Greetings everybody!
It’s almost Christmas now and for me it’s the best time of the year.
It’s colder and most people are happy to celebrate with friends and family.
For this article, I’ve decided to tell you about funny or unforgettable moments.
In no specific order:
My first game as Youppi for the Montréeal Expos when I forgot Julie Masse, the singer,
on the field
During a skit, I was supposed to deliver a pizza to a referee but I lost a shoe when I
fell off my bicycle
During a baseball game, I lost an eye on my costume. Usually, the eyes are glued on the
costume with concrete glue. I don’t know what happened that time, but an eye fell
off. That’s when you can see the professionalism of a mascot. For a while, I acted as
if I was blind. Then, I came back with a pirate patch covering my eye. It was embarrassing
but funny!
Once, I forgot to close the zipper on the back of the costume so many people saw my
real back.
Another time, I had lost my contact lenses so I decided to work with my glasses. The
result was that after a few minutes, I couldn’t see a thing because my glasses were
all foggy in the costume!
At a hockey game, I was a bit too quick to jump on the ice and I did so as they were
presenting a player instead of me.
As Youppi, I once broke a table on which there was a cake for some celebration. The
result: a broken table and smashed cake.
Last year, in Dayton, we planned to do a show like the Blues Brothers. Everything was
ready; the music, the carpet on the ice, the lights, etc. Fifteen seconds after the music
started, the computer fried and there was no more music. It was a disaster. I had to
improvise for a while and find a way to do a spectacular comeback to look good.
That’s when you see if you are good at improvising. Experience is a big help in those
moments.
As an initiation ritual, the Montréal Expos always do the same thing to a new
unsuspecting mascot: They tell you to be ready at a given time for a special event and
wait in the bus until we come get you. So, I got dressed and ready at 11am and was waiting
in the bus. As part of the trick, the bus driver puts the heat on in the bus and they
never come and get you. I was there waiting for 90 minutes in the terrible heat...
Canadians should know that hockey is different here in the United States. It’s
more like a full-fledged entertainment event. They do a lot of things during games to
entertain the fans here. Lots of them also happen between the periods. For example:
In Dayton and Augusta, I saw the person in charge of throwing t-shirts in the crowd
miss the stands and the zamboni ended up running over the t-shirt. The result; a broken
zamboni and a game delayed for a long time. That’s when my role becomes especially
important as I had to entertain the people for almost 30 minutes. The funny thing was that
the arena personnel had to shovel the snow away from the rink since the zamboni was
broken. I felt as if I was back home in Montréal!
How can we forget the spectacular falls that some people take between periods when
there are promotions on the ice. In Mississippi, I think, I saw a woman take a pretty bad
fall on the ice and injure her head. Some years ago, someone even died of such an injury
so many teams now provide helmets to people going on the ice for promotions.
The Mississippi Seawolves’ mascot once accidently hit the coach, Bruce Boudreau,
who was furious.
A mascot was once hit by the zamboni. The driver never saw him...
I once witnessed a promotion that was all nicely prepared during an intermission.
Everything was ready except that... they had no contestants! Kind of embarrassing.
There’s the public announcer who was walking toward the center ice on the carpet
for some pregame presentation. Suddenly, he started sliding with the carpet and ended up
on the ice. Result: standing ovation from the crowd.
Don Jackson, the Atlanta Knights coach once hit the mascot with his fist.
In the arenas, we often have a remote controlled balloon that hovers over the ice and
stands and distributes tickets, coupons and money. Once, during a powerplay, thing went
wrong and the balloon crashed on the ice as the game was going on. It was quite funny. The
referee ended up being the one dragging the balloon out through the zamboni entrance.
Those were some of the funny moments that happened to me or that I witnessed in my
career. I have to stop here and keep some for another article. Hopefully, you enjoyed it.
In my next article, I will talk about some other mascots that do the same job as me.
See you soon!
