STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Ted Giannoulas considers himself to be a performance artist.
He acknowledges that lifting your leg toward an umpire while dressed in a chicken suit doesn't bring about many comparisons to a ballet dancer or a Broadway actor.
But Giannoulas said he's honored that his irreverent San Diego Chicken character is being recognized as art in a new exhibit at the University of Connecticut's Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry.
"I basically took the inanimate object of a costume and became a big fuzzy Harpo Marx," Giannoulas said in a telephone interview. "As irreverent as it may seem, maybe this exhibit will focus a little more attention to the importance and detail of what a character brings to sports and other events.