I can see through almost any scam, especially one perpetrated by the federal government. I can see through it... they can't pull the wool over my eyes, it's absolutely freakin' impossible to pull the wool over my eyes about the government.

The show's creators Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez have said that the Coleman character is a personification of one of Avenue Q's central themes: that as children we are told we are "special" but upon entering adulthood we discover that life is not nearly as easy as we have been led to believe. Coleman a nurse practitioner and fork-lift operator respectively. Coleman later pleaded no contest to charges of disorderly conduct and reckless driving and was fined $100.

He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". In 1989 he successfully sued his parents and business advisor over misappropriation of his assets only to declare bankruptcy a decade later.