The Scarlet Letter Archive

Bar Halloween Contests

COSTUMING FOR FUN(?) AND PROFIT(??) FOR HALLOWEEN Or, "Take your hand off my tentacle!"

By Bruce Mai

In recent years Halloween has become the second biggest holidays in America, surpassed only by Christmas. More and more money is being spent around this time on decorations, candy, and most of all costumes. There are now more adults wearing costumes for the occasion than children. One of the biggest reasons for this phenomena is the Baby Boom generation, which refuses to grow "old", had so much fun as kids that they have kept on dressing up for their parties. The other likely reason is because there are a lot of bars and restaurants and other events that award gifts and cash prizes for the best costumes that show up.

Now, you'd think that people who made costumes as a hobby would do quite well at these things, but competition at "mundane" events is a whole different animal. Having made some observations of what wins at these things, I believe an SF & F convention costumer can still do well, if he or she is willing to alter their methods and techniques for the venue.

First of all, do some research prior to competing: You should get to know your audience and judges. If you're not much of a bar regular, you need to acquaint yourself with the "culture". Go with some friends and just watch a couple of contests (like at a "bar plaza crawl") and see what wins. You should be sure you'll be able to enjoy yourself when you go to compete, in case you don't win anything. You can also gauge your tolerance for cigarette smoke, noise, crowd rudeness, etc.

These kinds of contests are not all that unlike the early, "bad old days" of SF & F costuming. Judging is either by a panel of locals or celebrities with little or no costume background qualifications -- or worse, by audience applause. In either case, at least the judging panel is likely to be less inebriated than the audience. If you have the opportunity, call the bar(s) ahead of time and find out how the judging will be done. With that information in mind, here are some thoughts that may affect the costume you create:

1. Since contests at bars are "adult" (although you wouldn't know it by some of the behavior), the men there will probably somewhat outnumber the women. A female competitor, especially an attractive one, will have a definite advantage. Wearing a revealing costume will be greatly appreciated, but be sure to go with your significant other and friends.

2. Rude or "risque" costumes, if cleverly done, often win some sort of prize. It may not be as well received in a restaurant setting where families may be, so you may want to ask the management if they have any rules about such things.

3. Assume most audiences will not be familiar with any Science Fiction and Fantasy imagery, except for Star Trek (maybe). Star Wars is even iffy. If you choose to make a media monster costume anyway, the "Do it Best" part of the "Do it First or…." is the most important part of the rule.

With these thoughts in mind, here are some suggestions as to the subject matter of your costume:

4. Again, much like the early days of convention costume contests, your audience will be in a party mood: In a bar, that means, rowdy, loud, and only paying partial attention to the proceedings. Restaurants will be somewhat less loud. In either case, a visually funny and/or clever costume usually wins. Visually funny, well-designed, and possibly risque is a big plus.

5. Don't rely on just a funny title for your costume. The audience may not be able to hear the announcements very well, and they're likely to be distracted by everything else that's going on. Also, when a bar patron, it's very hard to think when one is blasted. Again, think visual - it makes it fun for the audience if they can figure out what you are. Popular culture references make things easier.

6. To re-enforce the paragraph above, here's perhaps one of the most important rules that will greatly help your chances: Make a costume that is familiar to your audience and/or judges. One of the best examples I've seen was a person dressed as a throw rug (ala Disney's "Aladdin" style), pulling a little trailer with a vacuum cleaner and a mannequin dressed as a housewife or a maid behind it. Another award winner was a couple dressed as an over-sized suit and pants, straight out of Jane Asher's Costume Book.

7. If you can make a clever topical reference costume, or a topical media reference, that can earn you some points. Once of the cleverest that I can think of off the top of my head was one from a few years ago: Someone wrapped themselves in swaths of cotton batting and attached toy cars, houses and figures to it, and went as Hurricane Andrew. I've also heard of a group of women back in the 1980s who went as the "band" from Robert Palmer's "Addicted To Love" video. In any case, don't do a cheesy rip-off of a commercial -- it'll just look like it was done cheaply and you didn't put any effort into it.

Here are some thoughts on costume construction:

8. Build for durability. You may have to walk some distance to where the contest is (like from a big parking lot), then mill about in crowds for a couple of hours where people may brush against you. Make it flame retardant (cigarette ashes) and beer proof (unless you don't care what happens to the costume afterwards). At some point, some clod will probably spill his drink on you.

9. If you have limited vision in your costume, be sure you have a "wrangler" or two to clear paths or move obstructions. They may need to discourage overly friendly bar patrons, also. They can come in handy with the dangers mentioned in the previous paragraph.

10. Here's a very important tip that might be a bit of a surprise: If your costume looks too well made, judges will assume you rented it or you're a professional. In audience applause situations, this can be less of a factor, so long as it looks good (but don't count on it). So, my advice is, even if you're a very good constructionist, don't make your creation too "professional-looking". Popular culture monsters must still look "homemade".

Now, with this in mind, what can you expect to win? It depends on the size of your venue/competition and its location. Individual restaurants or small bars may feature cash or gift certificates ranging from $50 to $100. The bigger places, especially those located on plazas with other bars and restaurants, often have suceedingly larger prizes as the evening gets later. Grand prizes at these events are as much as $1000 or even vacation trips. That's where you'll see the greatest competition, obviously.

With an untested costume, try smaller contests first -- especially those held earlier in the evening. Many entrants don't show up for the larger contests until later (like 9 p.m.), so your odds of winning are better. Also, some places will let you re-compete the same costume the next year, if they don't remember you -- some don't care unless you win the big prizes. Finally, just like at a masquerade, don't go expecting to win -- you'll only be disappointed by what was picked over you. Judges and audiences are far more impressed with something visually creative and how much fun you're having in your costume.

So, to review, here are the factors, in order of importance, to keep in mind -- they're not that dissimilar from Masquerades:

1. Funny 2. Visually familiar 3. Not too "professional-looking" 4. Topical

Combine the first three, and you have a dynamite costume -- mix in #4 and you may have something unstoppable.

One of these days, in my copious spare time, I plan on making a costume just for the exercise of putting these observations to the test, and try to win some prizes. If you should try it too, let me know how you did.

Most of all, have fun!