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| PERFORMER | Grenoldo Frazier |
| DEBUT | 1980 |
| DESIGN | Michael Frith designer |
Phineas T. Barnswallow is the comic villain of the first Sesame Street Live tour, A Sesame Street Mystery: The Case of the Missing Rara Avis. Modeled after W. C. Fields, Barnswallow is a flowery-talking showman and con artist, proprietor of Barnswallow's Barnstorming Aviary. Barnswallow hopes to take his troupe, The Seedy Birds, to Broadway, but requires a star performer. Big Bird comes across his path, and is roped into the act.
Veteran Broadway performer Grenoldo Frazier recorded Barnswallow's voice, and also performed him in-suit. The character's name and behavior reference Phineas T. Barnum.
