Wear black – your gi and anything else would be perfect.
Then get a large blank white piece of posterboard or foamboard. I used corrugated plastic signage material from a craft store, cost about $3.00.
Make sure it’s LARGER than your torso – you want people to see it when it’s behind you.
Sling it behind you – you can even tape it to the back of your gi, but I slung a cloth strip through two holes punched in it and wore it over my neck…you could go so far as to make four holes and run two strips of cloth vertically and wear it like a backpack (arms through the strips).
This next part is important:
When people ask “What are you?” always begin with the return question, “What do you think I am?” Try to sound like a pop psychology wannabe.
Then strike a pose…a silhouette in all black with a white card behind you.
When they give up, tell them you’re a Rorschach ink blot!
This wasn’t the most elaborate costume ever, but I got laughs all out of proportion to the time and trouble, and nobody else at the party was more creative, so I stood out.
Cheap and easy idea from a few years ago: get a cheap T-shirt, and hot-glue several mini liquor bottles to the bust area. When people ask what you are, say, “I’m a titty bar!”
Get some black electrical tape, a white T-shirt and a pair of nice jeans. Use the electrical tape to make a “bar code” on the T-shirt. It’s your generic costume.
If you have a date, you wear a green dress. The date wears a T-shirt and jeans. On the T-shirt, write or tape “NV.” You’re green with envy.
Wear a black suit and white shirt with dark sunglasses. Carry a cool looking squirt gun spray painted silver or black. You’re one of the Men in Black.
Dress in all black, then sew or pin some toy farm animals and trucks on with string so they hang down. When someone asks you what you are, spin around and say you’re a Twister
Get a light blue t-shirt and glue on patches of cotton balls. Carry a squirt-bottle of water. When asked what you are, squirt the water toward or at them (depending on who it is and how well you know them) and say you’re Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain
Borrow an old sports jacket and a man’s hat (fedora, bowler, just not a baseball cap). Dig out an old film camera (preferably broken) but don’t put film in it. Get a 3x5 index card and with thick black magic marker write “PRESS”. Stick the card in the band of the hat.
PS- if you can’t think of 100 funny one-liners to say in that outfit, c’mon back and we’ll help you out…
(hope this isn’t too late) My favorite on-the-cheap costume was sort of a Spider Lady. I wore all black and used some cheap, non-sparkly white eyeshadow for a nice pallor. (You can also use white pancake makeup – I prefer these because the grease stuff makes me break out and on me it looks more clown-y than scary.)
Then wrap some of that spiderweb decoration stuff around you or have a friend help. I think it looks more real when it is stretched pretty thin, but you can decide. I started with strand on my head and then wrapped it down onto my shoulders for a feminine “hood” effect. Then add the fake spiders from the package and maybe buy some extra. (The fake spiders stick well to the web stuff with no glue.) If you want to go a little farther, get some spirit gum (face-safe costume glue) and glue one or two spiders to your cheek or neck.
A variation is a Spider Zombie with old clothes, a nice pallor, the spiderweb & spiders, and drips of fake blood on your face, neck, etc. (You can usually find spirit gum and liquid fake blood pretty cheap.) Have Fun!!
A friend of mine once won a costume contest by tying a lampshade to a headband, cutting a hole out of it so she could see while it was on her head and taping a small reading light inside. She wore all black. When people asked her what she was, she would turn on the light and announce, “I’m a lamp!”
