Out of Character

Every Halloween, the company I'm employed at holds an afternoon Halloween event with fun activities where employees are asked to (optionally) where a costume.

For Halloween 2008, I originally planned to go as Balki Bartokomous from Perfect Strangers, but as Halloween approached (I procrastinated of course), I could not find a suitable vest that would help people make the connection.

So now it was the morning of Halloween and I still didn't have a costume. I stopped in at The Real Canadian Superstore, only to find that all Halloween costumes and accessories were ransacked. But I did manage to pick up a Heads Up Harry (life-size animated talking zombie figure) for half price... If I couldn't dress up, at least I could bring my buddy Harry, who was Halloween-ready.

Now it's lunch-time, and still no costume. I zipped out to the mall for lunch and hit Spencers Gifts. I was able to find a redneck baseball cap with long greasy curly locks attached (last one in the store), glass bottle glasses, and a set of hillbilly teeth. And luckily, I had a set of overalls from a cable company in the back of my car.

I was going to be some fictitious Billy "Cable Guy" Bob character, and no one in the office knew.

I secretly slipped into the costume. But at the same time, I slipped into the character behind the costume. I changed my stance, my walk, and my talk. Of course, the hillbilly teeth had a lot to do with the alteration of my speech, but my words were now from the mouth of Billy Bob.

Here's the before-and-after pics to show my usual office persona and my Halloween Billy Bob persona. Actually, the "before" pic was taken a couple of days ago, but I think you get the idea of the physical transformation. Uh, I'm the one on the left if you're wondering... and that's Heads Up Harry on the right (it looks like he's lost a bit of weight, and I've gained a bit).

(For larger view, click on above images)

A few people had a difficult time figuring out who I was (or even if I was supposed to be there), and I had a great time being someone else for the afternoon. I didn't let up... I stayed in character the entire event, until it was time to pull off the costume.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any video of my character from the event... that would have been ideal to show how I pulled it off.

So instead, I'm going to try and persuade my colleagues to leave comments about their point of view or experience. If you're curious, come back to this posting during this upcoming week to read the comments left by my colleagues.