# Non-clown circus theme costume?



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

The haunt I help at is changing its theme this year to carnival. I have nothing against clown haunts, I like them as a spectator, but as a haunter they're not really my thing; I'm a cemetery man. So I need to make a new costume this year because my Grave Guardian won't fit in. I'd like to do something other than a clown, but can't think of anything. I don't want to go with carnival barker or ringmaster because then I'd have to play a very central vocal role, like a leading role, and that's not me (I'm more of a quiet lurker/stalker actor).

I suppose I could clownify my RC crawler and make Bruno a crawling zombie clown torso, but my costume needs a long voluminous hooded cloak to conceal the rather large RC transmitter and antenna if I'm going to use him. I was sort of kicking around the idea of a Clown Reaper... same costume but have the cloak and creepy cloth be pale with colored polka dots and have a big red rubber nose poking out from under the hood where the face isn't seen, but I don't know if I could still make it creepy enough to balance out the comedy of such a ludicrous image. Dunno.

I suppose I could just dig out my old Disturbo the Clown concept and finish him, but I was kinda hoping to do something different. Guess I could go either way on that; I just want to get an idea soon so I know what direction to move in. Anyone have any suggestions?


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## Devils Chariot (May 23, 2007)

Side show freaks! bearded lady, pinheads, crocodile boy!

I am doing a circus and side show haunt in 2010 (i'm starting this year for the props). We have 7 haunters but we only want one clown (which will probably be me, as I am the most flamboyant, if you will) so we got 1. Ring Master 2. Barker 3. Bearded Lady 4. Clown 5. Kissing booth lady with face chewed off. ApeDude or Boarman. 6. Stilted Clown or magician 7. Zombie strong man with giant styrofoam dumbbells.

You could also have a fortune teller, carnie, organ grinder, etc. Think "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and you'll work it out.

Hope that tickled your brain. Helped me just writing this post the think it out even more.


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## Johnny Thunder (Feb 24, 2006)

What about building a simple but creepy Ticket Booth and create some sort of silent and spooky ticket taking character? You would sell the tickets admitting the crowd into the carnival. Just a thought.


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## Devils Chariot (May 23, 2007)

even better, make your costume the ticket taker AND Booth, and then pick and move when people arent looking and freak them out. Follow them around.


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## BoysinBoo (Dec 10, 2007)

Given your personality and penchant for wanting to be in the background, I'd say carnie / roadie is the perfect one for you, Rev. I'm picturing the missing toothed, wispy haired, child molester lookin', hillbilly that lurks at the edges of every traveling attraction.

Not that I'm saying that's how I picture you. LOL. I just think you'd have some fun with a creepy, behind the scenes, hunchbacked fellow like this.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Or the giant hulk for the, "Hey Rube!"


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

BoysinBoo said:


> Given your personality and penchant for wanting to be in the background, I'd say carnie / roadie is the perfect one for you, Rev. I'm picturing the missing toothed, wispy haired, child molester lookin', hillbilly that lurks at the edges of every traveling attraction.
> 
> Not that I'm saying that's how I picture you. LOL. I just think you'd have some fun with a creepy, behind the scenes, hunchbacked fellow like this.


Actually, that was the template for my Disturbo the Clown character. Just as you described, with that sparse, wispy, chemotherapy-looking hair (only in neon orange or blue), with rotted teeth and various skin lesions showing through the white makeup. And lenses to mismatch the eyes; maybe one blind-looking and the other one crazy (I've got a "Target" lens from FE that would look good opposite a white-out one). And for some reason I see a rusty, encrusted spring-jaw animal trap hanging from his belt.

Freak show is good too... maybe two-headed man? I'm giving this a lot of thought... I'll probably be going out to Mooch's house Friday to drop off the CD I got for her at TW (it's PoisonProp Adam's "Evil Clown" ambient CD, sounds awesome!)... hopefully she'll be there and can fill me in a bit more with her plans for the haunt so I get a better idea of what they'll have. That'll help me finalize my decision.

All good suggestions guys. Keep em comin if ya got em. I'm fairly creative once I pick up an idea but I'm pretty dense & slow coming up with the initial spark on my own, ya know what I mean?


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## Dixie (Feb 18, 2009)

I think I would want to be a Freak Show player, since less talking = more mysterious and scary... plus, almost anything in your imagination could be in a freak show, so it is very open to what you have on hand.... 

