If your pre-schooler suddenly asks you to take them to the casino, as opposed to the kiddie gym or playground, it might be because they thought they heard a certain children’s TV icon telling them to head on down to the gambling hall.
Paul Christie, the voice talent behind beloved former Nick Jr. character Moose A. Moose, has resurfaced in a radio ad campaign in the nation’s largest media market for Empire City Casino, part of the Yonkers Raceway complex a few miles north of New York City. He voices a character known as “Baccarat Barry.”
The voice over–high pitched, warm, scratchy, folksy–sounds, at least to this set of ears, identical to the Moose A. Moose character, with the slightest hint of a Chicago accent. “5300 slots!” says Baccarat Barry. “Craps! Roulette! Baccarat!”
Moose A. Moose hosted the interstitials from 2003, when the channel was known as Noggin, until he and partner Zee, a blue bird, were let go in March of this year. You may recall Moose cheerily belting out songs such as “Everywhere I Go”: Days are the sunniest, jokes are the funniest. Rabbits are the bunny-est, hives are the honey-est!”
Baccarat Barry has some 750 Likes on Facebook. “Just your average guy who loves gaming…so much that I almost moved to Vegas, until I discovered Empire City Casino in my backyard,” the page says.
Facebook’s “Save Moose A. Moose” page, meanwhile, has almost 200.
Paul Christie, repped by talent agency Cunningham, Escott, Slevin & Doherty, did not return a request for comment. Nick Jr. did not comment either about whether the network execs think Baccarat Barry sounds a wee bit like Moose A. Moose.
For its part, Empire City did not have much to say, though I did enjoy the double entendre in the PR guy’s sign-off. I thanked him for looking into the Moose A. Moose matter.
His response? “You bet!”
