Barney Unmasked

http://people.com/human-interest/david-joyner-man-behind-barney-dinosaur-10-years/

So they interviewed the guy who played Barney in the suit for 10 years. Incidentally, he was an IT guy before that, meaning IT -> Barney might be a viable career transition.

“The night before the audition, I had this dream. And in this dream, Barney passes out. And I have to give Barney mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” he explained. “So on the way to the audition, I’m sitting at a stoplight, and something says ‘Look up.’ So I look up, and there’s this billboard. It says ‘Breathe life into your vacation — Southwest Airlines.’ And then it hits me: I had to breathe life into Barney in my dream. If I go into this audition and breathe life into this character, I’m going on vacation. And that’s exactly what I did.”

“Barney was beautiful,” he said. “Barney was very, very good to me. I loved being Barney. I loved everything about being Barney. But that chapter is gone.”

After 10 years of staring into the purple abyss, the abyss stares back into you…

Barney has been unmasked everyday at Times Square for years now. He’s a small Latina.