‘The Masked Singer’s Barry Zito reveals what it was like performing in the Rhino suit, how he nearly fell off the stage, and more.
There’s no doubt that the Rhino was the most lovable contestant of The Masked Singer season 3. You just couldn’t help but swoon over his performances. The Rhino was unmasked in the semi-finals and revealed as former professional baseball player Barry Zito, who played 15 years for the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. Even though baseball and The Masked Singer couldn’t be more different, Barry told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that baseball did prepare him in some way for the show.
“I would say probably not as much baseball training but just the hard lessons of performing and not doing well and how you deal with that psychologically,” Barry told HollywoodLife. “For me, that’s the biggest key to this whole thing with The Masked Singer. Because if I didn’t have the experience of failing on a big stage with the San Francisco Giants, specifically, and the lessons I learned of stop trying to impress everybody and win the game, do the things I can’t really control and try to do things I can control, like have a great time or just do my best. These things are kind of cliches, but these are things we teach our children. Those are the things that really changed my entire experience. Because at first, I felt myself going on The Masking Singer thinking I have to win and have to be perfect. Eventually, I was like just be honest, give your best, and see what happens.”
The Rhino mask was a huge piece of headgear that Barry had to wear throughout each performance. Even though Barry made it seem effortless, he could barely see out of the mask! “If you’re looking straight ahead with the Rhino mask, you basically see the ground at about a 45-degree angle,” Barry admitted.
