Convention Pre-Planning – Part 4

September 11, 2009 on 4:52 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Ok, I’m back from DragonCon, rested and ready to get back to Blogging!

I touched on Costume Contests last time, and I think that’s a topic that needs to be visited again.

So this week will be all about how to win a Costume Contest!!

The most basic rule of contests is to know your Contest. What are the rules? What are they judging you on? Who are the judges?

First off, make sure you actually sign up for the contest!! You have no idea how many people in amazing costumes never get to win a Contest because they never actually signed up!!

Also, make sure that you sign up in the right category. Some contests have different skill levels of competition. Some are just open to everyone and they judge everyone against each other, while others break the contestants up by “first timers”, “Journeyman” (meaning that you’ve competed before and know what you’re doing with costumes), “Expert” (meaning you’ve won a few contests before, or make costumes professionally), and “Master” (meaning that you win all the time). Make sure you sign up in the correct category, as you may get disqualified if you sign up as a beginner when you’re really an expert. Bad form!

Also, some contests divide the costumes up a bit more as well, to keep the superheroes from competing against the Sci Fi guys. If you’re not sure what category your costume belongs in, be sure to ask!

Also, don’t sign up for the Kids Costume Contest if you’re over the age requirement! That’s cheating!!

The next thing to consider is what are you actually being judged on? Is it a workmanship contest where the judges are going to be examining every seam and stitch on your costume to make sure it’s perfect? Or is it a skit contest where you have 3 minutes to do something on stage, and the better your skit, the better you score! Or, is it just a simple contest where they’re just judging your costume.

If it’s a Workmanship one, you had better make sure that your costume is perfect! If you’re wearing a period costume, make sure you’re not using plastic buttons on it!

If it’s a skit contest, the best way to win is to make the judges laugh!

And if it’s a standard costume contest, then you need to make sure that your costume blows the judges away!

And lastly, make sure you know who your judges are!

If you’re being judged by professional costumers, then you’re costume had better be up to snuff!

If you’re being judged by convention celebrities, then you need an attention grabbing costume.

And if you’re being judged by “Audience Participation” (my least favorite type of contest), then you may have to do something crazy to win!

So, here are some basic types of contests and what types of costumes work best for them:

First off – The Local Bar or Nightclub Halloween Costume Contest.

This can be a tough one to win. These are usually judged by the audience, and the audience is usually drunk. So you have to be very over the top with your costume to be able to grab their attention long enough to win.

Generally, the winners of these types of contests are hot chicks in skimpy outfits (naughty nurses, naughty cops, naughty cowgirls), people who do some kind of topical and current events related gag costume (a guy in a really bad mosquito costume calling himself “West Nile Virus”, a guy dressed as Bill Clinton with a “blow up” intern attached to his crotch, a person in a giant cardboard sandwich board with holes in it with a tag reading “Hanging Chad”), or some really awesome costume that is universally known (Robocop, Predator, KISS).

There are also variations that work well, like when there’s a team of hot chicks who dress up as KISS.

One Halloween I walked into a club here in New York and I was dressed as Robocop. I walked up to the bar to get a drink and someone handed me an envelope. Since the Robocop gloves make it impossible to open an envelope, I asked him what was in it, and he told me, “$200″. I asked what it was for, and he told me that I won the costume contest. I told him that I didn’t enter the costume contest, I just arrived. He told me he knew that, but that he also knew I was going to enter and was going to win. So I won the contest without ever even entering it.

There’s a pic of me as Robo with Mr. Paul Reubens!

Now, you may think that I win every costume contest with that suit, but you actually have no idea how many contests won’t let me enter! They see an awesome costume like that and assume that it’s store bought. You show me a store that sells Robocop suits like this, and I’ll eat it!

But that does happen all the time. Some contests won’t let store bought costumes in even if the costume isn’t store bought, but looks like it is. Right after I was rejected from getting on stage with my “store bought” Robo, a friend of mine got on stage and won the contest in his actually store bought Chewbacca costume.

You have to learn not to let those kinds of set backs get to you.

Another thing you will quickly learn about Bar and Club costume contests is how fickle the audience can be. You can have the whole room chanting your name while you’re on stage, and be about to win the contest, and then up comes a guy wearing a store bought Ghostbuster Jumpsuit. The DJ starts playing the Ghostbuster song, and next thing you know, I’m going home empty handed. It happens all the time.

Ok, that’s it for this week. Next week we’ll move on to costume contests at smaller conventions with celebrity judges!

As I leave, let me regale you with a story of meeting Ted Raimi in Philly. I’m a huge fan of his, and mentioned that I loved his character on Xena.

I still have no idea why Joxtrap would be so upset! I’m sure I pronounced Xena correctly!!

Until next week!

-Spat