OctoPhoMo Day 13 & Some Story Time in General Mental Anesthesia

Disguise OR Face Paint OR Friday The 13th

Face Paint over disguise any day! But I will throw a disguise or 2 in there to balance things out… lol. You guys are about to get sick of me… (or sick because of me, either way) lol.

DISGUISE

One Halloween I dressed up as Bernie from “Weekend at Bernie’s 2” It had to be the sequel so I could walk around.

Me wearing 120lbs of (unpadded) platemail armor for my portfolio in film school… in south Florida.. in August.... yeah.......

And it was too small, pinching my skin in precarious places and parts kept breaking off during fight sequences. (not the precarious parts…)

And then I got roughly 200 mosquito bites in 2 days.

And as I reflect upon suffering for my art, I can’t help but think:

Fuck that shit!

Ok, now that, that’s out of the way, let’s have some fun! I’ve got A LOT here, I hope that’s ok… this is sorta my thing. :)

FACE PAINT

This first pic doesn’t belong on OctoPhoMo, but the story is interesting… I was the 1st Assistant Director on a Christian Film called “Highway to Hell” a couple of years ago. The night of the red carpet event, I also had a zombie-themed show at The Abyss Theatre about 30 minutes away!

So, here’s a pic of me at the Red Carpet event: then I had to race over to the theatre and splash on some make up extremely quickly! Did the make up in about 15-20 mins!

And 45 minutes later…

If I’ve already used that photo, skip it, I have plenty more. (My short term memory is wiped because of current long term use of Prednisone).

I was the stage manager for a company called The Undercover Unit when they operated in Miami, FL. It was basically a live theatrical event that played out scenarios allowing you to live out a video game fantasy. One of the stories we did was a zombie one and it caught the attention of one of the Producers of the Brad Pitt film World War Z. They invited us down to the premiere dressed up as zombies to scare people in line and the lobby. I wasn’t a zombie in the show, but how could I say “No?”

Here, I’m applying makeup to Jules, an actress friend of mine who is one of the stars of my Edgar Allan Poe short film and theatrical production.

Parts of his makeup was wearing off in this pic, but I did a 2 hour makeup job on my brother at 5am so he could wear it all day at work. He was an undead riverboat gambler. By the time this pic was taken, he had been in the makeup for 14 hours! Next to him is my mom who decided to let me do a quickie make up job on her. Kids were starting to trick or treat, so I had little time. Got hers done in 30 mins.

On a short film that I was the 1st Assistant Director on as well as the sfx makeup artist, here’s a glimpse of a bruise (small wound) that I put on our actress Marissa.

Have you seen the play or watched the movie: “Bug” by traci Letts? We did that play at The Abyss Theatre. On this show I was the stage manager and sfx makeup artist. To date it was the most difficult makeup work I had to do because I had a lot to do and very, very little time to do it in! I honestly didn’t think I could do it, but that’s what rehearsals are for (and it took all of them, plus practicing at home!)

This is me practicing backstage on myself, I had to create bug bites, different sizes, some that looked swollen etc…

I’ve also done work for and with major haunts across the country, usually in a development / managerial role, but acting is never far behind or out of the question. This particular haunt was in South Florida; I won’t name names (they’re shut down now) but it was a $300,000 haunted house and if you notice, I have some hospital electrodes on my chest… that’s because the air conditioning didn’t work, the building was 80 something degrees and humid. My character wore long black jeans, black boots, a long sleeve shirt, forearm length rubber gloves (at the time) a vinyl apron and a lower face mask. There were no fans in my room and I was in an area that was sealed off. A wall behind me with a live electrical grid and a chain link fence in front of me. I carried an 8lb iron pipe which a dragged across the back wall causing sparks to fly while a grasped the chain link fence making guests think they might be electrocuted. Ownership did not pass out water during the haunt, only when we had ‘scheduled breaks’ every 45 minutes.

One night, it was just slammed and they never took a break! 2 hours and 45 minutes in, I was on my hands and knees and could barely lift my head or arms. I was severely dizzy and nauseous as well. A manager poked his head in to tell me we were going on break in 15 mins, I just barely managed to move my head from side to side. He came over to me and asked if I was ok. I said “No, I think I’m going to throw up”. he then said, ok, we’re going on break right now. He put my arm around him and started to walk me out. As soon as I saw the back door, I ran and collapsed outside.

I was dry heaving, but nothing came out, my muscles wouldn’t work. People started stripping my clothes off and someone asked if they poured water on me and the reply was: “No, that’s all sweat!” My body started going into shock, and 911 was called.

I had severe heat exhaustion. Few people realize that if the pH (the acid/alkaline balance) of the blood drops below 7.0 and (into the acid range), from the average of 7.35 - 7.5; the body becomes first catatonic, then comatose, and then the person dies. I was at 6.94 at the hospital (potentially lower when the ambulance arrived).

It was Sunday night and we didn’t work again until Thursday. Guess who showed up? Yup, I showed up. Now there was a fan for me and they brought me water all night long, the ac never got fixed, but I took the rubber gloves off as well as the vinyl apron.

Oh, and guess who was left stuck with an $8,000 hospital bill? Right again, ME!!!!!!!

Yes, I always do my own makeup! I kept the electrodes on, not just for effect, but to spit in the face of the ownership!

You know you’re doing a good job, when you take a 5 min break and people just want to get pics with you! Always happy to oblige!

Going back with the theatre theme… in the early goings I had a very small makeup area… I could only have out about a 1/4 of what I needed for shows / events.

Applying sfx makeup to another actress friend of mine, Melanie for a show at the Abyss Theatre.

Playing around with an audience member at The Abyss Theatre. I love it when people come dressed up for shows! And yes, that’s one of my corpses as the guest of honor. :)

And lastly… As mentioned previously, I did a short Edgar Allan Poe film (I even have a recent pb entry on it (https://www.prosebox.net/entry/622756/) but as part of the theatrical experience, I portrayed “The Red Death”. A few shots of me in my makeup. (I didn’t use any prosthetic’s, so my looked changed a little each night).

I know I went a little overboard, (I could have posted 100 photo’s) but hey… it was a great prompt, so sue me! :)
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PSYCHE! I’ve got one more… C’mon… you didn’t think I’d leave out Friday the 13th did you???

My pug (and mental health therapist) “Inspector Noodles”. Chi… chi… chi… ruff… ruff… ruff.

Last updated October 14, 2017