- Hi everyone, this is
Beth Elderkin with io9
and I'm here with Adam
Savage who just completed
yet another incognito cosplay.
How many is this now?
- Oh, god.
It's in the twenties.
- Twenties, oh my goodness.
(upbeat music)
What's kept you doing it all this time?
- The same answer I read of
violinist who is 95 years old
but still practiced everyday was asked,
"Why are you still practicing?"
He said, "'Cause I think
I'm making real progress."
And this is the thing, is it's different
for me every single time.
Every cosplay has different
challenges and different rewards
and I love moving from things,
like I just did Star-Lord
at Silicon Valley Comic
Con and then I come here
and I do No-Face and
No-Face is so different,
just this amorphous blob with
the giant animatronic maw
and the mechanism for
No-Face kicked my ass.
I thought it was gonna take two days,
it took seven or eight.
I had to build it four or five times.
And all of that is worth
it when I walked out
of my changing room and
they see No-Face walk in
and they go, "No-Face!"
And I went, "Blah, blah, blah!"
And I started talking and
the whole hallway went,
(gasps)
- You know, it was a unique
challenge but it was familiar
'cause it's a cosplay
that you've done before.
- [Adam] Yes.
- So what made you decide to revisit it
with this new challenge, was
it because of the fan reaction
or was it a personal drive
to do this new thing?
- I'm far from the first person
to add the gaping maw to No-Face.
Many No-Face cosplayers
have done it before
and the second I saw it,
which is after I'd done
my first No-Face, I was
like, oh that's great.
Like, that's really great.
And then I just sort of let
it sit there and percolate
for honestly, six or seven years.
And then there was a
certain point I was like,
oh, this could be really neat.
It could be a single actuator,
it could be really, really
straightforward mechanically
but the result could be really arresting
and you don't often see full animatronics
out on the costume floor.
- What brings you the most satisfaction
when you've finished a cosplay build?
Is it getting to that accomplishment
or is it seeing people react to it?
- That's such a good question!
Because it's both of those things.
What I'm looking for when
I make something, anything,
is I'm looking for an experience.
When I make a TV show I'm telling a story.
I'm looking to give the
viewer the experience
I would want if I was them
and watching this program
for the first time.
And when I make a costume,
the making of that costume
is only half of the equation.
The other half is sharing that costume
and coming onto the
floor and participating
in this theater that we
enjoy here at these cons
where the audience and the
performers, the line between them
is completely blurry and I love that.
So to me, the costume isn't a full costume
until I've fulfilled its purpose
by wearing it in public before.
- So you've mentioned that
you had to go through this
a few times to get one
that actually worked.
What were the mechanical challenges
and why did it take those few times?
- Because it's been a long time since
I've done mechanical work for hire.
It's a mindset.
First I started out by
doing a bunch of drawings
of what I wanted out of the mechanism.
It's a mouth about like
this with teeth and a tongue
and I wanted lips.
So I knew specifically I wanted the mouth
to not be visible when it was closed.
Or less visible.
Because I wanted that surprise.
So extrapolating from that,
I knew I wanted the lips
to move separately than the mouth.
This is a classic linkage that
Stuart Freeborn came up with
for Chewbacca and for
Moon-Watcher from 2001.
And I wanted the same mechanism cables
that let the lips open
after the jaw opened.
And the problem I ran into
was the first iteration
was just too lightweight.
This is a big, burly mechanism
and it needs big springs
and big pieces of mechanical stuff
and the first time I tried it I bent it.
I just tried operating it and it bent
so I had to take that
apart, use better materials.
Then the springs weren't strong enough
so I had to buy better springs.
Then the cabling wasn't strong enough.
I had to make bigger cables.
Then I had to scrap the whole thing
because I was at that point modding
and modding and modding so much.
I had this thing with holes in it
so I started from scratch again.
And that happened twice.
- So at one point when
you're building this thing
and it's getting heavier
and heavier and you're like,
I got to carry this around
for an hour or two walking around,
at what point are you just like,
this might be a little bit too much?
- No, I don't think that.
Because I'm super cognizant that I have
this tremendous luxury of
being able to come here
and get support from the venue
to go change in and out of my costume.
The cosplayers that are
here are getting changed
in a hotel room across town,
they've taken the subway
or a cab in some kind of giant mermaid,
sweatin' balls in that thing
all day long on the floor.
So whenever I get remotely like,
this might be uncomfortable,
I think about those guys.
I have it way easier than them.
All that being said, being
able to see and breathe
is really important so
I make sure for anything
that's gonna be hot that
I've got fans inside.
It's stuff to keep me comfortable.
- So you do this public
incognito where you go out
and you make this very big,
beautiful, elaborate costume.
Do you still go out and do
true incognito on your own?
- I do.
I did yesterday.
- Oh, you did?
- I did!
My friend Sasha wanted to try cosplay
and I was like, well if
you're going to be in New York
in the fall we should just walk together.
So yesterday she dressed
up as one of the early
Gerry Anderson, not Thunderbirds
but a different show,
a character from that.
And I put on my Moon-Watcher mask from 2001
and I put on Jack Aubrey's
uniform from Master and Commander
simply because it's one
of my favorite costumes.
And we walked the floor here
for about an hour yesterday.
- That's actually something that's always
been really fascinating to
me because a lot of times
when we full cosplay it's
to embody the character
and to become somebody else
but when you're a recognizable person
it's almost like you're
doing it to protect yourself
and be able to go out and
just do whatever you want.
So what is that experience like?
- From the very first time I did it,
which was my first Comic
Con I went as Hellboy,
I thought that making
the full Hellboy costume
would allow me to just
blend in and enjoy the con.
And the problem was, was
the costume was so elaborate
I was taking more pictures as Hellboy
than if I had just gone as me.
And that's when I realized
there is this split
that any costume you make
that covers your whole body
is almost guaranteed to be
remarkable and noteworthy
because it's just such a
commitment to see someone,
even just something
that's super common here
like a Stormtrooper, you still know
that you're looking at the
spearpoint of hundreds of hours
of work and love and time
and armor bites and things.
- Well one cosplay that we've seen before
is people actually cosplaying as you.
- Yeah, that's maybe
the most surreal aspect
of this whole thing.
- Because people do alt
versions of different cosplays,
is there an alt version of Adam Savage
that you've wanted to see somebody do?
- Oh yeah, Simon Pegg.
Or Alton Brown.
Simon and Alton and I, I know
both of those fine gentlemen
and all three of us
have been mistaken for,
Simon and I have been
mistaken for each other
and Alton and I have been
mistaken for each other
and both Alton and I have
both been in positions
where the path of least
resistance just for one fan
was to go, "Yeah, it's me."
I think I was one the phone,
I was talking to my mom,
a family member had died,
and somebody was like,
"Alton Brown! Sign this thing!"
And I was just like, "So anyway, Mom..."
So somewhere out there there's someone
who's got Alton Brown's
autograph and it's mine.
- I wonder if they caught
it, they were like,
that doesn't look very...
(upbeat music)
