There are different mascots created for all kinds of reasons. Whether you are a company, sports team or school, your mascot character may be called upon to appear on different occasions and with very different audiences. The following tips will help you decide how to best characterize your mascot, depending on the situation.
Parades and Floats
It’s very common to see all kinds of mascots in parades, and with good reason. They are fun, entertaining and make everyone feel good! As a parade mascot though, you are often subject to stricter limitations as far as what you can and cannot do.

If you are walking in a parade, you have to worry about things like keeping to a schedule and staying with your group. This means that you can do a lot of waving to the crowd and giving high-fives (if you are close enough to people). Keep in mind that you will expend a lot of energy just by the fact that you have to walk the whole parade route, which can sometimes be an hour or more. If you are very experienced and agile, you might want to consider some funny moves, acrobatics or a small dance routine.
If you are on a float, the opportunities for movement may be even fewer so you’ll have to concentrate on doing a lot of big waves to the crowd, and dancing on the spot. More than likely you will be behind a barrier, or secured in place with a rope or chain to prevent you from falling off the vehicle.
Meet-and-greets

Meet-and-greets are exactly what they suggest – a chance to meet and say hi to a lot of people. It might be at a fair, convention or charity event but this is your opportunity to put all your mascot skills to work. Typically, you will meet many people in a short period of time and everyone will be super excited to interact with your mascot character. You will shake hands, hug people, take photos and use all your acting skills and mascot gestures to have ‘conversations’ with the public. You may need to convey a variety of messages and reactions such as humor, shyness and excitement and it’s important that you’ve practiced all your best moves so you can keep people engaged.
Events With Children

Kid-friendly and family-focused events are the most fun but they do call on your most refined mascot character skills to make sure that everyone has a good time. In the best scenarios, both parents and kids are very enthusiastic to interact with you and will want to give you plenty of hugs and handshakes. In more challenging situations however, you may be faced with kiddies who are frightened and/or parents who are pushy so it’s important to know about the kinds of movements that will ease children’s fear and rely on your handler to do crowd control so that everyone gets a chance to say hi.
Sporting Events
If you ever get tired of just waving and shaking hands, then performing as a sports mascot will give you plenty of opportunity to really show off what you can do as a mascot character. Perhaps the most physical of all mascot performances, appearing at a sporting event will call on all your skills – running, jumping, tumbling, getting the crowds out of their seats and making huge, exaggerated movements that everyone can enjoy from the stands. You’ll definitely need to be in good physical shape, act like the team’s biggest fan, and even have a sense of comedy (especially when poking fun at the other team). Perhaps most importantly, you’ll want to be in a top-notch mascot suit that will be light enough and flexible enough to move with you, and stay secure so that you don’t lose a foot – or even worse- your head!

By following a few simple performance tips, you’ll be able to make the most of every appearance in any situation. To find out more about custom mascots and performing, contact the pros at Hogtown Mascots today!