WEBVTT

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There's this fact that I love
that I read somewhere once --

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that one of the things that's contributed

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to homo sapiens' success as a species

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is our lack of body hair.

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That our hairlessness,

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our nakedness combined
with our invention of clothing

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gives us the ability to modulate
our body temperature

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and thus be able to survive
in any climate we choose.

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And now we've evolved to the point
where we can't survive without clothing.

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And it's more than just utility,

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now it's a communication.

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Everything that we choose
to put on is a narrative,

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a story about where we've been,

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what we're doing ...

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who we want to be.

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I was a lonely kid.

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I didn't have an easy time
finding friends to play with

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and I ended up making
a lot of my own play.

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I made a lot of my own toys.

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And it began with ice cream.

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There was a Baskin-Robbins in my hometown,

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and they served ice cream
from behind the counter

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in these giant, five-gallon,
cardboard tubs.

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And someone told me --

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I was eight years old --

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someone told me that when
they were done with those tubs

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they washed them out
and they kept them in the back,

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and if you asked they would give you one.

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It took me a couple of weeks
to work up the courage but I did,

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and they did.

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They gave me one.

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I went home with this
beautiful cardboard tub.

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And I was trying to figure out what
I could do with this exotic material--

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metal ring, top and bottom --

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and I started turning it over
in my head and I realized,

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"Wait a minute,

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my head actually fits inside this thing--"

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(Laughter)

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Yeah, I cut a hole out,

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I put some acetate in there

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and I made myself a space helmet.

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(Laughter)

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I needed a place to wear the space helmet,

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so I found a refrigerator box
a couple blocks from home.

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I pushed it home,

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and in my parent's guest room closet,

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I turned it into a spaceship.

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I started with a control panel
out of cardboard.

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I cut a hole for a radar screen

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and put a flashlight
underneath it to light it.

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I put a view screen up which I offset
off the back wall --

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and this is where I thought
I was being really clever --

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without permission,

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I painted the back wall
of the closet black

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and put a star field

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which I lit up with some Christmas
lights I found in the attic,

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and I went on some space missions.

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A couple years later,

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the movie "Jaws" came out.

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And I was way too young to see it,

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but I was caught up in "Jaws" fever like
everyone else in America at the time.

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And there was a store in my town
that had a "Jaws" costume in their window,

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and my mom must have overheard
me talking to someone

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about how awesome
I thought this costume was

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because a couple days before Halloween,

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she blew my freaking mind
by giving me this "Jaws" costume.

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Now, I recognize it's a bit of a trope

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for people of a certain age to complain

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that kids these days have no idea
how good they have it,

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but let me just show you a random sampling

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of entry-level kids' costumes
you can buy online right now ...

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and this is the "Jaws" costume
my mom bought for me.

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(Laughter)

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This is a paper-thin shark face

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and a vinyl bib with the poster
of "Jaws" on it.

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(Laughter)

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And I loved it.

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A couple years later,

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my dad took me to a film
called "Excalibur."

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I actually got him to take me to it twice,

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which is no small thing

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because it is a hard, R-rated film.

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But it wasn't the blood
and guts or the boobs

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that made me want to go see it again --

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they helped --

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(Laughter)

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It was the armor.

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The armor in "Excalibur" was
intoxicatingly beautiful to me.

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These were literally knights
in shining, mirror-polished armor.

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And moreover,

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the knights in "Excalibur" wear
their armor everywhere.

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All the time.

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They wear it at dinner,

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they wear it to bed.

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(Laughter)

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I was like, "are they reading my mind?

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I want to wear armor all the time!"

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And so I went back
to my favorite material--

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the gateway drug for making:

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corrugated cardboard.

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And I made myself a suit of armor,

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replete with the neck shields
and a white horse.

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Now that I've over-sold it,

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here's a picture of the armor that I made.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Now this is only the first
suit of armor I made

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inspired by "Excalibur."

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A couple of years later,

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I convinced my dad to embark
on making me a proper suit of armor.

