Who were those characters Bono used in the live shows during the Zoo TV Tour?
Bono played three different characters on stage during Zoo TV. They are The Fly, the Mirrorball Man, and Mr. MacPhisto. The Fly is supposed to represent the typical “rock star” with his black, shiny leather clothes and his bug-eyed glasses. His excess and posing for the cameras is to make fun of the way rock has become impersonal and fake. The next character is the Mirrorball Man, who is a Television Evangelist. He wears shiny, sparkling clothes that look like, what else, a disco ball. The last character, who was seen in the Sydney concert, is Mr. MacPhisto, an aging thespian/rock star. Both the Mirrorball Man and Mr. MacPhisto are representations of, if not the devil, then very evil characters. The Mirrorball Man was seen during the indoor legs of the tour, and the early portions of the Outside Broadcast tour. MacPhisto debuted on the Zooropa Tour in the summer of 1993.
