Famous Rupp Arena "Boogie Man" Picks Up Little Girl While Dancing, Promptly Falls Down All The Stairs

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For those unfamiliar with the famous (I guess infamous now) dancing guy at Rupp Arena…that’s the Boogie Man.

Rupp has developed its own Boogie Man.

He appears in Section 19 during the first or second TV timeout of the second half. He is summoned to action by the introduction to the old Tommy James hit, Mony Mony. When he hears that, Darren Moscoe, 43, becomes a hip-gyrating, elbow-flailing, dancing dervish.

“I just love it; I love to dance,” Moscoe says.

Now, any appearance that the Boogie Man makes on the arena’s giant video screens is greeted by a Rupp roar.

“That guy is the single most effective crowd-interactive device we have,” says Dave Stawicki, technical director of Rupp Arena’s video screens. “And none of us even know who he is.” [Kentucky]

And before you make fun of him, he’s actually got a pretty incredible story.

Few people who get a smile from watching the Boogie Man dance in Rupp know how difficult a path he has traveled to get there.

Some called him “Fits.” Others went with “retard.”

Eventually, the doctors said Darren had the neurological disease known as epilepsy.

He was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.

Of course, you can always question the parenting techniques of letting your young daughter run up to a dancing epileptic guy with a history of violent outbursts, and then get picked up by him as part of a prop for his routine. But whatever, sometimes you’re just caught up in the moment. Sometimes it’s a damn blowout and the crowd is electric and you just want to be a part of it.

It happens. And good news is everyone turned out OK, so no harm, no foul. Just Boogie Man doing Boogie Man things.