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Over about a month,

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he graduated me from cardboard
to roofing aluminum called flashing

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and still, one of my all time favorite
attachement materials,

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POP rivets.

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We carefully over that month,

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constructed an articulated suit
of aluminum armor

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with compound curves.

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We drilled holes in the helmet
so that I could breathe

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and I finished just in time
for Halloween and wore it school.

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Now this is the one thing in this talk
that I don't have a slide to show you,

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because no photo exists of this armor.

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I did wear it to school,

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there was a yearbook photographer
patrolling the halls

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but he never found me

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for reasons that are
about to become clear.

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There were things I didn't anticipate

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about wearing a complete suit
of aluminum armor to school.

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In third period math I was standing
in the back of class,

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and I'm standing in the back of class

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because the armor did not
allow me to sit down.

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(Laughter)

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This is the first thing
I didn't anticipate.

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And then my teacher looks at me
sort of concerned

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about half way through the class

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and says, "Are you feeling OK?"

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And I'm thinking, "Are you kidding?

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Am I feeling OK?

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I'm wearing a suit of armor!

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I am having the time of my --"

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And I'm just about to tell her
how great I feel

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when the classroom
starts to list to the left

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and disappear down this long tunnel,

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and then I woke up in the nurse's office.

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I had passed out from heat
exhaustion wearing the armor.

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And when I woke up,

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I wasn't embarrassed about having
passed out in front of my class,

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I was wondering,

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"Who took my armor? Where's my armor?"

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OK, fast-forward a whole bunch of years,

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some colleagues and I get hired

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to make a show for Discovery Channel
called "Mythbusters."

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And over 14 years,

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I learn on the job how to build
experimental methodologies

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and how to tell stories
about them for television.

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I also learn early on

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that costuming can play a key
role in this storytelling.

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I use costumes to add
humor, comedy, color

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and narrative clarity to the stories
that we're telling.

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And then we do an episode
called "Dumpster Diving,"

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and I learn a little bit more

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about the deeper implications
of what costuming means to me.

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The episode "Dumpster Diving"--

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the question we were trying to answer is:

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is jumping into a dumpster as safe
as the movies would lead you to believe?

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(Laughter)

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So the episode was going to have
two distinct parts to it.

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One was where we get trained
to jump off buildings by a stuntman

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into an air bag.

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And the second was the graduation
to the experiment:

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we'd fill a dumpster full of material
and we'd jump into it.

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I wanted to visually separate
these two elements,

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and I thought, "Well, for the first
part we're training,

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so we should wear sweatsuits --

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Oh! Let's put 'Stunt Trainee'
on the back of the sweatsuits,

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that's for the training."

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But for the second part I wanted
something really visually striking --

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"I know! I'll dress as Neo
from 'The Matrix.'"

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(Laughter)

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So I went to Haight Street.

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I bought some beautiful
knee-high, buckle boots.

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I found a long flowing coat on eBay.

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I got some sunglasses

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which I had to wear contact
lenses in order to wear.

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And the day of the experiment
shoot comes up

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and I step out of my car in this costume

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and my crew takes a look at me ...

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and start suppressing
their church giggles.

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They're like,

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(Laugh sound)

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And I feel two distinct
things at this moment.

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I feel total embarrassment over the fact
that it's so nakedly clear to my crew

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that I'm completely
into wearing this costume.

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(Laughter)

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But the producer in my mind reminds myself
that in the high-speed shot in slow-mo

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that flowing coat is going to look
beautiful behind me.

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(Laughter)

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Five years into [the] "Mythbusters" run,

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we got invited to appear
at San Diego Comic-Con.

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I'd known about Comic-Con for years
and never had time to go.

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This was the big leagues.

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This was costuming mecca.

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People fly in from all over the world

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to show their amazing creations
on the floor in San Diego.

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And I wanted to participate.

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I decided that I would put together
an elaborate costume

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that covered my completely.

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And I would walk the floor
of San Diego Comic-Con anonymously.

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The costume I chose?

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Hellboy.

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That's not my costume,

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that's actually Hellboy.

