You do what? The mascot for Philadelphia’s Major League Baseball team talks about how he got the job, traveling for work and the prep behind the infamous hot dog launcher.
(Bloomberg) — Tom BurgoyneProfessional mascotPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
The job: Burgoyne, 57, has brought the Phanatic, the mascot for the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team, to life night after night for legions of fans for more than three decades. With the help of a couple of backup performers, Burgoyne takes on about 80 home games a year and some 500 outside outings at schools, hospitals, weddings and the like year-round. “I grew up outside of Philadelphia, huge Philadelphia sports fan, class clown,” he said. “So this was kind of the perfect job for me.”
Lifestyle: The job is based in Philadelphia, though sometimes calls for jet setting: Burgoyne has made trips to Japan and the Galapagos Islands, where the green furry bird-like creature is said to have originated. He keeps his schedule open, so when they need the Phanatic somewhere, he goes. “You never know what’s going to happen when the phone rings. The Phanatic did an appearance for the nine Supreme Court justices,” he said. “They were around this really ornate dining room table — the Phanatic came busting in right after dinner and before dessert and worked the room.”
Comp: Burgoyne is paid a full-time salary with the Phillies, including outside appearances. While Burgoyne keeps mum on pay, Dave Raymond, inaugural Phanatic and current character branding consultant, says a few of the top mascots can make six figures. That’s rare, though. In the minor leagues, few performers are full-time, and some net just $50 a game. However, opportunities do exist in other leagues: Raymond said that the NBA is often on the lookout for talented performers, for whom a good starting salary is around $75,000 to $80,000.
Backstory: Burgoyne got a job selling computer supplies after graduating from Drexel University with a degree in marketing, but soon found himself restless for a change. He looked under “M” for marketing in the job ads in the paper, and saw a call for a mascot. The ad just said “mascot wanted” — nothing about the Phillies. “I thought I’d be like the Hamburgler or something at McDonald’s,” he said. “So this was quite the surprise.” A zealous Philly sports fan, he sent in his resume and a letter describing his experience as a mascot at his high school. He brought photos of himself into the interview to convey just how avid a sports fan he was — including one that ran in the local paper of him celebrating on top of a statue when the Phillies won the World Series in 1980. Burgoyne, one of about a dozen who were trying out, first had to dance without the costume on in front of a panel of about six people. He was then invited back for a second round to audition in the furry green suit. “I left there thinking boy, I can’t believe I actually tried the costume on — someday I’ll tell my grandkids. And then a week later I got a call getting the job,” he said. He started as a backup performer in 1989 and then took on the full mantle in 1994.
How it works: While the whole thing looks effortless, Burgoyne says few people see all the work backstage that goes into pulling off the show. There’s complex choreography involving many players and moving parts. Take the humble hot dog launcher, one of the Phanatic’s signature stunts: “Even just that — I’m out there, I hit a button, and we shoot hot dogs into the crowd. But everything that goes into it: the hot dogs have to be ordered, we have to prepare the truck, the hot dogs have to be wrapped a certain way, you have to be on and off the field in a certain amount of time — there’s a lot to it that we kind of take for granted.”
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