I’m a professional football club’s mascot AMA

[Insidethebigsuit]

I wear a giant suit. I dance around in front of thousands of people. I give hundreds of high fives and pose for dozens of photos every match. AMA.

Does it pay well?

What’s the pay? How did you get into doing that?

Should I take a cutting of my rose now or wait until the end of summer?

It doesn’t pay well enough to quit my day job! But I am paid £50 a game (minimum time on site is two hours but I normally do longer) plus £25ph for extra appearances and free match tickets for myself and either one adult or two kids. Apparently the very top ones (eg Man Utd and Arsenal) get £70k a year but I do not!

I got into it totally by accident when I saw an advert on the club Twitter account. I am a fan of the club. I must have just got lucky and logged on at the right time because mine was amongst the first replies they received. I wrote a funny email, was invited down for a chat and then had a trial match. Sorted out DBS etc and then I was good to go. All worked out fine so here we are.

That’s a thorny subject, and not one I’m qualified to comment on, Petal. Sorry.

Should Kneecap have played at Glastonbury?

My own view on this is that they should have been allowed to perform only whilst wearing enormous furry mascot costumes.

Have you ever had any abuse/kicks to the groin?

I get abuse at every match from away fans, but it’s 99% lighthearted and I don’t care. The trick is to remember that nobody can tell who I am inside the suit.
I‘ve never been kicked in the groin, but occasionally people tap me on the head or hug a bit too physically! I normally have an assistant with me who walks round and intervenes if anyone behaves threateningly or whatever.
The worst thing is being hit by a stray ball during the warm up or at half time.

How often ( if ever ) does the suite get washed ?

I take care of that myself, so I can wash it after every game. The head is tricky though as it doesn’t fit in the washing machine. So Febreze for that!

Are you always too hot in summer and too cold in winter? Does it make your neck ache?

Are you more or less interesting than the fridge mascot?

I’m always too hot, all year round. Even on the coldest days I am very hot by the time I take the suit off.

The head is very light so my neck is fine. The only time any bit of my body hurts is when I accidentally walk into something.

Hugely more interesting.

😆😆😆

DS worked at Legoland summers through Uni. He was too tall for the mascot costumes so he often went round with the characters as a companion/bouncer.

Astonishing how badly behaved parents and their DC can be-poor Pink Brick was punched and hassled regularly.

There was a strict limit as to how long they could wear the head/costume and people kicked off if they had to go. Never mind the poor girl in Pink Brick!!

Do you know how many calories you burn each time you 'perform'?

Have you lost weight since you started doing it, and how physically fit are you?

Do they not have several people so if you were off sick they can use someone else? As obviously you cant tell who's inside.

Thank you! X

Are you male or female, and do you support the team you're the mascot for? And are you Harry the Hornet?!

Are you the only person who does this for the club or is there a rota? Is the costume shared with anyone else?

I don’t know how many calories I burn, but I am pretty physically fit and get about as sweaty as I do after a gym workout. Not as breathless though. It’s not really cardio work, just heat!

They used to have a rota of people but I am apparently very reliable so they don’t any more as I very rarely miss a game. Occasionally for a function or whatever someone else from the club will wear the suit, but not for matches because nobody else wants to wear it for that long or with that many people around.

Female. Yes I do. No I’m not!

Occasionally someone else will wear the costume briefly, for an event or photo call that I can’t make. But I’m the only one who wears it for matches.

Sometimes the kids do get a bit much. If that happens I can usually escape pretty easily either by stepping over the hoardings onto the pitch or, if I'm not near the pitch, by using my assistant to keep them off!

Thank you, that's really interesting! X