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(Laughter)

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But I spent months assembling the most
screen-accurate Hellboy costume I could,

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from the boots to the belt,

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to the pants

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to the right hand of doom.

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I found a guy who made a prosthetic
Hellboy head and chest

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and I put them on.

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I even had contact lenses made
in my prescription.

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I wore it onto the floor at Comic-Con

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and I can't even tell you how balls-hot
it was in that costume.

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(Laughter)

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Sweating --

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I should of remembered this --

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I'm sweating buckets

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and the contact lenses hurt my eyes,

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and none of it matters
because I'm totally in love.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Not just with the process of putting
on this costume and walking the floor,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but also with the community
of other costumers.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's not called costuming at Cons,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it's called "Cosplay".

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now ostensibly, Cosplay means

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
people who dress up as their favorite
characters from film and television,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and especially anime,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but it is so much more than that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
These aren't just people who find
a costume and put it on.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They mash them up.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They bend them to their will.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They change them to be the characters
they want to be in those productions.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They're super clever and genius:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they let their freak flag fly
and it's beautiful.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But more than that,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they rehearse their costumes.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
At Comic-Con or any other Con,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you don't just take pictures
of people walking around.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You actually go up and say,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Hey I like your costume,
can I take your picture?"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And then you give them time
to get into their pose.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They've worked hard on their pose

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to make their costume look
great for your camera.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And it's so beautiful to watch.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I take this to heart.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And at subsequent Cons,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I learn Heath Ledger's shambling
walk as the Joker from "The Dark Knight."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I learn how to be a scary Ringwraith
from "Lord of the Rings,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I actually frightened some children.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I learned that "herr herr herr"--

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that head laugh that Chewbacca does.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And then I dressed up as
No-Face from "Spirited Away."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
If you don't know about "Spirited Away"
and it's director, Mayao Miyazaki,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
first of all, you're welcome.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This is a masterpiece

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and one of my all-time favorite films.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's about a young girl named Chihiro
who gets lost in the spirit world

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in an abandoned Japanese theme park.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And she finds her way back out again

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
with the help of a couple
of friends she makes.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
A captured dragon named Haku
and a lonely demon named No-Face.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
No-Face is lonely and he
wants to make friends,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and he thinks that the way to do it
is by luring them to him

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and producing gold in his hand.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But this doesn't go very well,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and so he ends up going on a kind
of a rampage

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
until Chihiro saves him --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
rescues him.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So I put together a No-Face costume

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I wore it on the floor at Comic-Con.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I very carefully practiced
No-Face's gestures.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I realized --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I resolved I would not speak
in this costume at all.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When people asked to take my picture,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I would nod

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I would shyly stand next to them.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And they would take the picture

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and then I would secret out from behind
my robe a chocolate gold coin,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and at the end of the photo process,
I'd make it appear for them.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Ah, ah ah --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
like that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And people were freaking out.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Holy crap! Gold from No-Face,
oh my god, this is so cool!"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I'm feeling and I'm walking
the floor and it's fantastic.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
About 15 minutes in something happens.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Somebody grabs my hand
and they put a coin back into it.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I think maybe they're giving me
a coin as a return gift,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but no, this is one of the coins
that I'd given away.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I don't know why.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I keep on going,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I take some more pictures.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And then it happens again.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Understand, I can't see
anything inside this costume.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I can see through the mouth --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I can see people's shoes.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I can hear what they're saying
and I can see their feet.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But the third time someone
gives me back a coin,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I want to know what's going on.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So I sort of tilt my head back
to get a better view,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and what I see is someone walking
away from me going like this.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And then it hits me.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's bad luck to take gold from No-Face.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In the film "Spirited Away,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
bad luck befalls those who take
gold from No-Face.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This isn't a performer-
audience relationship.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This is Cosplay.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We are, all of us on that floor,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
injecting ourselves into a narrative
that meant something to us.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And we're making it our own.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We're connecting with something
important inside of us.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And the costumes are how
we reveal ourselves to each other.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Thank you.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Applause)