Character Thoughts

Here's some thoughts on characters and character development.... The source is the Netherworld actor's discussion group. Each paragraph is seperate!

You can tell just who does not want to be scared buy their eyes. I like to look two or three rows deep then drop the person in the third row and then come back to visit my friend in the second row so as not to be at one place at a time. Also i'll hope that others will be looking at me so I can hit them when they are at their weakest. "Now you are mine. I'll make you my slave. here put this chain around your neck slave." - Vascul

Heck, you don't even need to look at their eyes, you can see fear in their feet. Try it!!! Good scares shuffle, when they walk. - Icabod

I like that crazy "insanity acting",so i'm playing with a character now called "chunk", I would wear an asylum style outfit and use the stocking hose make up style. I would aslo have a hunched back(ballon or something). I would basiclly be a demented deformed inmate patient who has a special taste for girls. I would do lots fo drooling and almost flirt with the girl and disgust them as much as possible. Sloth from the goonies and letherface are kind of a inspiration on this character. I'm not frinished but tell me if pn the right track. thanks, bryan

Cliff Martin from Hacker house in North Carolina was in town tonight, and he told me a make-up idea that is revoltingly cool. At the seminars in Chicago, makeup artist Chris Hanson demonstrated the idea of building in small plastic bags into facial appliances. Into these bags he placed fishing worms or gummy worms that the actor, with much digging and fanfare can pull out of his face in front of the customers. Other options were to fill the bag with blood gel and oatmeal or Slime or Gack that could then be squeezed out like a pimple. These can be big, like large tumors. Tasty! Speculo

Here's a gross idea for a character. Someone in the process of having a bug coming out of their skull. Using the stocking technique, you could have bumpy things coming out the top of the head with spider legs bursting out the sides. It could be played with fly-like fast motions, clicking noises, and, of course, the ubiquitous black threads hanging from the fingers to pull over patron faces. Does this sing to you? Brad Rudy

Spider-legs bursting out of the sides of the head are gross enough, but if I can somehow animate them, that's icing. I'm also thinking of "egg sacs" coming from somewhere, maybe down the spine.

There's that old Urban Legend about the vain lady who keeps her hair in a beehive design constantly who wakes one morning to find herself covered in tiny baby black widows, hatched from an egg sac that ws spun into her hair. That kind of thing REALLY freaks people out. I used to put live daddy-longleg spiders in my hair the first season I played IK the Troll at the Ren Fest. I freaked and grossed too many people out, and the higher-ups asked me to stop. -IK

On the topic of gross things to drool, the best stuff that I've found is black Wilton food coloring. You can get it at Wal-Mart or arts & crafts stores in the cake decorating supplies. It's a concentrated paste, so just a little dab will color your mouth, tongue & spit black for a few hours. You can brush it out with toothpaste. Just don't be surprised when you go to the bathroom. Turns your pee a little dark - missjayne

Thinking about the food coloring... red would also be a good choice. Maybe a little blue mixed in it... Bile lollypops anyone? The sucker that turns your slobber black....

Talked to some of you about the critter for this year that I'll be working on. What ever the name will be Granny (whatever) Old wrinkly spooky looking Granny, droopy stockings, dirty torn shaw, long droopy dangly bits, big crooked nose, maybe 2 or 3 teeth, with walker or without. (With walker so I can put that IV bag on there, or the lower fake bag with Mountain Dew or lemon Gatorade in it.... Wanna borrow some of the mothball sent stuff...
Tricks: could carry a tray of 'goodies', gross bits of this and that or bug cookies, offer the goodies to people and suddenly they come to life (puppet under the tray by fingers). Or an air horn blast under the tray. Make them slimy so if someone actually does touch them they get gooed real good.

Lines: Go clumping loudly with walker after folks with that walker, "come here cutie, give us a smooch!" make rude kissy lips at them showing off her pretty 2 teeth, and slobber black icker at them. (and pray none takes her up on it.) What would be a good formal for the black icker? Chewed Oreos? (let a bib on the dress catch it all so no slippage on floor and will look grosser.)

