Mark and the Magic Suit

I quit putting on a costume for Halloween many years ago, real life is scary enough. Not so for Mark, he still gets dressed up every year, and he likes to do his costume based upon current events. In 2001 he dressed up as Osama Bin Laden, with a plane flying up his butt (obviously it wasn't really up his butt, it just looked like it). Unfortunately most people didn't see the plane stuck up his butt, and thought he was just Bin Laden. It wasn't pretty. People were cursing him, and threatening him. I think he should have used a 747 or a DC10, something large and noticeable.

This year he did the obvious, he dressed up as Barack Obama. This is what Mark’s costume consisted of. A dark business suit, a red tie, a white shirt, and Mark. He didn’t even add the mole on the side of his nose. It basically looked like a tall skinny black guy going for a job interview.

His costume couldn’t have been more perfect. As we stepped out on to the street, people immediately started yelling “Obama! Obama!”, and everyone wanted to take their picture with him. Remember, this is just a tall skinny black guy in a dark suit. No mask, no makeup, nothing. The adulation continued as we made our way up Wilton Drive. It wasn’t long before ‘Obama’ ran into ‘Hillary Clinton‘. It was like the paparazzi were following us, as cameras flashed and ‘Hillary’ and ‘Obama’ posed for photos. The evening wouldn’t be complete until we ran into ‘Joe the Plumber’ and ‘Sarah Palin‘, and we weren’t let down. In fact there were at least three ‘Sarah’s’ and a couple of ‘Joe’s’.

Now all that was fun, but it wasn’t the best part. Later on in the evening, Mark entered a costume contest at one of the bars on the street. On Halloween, 2008, a tall skinny black man in a dark suit, white shirt, and a red tie, won the $250 prize for the best costume at a bar on Wilton Drive. Beating out people who had spent much money and many hours putting together elaborate costumes that were worthy of a prize. I can only hope that this is an omen of what will happen later today.