From Move-In Day to graduation, who's always on hand to support us during our time at the
University of Rochester?
Who keeps our spirits up during Finals Week?
Who cheers us on to victory?
Rocky, that's who.
But who's inside the winged suit?
We're about to find out.
[drumroll] Paige Iovine!
[drumroll] Julian Lunger!
[drumroll] Abby Lalone!
So what do you look for in a Rocky?
Someone who's outgoing.
Someone who doesn't care, just goes all out and is crazy.
So why did you want to be Rocky?
Ah, so I started the winter of my sophomore year.
I remember, during Winterfest actually, I got introduced to Alex Eadie by another Cabbie,
Amanda Chang, who said, oh, you should do Rocky.
And I started talking to them about it, and it sounded like a lot of fun.
I really wanted to be Rocky because in high school I used to always joke about being the
school mascot, however, I went to a school where the mascot was a storm cloud - so that
would not have been so good - so when I came here my freshman roommate actually gave me
the application, and I filled out it, and went for it and have been Rocky ever since.
So I worked at orientation when I was a sophomore and we were actually setting up the Palestra
and I was with Eleanor, and I saw Rocky and I said "Oh!
I want to be Rocky so bad!"
Have you had any experiences that were maybe a little embarrassing?
Absolutely, yes!
Definitely.
All the time.
You have to be very - that's why we keep it anonymous!
I can definitely think of one in particular, it was a open campus day last year, and it
snowed, in April, and I was Rocky and I was walking to Strong Auditorium and it wasn't
these shoes, but the old ones with no bottoms, and I walked into Strong and didn't really
realize my feet were still wet and I slid, and grabbed onto two incoming freshmen and
screamed, and they said I guess Rocky's a girl today.
You have shorts that you HAVE to wear.
There was one time during orientation that I did not wear the shorts.
And there are pictures of naked Rocky floating around somewhere, so if you see that, that's
me.
So, tell us about the suit.
You see out of here, you can also see a little bit out of here for a little more peripheral
vision, but there's really little peripheral vision, so I often miss people trying to interact
with me when they come up to the side.
You have to be really careful walking around.
You have to like watch for anything you could possibly trip over.
Also, my favorite feature, there's a little fan built in [gasp] and so partway through
junior year the fan broke and so these eyes, there's plastic on them, and they fog up.
And then you can't see anything, and it become really difficult to interact with people because
you have no idea if they're trying to interact with you or not.
Well the outfit is certainly complicated to get on.
I couldn't do it without Jeremy here.
So you start with the body suit, cuz I need more muscle, and so you put on the body suit,
and then comes the onesie for lack of a better term, and then comes the shorts and usually
at that point I put on the shoes, and the gloves - The gloves are fun.
We have five-fingered gloves, and we have more legitimate four-fingered gloves, to make
him more of a cartoon character.
So does Rocky have any signature moves?
I give thumbs up a lot, it's my go-to move.
In and out of the costume, actually.
I also like to skip around a lot.
I think that a lot of people have figured out I'm Rocky, just because I skip in a characteristic
way.
I have a signature dance move, if you would like to see Rocky's signature dance move.
[disco music] Is it hard to keep from talking with a mask on?
Yes, incredibly hard.
I think I talk to Jeremy a lot when I'm in the suit, I can't really keep my mouth shut.
At first I think it took me - I think I might have said a few things at first, but after
a while you get used to being in character.
Sometimes I'll laugh which I realize is not the best situation, because when you're with
people, they forget there's actually a human in there.
So what's it like to be the man behind the man in the suit?
Um, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun being with the Rocky and like you'll notice
things and then, you know, when the Rocky's alone you can say to them, oh, did you see
that, or like, you know - you kind of like have a special bond between the two of you.
What advice do you have for future Rockys?
I would say, don't be afraid to interact with everyone.
Just be outgoing, and don't care who's around you.
Because you're in the suit, and no one knows.
What are you going to miss most about being Rocky?
I'd say, it's been really interesting getting into new social situations as a different
character, and having to do completely different things.
I always make the joke, that uh frat boys never paid any attention to me, until I was
Rocky, and then they loved me.
When I'm Rocky.
[laughter] I think I'll just miss kind of being here doing something so awesome with
so many great people around.