Pro teams own the rights to their mascots and change performers with regularity. But the San Diego Chicken is independent, beholden to no corporate entity. There has never been anyone else inside the costume. Could that soon change? More:
That sounds like the beginning of a joke, and it might as well have been. For Ted Giannoulas, a chicken doing human things had long been a comic goldmine. At this moment, though, it wasn’t a set-up awaiting a punchline. ESPN wanted to talk to him — the famous San Diego Chicken, the man who donned a chicken suit on a whim and turned it into a decades-long barnstorming comedy act, who inspired just about every other sports mascot that followed — during a game broadcast last season.
Intensely focused on keeping up his hectic performance schedule, he and his wife never had children. “I didn’t want to be in absentia,” he says with some regret. He was so hooked on the thrill of performing the act he pioneered, the rest of his life passed him by. “The work was my mistress,” Giannoulas says, “and I loved it.”
Out of that eagerness, an indelible character was born. Wouldn’t it be great, he suggested to his bosses, if the Chicken showed up in the stands at athey responded. Thus, a be-chickened Giannoulas showed up at the Murph, ticket in hand, and then vamped around the concourse. He danced and wiggled and mugged and put a hex on the opposing pitcher. The crowd laughed. Every gag he improvised seemed to work.
A bit West loved involved the Chicken attempting to bribe umpires with a $20 bill on a fishing line. One time, West made a show of rebuffing the advance, leading Giannoulas to toss over his wallet. “So, I stole his wallet,” West says with a laugh. “I had it in my ball bag the rest of the game.” He and Giannoulas became fast friends, so much so that West insisted the Chicken be present two years ago when he broke the major-league record for the most games umpired.
The court system moves slowly, though, and Giannoulas needed money to pay his legal bills. In late June, he announced he’d reveal himself as a new character before a Padres game against the. He dubbed it the Grand Hatching and “promoted that thing like a wrestling match.” A few days before, he held a press conference from inside a five-foot-tall Styrofoam egg. Reporters had to speak to him through a small hole in one end. No, he wouldn’t reveal his new identity, he told them.
Giannoulas met Jane in 1981 in Indianapolis. She had come to a Pacers game with her then-boyfriend, but was so bowled over by the Chicken that she decided she had to meet him. Giannoulas invited her for pizza, and she demurred. “Had nothing even come of it,” Jane says, “I would always remember it as one of the happiest nights of my life.” But a year later, her previous relationship in the rearview, she called Giannoulas before another Pacers appearance.
Other bits were equally edgy and, at times, just as capable of resulting in litigation. One in particular has aged poorly. During his showdown with the Phanatic in Philadelphia in 1978, Giannoulas improvised a Harpo Marx-inspired bit in which he plopped a chair down next to Mary Sue Styles, a woman who served as one of the Phillies’ celebrity ballgirls. The Chicken inched closer and closer, slowly put his arm around Styles and then pulled her to the turf and rolled around with her ravenously.
For Giannoulas, it’s been a slower time by design. In recent years, he’s found himself anonymously walking the concourse out of costume and noticing all the things he’s missed. “You reflect wistfully,” he says. What would it be like to watch a ballgame instead of performing at one? “I was working these things. I was enjoying it,” he says, but there are also joys to be found outside of work.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'Mistake.com' Spurs player and 'headless chicken' Man United man in Agbonlahor's flop XITottenham striker Richarlison has been labelled as one of the ‘worst signings in Premier League history’. That is according to ex-Aston Villa star Gabby Agbonlahor, who has included the…
Read more »
Nando's fans sent into a frenzy as chicken chain teases brand new menu itemThe popular chicken chain will release a new item next week
Read more »
Boy, 3, killed by car as he headed to his own birthday party in CaliforniaJosiah Toleafoa was knocked down and died at the scene on his third birthday outside Play City indoor playground in San Diego.
Read more »
90+ orgs tell Slack to stop slacking when it comes to E2EE90+ orgs tell Slack to stop slacking when it comes to full encryption
Read more »
The Diablo 4 community is printing t-shirts, baking cakes, and buying chicken on other continents in advance of the game's launchBlizzard probably needs to release this game before the community escalates to ritual sacrifice.
Read more »
Bahrain-Victorious announce signing of Italian pro who shot and killed cat belonging to San Marino's former head of stateBahrain-Victorious announce signing of Italian pro who shot and killed cat belonging to San Marino’s former head of state “With the help of this team, I will demonstrate that I learnt from the mistake made in the past,” Antonio Tiberi said cycling
Read more »