Strange implants; includes horns/nails/whiskers/extra facial features, etc
Shrunken heads (wear a costume with an extended shirt/collar to hide your face, and the shrunken head(s) are actually sitting on your own head)
Wolf man stuff; like an item for a hairy face, hairy chest, hairy arms, etc.
Man turns into werewolf
Conjoined Twins
Extra Limbs
Torch blowers / Fire breathing trick item
Alligator Man (either half man/half alligator, or a whole man with alligator skin and teeth)
Albino with Red Eyes 
Two Headed Cow
Horse that walks on two legs
Strongman in spandex suit
The biggest snake alive (beside a poster that says it can eat a human whole)
Man eating giant rat
The Magicians Mistake - have a covered table set up with a box on top of it, put your head through a hole in the table to appear to be a head that the magician could not attach to the assistants body
The only known Vampire in captivity - will drink blood from a chicken right before your very eyes!

Anyways, you get the point.. with a good sign next to you, just about any conceivable idea can be turned into a freak show character!


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## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

You could be a "Man Eating Chicken". 


Just stop by KFC for a bucket before the show.


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## Dixie (Feb 18, 2009)

LOL Joker.... I like that one


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## Beth (Sep 27, 2005)

How about a mangled trapeze artist??


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

joker said:


> You could be a "Man Eating Chicken".
> 
> Just stop by KFC for a bucket before the show.


That would be good to do if the very next room was someone actually being gutted/eaten by a large mutant chicken... give em a laugh like its a joke but then actually deliver; they won't expect it


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

You could do real carnival side show illusions. I know " girl to gorilla, half woman half aligator(or any animal), Half woman on a table still alive with no lower torso, Interactive Mermaid in a fish bowl, living head on sword." I used to have all these on my hard drive but two crashes later most are gone but not forgotten. If I could figure out how to illustrate them I could post most.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I still have a pdf of a 100 + year old book on illusions that has versions of all these except the mermaid. I is a huge file and I dont think I can send it all at once.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I have been trying to figure out how to post pictures here. So far not so good.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Don't worry about the pictures... we can get that file sent....!!!!  I know how several of those were pulled off, there's little illustrations here and there all over the web, but I'd LOVE to see what one of the books was like. A real magicians manual... cooool!!!

originally I've been really focusing on stuff that I can do as a queue-line floater, since I haven't had a meeting with the haunt owner yet and don't know what the plans are for the setup. I don't want to plan on commandeering a room if the rooms are all spoken for LOL... but I have been thinking of sideshow stuff in terms of propbuilding. Like a mummified Fiji Mermaid with a little motor to make it twitch and squirm on the board it's pinned to... I'm not the Barker character type, but side show may be the way to go with my little contribution.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I got the book posted. It says it can be downloaded 10 times. I have the address. Revenent has it too so I hope he can get it posted for the rest of you. 

Wayne


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## tonguesandwich (Oct 13, 2006)

Don't forget to watch the classic "Something Wicked this way Comes" for inspiration.


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## BoysinBoo (Dec 10, 2007)

Aquayne said:


> I got the book posted. It says it can be downloaded 10 times. I have the address. Revenent has it too so I hope he can get it posted for the rest of you.
> 
> Wayne


What is the address?


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

*Update*

The address is:
http://rapidshare.com/files/227955293/Magic_Stage_Illusions_and_Scientific_Diversions.pdf

I'm looking forward to reading it... I just dl'd it but its past bedtime so I don't have time to read through it. But I have no fear; I know it'll be a great read. I love that kinda stuff. BTW it's a big file, 145 Mb. Be ready for that.

And an update, topical to the thread: I met with my haunt friends today to powwow about their plans. The theme isn't actually circus per se; it's a carnival. Which leaves a little more selection... some circus elements, but some other elements as well, more variety. They really want me out front working the queue line, and they like my description of Disturbo the Degenerate Carney Clown. So it looks like I'll be a clown after all. But that's cool. I'll be working on building some sideshow/oddities props now, in addition to my costume... some of the suggestions in this thread are giving me ideas for that. So now there's a sense of direction. Good thing, too... do you realize Tuesday marks the halfway point of the year? 6 months to Halloween, in terms of actual days... plenty of propbuilding time left, but it's time to finalize those ideas, folks...


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

There are only 9 downloads left. Hope enjoy it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/227955293/Magic_Stage_Illusions_and_Scientific_Diversions.pdf


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