O’Ryan McGowan-Arrowroot is wearing colorful pants that are way too long with vertical stripes and a shirt with bold horizontal stripes. His polka dot socks are mismatched. He puts on a hat made from a kitchen colander, a red-and-white polka dot jacket and a red clown nose.
McGowan-Arrowroot reaches for a pair of metal stilts, which have shoes attached. He slips his feet in and wraps Velcro straps around each leg. He pulls the legs of his pants down over the stilts. He takes a drink of water from a bottle and methodically stands up, nearly bumping his head on the open door at the back of his van and grabs his red suitcase.
It’s showtime.
“When you are in a crowd and you are 10 feet tall, you are a spectacle,” said McGowan-Arrowroot, known as O’Ryan the O’Mazing. “These stilts have become my second feet. It’s about the thrill of the performance for me.”
McGowan-Arrowroot is a stilt walker. Standing above the crowd, he entertains for two hours at the Pints in the Park event at Hampton Community Park on a hot and humid 88-degree day in June.
For many stilt walkers, summer and fall are peak seasons for appearances with festivals and Halloween events.
Being 6-3 on stilts
When McGowan-Arrowroot, who is 6 feet, 3 inches, gets on stilts, he does tricks such as pretending he is falling or standing on one leg. He participates in workshops and summer camps as a way to pay it forward.
“A whole community of people passed this on to me,” he said. “I love to share the work and help others get gigs. My advice is you can’t overthink it when you are on stilts.”
Joe Lyons of Ross, who is also 6 feet, 3 inches, agrees. He began as a juggler and got started on stilts because of peer pressure, he said. He invested $1,800 in a pair of custom-made stilts and learned to use them by walking along a fence so he could have something to hold on to while he worked on his balance.
“I just really like being taller than everyone else,” Lyons said. “It’s a lot of fun because it’s interactive. People will joke with you and ask, ‘How’s the weather up there?’ ”
Lyons said on first look if he is standing still, people often think he’s a statue. When he starts talking, it startles people at times, he said. He said two of the enticing parts of stilt walking are that it is hard to miss a stilt walker and it is also something that looks really difficult.
“People think stilt walkers are pretty cool,” said Lara “Boogie” Haase of Garfield who owns BOOGIE LLC, a company that connects performers such as stilt walkers with appearances.
Haase got a consistent shot at being a stilt walker through her attendance at the New York City Toy Fair, a trade show for toys. She met the owner of Grandpa Joe’s, a Pittsburgh-based candy store with locations across the country. Haase was hired for appearances at the Strip District location and has done events at other Grandpa Joe’s shops.
“We use stilt walkers for the purpose of adding to the atmosphere,” said Christopher J. Beers, owner of Grandpa Joe’s. “They add to the unique and festive atmosphere of our candy stores. Our customers find the stilt walkers entertaining because it’s not something you see every day. They walk in and see candy they haven’t seen in years and then a stilt walker hands them a root beer barrel (a barrel shaped candy) and the customers smile.”
Bob Spisak of South Park, who works full time as manager in IT communications for Duquesne University, said he committed to his first stilt walking gig before he even owned a pair of stilts. He had done juggling events for Kennywood Park and Sandcastle Waterpark and was hired to do stilt walking on the boardwalk at Sandcastle. He had three days to practice.
“When you see more than one of us together, you can really see our individual personalities,” said Spisak, who is 6-foot-1. “We all interact with the crowd in different ways.”
He said the biggest challenge to stilt walking is making the walk look natural as you take steps. One of the events he regularly does is the Whiskey Rebellion Festival in Washington County, where he dresses as a rebel. Some of the terrain at this event is hilly, which creates an additional challenge for a stilt walker who is also trying to juggle as part of his performance, Spisak said. The challenge keeps him coming back, he said.
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Requires stamina
Having the ability to do more than one art form such as juggling and stilt walking makes you more in demand, said Haase, who is 5-foot-3. She studied photography in college but realized being on the other side of the camera was more of a calling. Haase saw stilt walkers when she attended the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
“I always wanted to learn stilts,” Haase said.
Of all the circus acts, a stilt walker is the fastest track, compared to other skills, Haase said, because it requires fewer hours of practice to get to a level that’s good enough to be a professional. It is also the most in-demand skill, she added.
She said she often struggles to find coverage for a stilt walker if she is unavailable for an event.
Learning to get on and off stilts requires finding a place to do it such as the back of a van like McGowan-Arrowroot does. Haase uses a staircase. She will sit on a step and put on the stilts, which take time to maneuver, she said.
Having proper leg support, especially at the calf, is the most important, Haase said.
McGowan-Arrowroot needed that strength when he walked the route of the Memorial Day Parade along Butler Street in Lawrenceville in May. Most events are hours long, so stilt walkers need endurance.
Stilt walkers do various workouts to keep in shape. Haase does samba dancing. They also need to practice a lot, Lyons said.
“Everyone has experience walking, so they can do stilt walking,” Haase said. “It’s just one foot in front of the other.
“Just make sure you don’t step too close together.”
Costumes and characters
Stilt walkers put a lot of thought into their costumes because their apparel adds to the personality of the character, Lyons said.
Most stilt walkers have other talents, such as magic tricks and balloon art, or sometimes juggling.
“It’s about providing an experience,” said McGowan-Arrowroot, of Spring Hill. “It’s about engaging with people. I will do a dance-off with a group of kids or teach people how to spin a giant yoga ball on their finger.”
He said he purposely drops a ball from 10 feet high to see if people will pick it up. Most of the time, they do. He has learned to kick a ball up in the air with one stilt and catch it. A lot of McGowan-Arrowroot’s act is self-taught. He said it is about providing multitiered entertainment because that makes him more in demand.
Haase and her partner, Lex Jackson, have done stilt walking gigs together. They also perform aerial acts, dress as characters and do fire spinning, which combines rhythmic gymnastics and different fire apparatus to create an art form. They are getting married Oct. 12.
Their first dance?
“We might just enter the dance floor on stilts,” Haase said. “That would be different.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region’s diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of “A Daughter’s Promise.” She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.