Masked Singer Castoff on the Judges' Uncanny Observations: 'I Don't Know If That's a Compliment or If That's a Dis'
Warning: This post contains a major spoiler from Wednesday’s The Masked Singer.
Pack your trunk, Elephant!
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Wednesday’s Masked Singer marked both the debut and departure of Elephant, whose rendition of a Cure classic wasn’t enough to keep him in the running for Season 3 glory. And when the pachyderm was unmasked, he was revealed to be professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. (Read a full recap here.)
TVLine hopped ollie’d on the phone with Hawk Wednesday to discuss his very quick stint on the Fox reality series, what his mom — who died in December — would’ve thought of his performance, and with which A-listers he recently rubbed tuxedo’d elbows.
TVLINE | So, “Friday I’m in Love” did you in.
I was really hoping to do a Cure song, and that was the one we agreed upon because that was the the most well known. Maybe not my first choice, but whatever gets The Cure on the show I was fine with.
TVLINE | Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see a ton of performing of this nature in your bio. Were you feeling nerves as you went out there?
Yeah, definitely nervous. I have done some minimal singing stints. I sang at a big fundraiser we did last year, but it was a punk song, and I did Carpool Karaoke. So I guess those gave me some sense of confidence with it. And when I got offered to do this, the idea that I was going to be anonymous while singing was probably the reason I tried.
TVLINE | Literally, the minute you came out on stage, Robin Thicke and Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg noted that you looked like a skateboarder or some kind of extreme sports person. That seems unfair. You hadn’t even opened your mouth yet! Were you aware of that at all?
I wasn’t aware of that because I was just trying to hit my marks and remember the lyrics. I wasn’t even really seeing them at all. But yeah, I don’t know if that’s a compliment or if that’s a dis. Does that mean that I move in a way that I’m trying to do a stunt or do I move in a way that I’m at least comfortable with motion? I don’t know. I’m not going to question it. I’m just happy that their first guesses about me were that I was a musician.
TVLINE | You are around my age and you move with a fluidity that I would not have, had I been skateboarding most of my life. So I just bow down to that.
[Laughs] OK.
TVLINE | I know you lost your mom recently to Alzheimer’s-related dementia. Did the idea that elephants have long memories have any play in your costume selection?
It didn’t, actually… My mom passed away before we shot [the episode]. But that really didn’t have anything to do with it. It was more that they gave me a few options, and that one spoke to me the best.
TVLINE | It’s a hard thing, when someone you love is at that stage of the disease, and you have to go out and be social and “on.” If you feel OK with it, talk to me about that dichotomy in your public and private lives at the time.
I did it because that’s the way my mom would have wanted it. My mom wouldn’t have wanted to stop our lives, especially in her deterioration or in her state of being noncommunicative and not recognizing us. She was just always so lively, and she would have hated to think that we stopped our lives to watch her suffer. And honestly, my dad was the same way. My dad passed away of cancer in 1995, and he was there mentally as he was getting sick. He told us all individually, “You have to go keep doing what you’re doing and not just sit here while I’m sick.”
TVLINE | You have four kids, is that correct?
Four of my own and two stepchildren, yes.
TVLINE | Are any of them into the show? Did they know you were doing it while you were doing it?
Three of them are in college, so they didn’t know. We have two at home, and they knew. My daughter was probably the most supportive about it. [Laughs] She thought I was capable of it. Our son that’s at home was a bit skeptical, only because he is a very good musician. So, to him, it was like, “What are you doing?”
TVLINE | You were recently at the Oscars, supporting the documentary Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). I know you’re around famous people often, but that’s a lot of A-listers in one room. Did you have any starstruck moments?
Afterwards, I got to have small interactions with Tom Hanks and with Brad Pitt, and that was pretty cool. That was definitely one of the highlights.
Launch Gallery: <I>The Masked Singer</I> Season 3 Clues and Guesses
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