Where shy kids become superstars and a legendary performer wrestles with life outside the suit.
Press PlayAllison is 15. She drove 10 hours to Newark, Delaware for a weekend camp she can't tell anyone about. Jared told his friends he's at a religion conference. Both of them are here to learn how to be better mascots.
Dave Raymond — the original Philly Phanatic, the guy who basically invented the modern sports mascot — runs this camp. He teaches the art of fun. But for the kids who show up, the suit isn't about entertainment. It's about becoming someone else entirely.
This story goes behind the mask. Two types of people get drawn to mascotting: the painfully shy and the annoyingly outgoing. What they share, Dave says, is insecurity. What the suit gives them is freedom.
It's like a secret club. Nobody is supposed to know who the mascot is. It's kind of cool to have us be Superman a little bit.Allison, 15 — Striker the Hawk
In middle school, I was that really annoying, really outgoing, really loud individual. No one wanted to talk to me. That's why I became Fritz.Jared — Fritz the Cat
You are not goofballs. You are not nuts. You are not maniacs. You are very serious professionals — professional in the art of having fun.Dave Raymond — the original Philly Phanatic
When I'm not in the suit, I'm kind of a really quiet, shy person. And when I'm in the suit, I'm the complete opposite. It felt so good to just be free.Allison
90% of the school has no idea who I am. It's like I have this little box inside my head and one of those things in it is Fritz. No one can touch that. They can't take that from me.Jared
I still think I was kind of masquerading as a great performer. I thought, oh, I've got them fooled.Dave Raymond
Produced by Alexis Kenyon as a Radio Thesis at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, 2013. Distributed on PRX. Archived at UC eScholarship. All photography by Alexis Kenyon.