The DJ

The DJ is the main antagonist of Dave Malloy and Krista Knight's 2014 musical Don't Stop Me, a demonic representation of the callous and demanding outside world the teenagers of the show feel breathing down their necks. He's my favourite type of villain, both allowed to be unquestionably evil from a character perspective and incredibly interesting and nuanced from a thematic one.

He's also themed around technology, is a website admin who first reaches out to the characters via email, and always felt to me more like a malicious machine than a real person. So I worked it into my own re-design of the character, using what I loved about him to create a design of him as a sort of human host for a technological virus. I am also just having fun with one of my favorite shows.

My first step was planning out the wires, which I had hoped to attach as if emerging from my skin and mouth. I found them from a secondhand hardware store and gave them a good wash, and then picked out which ones I wanted to use. To anchor the wires in my mouth and make it as comfortable as possible, I attached them to two pieces of clear plastic that could sit inside my cheeks. I covered the ends in hot glue to protect myself from the sharp ends of the wire, but in hindsight should have covered the sharp opposite edge of the plastic as well. This is a PSA. DO NOT DO THIS. Make sure the whole piece is smooth and there are ZERO sharp edges. I suffered for it.

In addition to the makeup, I wanted some sort of inhuman goo, a little like leaking transistor fluid. I couldn't find many good resources on this, but this concoction here is made from corn syrup and old black eye shadow, and it worked great.

I'm also experimenting a bit with drag-king style makeup and bold lines. After some base coats I could attach the first of the wires with liquid latex and cotton balls, then continued to build up the design on top of it.

Taking this all off was one of the most painful makeup removals I've had to do, one of the wires behind my ear had been so difficult to remove I had to cut a chunk of my hair off. If I was doing this again, I would definitely wait until I had an assistant!