Underdressed, but over the moon
“I think that, if the world was a bit more like Comic-Con, we’d all be a little happier.” — Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor Who
HAVE never been a fan of dressing up, not even as a child. Any invitation that came with a dress code other than smart casual would fill me with dread — still does.
To the best of my knowledge — not that I really want to think too hard about it — I have donned a costume a grand total of four times in my life. And only once has been since I left primary school.
It is about as far out of my comfort zone as I can be.
So why have I found myself wondering “What if?” in the past year or so?
The catalyst has been my an- nual pilgrimage to Oz ComicCon.
Don’t get me wrong, for the most part I am more than happy to live vicariously through the exploits of people like Grovedale’s Andrew Cameron, who absolutely killed as Loki from Thor: Ragnarok on Saturday when I visited this year’s Melbourne leg of the annual pop-culture roadshow. I have no doubt he did likewise as Doctor Strange on Sunday. But it’s not just those like Andrew, who have honed their cosplaying skills to an art form. Everywhere you turned in the cavernous Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre there were people happy to put the everyday on hold, even if only for an hour or two. There was a mother finishing off the Scream costume of one child while an even younger sibling paced eagerly nearby dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow; the troupe of Japanese manga schoolgirls entertained the crowd with a carefully cho- reographed dance routine; and the girl whose unfamiliarity with the original Star Trek series hadn’t stopped her from donning a Star Fleet uniform and green face paint to man a fan club stall.
Everyone caught up in the bonhomie of the day.
Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
Clearly I would have boundaries.
With all due respect to the middle-aged man I saw dressed as Queen Amidala from The
Phantom Menace, or the younger bearded gentleman paying homage to Emilia Clarke’s scantily-clad Mother of Dragons from Game of Thrones, I don’t think I will ever be that comfortable in my own skin.
And we can all be thankful for that.