Okay, so for anyone who knows me best,
they know that I have strange outlets for aggression. I don't necessarily
mean that in a negative sense. A lot of the time it means that I
simply output excess energy in the form of daunting projects. I
perceive challenges where none exist, and furthermore, am compelled to accept
and excel at said challenges. Christine refers to it as one of my
more "strangely charming faults." So how did this all
begin? What led me to the moment that I walked into that photo
studio as I did to have that shot taken? What's that? Yes,
that is me in the photo. Here comes the back story.
When I first started experimenting
around with makeup and costuming for Halloween years ago, I actually began
to impress people. I hate to brag because Sister Rose Riley (a
stout, Hispanic nun of my educational past) warned me as a doe-eyed sixth
grader that vanity was an admonishable sin. The saints cry every
time you take pride in your reflection - or something to that
manner. Still, I've received more compliments on the costumes and
characters I create than I have for most anything else. It's to the
point now that I find myself asking, "How can I outdo my last
disguise?" I keep raising the bar for my efforts with each
endeavor, only making things harder for myself. That's why I began
preparing for my Halloween costume in May.
Wonderfest rolled around as usual in
the end of May, allowing me to ask good friend John Goodwin for makeup
advice. John, for anyone unfamiliar, is the Emmy award-winning
makeup artist from CSI and a great guy all around. He gave me a few
pointers, as did his wonderful wife Joyce (who happens to be the Emmy
award-nominated costume designer for Desperate Housewives) on my planned
costume. "What was this Halloween costume?" you may ask,
that required all of this preparation. I'll tell you: it was Beast
from X-Men III: The Final Stand. A ballsy idea, but for every person
who told me that I couldn't pull it off, I wanted to do it all the more.
June hits and I've ordered blue crepe
hair and a prosthetic piece that I think will work for the costume. I'm
ahead of the game for the year. Unfortunately, someone dropped off some
fliers at the theatre; one of which is pictured below (please excuse
my petty comments I scribed upon it before slapping it on my
refrigerator).
I saw this and I was
flabbergasted. This guy had not only thought of my costume before
me, but he had also managed to get his face plastered on a citywide
flier. It didn't matter that this guy looked like a total douche
(his fingers showing flesh tone, his hair far from accurate, his skin
dreadfully monochromatic, etc.). He'd beaten me to the punch. Not
only that, but the fliers were dropped off at the very place I worked
while I was working on a costume of the very character he was struggling
to resemble during the very month I was planning to do a test run of my
costume. How is that not a challenge? So I sped up my
schedule so I could take advantage of the misspelled offer stamped on the flier.
Now I won't lie. It took me five
hours to get completely into costume. But the fact
that it took five hours is why I do test runs of my costumes. To
figure out where the pain-in-the-ass parts are and attempt to perfect
them. Later on, I will detail how I did the costume, but I think I
will wait to do that after Halloween to keep my process safe (I think a
costume contest or two might be beckoning me this year). I must
say that when I finally did finish, I was impressed with myself, which is
always a good sign.
At that point, it was on to Picture
People in Mall St. Matthews. Casual John was kind enough to provide
me with a ride since I was traveling sans glasses. On the way, I
received numerous second glances from passersby. Looks that
indicated that the person was thinking "Should I smile or be
scared?" The same question you ask yourself of every David
Lynch villain.
The employee who helped
me was quite amazed at my costume. She remarked how her coworker
(the douche in the photo) had attempted the same costume, but far less
successfully. Furthermore, she stated that she would have to show
him shots of me the next day. Mission accomplished, and I still had
a free 10 X 13 print forthcoming. I sat through the photo shoot, purchased several
other shots of myself in "war paint" and was quite pleased when
I was asked to sign a model release for the company, so that shots of
myself could be reproduced in the company's advertisements. Yes, I
was quite proud of myself...until I got home. The removal of the
makeup was quite the humbler. However, that is a damper for another
day. For now, I will simply say: "I rock!"
That's right. I'm megalomaniacal. What are you going to
do about it? You want to tangle with the Beast? I thought not.
Okay ego, that's enough.
