It was closing in on 10 p.m. on a recent Friday night. Three men sat at a plastic folding table in a Georgia Tech gymnasium illuminated by fluorescent lights. The tone of the conversation, while not grave, was serious.
Daniel Nester, Tech’s athletic spirit coordinator, assistant cheerleading coach Adrian Newbill and Tech alumnus Robert Carswell formed a three-judge panel that was deciding a matter that will color the experience of every Yellow Jackets fan who will attend a Tech sporting event in the coming year or watch one on television, less so for some and significantly so for others.
Of equal importance, they held in their hands the aspirations of a handful of Tech students hoping to represent their school in a most meaningful but anonymous manner – by being Buzz.
Nester, Newbill and Carswell were at the end of a tryout process that included questionnaires, performance and an interview for nine students, five of whom were seeking to continue as Buzz. (Sorry to ruin it: To handle the flow of appearance requests, several students bring Buzz to life each school year.) The conversation mostly settled on the four trying to make the team for the first time, shifting from one candidate to the next.
“There’s somebody who can be sloppy in every way on paper, but is Buzz, because Buzz is a person,” said Carswell, a data analyst.
Nester, a former Virginia Tech cheerleader who came to Georgia Tech in December to coach the cheerleaders and coordinate the Gold Rush dance team and Buzz, was settled on taking the five returnees. He thought he would add one of the four newbies, possibly two.
He was looking for more than just students who could ham it up, fit the suit and do a front flip on command. Character and a love of school were important, too.
“Students who want to do it just because it’s cool usually fizzle out because it’s a lot of hours,” he said the previous day in his office at the Edge Center.
The tryout began at 5 p.m. at Freshman Gym, a basketball court that adjoins McCamish Pavilion.
The seven men and two women were an impressive mix – their majors included chemical engineering, computer science and chemistry. One was a mechanical-engineering student from China. In interviews that night with the panel, they expressed their love for Tech and desire to represent the school and entertain its people by inhabiting the black and gold suit.
One was a student who was finishing his fifth year as the mascot and, nearing the end of an academic career lengthened by work studies, was hoping for a sixth. (Part of the tradition of Buzz is that the students’ identities are kept secret until graduation. We’ll call this one Edwin.) A shortish male with a close-cropped haircut, Edwin shared how he (as Buzz) had once escorted a young girl to the Varsity on behalf of the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
“It was the most humbling and extraordinary honor receive,” he said.
Or, as the Chinese grad student said he recalled once thinking before trying out, “What if I could be that little thing? That would be so lit.”
For the first 90 or so minutes, the new candidates were allowed to get used to the costume and to learn two staples, Buzz’s walk and trademark flip. (The team places great value in consistency in movement. Being told by cheerleaders that they couldn’t tell who was in the costume is high praise.) The rookies criss-crossed the court, trying to master Buzz’s stumbling gait, and sprinted down a blue mat before throwing themselves head over heels. They tried it in workout gear and sometimes wearing the bottom half of the costume, Buzz’s black and yellow tail.
The Buzz walk: Slight lean forward. Knees over feet, which are spread slightly wider than normal. Butt out. Move about on the balls of your feet. Edwin described it in two ways that were seemingly incongruous but also somehow both apt. One was “robotic dinosaur.” The other: “If you’re doing it right, people will think you’re drunk.”
As would-be semi-costumed Buzzes staggered about the gym while others practiced flips, the picture of the most surreal of fraternity parties. Returning Buzzes coached them up, sometimes walking alongside or in front.
“Yes! Yes!” Edwin shouted as a ponytailed aspirant tried to hone her steps.
Carswell, a Tech grad who brought Buzz to life from 2003-06 and was invited to help judge, watched with nostalgia and recalled his inspiration to be Buzz.
“I wanted to meet cheerleaders,” he said. “I never got to date a cheerleader, but that was the motivation to start with. But most of it, it’s fun. It was a lot of really fun, weird things you got to do, people you got to meet.”
The in-costume tryout consisted of a 90-second skit, a series of scenarios that they were asked to respond to (as Buzz) and the Buzz flip.
In the skits, some danced, others acted out a short story with props – Buzz as ghostbuster, as beach goer, as caped superhero and as the TV doctor House. The prompts may have been the most effective test to separate candidates, and also shed light on how challenging it can be, without the ability to talk or make facial expressions, to endow Buzz with the power to communicate.
As the three judges scribbled notes, they were given situations such as handling an angry Georgia fan after accidentally bumping into him, flirting with an attractive girl and trying to fire up the crowd at the same time that fans want to take pictures with him.
With some Buzzes, their actions clearly communicated a message and humor. One Buzz was asked to respond to a fan upset that he tried to rub his bald head. (This, like the other scenarios, actually happened.) This Buzz used hand gestures and a shake of the head to effectively convey regret.
What was also important were the spaces in between. The first student (let’s call him Rob) to try out, a mechanical-engineering major, made an impression on Nester as he helped him get the Buzz suit on. Nester asked if he needed help, and Rob shook his head no, passing perhaps the first test of being Buzz – you can’t talk.
The next student ran afoul of that dictum, speaking up from behind the Buzz head when the music for the skit inadvertently stopped.
“They have to learn how to always be ‘on,’” Nester said. “Not just on when people are watching. In a football stadium, someone is always watching.”
Perhaps the moment that caught the three judges’ attention the most was when they asked one Buzz candidate to do the flip, and he cautiously shook his head, then put his hand on his back as a way of explanation.
“It was fun, really,” said a curly-haired freshman. “At first, I was a little nervous because I was really excited. I really want this job.”
They were then brought back out for interviews to answer questions about how they would define Buzz’s character and spirit, why they wanted to be Buzz and how they would handle the demands of the position.
Rob spoke of how Buzz was “the ultimate ambassador.” Another student explained his view of performing as a “positive feedback loop.” Returnees were asked for their thoughts on the newbies.
“Permission to speak freely?” asked Edwin before delving into a detailed report on who had improved from the last tryout, who seemed coachable and who seemed less so.
After the interviews, Rob stood out among the four would-be Buzzes. He was trying out for the second time and, to Newbill and some of the returning Buzzes, he had clearly improved from the first audition.
“I think Rob looked like a Buzz,” Carswell said.
Of the remaining three, one candidate who had difficulty animating the Buzz suit was eliminated. It left two others, of whom Nester was willing to take one. The panel had concerns about the athletic ability of one – to handle the physical demands of mascothood, Buzzes work out three times a week – and the unwillingness of the other to do the Buzz flip, seeing it as an indication of commitment level. (The student explained in his interview that he had injured his back that week but would be willing to do the flip when healed.)
Carswell, Nester and Newbill reached a consensus that they would add only Rob, fitting Nester’s original plan to have a team of six. There was hope that the student who had passed on the flip would get the message and try out again.
Carswell would be ready to welcome the newest Buzz to the society.
“Brotherhood’s not the right word because girls were him, too,” he had said before the tryout. “It’s a Buzzerhood.”
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