldn't start from scratch. So we went back to keep the vehicle that has been entertaining kids for so long. This show has all the hits, but we added a few more songs and there are a couple of big surprises that have the 'wow' factor.

"Just like the past shows, there's a real energy that's hard to understand unless you go to the concert. You would be hard-pressed to find in a regular rock concert the kind the electricity in one of our shows. And it comes from parents and kids."

That excitement comes from "Yo Gabba Gabba!" having become one of the biggest kid's shows on TV since it launched in 2007. It's been nominated for six Daytime Emmys and was named the top children's program two consecutive years by the Television Critics Association.

The television show, now in its fourth season, airs several times a day on Nick Jr. The team was so busy working on the series, no one really knew how their characters had connected with kids until the touring show.

Jacobs sat with his wife in the seats farthest from the stage at the initial performance and began to cry when he realized how much everyone loved the songs they had written back when they were little more than a garage band.

Before Nick Jr. took a chance on the series, the creators would joke about how cool it would be if someday they would walk into a drugstore and stuffed versions of their characters were at the checkout stand. That dream has come true as "Yo Gabba Gabba" has spawned a list of merchandising higher than DJ Lance Rock's hat.

But it's the fan reaction that really excites Jacobs.

"Seeing a large crowd at one of the tour shows is a reminder of how this is way bigger than me or Scott or anyone on the crew ever imagined," says Jacobs.

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