Geek Squad Meets Mod Squad
Halloween is made for actors. It's the one holiday where we get to play whatever part we want to play. (As opposed to Arbor Day where your costume choices are really just limited to deciduous or coniferous.)
I've worn lots of elaborate costume pieces before (my German sheperd costume complete with tail, leash, prosthetic muzzle, six-foot wooden crook and Prussian pickelhaube helmet springs to mind) but this year I wanted to keep things simple.
A vampire is pretty much just fangs and some white facepaint. Seemed simple enough. Of course, that doesn't really alter my appearance much (white on white is still a polar bear in the Minnesota snowstorm of my face) so you can't stray too far from the baseline geek I've already got going on.
Thus was born Count Dorcula, Vampire Lord of Transylvanian Tech Support.
Here's the transformation in pictures:
Start with one freshly-showered and shaved Thomas the Lommas. Make sure you goop in plenty of pomade before that hair dries. It took a lot of work to get that hairline to show the proper blend of scalp and evil cowlick. A LOT of work. ...Mostly on the cowlick part.
Add some clown white. $7 at Norcostco.
(Yes, it's outrageously spendy. But hey, Norcostco is a Minneapolis-based company. Had to support the home team.)
For the record, I am wearing pants in this picture.
Goth or mime? Clearly, there's still a ways to go. Let's get that wardrobe going.
Shirt and tie... a little touch-up on the neck. Still seems like there's something missing...
Oh yeah... FANGS.
$15 at Norcostco, but well worth it. Check out this video of how to fit them.
(I'm not in it, but I suspect "Mercy" is an acceptable substitute.)
That's sufficiently evil. How do we get the geeky tech-support part to play?
(Yeah, yeah, okay - how do we get the TECH-SUPPORT part to play?)
Oh digital camera and Canon PIXMA printer, how I love thee.
(That's a Joe Lommel arts & crafts project if there ever was one.)
Add a pager, cellphone, PDA, and...
I VANT TO DEFRAG YOUR HARD DRIVE!
Unfortunately, I'm doing scene work in my acting class on Wednesday so I won't get as much mileage out of this outfit as I had hoped. There's always next year.
In celebrity sighting news: I did wear this to a party Saturday night. Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon were there.
I did not offer to imbue their cellphones with eternal battery life.
-Tom, the guy who runs the nightly back-ups.
You mean coniferous?
Nice outfit! Had a party to attend this weekend as well. A friend came in from out of town to attend as well. Not an actor, but an amateur film-maker, so he brought all manner of props and costume accessories as well.
I ended up just being the Shadow, which was easy enough to do with stuff I already own. Sadly, about six people thought I was Jessee James.
Clay - You're right. Plus, "coniferous" is funnier. I guess I should have paid more attention in 8th grade Earth Science instead of spending all my lab time rolling up Yazarians for Star Frontiers.
Nancy - Hmmm... I do have an idea for a video blog that is somewhat related...
Can I borrow your hillbilly beard, Clay?
A couple things that are interesting: I never realized it was written as alternating letters and diary entries told from different points of view. Also, the vampire hunters try to incorporate science and technology into their efforts and send a lot of telegrams back and forth and one of them, a psychiatrist, even records his thoughts on wax cylinders. I thought that was kind of forward-looking for the 1890s.
The other thing I should mention is that in the book Dracula has a long white mustache. I think it's amazing how images get into our culture and stay there. Just about every pop culture vampire image out there is based on the Bela Lugosi movie portrayal; and I have to wonder these days how many people have ever even seen this? A black-and-white film from the dawn of the talkies? Probably not all that many. But we all still recognize the (film) Dracula even if we've never seen the film.
Curioser and curioser.
So, Tom, I guess for you this means there's probably some hope of putting your physical stamp on a character and becoming immortalized long after both you and the original cultural references have long faded from view...
juice
But that's SOLELY based on his Shu Mei.
I'd take his credits: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0035664/
Gedde Watanabe's career has been more spotty, but it's funny you mention him: I think I saw him in a bar in Beverly Hills last month.
Well... at least we're both from Minnesota.
do i see a vignette for the next halloween episode of "the office" forming. tom is a member of dwight's d&d group and they're dressing up for the annual trek to ravenloft.
"I am nothing if not an older, nerdier, more character-y Josh Hartnett."
God, I hope not. I have never seen a movie in which Josh Hartnett had more than 10 minutes of screen time that wasn't craptacular. Admittedly, I haven't all his movies and I really don't have a problem with him or his acting, I just think his starring in a movie is a dead albatross around its neck.