The Canuck Way catches up with Adam Forsythe of the Green Men to talk anything and everything related to the Vancouver Canucks past and present!
It’s been five long years since the Vancouver Canucks‘ fan-favorite Green Men hung up their famous suits, but to this day they still remain as one of the most talked-about mascots across all major sports. Luckily enough, The Canuck Way had the opportunity to lock down one half of the Green Men for an interview. Adam Forsythe joined me to chat everything Canucks related! Past, present, future. It’s all here.
1. How did you come up with the Green Men idea?
The initial idea came from the show “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”. There is an episode in which Charlie Day’s character takes acid and gets into a green spandex suit and tailgates at a Philadelphia Eagles practice. Sully and I bonded over our love of the show, and over beers one night we discussed how funny it would be to get a pair of suits and wear them at a (Seattle) Seahawks game. We had tickets and were going to Seattle with a bunch of friends to sit in the nosebleeds. The idea was simple… draw attention to ourselves for the sole purpose of embarrassing our friends. Sully’s green suit got delayed in the mail and we had to scrap the plan. Sully wanted to make it up to me, so he suggested once his suit arrived we attend a Canucks game and sit in his dad’s company’s seats by the penalty box. It was supposed to be a one-time event, and suddenly we turned it into a cultural craze!
2. Would you ever return for a playoff special? Or are you officially retired?
It’s been five years since we attended a Canucks game, and I would be lying if I said we hadn’t thought about it. I wouldn’t say we are officially retired because we really like going to events and hanging out with fans. Since our last NHL game, we have gone to plenty of minor league games and charity events because it is always a blast to hang out with fans. Chatting with an excited fan, posing for a goofy photo, and then signing an autograph was also a major highlight of wearing the green suit.
I still would have to check to see if the green suit fits! The last time we suited up was last fall when we were asked to be in a Save On Foods commercial. It was really fun stepping back into the suit but involved us standing in the milk fridge, wearing nothing but a thin layer of green spandex, for several hours. It was freezing! Totally worth it though.
3. From throwing waffles to the Vince Vaughn poster, what’s your favorite moment?
There are too many moments to count. In the early days of Greenmen, I really love looking back at the 2010 Olympics. The Greenmen craze was in its early days, and suddenly it was thrust into the international spotlight. Several media outlets asked us to head downtown for interviews and to lead some fan rallies. Over a six-hour span, we chatted with CBC, Sportsnet, TSN, BBC, NBC, and just about every other major worldwide outlet. It was pure chaos. In between the interviews, we took hundreds, if not thousands of photos with fans. We wrapped things up by getting escorted to the front of the line to zip line over the thousands of people packed into Robson Square. We couldn’t see a thing, but could just feel the wind whipping past us and everyone chanting “Greenmen! Greenmen, Greenmen!”
The next day at the Olympics we were asked by Molson to come down to the Molson Hockey House, set up across the street from Rogers Arena. Every night they hosted a massive party, and that night they were honoring Wayne Gretzky and he was going to be in attendance. Molson was going to count down Gretzky’s top moments of his career, and we were asked to come up on stage and introduce Gretzky to the crowd. We had only started Greenmen two months prior, and suddenly we were on stage with the greatest hockey player of all time. I still can’t wrap my head around that!
My favorite in-game moment was during the 2011 Stanley Cup run. We had causal relationships with a handful of Canucks players, but we never had any interaction with Roberto Luongo. We had heard rumblings he was a big fan of ours and he even filmed a skit with TSN where he mentioned us by name, but we had never really chatted with him. In the West Final, Kevin Bieksa scored the OT winner to send the Canucks to the Stanley Cup. Confetti was raining down and all the Canucks were celebrating at center ice. Suddenly, Luongo broke free from his teammates, skated over to us, and started banging the glass and cheering. He gave us a thumbs up and then went back to his teammates. That one moment justified everything we had ever done in the green suit. Luongo had just accomplished a lifelong goal of reaching the finals, and he took the time out of his own celebration to come over and embrace us. It was surreal and a moment I will never forget.
4. GreenMen Radio is a blast to listen to. What’s the plan after COVID?
Thanks! We really appreciate it. We really hope Greenmen Radio gets a chance to continue on Sportsnet650 when life gets back to normal. We still have one episode left on our contract. So the show was originally intended to be an apology tour from us to former players we tormented in the penalty box. We wanted to reach out and chat with them about what it was like to be heckled by two idiots in green suits. We would love to continue down that path, but Sully and I quickly discovered we were having a lot more fun reaching out to some of our favorite random players over the years and chatting with them instead. We didn’t want the superstar players, we wanted the random cult heroes of the Canucks and the NHL. One of my favorite interviews was our chat with Shawn Antoski. He was the nicest guy ever, had great stories, and had zero egos when it came to discussing how his entire career was a grind. Those are the stories I want to hear.