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Kermit the Frog lamented that it's not easy being green. Maybe he should have been blue.

Mark Frankel of Blue Man Group says it's pretty cool being that shade of the rainbow: shiny, neon, cobalt blue.

"It's sort of a neutral (color). If it was red, we'd be angry; green, we'd be aliens," explained Frankel, 33. "Standing sometimes in front of 10,000 people, it's an intense moment of 'wow' and you let it run through you."

Frankel is one of three performers in the U.S. touring group, known worldwide for their blue heads and hands, wide-eyed demeanor and the ability to really bang a drum. Or PVC pipe. Or a piano sitting on end.

Blue Man Group comes to the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on April 4 for a single performance of the How to Be A Megastar Tour 2.1.

If you've never seen Blue Man Group, maybe it's best to start with what they're not: They don't have names or characters. They don't speak on stage. They don't emote (except with their eyes). They don't have ears (covered by a laxtex cap). They don't sing.

During the show, all Blue Men are innocents in identical baggy dark clothing. They behave as though they've been dropped onto a stage, unaware that an audience awaits them.

"We're not human beings, but we're attracted to them," explained Frankel, adding that not having ears is "a subtle change that affects the audience."

Part of BMG's goal is to make a connection with those humans surrounding them, "carrying them away" into the experience.

"You have to perform in a way that looks real. Honest. ... It's a great limitation, trying to convey emotion with the eyes."

And, as serious as that sounds, they make merry with a message: Three percussionists exuberantly beating drums that spray paint in all directions -- causing a warning about what to wear when your seat is in the "poncho section" near the front of the stage.

They use mallets to wack away with all their might on big pieces of PVC pipe, as well as on the strings of a lidless piano that has been turned on end -- all to produce incredible sounds.

"We're not efficient," Frankel deadpanned about how Blue Men drum. "We're using mallets the size of bowling balls! ... It's a wholly different style from the traditional drumming I did, where I backed up a band and played in cabarets. Here, the drums are at the lip of the stage. It's an Eastern style of drumming. Loud. I'm playing as loud as I can."

Reviewers have described the show as performance art meets carnival meets comedy meets some seriously cool music.

Trial by fire

Frankel has been a Blue Man for 3 1/2 years. He grew up a drummer in a family of professional musicians and actors in New York. He was working as a drummer when he tried out during an open Blue Man Group audition.

Requirements include being not just a drummer and/or performer, but about 6-foot tall and physically fit. All Blue Men should have a look that is very similar, so no one stands apart, said Frankel.

And yes, he said, there has been one female Blue Man, who no longer performs.

When first hired, potential Blue Men train for a total of six months, two of them in the studio learning instruments and routines.

Then they put you on stage, Frankel said.

"It's a trial by fire, a collective effort." The company may move cast members around until the best combination of three men is found for a show.

"It has to be the right fit."

Before a performance, Frankel spends about an hour turning himself into one of the enigmatic cobalt characters: slipping on a wireless monitor and/or ear plugs (depending on the size of the venue), then stretching a latex bald cap over his head and ears. That's followed by applying the special grease paint, which never dries, thereby maintaining its shininess throughout a show.

The cap keeps the paint out of his ears, but the rest comes off pretty easily with mineral oil, he said, though he doesn't always work hard at complete removal.

"Well, if you've got a show the next night ..."

Three for the show

In Megastar Tour 2.1, all the fun -- and a good bit of satire -- centers around finding fame and fortune as a rock star. An unseen narrator offers lessons from the "Rock Concert Instruction Manual." The three blue guys are joined by an eight-piece backup band, which triggers a step-by-step, song-by-song, celebratory lesson that evolves into a real rock concert. Bonus: Rock stardom gets skewered big time.

The audience gets into the act as well, learning along the way to do head bobs, hip rolls, punch fists skyward, even hold cell phones in the air like the cigarette lighters of bygone rock fans.

For diehard fans who return again and again to see Blue Man Group, pieces of their signature act remain, including throwing an absurd number of marshmallows into each other's mouths.

New on the Megastar Tour 2.1 are state-of-the-art video screens, new vocalists and the tour debut of the hit single "Rock and Go!"

San Francisco-based multimedia artist Mike Relm opens the shows with a mix of spins, scratches, music and video clips in a mash-up of pop culture.

Launched in 1987 in New York by three theater buddies -- Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink -- Blue Man Group revolutionized the concepts of mime and interactive theater.

Today, Blue Man Group business is big. Besides the tour, stage productions have been running -- in some cases for more than a decade -- in Boston, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, Orlando, Berlin, Stuttgart, Oberhausen and Tokyo.

There are 50 to 60 Blue Men globally. Frankel is overjoyed to be one of them and plans to stay blue "as long as I can." Touring since January, he has performed almost nightly in a different city. Megastar Tour 2.1 ends in May.

Speaking Thursday from Huntsville, Ala., he said choosing a favorite color to wear when not on stage isn't a high priority while on the road.