“Is that a pet pig over there?” 

Actor and performance artist, Jonothon Lyons (aka Buddy the Rat) sat on a bench mid-interview with me in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park when a pig on a leash stopped him mid-sentence. 

“Dude I wonder how a pet pig would respond to me- to the rat,” Jonothon said inquisitively.

For a second he locked eyes with the pig, then with his performance-ready Buddy The Rat mask that had remained under the bench peering out of Jonothon’s black duffle bag with its beady eyes for most of the interview.  

“Yeah? Do you want to see?” I asked, tucking my recorder into my bag, ready to take this interview on the road.

“Kind of,” he said, pushing his coffee aside and reaching for the mask. 

Jonothon had brought the rodent guise responsible for his 1.1 Million following on Tik Tok and 74.8K on Instagram to the park this warm April day to demonstrate the mask’s inner workings and outer composition for our interview. Now he was reaching for it to see how a pig on a leash would react to seeing Buddy the Rat, the man/rodent hybrid. But after a few seconds of silent contemplation he chose to keep Buddy dormant so as to not potentially traumatize the pig. 

“I don’t like instigating anything, you know, I’m more like response driven,” said Jonothon. 

Jonothon the Man (Instagram and Tik Tok: @jonothonlyons) has a friendly smile, the kind built for acting headshots and Fallon interviews, unmistakably blue eyes and a warm demeanor. He takes his coffee hot (always) and with oat milk because it is creamier. On this sunny day, he towered over me at the height of 6’3 (reminding me harshly of my 4’11.5-ness) adding ample shade to the already tree lined Brooklyn streets. His voice is that of a well trained performer, resonating over the crowds of people at the park, resembling the voice of a charming prince, though this prince may turn into a rat whether or not the clock strikes twelve. 

Buddy The Rat (aka actor and performance artist Jonothon Lyons with a rat mask)  can commonly be seen wearing a light brown suit and pants with a cream shirt and a bright red tie, ready for his first day on call as a Wall Street intern or an extra in a Sinatra-style music video. On a hot and muggy New York City day he reduces the fit down to a simple black tank top with beige suspenders to show off his toned and not particularly rat-like biceps. His dapper threads are complete with a pair of brown leather church shoes, and dark brown gloves that are as practical as stylish when Jonothon paws around the streets of New York City on all fours. To further exaggerate his rattiness, Jonothon has also constructed a long peach tail that fashions to Jonothon’s waist and drags behind him as he walks (this tail was left at home for the interview today, of course). 

Buddy The Rat’s claim to fame was a video posted in November 2020 to a viral college-humor Barstool Sports account. The grainy clip showed a human-sized rodent crawling around Washington Square Park and received close to 1.7 million views within one day of posting.

But like the world’s weirdest superhero, Jonothon’s reverse Darwinian evolution requires one specific ingredient: the mask. The clothes may make the man but it is the mask that makes the rat and the persona of Buddy. 

It is a carefully constructed collection of wood glue, water-based clay, and paper mache. The mask's outer shell is made up of brown hardened paper mache, and up close you can see where Jonothon has pressed down beige tape to patch up holes. It is about twice the size of a human head, but sturdy and surprisingly light-weight. It is an impressive feat of engineering. 

The beady eyes have a finishing gloss and are fashioned to blink at the tug of two strings inside the mask. The ears are attached by two elastic bands at the base to give them fluidity and make them flexible. The whiskers are made of functioning fiber optic cables and, yes, they do light up, which makes the mask unmistakable at night, as well as a cool party trick for when Buddy takes to the clubs. The mask, in my opinion, has even surpassed its measly title and at this point in its evolution and has become a feat of innovative puppetry. Did I mention it has a hook for dragging large objects, like a giant slice of pizza (if you haven’t seen that video I’d advise you google it immediately then resume reading), and a compartment in the mouth to give the illusion the rat is smoking a cigarette?

