‘The Masked Singer’s Bride: ‘I Wanted to Be Something Opposite of What You Would Expect’
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 8 Episode 8, “Comedy Roast Night.”]
It was all about comedy on The Masked Singer as Season 8 winds down, but two contestants weren’t laughing after being eliminated.
Bride returned after beating Gopher and Venus Fly Trap in the previous episode but was eliminated, along with Avocado, while Snowstorm moved on. Avocado was radio personality and comedian Adam Carolla, while Bride was wrestler, Chris Jericho.
Here, Jericho opens up about his time on The Masked Singer.
It looked like you were having fun.
Chris Jericho: I was. I really enjoyed the whole concept of the show and the whole concept of character even. That’s something that I really thought was kind of cool. Even when we were discussing originally what the character and costume would be, I wanted to be something opposite of what you would expect Chris Jericho to be wearing. That’s what it was right out of the gate. It really was a lot of fun across the board.
What made you say yes to doing The Masked Singer?
Over the last few years, I’ve kind of been connected with the show. I know a couple times, the judges guessed that it was me a few seasons ago. I know Jenny [McCarthy Wahlberg] did, maybe last year. And the producers, as a result, asked me to do a couple tweets for the show — “you never know who it might be” type of thing — so I kind of was already in the Masked Singer universe, if you will.
Michael Becker / FOX
So when I finally got the opportunity to get asked, it was kind of a no-brainer. Because, at first, I thought the show was ridiculous. Who would ever watch it? It’s so stupid. This is dumb. And then I realized there’s a real charm to it and it looks like it’d be a lot of fun. So when I finally got the call, I was like, there’s no reason not to do it; now that I understand what the show is, let’s go have some fun with it.
You talked a bit about that costume — it was definitely a fun one!
It really was. And the thing is, too, you couldn’t just put anybody in that costume. It had to be someone that had a little bit of strength because it was very hard to maneuver. It really was like Godzilla from the old Japanese flicks from the ‘50s, where there was actually a guy in the costume stomping on the miniature city, and that’s exactly what it was like.
It was hard to move in at first, but then I figured out a way to maneuver it to where I could actually get some action out of it. It was hard to walk. It would probably take five minutes to walk to [the] stage, whereas without the costume, I could probably get there in 30 seconds. But that’s kind of part of what made it fun and special. I was able to find a way to move it and basically dance with it in a lot of ways. And I was just starting to get into the vibe of it, which is one of the reasons it bugs me that I got eliminated because I thought I could do some cool stuff with this more in the future. Every time I put it on, I figured out a new way to move and make it come alive and animate it more.
“Shut Up and Dance” was a particularly fun number, but it looked like you couldn’t really move as much as you might have wanted to?
I’m also moving more than I think people would even expect, so that’s the thing about it. You’re right. Can you do some Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars choreography in the thing? No. But there’s still jumping that you can do, and the arms could move because there were little handles in the arms that enabled me to move those, and that enabled me to move the whole costume, the whole character.
I wanted to choose songs that are a little bit off the beaten path, fun, audience participation songs, and “Shut Up and Dance” I thought was great because it’s not something you would expect Chris Jericho to sing if you’re a Jericho fan, it’s not something you’d expect a giant pink dinosaur in a Bride costume to sing. So a combination of all those things. It wasn’t a random “you’re singing this song.” We put a lot of thought into it; what song would work right out of the gate. There were a couple ideas discussed, and that’s the one we all decided would be a great debut song for the Bride, and it was. I thought it was a great way to kick it all off.
Speaking of not expecting this from you, no one on the panel guessed you.
Automatically, people think it’s going to be a girl when you’re inside a costume called the Bride. I think it freaked them out when they realized it wasn’t a lady, and that’s also why I used the British accent — even though it’s a Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins Spinal Tap English accent. It’s still not what you would expect.
It’s so obvious it’s Jericho in my head. Thousands of fans on Twitter and Instagram were like, “oh, It’s Jericho,” but if you don’t know Fozzy, if you don’t listen to my band, you might not recognize my voice right away and the fact that I’m dressed up in a Bride dress and the fact that I have an English accent, it’s kind of leading people down different paths. And that was kind of my mindset, which worked, especially with Jenny, since she had guessed me before, and I know her. I’ve done her show, she had a podcast or something a couple years ago. So if she already guessed it was me once and she spent some time with me, it might not be too far out of the question to think she might recognize me right away, which she didn’t.
Did you expect anyone else from the panel to guess you?
I was expecting to be on a lot longer. Like I said, I was really disappointed when I was eliminated because I thought I had something really cool going on here, and I think I could’ve led them down a different path. I’m sure at some point, they would’ve guessed it, especially Jenny. And Ken, too — Ken Jeong’s a big fan of wrestling and of Chris Jericho, so he might have got it, too. It probably would’ve been a matter of time once they kept eliminating different areas. It’s not a football guy, it’s not an actor. I think they probably might have got it in a few more weeks. But we’ll never know.
Did you have any songs in mind if you’d continued?
We’d rehearsed a bunch of songs. I think the studio audience vote went against what some of the Powers That Be was thinking was going to happen because we had done some choreography and some other songs, which was another reason I was so frustrated. I’m such a perfectionist. I don’t like losing. … There was the showdown song, “You’re So Vain.” And then the next one we’d rehearsed was “(I Just) Died in Your Arms,” and “Somebody’s Watching Me” was the showdown song. Those were the ones we’d already rehearsed and gone through up until the reveal happened.
What are you going to take away from the entire experience?
I’m a real competitive person, so whenever I do something like this, I don’t do anything for fun. I do it to win. [Laughs] But having said that, I did have a blast. And once again, to do the Bride was exactly what I wanted. I wanted it to be something completely opposite of what you might expect and really focus on the element of fooling people as to who was really behind the pink mask, so to speak.
But it was great. It was a lot of fun [the] first week. I was angry the second week, but there might be some redemption for the Bride upcoming, so either way, it was a blast, and I enjoyed it. And it was an easy show to do because there was no hair, there was no makeup, and there [was] no costume. My costume was a pair of gym shorts and a muscle shirt and a fan around my neck so I could breathe inside that thing, sweating my ass off inside of that. As far as a Hollywood show, it was very, very easy: just step into the dinosaur and go out there and sing your ass off for a minute and a half. It was a lot of fun.
The Masked Singer, Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox
