Leslie Bowen is 6-foot-1 in his street clothes. But once he dons Big Bird's yellow-feathered body, he's a towering 8-foot-2.
Bowen has portrayed Sesame Street's iconic yellow giant for five years, in Vee Corp.'s Sesame Street Live productions.
Bowen/Big Bird will perform in Sesame Street Live's "1-2-3 Imagine! with Elmo & Friends," Tuesday-Wednesday, Nov. 24-25, at Five Flags Center.
"I've got two 'mechs' (mechanicals) in the costume," Bowen said in a phone interview. Operating the costume involves puppetry. Bowen controls Big Bird's head with a rod that comes down through the neck.
"A mech that I squeeze like a bicycle brake controls the mouth," he said. His left arm controls both wings, with a wire that comes from the right wing. While the other Sesame Street actors look out at the world through scrims (or mesh screens) in the characters' mouths, Bowen's scrim is in the chest and the lower part of Big Bird's tie.
He's not sure how heavy the costume is.
"It's not as bad as you'd think," he said.
Play: Sesame Street Live "1-2-3 Imagine! with Elmo & Friends," a Vee Corp. production Times/dates: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 24; 4 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 25 Site: Five Flags Center Cost: $12, $15 and $18, as well as a limited number of $23 Gold Circle seats, plus a $1 facility fee synopsis What it's about: Discovering the power of imagination with Elmo, Big Bird, Abby Cadabby and the rest of the gang from "Sesame Street." The characters receive postcards and through their imagination go to Mexico and Africa, as well as surfing and to a parade. performance preview Play: Sesame Street Live "1-2-3 Imagine! with Elmo & Friends," a Vee Corp. production Times/dates: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 24; 4 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 25 Site: Five Flags Center Cost: $12, $15 and $18, as well as a limited number of $23 Gold Circle seats, plus a $1 facility fee synopsis What it's about: Discovering the power of imagination with Elmo, Big Bird, Abby Cadabby and the rest of the gang from "Sesame Street." The characters receive postcards and through their imagination go to Mexico and Africa, as well as surfing and to a parade.performance preview Play: Sesame Street Live "1-2-3 Imagine! with Elmo & Friends," a Vee Corp. production Times/dates: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 24; 4 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Nov. 25 Site: Five Flags Center Cost: $12, $15 and $18, as well as a limited number of $23 Gold Circle seats, plus a $1 facility fee synopsis What it's about: Discovering the power of imagination with Elmo, Big Bird, Abby Cadabby and the rest of the gang from "Sesame Street." The characters receive postcards and through their imagination go to Mexico and Africa, as well as surfing and to a parade. |
Bowen, who trained in theater at the Conservatory of Pointe Park, Pittsburgh, said when he first started working the Big Bird character it took him a couple of months to really get the hang of the part.
"You're not just dancing," he said, "you're pulling out the character. I've been with the company six years now. I have it down. I'm trying to make it as real as I can."
He remembers watching "Sesame Street" as a kid, Recently, the show was performed close to his hometown Fairfield, Ohio, so that friends and family had a chance to see it.