The mask means more to Jonothon than a costume piece, without the mask there would be no character. And actually constructing the mask has made this theatrical experience, one of the most unique and rewarding for him. 

“It’s a million times deeper of an experience,” he said. “When I made that first mask and pulled it off it’s mould I was immediately struck with the difference between the performing arts and the visual arts.”

It's kind of like an artist stepping back from their painting once the last stroke has been painted, in Jonothon’s words. It’s a physical thing that exists outside of the performance that can “come to life” every time it is put on.

“This is a mask that’s actually quite complicated,” said friend and directorial colleague, Taylor Myers. “It is a feat of engineering as well as creativity… It’s gotten years of history and experimentation and toying around.” Taylor starred with Jonothon as principal cast members in “Sleep No More” off Broadway in 2012 and recently directed and created the virtual immersive theatre piece, “Eschaton”, with Jonothon (and Buddy) during the pandemic this summer.

“I am an actor first and foremost,” said Jonothon. “That’s always been my dream to work in mainstream entertainment… so even with this project I consider myself an actor playing a rat character, and like yes I am a performance artist and a writer and all these different things but I hope to really take the platform I’m on now and use that to springboard into mainstream entertainment.“

Past the mask and Buddy, Jonothon is first and foremost an actor. Born and raised in Scottsdale Arizona, Jonothon was set up for a life as a creative. His father, Richard Howard, was an accomplished musical composer and playwright and his mom was a flight attendant. His three younger siblings all pursue some artistic practice as a career. Jonothon fell into masked and animal theatre soon after graduating from Arizona State University with a degree in Acting and since then he has found a home in the Off-Broadway and immersive, site-specific New York City theatre scene. As a multi-hyphenate, Jonothon has also written original works. Most recently Jonothon wrote “The Apple Boys'', an original musical, with composer/lyricist, Ben Bonnema. The Apple Boys'' got rave reviews, Rollo Romig from The New Yorker praised it saying, the “comedy is a bushelful of delights: Ben Bonnema’s clever, catchy songs, Jonothon Lyons’s wonderfully silly yet tightly constructed book, and adorable, hilarious performances'' in 2019. Last year the show was about to be fully produced in a renowned off-Broadway theater when COVID-19 hit a week after their deal with the theater fell through. During production and writing of “The Apple Boys” Jonothon found working on the rat to be a good way to split his energy into something he had full artistic license over, and when the theaters closed down and the pandemic hit it was a much needed creative and performance outlet.

Jonothon made his first rat mask in 2009. He hand constructed the mask in Portland under his mentor and director, the famed puppeteer Basil Twist’s, studio space. And the rat character made its first public appearance in CAVE Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for a brief performance art piece the same year. 

“It’s totally a product of my years of working with the right mentors and experience,” said Jonothon about the mask's creation. “I was truly working with the best company in the country for two years and also this (his current mask) is from ten years later.” 

He began creating the current Buddy mask in 2018.  After it was “complete” (air quotes because Jonothon adds on to it daily) it was the “Golden Goose sitting on his shelf,” waiting to be used until this last summer where the character of Buddy The Rat debuted in the virtual production “Eschaton”. In this piece of immersive theater however, Buddy The Rat takes on a more PG-13 rating than his Tik Toks, when he emerges from the shadows in nothing but a dance belt (for non-performers picture a nude speedo), finds a pile of human clothes and begins putting them on and acting like a person. While experimental, these were the roots for the creation of the character of Buddy.

In the month of May, Jonothon began “Showing up Every Day in May” as Buddy The Rat to public parks in New York City to film Tik Toks and create content. Like the mask, Buddy is ever evolving based off the audience reactions Jonothon receives when out and about. When asked if he bases his movements on the mannerisms of actual NYC rats, Jonothon responded, “there’s only a few moves the animal does that you can actually do... But you have to explore your own body and figure out what you can actually do and what feels in character.” Though he added, he does follow some rats on instagram for inspiration. When I followed Buddy around for an afternoon it became clear that the performance is less about realism and more about bystander shock and reaction. 

