Get your Halloween freak on

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Halloween is the time to tap your creative consciousness for all it’s worth and pump out a costume that will bring the party to another level.

Sure, you could easily throw on a blue wig and a shoddy leather coat and go as an “80s rocker,” but that’s been done ad nauseam for years now. The more effort you put into your Halloween costume, the more fun you and everyone around you will have. Like a mosaic, every little piece contributes to the overall effect.

So what are you going to be this year? As in years past, Halloween Headquarters, located south of town just before the High School Road traffic light, is packed with prêt-a-porter props, and Main Event, in the Powderhorn Mall, has an expanded selection of masks, makeup and gory effects.

In Jackson Hole, however, homemade get-ups are de rigueur. For the uncreative, that can spell doom. But if all you need is some inspiration, pay a visit to the popular second-hand shop, Browse ’n’ Buy, a must-stop during the annual costume hunt. True, pickings can be slim when half the town has been rummaging through the same rack of clothing for the same reasons, but you may run into a friend who is so deeply committed to the occasion that at the very least a little creative energy might rub off on you.

“We do get a lot of people who come for costumes,” said Bobbi Moses, facility manager for St. John’s Episcopal Church, which runs Browse ’n’ Buy.  “It’s a big deal.”

Some people dress up in classic horror outfits, others in goofy get-ups. In Jackson Hole, specifically, there tends to be a disproportionate amount of cross-dressing incorporated into the holiday. All that matters is that you have a superb costume. Let’s talk about what we’ve seen.

As far as girl costumes, a few years ago four Jackson girls went as “four hot chicks in a hot tub” by cutting four holes in a kiddy pool and wearing bikinis. This was a clever spin on the “sexy girl” theme that gets done to death every year: “Hot nurse,” “Hot Little Red Riding Hood,” “Slutty Secretary,” etc.

If you still need to explore that avenue, a few great girl costumes of the past have included Uma Thurman from “Pulp Fiction” (complete with giant syringe stuck in her chest), a prom queen with her stomach sliced open (with a variety of sausages serving as intestines), and, on the light side, a girl dressed as a little boy dressed as a cowboy for Halloween (cowboy-themed tighty-whities really tied this one together).

For the guys, the doors are wide open because there is no pressure to be “sexy” anything, though localizing your costume is never a bad idea. Last year the guy who went as Sheriff Bob Zimmer was a huge hit. Another one that went down in Jackson Hole Halloween History was Teen Wolf: hair in a can, a basketball jersey, fangs and a basketball was all it took for this one to come together. If you think less is more, using a fake mustache to form a uni-brow and calling it a day works every time.

The possibilities are endless. You could go as anything, anything at all! So get your act together, get out there and make the best homemade Halloween this town has never seen.
PERMALINK:
Get your Halloween freak on | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture

Leave a Comment