Not in that figurative sense of eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes and feeling great...I actually was Tony the Tiger.
I walked around a trade convention, waving and greeting the various attendees while wearing a gigantic orange tiger suit. My pal, the Keebler Elf, accompanied me on the journey while two handlers made sure we didn't run into anything.
We posed for many photos, shook many hands, and hugged many people. For this, we were paid a handsome sum of cash, as well as a tall pile of smiles. I like the cash more, but I appreciate the smiles.
The world of commerce looks far more surreal through the black maw of a Tony the Tiger helmet. Japanese people love you. Other fictional characters want to interact with you. People say hi like you're someone they see in the hallway at work.
"Hey Tony." "How's it going, Tony?"
Tony doesn't speak in person. He would much rather hug, shake your hand or give you a hearty thumbs-up. Ernie Keebler doesn't talk either, but everyone seems to appreciate his cookies.
Tony's going to be 49 in a couple of days, and I think he's really holding up well. Perhaps there is something in those Frosted Flakes.
We took a photo with a gigantic sumo wrestler. One with Spiderman (Spidey is a big fan of my cereal apparently). We posed with WWF stars Scotty 2 Hottie and Trish while press and publicity hungrily ate up the picture.
Scotty gave me an autographed photo (to Tony the Tigger, they're great!). He realized that he spelled tiger wrong as he gave it to me. That was a lot more charming then the child star who couldn't understand how to spell Samantha.
"to Samanantha..."
We waited for O-Town to show up at the MTV/VH1 booth, but the wait became tiresome. We didn't really want to see O-Town anyway, so we ditched them for a meeting set up by the Discovery people.
Our arrival at the booth inspired some excitement, apparently they were waiting for us. A woman posing with an Ocelot baby was shooed away as they brought me around to the photo table. The animal handler fished around for a moment and then retrieved an live tiger cub from it's cage beneath the table.
She plopped it down and struggled to hold it's leash while it tried to skitter off. Someone put a bottle in my paw and I began to feed this snarling, powerful tot while cameras flashed and flashed away.
Everyone in that section of the convention center stopped by to get a look or snap a photo. It was a miniature media event, and I got to watch it from inside an orange fur costume.
Me, in a Tony the Tiger suit feeding this beautiful creature...
