This month's issue of Makeup Artist magazine (the official magazine for makeup artists) is dedicated to Michael Jackson. On the cover is Michael in his Superghoul makeup from the short film Ghosts. There's also an article in which makeup artist Rick Baker and a few others talk about what it was like working with Michael. It's awesome. On one page it even mentions that Michael went to Toys R Us in the fat "Mayor" makeup he wore in Ghosts. Which kind of remins me of a similar stunt we did in Halloween of 2007 when I went as John Candy to a costume contest- the theme was 80's movie stars my brother went as Bill Murray in Stripes. I looked very convincing as John Candy I heard (Our friend Dan McCloud, see below- designed the John Candy makeup and costume as well as the army uniform and camouflage makeup my brother wore when he went as Bill Murray in Stripes)- No one could tell it was me. The trick, I had spent practically years studying John Candy's performances in tv and in movies and practiced doing the voice and the laugh for quite some time. One person even went said "Oh John, I l oved you in Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck" which I really liked. So much so that me and my brother paraded around town the next day with our friends as John Candy and Bill Muray. It was quite memorable.
My brother's best friend is a MJ fan and a makeup artist- his name is Dan McCloud- he's done the makeup for quite a few of our productions for example he did my Jay Leno makeup for the stage and film version of Leno (I looked just like the real Jay), the funny thing is that no one could tell it was me-on the tonight show when we were promoting the movie version of it I showed Jay a publicity shot of myself in the "Jay" makeup and Jay was really impressed- he said that it was a perfect likeness. I played more than one character in Leno though, in addition to playing Jay, I also played some of his old tonight show characters. I wore a fatsuit with the Jay makeup to play Billy Tuttle (the overweight fast food restraunt owner), I wore a superhero type muscle suit with the Jay makeup to play Iron Jay (the musclebound fitness guru), a really big wig and glassess with the Jay makeup to play Mr Brain (the sarcastic genius) , I had my face pointed blue and had elf ears to play Beyondo (the big floating head), and had vampire fangs, red contact lenses and my face painted grey to play Evil Jay (Jay's evil twin). I had a little bit of fun with the Jay Leno makeup sometimes I went around town as Jay and interviewed people.
Others productions Dan has worked on include our Biker Mice From Mars motion picture which was a mixture of live action and animation- Tyrone The Terrible played the part of the Biker Mice's arch nemesis Lawrence Limburger and Dan's makeup job he did was very clever- it looked just like the one from the tv series- and the plutarkian makeup he did was very special as well. Dan's also done the makeup for those commercials where I turn into Chumsley the werejohncandy (Chumsley was a fun character to be, I quite liked it).
Chumsley first appeared in our animated shorts and PSA's during the early 80's and was in fact voiced by John Candy himself. Chumsley's personality is a composite of quite a few of John's characters- mainly Buck Rusell (Uncle Buck), Del Griffith (Plane, Train and Automobiles), Irv (Cool Runnings), Barf (Spaceballs) and Ox (Stripes). Chumsley's uncle is in fact based on and named after the title character from the film Uncle Buck. When John died in 1994, we got Tino Insana (who is a dead on John soundalike) to take over as the voice of Chumsley and he's been providing Chumsley's voice ever since then (I hope the producers of the Magic 7 do the same).
Dan's makeup again is genius, especially when it comes to doing likeness, monster, and alien makeup. He lives next door to our friend Roc Hemmerson (who is the special fx supervisor/animatronics operator for many of our tv shows and movies). He has a home that looks identical to Roc's place only bigger.
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