Today we’d like to introduce you to Carey Stinson.
Hi Carey, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My family moved to Dallas in 1980 from Washington D.C. Grew up in the Richardson/Plano area. I went to MMC community college in Waco, Tx studying music. Moved back to Dallas after college looking for work in the entertainment field. While working at a Chilli’s in Plano, TX I was introduced to the owner of Barney Birthday Parties. After a year of doing birthday parties as Barney around the DFW area, I got an audition to be the second body actor to play the role of Barney for promotions. After five years of doing promotions and performing as Barney, I went on tour in the lead role of Barney for Barney’s Big Surprise and Barney’s Magical Castle. Left the road after the second tour, to take over the Barney Body Actor role on the popular PBS Kids show Barney & Friends for eight seasons.
After twenty-two years of playing the role of Barney, I decided that I wanted to work on the other side of the camera. Went back to studying photography in Plano, Tx. After college, I have tried several different areas of photography from commercial work shooting for Lexus and Toyota, music photography shooting for bands like Deep Blue Something & Too Live Crew, Fine Art Photography focusing on Texas Photography. These days my photography is focused on portrait and wedding photography, I love shooting images of people and their stories.
Two years ago, I started a popular podcast/video series called Purple Tales. Having conversations with the amazing people in front of and behind the camera of Barney. After a limited run of 23 episodes, I decided to start a podcast/YouTube series called Purple Roads. Purple Roads expanded the concept of having behind-the-scenes conversations with the people of Barney to artists from all over children’s television. The combined two series have an audience of over 750,000 views and Purple Roads is continuing to grow each week.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As much as I love the entertainment world it always has its challenges. Learning to deal with No. Went through lots of auditions before I found Barney. Being the body actor for Barney is a very physical job and I dealt with several different injuries over the years.
With photography, the world has changed so much that you have to adapt. When I first went to photography school, they teach to focus on one area (example: portrait, photojournalism, concert photography, food photography…) these days with the internet, social media, and cell phones you need to be strong in all areas of photography.
In the podcast world, it is a real challenge to put out a weekly show when it comes to finding guests, preparing for interviews, post-production of show, and promotion (social media)
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have been a creative my whole life. Started out as a piano player in college. After trying to figure out how to make a living I stumbled into the Barney audition. Barney is my most proud achievement. I had never been in a costume or acted before the audition. Once getting the job, I learned so much from working with children. I also spent a lot of time working with make-a-wish kids and doing hospital visits as Barney. A humbling and very rewarding experience. Learning to become a photographer in my forty’s has been very rewarding. Love challenging myself and photography has been a very rewarding experience. Never saw myself doing something like podcasting and it has turned in to one of my favorite things. Starting with Purple Tales Podcast and now Purple Roads Podcast, it has become an incredible experience. I love learning and hearing people’s stories and photography & podcasting has allowed me to do what I love.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Lots of help in my live. My parents are huge influence in my life. They were both open to me being in the entertainment field as a career, they told me about love which was so important during my Barney career, and never giving up with is so so important in the entertainment world. My high school cross country coach Buzz Andrews taught me strength and how to keep going in life. My photography teacher/photography mentor Vernetta Thomas helped me develop my eye. I able to see so much more since meeting Verneta.
Contact Info:
- Email: carey@purpleroadspodcast.com
- Website: https://careystinson.com/
- Instagram: @purpleroadspodcast
- Facebook: @purpleroadspodcast
- Twitter: @roadspurple
- Youtube: @purpleroadspodcast
