Post by TheShadow on Apr 1, 2009 19:00:44 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com
By Rowena Coetsee
East County Times
Some guys play golf, while others tinker under the hood or spend time on the Delta scouting out fishing holes.
Mark Acasio? He gets his kicks dressing up in an ape suit.
"It's my passion," said the 40-year-old Brentwood resident.
Since he first climbed into a gorilla costume that he'd picked up at a yard sale for $19, Acasio has made a name for himself — or rather, the character he's created — with his simian silliness.
Known as "Gorilla Rilla," Acasio has been a flamboyant fixture at Oakland Raiders games for 11 years — and these days he's taking his shtick overseas.
Acasio first headed for Germany in December 2007 to spend a week with U.S. troops returning from Iraq at the invitation of a military employee who had spotted his primate persona on MySpace.
Dan Miles had helped assemble two fledgling football teams consisting of amateurs, and now was looking for a mascot to market them.
Acasio's ape fit the bill: Not only is it a symbol of strength, but it's memorable and kid-friendly, explained Miles, head of football operations for Team USA American Football Stars & Stripes.
And so Acasio took an all-expenses-paid tour of four U.S. military bases and an international training camp, where he met children of American service members and schmoozed with about 500 soldiers.
Acasio also handed out Raiders memorabilia, including helmets the players had signed and autographed posters of the team's cheerleaders.
He returned in November to welcome back members of the second Stryker brigade, this time with a red, white and blue top hat and football jersey.
And in July, Acasio is going back again to support a golf tournament that will raise money for the U.S. Olympic team and a kids' camp.
Stateside, Gorilla Rilla not only has attended every Raiders home game as a season-ticket holder for the past 11 years but travels to road games as well.
When he's not pounding his chest in the stands, Acasio appears at charity events: a summer camp for kids with muscular dystrophy, fundraisers for cancer survivors, victims of domestic violence and children with autism, and a Super Bowl barbecue cook-off benefiting nonprofit agencies like Brentwood's Police Activities League.
The idea to go jungle sprung from Acasio's desire for a look that would set him apart from the thousands of other Raiders fanatics who gather in the Oakland Coliseum's so-called Black Hole. It would be hard for someone 5 feet, 7 inches tall to stand out in such a raucous crowd, but dressing as a gorilla, well, that might do the trick.
"I was born on Halloween — I was born a character," laughed Acasio, who grunts, walks on his knuckles, and accessorizes with a top hat and a necklace of Hawaiian kukui nuts.
Since first climbing into the suit one rainy Sunday in 1998, he has dubbed himself "Gorilla Rilla" — a name he trademarked two years ago — and has acquired five more custom-made masks, a half-dozen additional suits, along with gloves the size of dinner plates and multiple pairs of feet.
And to preserve the mystique, the self-employed landscaper never removes his latex mask.
"He can fill up a water jug of sweat after a whole day at a Raider game," said girlfriend Marilyn Gaffett, whose job as Acasio's assistant includes keeping him hydrated.
The charge Acasio gets from seeing others smile makes any discomfort all worthwhile, however, and he has no plans to retire his suit.
"As long as there's a Raiders game and I'm alive, I'll be a gorilla," he said.