I have found that the line "hey you're really cute" works really well if you have a large group of alpha males because you can get them off guard and then they get nailed by the next scare they were expecting.
How about " did you know that kids taste like chicken ?" and also "my playthings, you brought me playthings "

We could hook up a catheiter filled with mt dew and granny could drink it!!! Check out a movie called' the granny' I've seen it along time ago but don't rememeber too much about it. You could go around hollering "hansel? gretel ? wheres my oven! how about try these cookies there just like your granny made ! "

"Oh what a sweet tasty looking young thing, just the right size for my cooking pot."
"Trim my toenails",
"Don't go, I'm lonely, stay longer" (chase after them) ::clump, clump clump::
"The bag needs changing." (or depends...)
"They removed my Colon, they let me keep it, want to see?" ::holds up rubber intestine::
"Is that you son?" ::clump, clump:: "Where have you been? Why did you run away like that? Go clean your room. Bring my supper. No flimsy wire coathangers..."

I will ask the Clevelanders what they use for bile...I see a lot of it from them! I have heard some hard core types who like the smell to be vile use A-1 steaksauce!

A1 is pretty vile stuff for all night. I can't think of any food stuff that is black, grape jello mashed up? Guess I'll have to put a drip mat down for Granny that can be thrown away each night.

I have used black bile capsules about ten years ago, but I haven't seen them in a while. A good dry alternative is oreo cookies. Scrape out, (or lick off) the white filling and just fill a pocket. Popping one of the chocolate wafers about every 15 minutes will keep the bile flowing. The only drawback is the sweet smell of your breath near customers.
The A-1 is a good touch for a shorter night and there are no smell drawbacks, but the acid in it can be pretty brutal on the mouth after a couple hours. Good luck. - Ichabod

Howler Monkey Man
Costume and makeup: Straight jacket or hospital gown, boxer shorts if gown, scrubs if jacket. Enlarged brow, flared nostrils, and big upper and lower teeth to give the semi primate look.
Props: Bananas, rope, possibly a tire with a rope tied on it, apples, bananas, a stuffed animal
One liners.. Um.. Monkey sounds...
Actions, pretend to look for nits and fleas on patrons hair, try to get patrons to eat fruit that I have already bitten off parts of.. Breath banana breath..
=Mimic people
=Hook a finger into someone's purse strap and pull them around making eking sounds,
=Take someone's hat and put it on upside down and strut around like them, or try to eat it.
(gross)=> monkeys scratch their fannies, sniff, pull head back in disgust and offer others a sniff... (memo: do not shake hands with Howler)
Pull shoulders up,lower head between shoulders, 'puff up' and drag something around swinging it, like a stuff toy. That tuff guy thing the Chimps do.
Pick plastic bugs or candy bugs out of the props (gummy worms from zombies eye sockets) stretch and eat them.
Lines? Ot ot ot Ahhhh eeeee! Ma-ma-ma-ma eeeee!

A suit with those rubber cockroaches all over it would be a great "Pulled the nightmare out of their head" monster.
A shirt, and pants covered with the rubber cockroaches,(I mean cover it, lets not be stingy with the bugs)and an "invso" net head cover with the bugs on them too. Some glued to the face...
Trick: brushing at the bugs with your hands, jumping around, screaming, reaching out toward vistors.
Lines: "get them off me!" "Don't you see them?? They say they are not there! I see them! Don't you??"
A part that would suit any long to quick train of people coming through. Would be a one size fit most costume ANY actor part.

I used to play my character "The Shaver", and used a straight razor as just one of the props I carried on my person. I injected large "bubble packing" with blood, and glued them to my face with medical adhesive. I covered the blood filled bubbles with, you guessed it, shaving cream.
I went many acting directions with "The Shaver", all which ended up with the straight razor. At just the right time, and in front of an appropriate crowd of customers, I would carve into my face with the staight razor and the red blood gushing from beneath white shaving cream provided just the effect I wanted (and the customers appreciated the graphic gore too). It provided the perfect presentation to set up my approach and then my interaction.
Later, Ichabod

I like your spider idea. You may be able to find one of those cheap "jumping spiders", the black fuzzy ones with a long tube and a squeeze ball on the end. You can ditch or alter the spider and use the bladder to make a pulsing boil, a bleeding gash or a jumping bug.
If you design your make-up and act around the effect, it will have maximum impact!
Ichabod

tracy and I had talked about a way to rig up aqaurim hose that would run through your hair and then attached to a pump filled with hersheys syrup and then you could approach victims, sorry customers, and give a large sneeze effect and hit the pump and essentially blow your brains out in every direction. and as the blood runs down the face you could lick it off with delight.

