the mice will play...

Another reason why there has been a dearth of cartoonage on this page for the last month-and-a-half is that i was heavily involved in the production of a play called "The Christmas Con," (original script by Warren Sager) serving as a collaborator on the script revisions and directorial responsibilities, as well as editing together several video sequences that played between scenes. In addition to these duties, I was in the cast as an old man who appeared in one extended scene intended to provide a bit of comedy in a play that was mostly suspense and drama. Additionally I ended up filling in at the last minute as a second minor character, a police detective, when the actor cast in the role (my brother) had an apendectomy the weekend before the show.

here are some pictures:these two are an elderly couple who come to the main character (a con posing as a minister in order to abscond with money intended to be a christmas fundraiser for a local children's hospital) with an unsual problem: they won a large sum of money, and are embarrassed because they feel like the way they got it was, according to my character "sort of like gambling," and they aren't sure what they should do with it. Of course, the con has a good idea what HE wants to do with the money, and convinces them to donate it to his "mission trip" (a perfect way to provide a way out of the country with the christmas funds!)here I am silently waiting for my "wife" to stop talking (she didn't, but I'm used to it).

here, I nod off while I wait for my lines...


above, I'm the guy in the middle with the handlebar moustache, the detective who arrests the con, as well as catching a mob boss who is after the con for some money he is owed.

Upon learning I had to play two roles, I set about trying to find a way to quickly alter my appearance enough that the audience wouldn't be saying, "Wait, that's the same actor!" and would instead be caught up in the scene.

I messed around with makeup at home fine-tuning the two different characters' appearances- and this is what I came up with:

this is a practice where I was trying out the mustache- notice how different my "wife" looks without age makeup and gray wig- she did a pretty good job of altering her appearance too:

Here I am with just the mustache and a bit of gray in my eyebrows:and the final makeup:
again:


and the cop ended up being a combination of this mustache and stubble-beard:
and these glasses:The transition between the two characters (old man was first, the cop showed up at the end of the play to make important arrests) involved spraying black hair spray over my already gray-colored hair, removing the gray moustache and replacing it with the black one, penciling black into my grayed eyebrows, and adding the stubble with a stipple and black makeup, then removing a bit of padding I had in my stomach as the old man, and changing into the black suit, complete with hip holster, pistol, and handcuffs!

And, just for fun, here is me goofing around during practice: