Chicken Saturday?

December 12, 2009 7:47 AM

Man in a Chicken suit plays "What is Love" on Pianica.

I don't know what's up with chickens today, but this really moved me out of a bad mood. The production surely cost more in time, money and effort than the performance is likely repay.

posted by not_that_epiphanius (34 comments total)

Pianica? Melodica!
posted by eclectist at 8:36 AM on December 12, 2009 [5 favorites]

Fantastic. Those improvised jazzy runs are impressive.
posted by naju at 8:38 AM on December 12, 2009

I'm just impressed that he did it all while wearing that suit. I have no idea how he can even see out of that thing. Great.
posted by malthas at 8:39 AM on December 12, 2009

(Why do we assume this is a man?)
posted by naju at 8:55 AM on December 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

It took me to almost the end of the video to realize it wasn't the Howard Jones song.
posted by contessa at 8:56 AM on December 12, 2009

Ahhhhhhh. Thanks.
posted by nosila at 9:04 AM on December 12, 2009

(Why do we assume this is a man?)

Manhands.
posted by fore at 9:14 AM on December 12, 2009

I am so confused and intrigued by this.
posted by banannafish at 9:15 AM on December 12, 2009

The production surely cost more in time, money and effort than the performance is likely repay.

He does it for the love of his art. He also probably earned more there than Joshua Bell did. The world needs more buskers in general, and chicken-suited ones in particular.
posted by Edward L at 9:21 AM on December 12, 2009 [3 favorites]

Why do we assume this is a man?

I admit I made this assumption without foundation at first.

After thinking about it: do women musicians get into head-nodding in the way that this being does? Of course anyone could, but do they, as a rule?
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 9:48 AM on December 12, 2009

BEST. OF. WEB.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:08 AM on December 12, 2009

not_that_epiphanius --- would you say it moved you out of a fowl mood?
posted by arm426 at 11:12 AM on December 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

This was pretty awesome until I realized I was watching a guy in a chicken suit. Then I got kinda creeped out.
posted by stresstwig at 11:24 AM on December 12, 2009

I presume the video didn't last through the end of the song because two dudes in Chik-fil-a cow costumes grabbed him and bundled him into a truck.
posted by subbes at 12:17 PM on December 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is all over the internet--you'll see this guy on Late Night next week and he will have a record deal a week after that.

Because he is awesome.
posted by LarryC at 12:26 PM on December 12, 2009

What about turkeys wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving?
posted by P.o.B. at 1:06 PM on December 12, 2009

Something I noticed about everyone else in the video: the more it looked like they had a job, the less likely they were to give the busker money. I have a rule: if I have time and I have the change, I usually give the musician a little something, even if it's just a token. I draw the line at Celine Dion melodies or really bad singing.
posted by Deathalicious at 1:10 PM on December 12, 2009

I really want to meet this man. There might be a little part of him that envies those of us who get up to run the 8-5, quietly squander our lunchbreaks, earn a comfortable living whilst staring at a computer monitor for 80% of the day.

If he knew how much the part of me that wants to sit in a chicken suit, playing annoying songs of yesteryear and giving everyone their vital daily intake of absurdity, dwarfs that part of him wondering if a life of quiet desperation might be a more suitable lifestyle...

I hope it annihilates that shred of "decency" and sends it back from the dark abyss from whence it came.

Keep on cluckin'.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 1:29 PM on December 12, 2009

He also sets up two loops at the start, which is kinda neat.
posted by mr dodo at 2:05 PM on December 12, 2009

I love that the chicken head masks all emotion. The musician under there was probably emoting up a storm, huffin and puffin and getting red in the face, but the chicken, the chicken is detached and it's just perfect with the repetition of the loops and the off kilterness of the melody. And then when the feet start tapping time and the knees bounce the feathers up and down– awesome.
posted by bobobox at 2:37 PM on December 12, 2009

Lisa: I propose to you that your heir not need be a boy. In this phallocentric society of ours--
Mr. Burns: I don't know what phallocentric means, but no girls!
Milhouse: (dressed as a girl) So much for Plan B!
posted by rainperimeter at 2:39 PM on December 12, 2009

I enjoyed this way more than I should have. I thought it ended too soon.
posted by lordrunningclam at 3:10 PM on December 12, 2009

Wonderfully, you get the exact same footage if you type "Man in a Chicken suit plays 'What is Love' on Pianica" into the Subservient Chicken instruction pane.
posted by damehex at 3:18 PM on December 12, 2009 [1 favorite]

And it was on the steps of Flinders St Station in Melbourne.

Fuck I love my city.
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 3:46 PM on December 12, 2009

Makes me kind of wish someone had already put Derek Sivers' "Put Buskers Online" idea into place already. Some of your comments seem to back that up.
posted by Alt F4 at 4:23 PM on December 12, 2009

I can't begin to express how much I love this, and how sad I am that I didn't see it in person. Then again, no doubt the chicken will return. (And since it was filmed 5 minutes walk from my place, surely I can catch it one of these days!)
posted by jonathanstrange at 4:45 PM on December 12, 2009

Wow. Buskers in Melbourne make good money. In Toronto, he wouldn't make enough to cover one meal's seed.

These are my favorite costumed buskers.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 5:34 PM on December 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

You Should See the Other Guy: These are my favorite costumed buskers .

I can't tell you how happy that just made me. The site of that blue costumed dude totally shredding in the last 30 seconds... fantastic!
posted by hincandenza at 7:11 PM on December 12, 2009

I had no idea buskers wearing costumes were so much more entertaining.
posted by DMan at 7:35 PM on December 12, 2009

This could be Australian musician Adam Page. I mean, how many pianica-playing, loop-mastering, buskers could there be in one country?
posted by gstone at 3:36 AM on December 13, 2009

I think I've watched this 30 times since I read this post. Thanks, Internet. I think?
posted by NikitaNikita at 7:41 AM on December 13, 2009

Chicken. Gave me. Bad. Coupon.
posted by Eideteker at 9:05 AM on December 13, 2009

I used to have a trumpet teacher who would busk in a gorilla costume in December. Now I wish I had seen him do it.
posted by bendy at 9:21 AM on December 13, 2009

The mysterious poultry musician is James Bowers of busking group Dudes with Trowels, which apparently also features a banana, a shaman, a "freak", and an occasional carrot.
posted by Challahtronix at 8:47 AM on December 14, 2009