“He’s like a puzzle master,” said Taylor about Jonothon’s creative process. “And a character is one piece of it, but then he just starts attaching other pieces to it.”

Back to the pig. It was the pig on the leash that finally forced Jonothon to give into temptation and put on the mask. I’m convinced that while other people have devils on their shoulder, Jonothon has Buddy telling him to put the mask on in public spaces and assume his rodent persona. 

“I’m insatiable. Of course I want to perform,” said Jonothon, getting a glint in his eyes I imagine is reserved for the Dr. Frankensteins of the world. Sometimes, Jonothon said, he’ll be walking down the sidewalk, picking up his dinner, when he’ll notice how crowded the Brooklyn streets are and just think to himself,  “Oh I just wanna rat the shit out of this place right now.”

My experience as Jonothon’s videographer for the day was unexpected but welcome in the world of immersive theater and immersive journalism. I was instructed to mostly film the reactions of the people in the park and if that meant we couldn’t get Buddy fully in the shot, that was okay. Then Jonothon handed me his phone (featuring an exclusive Buddy The Rat phone case complete with a rat mask decal) and stuffed my pockets with 2.5” by 2.5” #BuddyTheRat business cards with his social media handles to hand out if anyone asked. Over less than the course of an hour I handed out upwards of ten #BuddyTheRat business cards.    

As soon as the mask came on, the 6’3, well-spoken man I had talked to for the interview was no more. He almost immediately jumped to perch himself atop a trash can, moving the mask in sharp calculated head turns and tilts and following people walking past with his beady eyes. Dogs go wild for Buddy, it's like they’ve never seen a man with a rat mask crawl on all fours throughout a park before. Briefly Jonothon paused his performance to converse with an old friend, fellow actor, Zack Buell. 

“What do you do?” Zack asked. “I’m not on Tik Tok… but this is cool. Keeping doing this performance art, man.”

Zack and Jonothon were former Blue Men together in “The Blue Man Group '' at Astor Place. They exchange their goodbyes and well-wishes, and after Zack left the scene a little girl approached Jonothon and, asked very earnestly, whilst pointing to the mask “When are you performing?”

At one point in our adventure/performance/immersive experience, Buddy picked up a ball abandoned by a park dog (or pig I guess) and began rolling it up and down a hill as children screamed at him. 

“You’re a human! You’re a human! You’re a human!” a child yelled shrilly, repeating it a couple times as reassurance.

“Only in New York,” a guy projected as an aside in a strong New York accent from behind a bench (an exclamation Jonothon hears on the regular). 

“If you’re really a rat, where's your tail?” screamed another kid, and I hoped Jonothon didn’t regret leaving it behind for the interview. 

Buddy the Rat tries to avoid children. But children love Buddy. It’s a little too risky, approaching children, because you have to ask their parents for permission to film them, and there’s always the slight possibility Buddy may end up being more nightmare fuel, said Jonothon. He puts great care in the people and groups he approaches, also steering clear of preteens. 

“Anyone who watches me is my audience,” said Jonothon while reflecting on his work. It all feeds into his artistic mission as an actor. Jonothon’s mission spans past his work as Buddy to his artistic life as a whole. 

Buddy The Rat, the performance piece, is something Jonothon hopes to grow beyond the virtual sphere. Though the rat caricature is iconic and site-specific to New York City, someday he hopes to take Buddy on the road to fulfill his artistic mission. When local news stations interview him about his work he usually just says his mission with the rat is to ‘make people smile’ but bystander’s reactions are meant to stretch beyond their comfort zones.  

He hopes to travel around the world with his masked persona to prove his ultimate hypothesis: that people’s reactions, no matter the country or culture, will be the same. 

“There’s only so many ways a human being reacts to this,” he said, motioning to the mask.“The artist concept is to illuminate basic human behavior. I really believe that a healthy ingredient for a healthy human global civilization is recognizing unity.”