In our first Mini Confession, Maren Wade shares the Halloween costume that went so right, it went wrong.
In our first Mini Confession, Maren Wade shares the Halloween costume that went so right, it went wrong.
Confessions: why you should always let people finish their sentences, how to find your best skeleton angle, and what really happened at Starbucks.
Find Maren
TikTok: @marenwade
Instagram: @marenwade
Website: marenwade.com
Confessions of a Showgirl:
confessionsofashowgirl.com
Hosted by Maren Wade
Trick or Treat: The Trick Was on Me
Confessions of a Showgirl, Mini Confession
Maren Wade (00:00:00)
Okay, I have a confession to make. Showgirls are having a moment, and I think they're misunderstood. Because if you think the glamorous part is what makes a showgirl interesting, you've never met one. This is the unglamorous side of the glamorous life of a showgirl, and it deserves the spotlight. I'm Maren Wade, and welcome to Confessions of a Showgirl.
Hello, everyone, welcome back. Okay, I have a confession to make. Happy Halloween!
How do we feel about Halloween? Do we love it? Hate it? So, this is what I'm calling our first Mini Confession. Just you and me, and a story I probably should have kept to myself. And since it's Halloween, we're talking about costumes gone wrong.
Have you ever had a Halloween costume go completely wrong? Maybe nobody understood it, and you spent the whole party explaining who you were supposed to be. Maybe it fell apart. Maybe you were half of a couple's costume and the other half wandered off, leaving you dressed as a completely unrelated object.
Well, I once had a costume go wrong because it went exactly right. See, in my case, the costume didn't need explaining. What I hadn't thought through was what would happen if it actually worked.
Now, for a showgirl, Halloween isn't one night, it's a whole month. There are corporate events, Halloween parties, Halloween-themed shows. And if anyone in town needs a little glamour with their spooky, we get the call. By October 31st, I'm not sure if I'm celebrating Halloween or recovering from it. But out of all of the Halloween jobs I've done over the years, this one is still a highlight.
It started with a phone call. They asked, "Would you like to be on the cover of Las Vegas Weekly magazine?" I said yes. Before they even finished the question, I said yes.
Now, some of you know that Confessions of a Showgirl started as a column in Las Vegas Weekly, where I wrote weekly about the quirky life of a modern-day showgirl. So, very similar to this podcast, except I had to write it and you had to read it. And then apparently everyone stopped reading, and I wasn't finished confessing. So here we are.
The column was one thing, but being on the cover, that was a whole different thing. My face was gonna be plastered on every Las Vegas Weekly magazine in town.
Maren Wade (00:02:24)
Which also meant every Starbucks in town. And I go to a lot of Starbucks.
So, back to this phone call. The creative team started explaining the concept. They said, "We're thinking showgirl." And I'm thinking, great. Love the direction. I'm already scanning through my whole costume collection, feathers, rhinestones, which headpiece to use, what colors to pick. And then I zone back in to the phone call. The creative team finishes the sentence.
They said, "We're thinking showgirl, but more of a Day of the Dead showgirl, since this is for our Halloween and Día de los Muertos edition." Now I'm thinking, I really need to let people finish sentences.
If you're not familiar, Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, comes right after Halloween, on November 1st and 2nd. It's a beautiful tradition honoring the loved ones who've passed, and part of it is painting your face like a sugar skull. White face, dark eyes, flowers, swirls. Really beautiful, really detailed.
So, originally, when I heard magazine cover, I had pictured looking very alive. Thriving, actually. But we were going in a different direction. Okay.
So I arrived at the photoshoot, ready to become a Day of the Dead showgirl. And the makeup artist was amazing. Every flower, every swirl, every tiny detail painted by hand. She was meticulous. It took a couple hours. It was really, really impressive.
But it was a particularly strange experience. I mean, you know when someone's doing your makeup and they turn you toward the mirror every so often so you can see the progress? Normally you're thinking, I look more awake, or I have more color in my cheeks. Well, we were moving away from that. Every time I looked back in the mirror, there were less signs of life. And they were so pleased, which meant I was so pleased. Because, you know, I wanted to do a good job. The photographer, the makeup artist, the whole creative team had this vision, and they were so good at what they do. I was so honored to be a part of it.
Although I will say, have you ever agreed to a costume and then tried to quietly negotiate flattering parts back in? It's like, yes, I'm a skull, but could I have a little more volume at the crown? I mean, I understood that I was supposed to look like a skeleton. I just wondered if we could find my best skeleton angle. You know? Apparently, that's not how you're supposed to approach character work.
Anyway, once the makeup was finished and the whole look came together, it really was incredible.
Maren Wade (00:04:38)
We finished the photoshoot fairly late, and I still had errands to run afterwards. And I mean, yes, I had just done a magazine cover, but I still needed groceries. So I stopped at the grocery store, I went to the gas station, I walked the dog, and I completely forgot I still had my skull makeup on.
Nobody batted an eye. Not a single concerned follow-up question. Which I appreciate about Vegas. I mean, people give you room to have your own experience.
A few weeks went by between the time of the photoshoot and the time the magazine came out. There it was, me on the cover of Las Vegas Weekly magazine. And honestly, the whole concept, it was beautiful. The makeup photographed amazingly. It was a striking photo. Every single person on that team was at the top of their game.
And in that moment, I was so proud. And also in that moment, nobody recognized me. Nobody knew it was me on the cover.
I went to the Starbucks. Several Starbucks, actually. I walked up to the barista with the magazine tucked under my arm, cover side out. Just in case. And I asked, "Can I have a double espresso, please?" And I waited for her to look at the magazine cover, look at me, and say, "Wow, that's you on the cover." And what she said was, "Here's your double espresso."
You could tell it was a sugar skull. You could tell it was a showgirl. You just couldn't tell it was me.
And now I was in the uncomfortable position of having to explain. Which brings us back to the Halloween costume presentation. Except instead of pulling up a picture and saying, "This is who I'm supposed to be," I was pointing to a magazine cover and saying, "This is me. No, really, that's me."
And I don't know if you've ever had this experience before, but the more you insist that you're on a magazine cover, the more you sound like someone who is absolutely not on a magazine cover. How do you even bring something like that up casually? What, do I just go up to people and go, "Have you seen this week's cover?" Which, by the way, I did. And then you have to wait while they look at a skeleton and back at you, at which point you're almost offended they don't see the resemblance.
I don't know. It was a complicated time.
My first magazine cover. I've stopped counting since then. Mostly because there hasn't been a second.
Anyway, it was an amazing experience, a great photograph, and more importantly, a good confession that I keep telling years later, over and over and over again.
Well, there it is. I shared mine. Now let me hear yours. This feels like it should be a group activity.
Thank you for joining me for our first Mini Confession. I'm Maren Wade.
Maren Wade (00:07:07)
Oh, and if you ever come across that Las Vegas Weekly cover, which happens to actually be on my Instagram right now, just know that it is me. And I'm still explaining it. Happy Halloween.