As The Masked Singer grand finale quickly approaches, the anticipation over who remains unmasked only grows.
Fans had the answer to one more burning question last night as the Puppet, one of the show’s most intriguing singers, was revealed to be Simon Pryce, better known as the Red Wiggle.
While Simon managed to fool many fans, and three out of four of the judges, up until his unmasking, the popular children’s entertainer tells Now To Love children at home couldn’t be tricked by his iconic voice.
Fresh from his eviction, we caught up with Simon to chat about his time on the show, what it was like going into quarantine in the wake of a COVID outbreak on set and his exciting baby announcement with partner, Lauren, including their pending gender reveal.
Simon was unmasked as the Puppet.
(Channel Ten)
You had to win a few people over with your Puppet mask, but eventually became a show favourite. How does it feel to say goodbye and be unmasked?
It was such a fun experience and, you know, you never want to get voted off anything but I had a blast. I was more than happy to have done my time there and move on, it really was a lot of fun.
Dissecting the clues and hearing your voice, a few people started guessing you were under the mask – how does it feel when people guess correctly?
I was getting little messages from parents saying, you know, my three-year-old heard you sing and you knew it was Simon straightaway. So I don’t think I fooled too many three year olds in the country [laughs].
What was it that made you want to go on The Masked Singer?
I think it was just the opportunity to do something different and something that I’d never normally do. As The Wiggles, we are touring for about nine months of the year, so we very rarely get opportunities to do external things because we’re away so much.
I really jumped at the opportunity firstly, to be involved in such a fun show, but also to get, to sing such a wide range of songs, which I would never normally sing.
Simon is usually on stage performing as 1/4 of The Wiggles.
(Instagram)You are so well known as the Red Wiggle today, but what was it like at first taking on such an iconic role?
The Wiggles, when we took over, it’d been around for over 20 years, so it was a little bit daunting at first, but the children embraced that straightaway. And, we always tried to just hold onto to what the legacy of The Wiggles, which is entertaining and educating children in their early development.
The show was brought to a halt thanks to a COVID outbreak, what was it like hearing that news and going into quarantine?
We were filming the finale when someone tested positive and everything got shut down instantly. I mean, it was such a COVID safe environment already, all the safety precautions were in place. Thankfully my wife, Lauren, was with me in Melbourne so we then quarantined together for 14 days. But we’re all healthy and safe, so that’s all we can ask for.
Do you have any guesses of who might be under the remaining masks?
It’s tricky, isn’t it? I think the public have heard more than, than I’ve heard. We’re kept so secret from everyone, you don’t mix with anyone at all and you only hear voices occasionally in group performances.
They’re three such distinct voices and so different, it’s hard to pick a winner.
Simon and Lauren recently announced they’re expecting their first child!
(Instagram)You recently revealed you’re expecting your first child with Lauren, how are you feeling?
Really excited. This is our first baby, so, there are a lot of unknowns on the way for us. I spend plenty of time entertaining children but I have never had any of my own, but we’re really excited. We’re due early to mid January.
Do you plan on finding out the gender or leaving it as a surprise?
We will find out the gender, funnily enough we have the gender in an envelope with us and we haven’t opened it yet. Because of COVID I wasn’t able to go in and have the latest scans with Lauren, so they wrote it down and put it in an envelope, and we haven’t opened it yet.
We’re kind of looking at it thinking, when are we going to open this? Why don’t we open it now, why don’t we wait? [laughs]
We thought let’s get out of quarantine first and then let’s work out what we’re going to do. I think people get a cake made these days, but we will definitely do something.
