David Joyner was a software analyst at Texas Instruments for six years when he quit his job to put on a two-metre tall purple costume and dance with super-excited children. It doesn't sound like the ideal career move, but David – who, he says, comes from a very clairvoyant family – dreamt that he needed to breathe life into Barney. And, he told Ryan Tubridy this morning, that's what he did. And he did it on stage and television for 10 years.
"Now, I had never heard of Barney, didn't know anything about Barney…"
A week after he gave in his notice at Texas Instruments, a casting agent sent David some videos of Barney to study before auditioning for the role. He told her he didn't want to do it, he'd never been in a costume before, but she insisted he'd be perfect for it, so he agreed to do it. Problem was, the videos kept putting him to sleep. The night before his audition, he tried watching the videos again, but again he fell asleep. This time, though, he had a dream about Barney.
"A lot of times I'm trying to figure something out, I'll dream about it."
David dreamed that Barney had passed out and he rushed to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In the morning, he is totally confused by the dream. While driving to the audition, he sees a billboard for Southwest Airlines with the slogan, 'Breathe life into your vacation.' The same advertisement was on a billboard in the parking lot when he got to the audition. And it struck him that what his dream meant was that he had to revive Barney.
"Barney was dead, the character was dead, you've got to breathe life into this character."
That's exactly what he did and it worked: he nailed the role (as they like to say in Hollywood, or so I'm told). Having got the part, David then had to get to grips with working inside a two-metre purple dinosaur. And that was a steep learning curve.
"I've got the tail to consider, I've got the big feet to consider, I've got the fact that sometimes I'm not going to be able to see to consider."
Not only that, but there's also the fact that the costume is heavy – 31kg – and hot. And he's surrounded by children. And he has to project his – or rather, Barney's – thoughts and emotions through a costume that has no facial expression. David told Ryan that one of the things he always did before he got into the costume, was pray.
"I've always understood that kids are more spiritually connected than we are, they just may not be aware of it."
David is back in costume these days, playing Hip Hop Harry on YouTube.
You can hear all of David's story and listen back to the rest of The Ryan Tubridy Show here