We have never really done a lot of gross-out, and I do think these new drool ideas have a place but we need to make sure we don't make slime pools on the floor (actor & patrons can slip..attracts ants)or actually slime patrons. Unless you really like them of course!

Each drippy drooling monster as a monster code should be responsible for his/her'it's area. Iffen they really want to slobber and drip keep a kiddy mop and bucket near for the monster to clean up their area if any slippage gets on the floor. If they can't keep the floors safe in their area, then they can't do the drippy stuff.

I was looking through some of my favorite fx companies and found some amazing pictures of characters from the yet to be released film "HOUSE OF A 1000 CORPSES". Sme of the charcater would make killer aslyumn patient(exscuse the pun).also look at some of the other films and work buy these guys. Ihope they bring you as much ideas and inspiration for this season as it did for me.

I have an idea for a patient in the asylum. I would like to do an obssesed fan who was committed for stalking, killing, and consuming their victims. It could be kind of like a dahmer type of character but only more demented. I was thinking about using lines like" I am your biggest fan, I would like to give you something to remember me by", and then slice of skin and hand it to unsuspecting victims (kewl aint it).

character's name: THE SINNER
HISTORY: BORN AS SIMON SEXTON,HE WAS ALWAYS HAUNTED BY HORRIBLE VOICES.AT THE AGE OF 6 HE KILLED HIS PARENTS AND WAS DECLARED LEGALLY INSANE AND SUBMITED TO INNER SANCTUM.WHILE UNDER MAXIMUM SECURITY HE KILLED 7 FELLOW PATIENTS,4 NURSES,3 DOCTORS,AND HAD HORRIBLE VILOENT OUTBREAKS ON A REGULAR BASIS.AFTER BEING LOCKED INTO A CELL AND FORGOTTEN.SIMON BEGAN TO TAKE HIS ANGER OUT ON HIS OWN BODY, CARVING SYMBOLS INTO HIS SKIN WITH HIS OWN NAILS,ONCE AGAIN HE CLAIMS THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD TOLD HIM TOO.NURSES SOON TITLED HIM "THE SINNER" AND CAME TO BELIEVE HE WAS UNDER "UNKNOWN" POWERS.TO THIS DAY HE(AND THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD) RESIDES IN HIS CELL AT INNER SANCTUM AND AWAITS THOSE UNLUCKY SOULS WHO VENTURE TO CLOSE TO HIS CELL.
APPERENCE: WHITE(BLOODY) TATTERED JUMP SUIT.BROKEN SHACKLES AROUND ANKLES AND WRISTS.WHITE OUT CONTACTS AND SYMBOLS AND CUTS ADORN HIS B LODDY PALE SKINNED BODY.
I'M STILL WORKING THE FINE DETAILS OF THIS CHARACTER OUT SUCH AS LINES AND OVER ALL ATTITUDE BUT I FEEL LIKE I HAVE SOMETHING TO WORK WITH HERE.WHAT DO YOU THINK?
HAPPY HAUNTING, BRYAN "MR. POTATO HEAD" WYNIA

He could show of his carvings on his arm/chest and scream
"My body is a road map of pain!" (line stolen from Frighters)
See Rock City...road map... get it... heh never mind....
"Do the voices in my head brother you? YOU CAN'T HEAR THEM??? I CAN!!"
Talk to thin air. Look at a blank area and rock back and forth a little "No, I can't! I know you want me to kill them, to pull their guts out, to feel the warm tasty blood trickle through my fingers....." slobber drool lick fingers...."yesssss.... yess.. .I must...." - tracy