Catching up with...Brian Fox Ellis

Portraying John James Audubon, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Ridgway, and more.

Eagle-eyed TWiB readers might recall that Brian Fox Ellis contributed posts to this space back in 2021. Ellis is an author and storyteller and Director of Membership and Outreach for Illinois Audubon Society. I first met him when he was portraying John James Audubon during a bird walk. When we spoke recently, Ellis had just returned from a 14-day tour of Colorado’s Western Slope, performing as Abraham Lincoln’s law partner, Billy Herndon, and as Charles Darwin.

Here’s an edited version of our recent conversation:

TWiB: Any birding highlights from Colorado? New species, interesting locales?

Ellis: Well, I’m at a point where it’s hard to add new species to my life list, but according to eBird, I added a few that I know I saw pre-eBird, like a Virginia’s Warbler and a couple of sapsuckers, Williamson’s and Red-naped. I’m pretty sure they’re on my life list from paper, but they are a new bird for eBird.

TWiB: So there’s the list that’s in eBird and the list that’s on paper and sometimes that doesn’t match up. Do you just live with it or do you go back and retroactively add anything?

Ellis: I actually had a conversation with somebody out there who had recently done that. He had retired and had time, so he uploaded all of his paper lists for 30 years. And that’s one of my other favorite things about this kind of travel. It’s not in my contract, but people know I like to bird, so whoever’s hiring me is usually introducing me to their friend, the local bird nerd. And so I got to go out a couple of times with the local experts, people who sometimes guide for a living will volunteer to take me out and I’m grateful.

TWiB: I don’t think I’ve ever asked, how did your portrayals get started? Did you begin with birders or with historical figures generally?

Ellis: I’ve been a full-time storyteller for more than 40 years, depend on how you count it. And many, many years ago I taught at a Catholic school and kind of fell in love with St. Francis, and Francis was the first character that I portrayed. I went to Assisi, Italy, and spent a couple of weeks literally walking in the footsteps of a saint, which is what I called the show. And I slept in the caves where Francis used to go to fast and pray. I love experiential research, and I love that Francis is the patron saint of ecology and the patron saint of birds and the patron saint of the earth. And so it was a really nice blending of all of my interests in science and storytelling and ecology.

Then very shortly thereafter, I became John James Audubon, and I’ve been portraying Audubon close to 30 years now. It just kind of set off this cascade where I started getting commissions. So the Field Museum commissioned me to be Charles Darwin. Then around the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, I decided I wanted to be Meriwether Lewis. And the Field Museum, again, stepped up and hired me to do some programs and to create some curriculum. I get hired to go to about a half a dozen bird festivals a year, and I lead bird hikes in character, which is one of my favorite things to do. To go birding with Audubon—people love that.

This author met with Brian Fox Ellis recently, as he was preparing to perform as Edgar Allan Poe.

TWiB: It seems that the magic is that you transform into these characters and make them come alive. It’s one thing to read a secondhand account or a biography, but it’s a very different in-person approach that you have. And I imagine that may have more resonance for many folks.

Ellis: Last weekend in Grand Junction, I was Charles Darwin, but I shared the stage with Marie Curie and the night before Hedy Lamarr and Nikola Tesla performed, and it was kind of fun, the four of us to be able to hang out and have conversations. We did a panel conversation talking about those four characters and their contributions to the scientific wonder of the world. The audience really responds differently in some more kind of authentic and genuine ways when they feel like they’re having a conversation with Audubon or Darwin, and they can ask uncomfortable questions and in a way that they get the quotes. I try to, as much as I can quote what they wrote. I admit I have my own biases, but I try to filter that and let the character speak in their words.

Because Audubon in particular, and Darwin as well, were very prolific writers. I mean, not only do I have all 10 volumes of Audubon’s birds and mammals, but all 50 short stories he wrote. And I have copies of transcriptions of many of his journals and diaries. Being able to quote what that character said gives us a chance to look into their head and know what they thought and how they thought.

TWiB: I can only imagine that you’ve made sort of a lifetime goal of preparation for these. You must refresh yourself, I imagine, on occasion?

Ellis: It kind of depends on the character. If it’s somebody that I do often, then it’s just there on the tip of my tongue. If it’s somebody I have not performed as in a while, then yes, I go back to my notes. I go back to my research.

Even with somebody like [ornithologist] Robert Ridgway, a relatively new character. I was commissioned by the Illinois Audubon Society to portray Ridgway for our 125th anniversary because he’s relatively new. I am still learning.

Going back to the research is always fun. I’ll go to the library, or I’ll pick the brain of the local ornithologist to learn a little more about Ridgway.

TWiB: Your amazing portrayal of Ridgway in my grouse video was very exciting. I’m not sure I could think of a more perfect fit. It was a brilliant casting decision by whoever made the film.

Ellis: That guy’s made some good choices.

Watch The Best-Known Grouse of the Western States here.

TWiB: You know more about Ridgway than I do. He’s this character that keeps coming up as I do more research.

Ellis: He was the first official ornithologist at the Smithsonian. Then for the [World’s] Columbian Exposition, he was hired to come out and design some exhibits. It is a little niche, but I usually don’t accept a commission unless I know that the character has legs. But with Ridgway, I was really intrigued because, I don’t know, 20 something years ago I was performing as Audubon in Olney [Ridgway’s hometown]. And Jane Peak, who has sadly recently passed, was one of the people holding up the banner for Ridgway in southern Illinois. And she said, 20-something years ago, you should be Ridgway. So when the Illinois Audubon Society said, we’d like you to play one of our early founders, I immediately thought of Ridgway. I’ve done a few birding festivals as Ridgway. Thankfully, the Illinois Humanities Council has funded a tour. So for two years, I was free to anybody in Illinois who wanted to hire me as Ridgway, funded by the Humanities Council.

Ridgway seated at the base of a Black Walnut, circa 1881, as he was documenting the trees of Illinois and Indiana. He later published a report, “Notes on the Native Trees of the Lower Wabash and White River Valleys, in Illinois and Indiana,” included in the Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Source: Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Ellis: Because the word is now out, and I’m hoping that it will continue to echo and I’ll get more work as Ridgway because I do like underdogs, but I also love to portray people who have been left out. I have portrayed Benjamin Dan Walsh, who was Illinois’ first official entomologist and who founded the magazine, American Entomology, that’s still in print. The Rock Island Historical Society has hired me and several other local organizations to portray Benjamin Dan Walsh. And I don’t know if there’s any entomology conferences out there that will invite me, but he’s a big hit on the insect circuit.

TWiB: Well, I don’t know the insect circuit, but it sounds like fun.

Explore more of Brian Fox Ellis’ work at Fox Tales International.

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