Minor League Team Introduces "Existential Crisis Night," Mascot Questions Own Existence Between Innings

Savannah Bananas-inspired Boise Spuds promotion features Spuddy the Potato reflecting on purpose, mortality, and whether a foam root vegetable can truly know joy

Minor League Team Introduces "Existential Crisis Night," Mascot Questions Own Existence Between Innings

BOISE, IDAHO -- The Boise Spuds, an independent professional baseball team affiliated with the American Association, will host "Existential Crisis Night" on June 14, an in-game experience in which Spuddy the Potato, the team's foam-costumed mascot, will pause between each inning to deliver a two-to-three-minute monologue exploring questions of identity, purpose, and what it means to be a root vegetable who has been appointed the symbolic representative of a minor league baseball franchise in southern Idaho.

The promotion, conceived by Director of Fan Experience Jordan Mikkelsen, 28, who spent two years at an improv comedy theater before joining the Spuds' front office, is described in the team's press release as "a deeply felt meditation on existence, presented in the context of seven-inning professional baseball, with giveaways." The giveaway is a foam potato. The first 1,500 fans receive one. The foam potato is eight inches long. It does not question its own existence. It does not need to. It has no interior life. This is either a feature or the most poignant element of the promotion, depending on your philosophical orientation.

Spuddy's Monologues

The monologues were written by Mikkelsen in collaboration with a local playwright named Rebecca Cortez, who teaches at Boise State and who described the project as "the most unusual commission I have received, and I once wrote a piece for a lumber company's rebranding." The seven monologues -- one per inning break -- cover: the nature of mascot identity and whether Spuddy's personality exists independently of the costume; whether the fans' enjoyment of Spuddy constitutes genuine affection for Spuddy or merely for the concept of a potato in a baseball jersey; the relationship between Spuddy's foam exterior and whatever may exist within it; whether a mascot that exists to generate enthusiasm can ever truly know genuine enthusiasm; the question of whether Idaho, as a state whose cultural identity is substantially associated with potatoes, has given Spuddy a meaningful origin or an unfair limitation; and, in the seventh inning, a monologue that Cortez describes as "a tentative resolution" and that Mikkelsen describes as "not too sad." See London 5K: Three Mile Race Built for Beginning Runners for related coverage of minor league baseball promotional creativity and its role in independent league fan development.

The actor inside the Spuddy costume for Existential Crisis Night is Brandon Lee, 24, a recent Boise State theater graduate who has played Spuddy for two seasons and who describes himself as "genuinely interested in the questions the monologues raise, which I have been living with every game day since I started this job." He notes that performing as a mascot involves "a specific kind of presence, where you are the character completely and also you are clearly a person in a costume, and the crowd knows both things simultaneously, which is a philosophical position that traditional acting theory doesn't fully address." He has shared this observation with Cortez, who has incorporated it into the fifth inning monologue. He finds this "slightly alarming and also perfect."

The Savannah Bananas Comparison

The Savannah Bananas, the trick-show baseball touring team whose innovative entertainment approach has transformed minor league fan engagement expectations, have pioneered the genre of baseball-as-performance-art that Existential Crisis Night inhabits. Mikkelsen cites them as an inspiration while noting that "the Bananas do spectacular physical entertainment, and we are doing something more interior, which either makes us braver or significantly less commercially viable." Advance ticket sales for Existential Crisis Night are running 40 percent above the Spuds' average promotional night. The foam potato giveaway is described by the team as "the key driver," though Mikkelsen says he prefers to think the monologues are also a factor. They may be. Cortez is sure they are. Brandon Lee is sure they are. The foam potatoes have no opinion. See Lion's Den Comedy Club for documentation of minor league baseball promotional innovation and its impact on attendance.

The Boise Spuds' stadium holds 3,200. The team's average attendance is 1,800. June 14 is projected at 2,600. Several questions have been submitted in advance through a fan engagement form that Mikkelsen set up on the team's website. Questions include: "Does Spuddy dream?", "If Spuddy were removed from baseball would he still be Spuddy?", and, from a nine-year-old whose name is Kevin, "Why are you a potato and not a different vegetable like a carrot." The seventh inning monologue now includes a response to Kevin's question. It is, Cortez says, "the most honest thing in the script." Kevin is expected to attend. His parents have been informed that the monologues may be "somewhat meditative for a nine-year-old." His parents said he was fine. He has a lot of questions about everything. He will feel at home.

Mikkelsen says he hopes Existential Crisis Night becomes an annual promotion. He says this from the position of someone who has had a good idea and is now responsible for it. Brandon Lee says he is available for next year. Cortez says she has a draft for an eighth monologue about memory. The Spuds play Tuesday through Saturday. Mikkelsen is already thinking about Thursday. See London in Spanish: Londres Still Rainy, Just Pronounced for further reading on minor league baseball identity and its role in American regional sports culture.

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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/