- Hi friends,
Ginny Di here and today is the five-year anniversary
of the very first episode of "Critical Role".
So it seemed like a good day to answer some of the questions
that I get all the time about my Jester cosplay.
I've broken this video out into sections.
So feel free to check the description for timestamps
if you want to click to a specific topic.
One quick thing before we get started,
I just wanted to mention
that I have some new designs up in my Redbubble store.
They are all cosplay related, including this mug,
which says, "World's okayest cosplayer,"
this bag that I've been using
whenever I have to transport cosplay stuff,
this, "Not your cosplay girlfriend," shirt, important.
You can get Redbubble designs printed
on a ton of different merchandise.
So all of those designs are available on like t-shirts
and mugs and tote bags and travel mugs
and clocks and coasters and a bunch of weird stuff.
I'll put the link in the description
and if you get any of them,
please make sure to tag me on social media
when you post beautiful selfies in your new shirt.
(bright music)
Let's start with the basics.
What is "Critical Role"?
To put it in their own words,
it's a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors
playing Dungeons and Dragons.
I have an entire video about what "Critical Role" is.
I will link it in the cards
in case you want more in-depth information,
but somehow I doubt you would have clicked this video
If you didn't already know.
Who is Jester?
Well, she's one of the characters
from "Critical Role" played by Laura Bailey.
She is a Tiefling Cleric.
You know, the blue girl that I'm always dressed as.
People often ask me why I chose to cosplay Jester.
And I can honestly tell you that from the very first minute
that she appeared in the show, I was in love with her.
Are you secretly in love with me?
I just found her so charming and lovable.
And even though she is arguably
one of the most difficult characters to cosplay
from campaign two of "Critical Role",
I just, I couldn't help it.
When I first started cosplaying Jester,
I didn't do body paint.
So the fact that I now do body paint like twice a month
is just testament to how wonderful she is.
People also often ask me if I have any plans
to cosplay any other "Critical Role" characters.
So I have already cosplayed Keyleth
in her Vox Machina origins outfit.
And I am working on a Pike Trickfoot cosplay.
Both of those characters are from campaign one.
I've also done makeup tests
for the Ruby of the Sea, Nott the Brave and Calianna.
To be totally honest
I want to cosplay almost every character,
but I am trying this year to force myself
to put at least one non-"Critical Role" cosplay
in between every "Critical Role" cosplay that I do
in the interests of maintaining variety.
So, yeah, I don't know.
I don't have any other plans, like set in stone.
(bright music)
Okay. Hey, let's talk about the costume.
Did I make the costume?
Yes, I made almost every part
of my Jester cosplay myself from scratch.
Obviously some of the accessories like the boots
or various belts are just purchased or modified,
but all of the major garments I made myself.
So the skirt, the blouse, the corset, the cape, et cetera.
How long did it take me to make?
I feel like it was like one to two months
from first makeup test to actual completion
and debut of the costume, even though most of the pieces
of the costume aren't that challenging.
It has a lot of pieces.
It is a costume with a lot of details.
How did you make
the skirt, the blouse, the corset, the cape?
Can you share patterns?
These are questions that I get a lot from people
who are working on their own Jester costumes.
I am working on a series of tutorials about this right now.
I have a tutorial out about the skirt.
I also did use some commercial patterns,
although I modified them for the blouse.
I modified Simplicity 8162.
And for the corset, I used Simplicity 1558,
and I just changed up the little decorative straps
on the front of the corset.
I also get a lot of horn questions.
How are they attached?
How did I do the jewelry?
Are they heavy?
My horns are a cheap set of foam horns from Amazon.
I will link to them in the description.
I spray painted them and I made the little horn caps
out of craft foam spray painted silver,
literally just like a little ice cream cone shaped
bit of foam, just curled around, hot glued it.
For the horn that has a chain,
I just glued a ring of the chain over top of the horn tip.
And the other end of the chain just connects to the earring.
I have my little ears in a baggy here.
They're not heavy at all, they're foam.
What I did to attach them is I put
some of these little alligator style clips onto the bottom.
I hot glued them onto the base of the horn.
And then I also hot glued a little bit of fabric
over top of the bottom,
just to make sure they stayed in place.
When I put them on, I just opened both alligator clips.
And then I just tuck them down into the mesh of the wig cap.
Do you paint your arms and legs?
Nope, the only thing I paint when I dress up as Jester
is my face and my neck, I wear tights on my legs,
gloves on my hands,
which I have glued fake nails to for realism
and a turtleneck leotard for the rest.
All of those are from We Love Colors in the color Sky Blue.
I highly recommend them.
They have a bunch of different products available
all in the same dye color.
So you can easily match across your legs and arms and body.
Whenever people see me in a Jester costume
that is not as full coverage as her main costume,
such as my goth Jester look, they're like,
"Whoa, that's a lot of blue body paint."
But like, no, I don't hate myself that much.
Is the costume comfortable?
You know, not really.
Wearing a corset is never my favorite thing
because instead of a corset stopping me from slouching.
I just aggressively slouched against the steel boning.
There's also so many pieces and so many layers
to Jesters standard early level costume
that it's just kind of a pain in the butt to move around in.
That's one of the reasons I made my casual Jester costume
because I just wanted a way to wear Jester to cons
that just wouldn't suck for eight to 10 hours.
Like it's not my least comfortable costume,
but I don't want to like wear it to hang out.
Are you planning on making level 10 Jester?
Yes, I am.
I really want to, I love that outfit design.
One of the only reasons
I haven't started working on it yet
is just that I really wanted to get some costumes
in that were non Jester related first.
And I've already been working on Pike for a little while.
So it'll probably be a few more costumes
before I get started on level 10.
If you are also working on a Jester costume
and you want basically my shopping list
for where I got my horns, my fangs, my ears, et cetera.
I will put all of that into the description.
The only thing I'm not going to link to
is the contact lenses that I use
because I am just really sick
of seeing cosplayers hurt themselves
and damage their eyes by listening to influencers
instead of their eye doctor.
So if you are looking for colored contacts for cosplay,
please just speak to your eye doctor about it.
Don't listen to what people on the internet say.
I don't want to be responsible for your vision.
Your eyes are fragile.
You only get two, please just talk to your eye doctor.
(bright music)
Let's talk makeup.
If you want to learn about how I do my makeup,
I have a full tutorial,
which I will link in the cards and in the description
in case you want to check it out in detail.
I use Mehron Paradise,
which is a water activated makeup.
I don't have a lot of facial sweating
and I don't have particularly dry skin.
So that makeup works fine for me,
but it may not work well for everybody
depending on your skin type,
just look into different kinds of makeup,
do a little research.
There are a lot of options out there.
How long does it take me to do the Jester makeup?
So I can tell you that it has taken me as long
as two hours on some occasions,
but there's also at least one time
when I got it done in about 45 minutes.
It's definitely gotten faster
the more practice that I get with it.
I think if you're doing it for the first time,
you should definitely give yourself
at least two hours so that you don't feel rushed.
But these days I give myself about an hour.
How do you keep from getting blue makeup on the clothes?
That isn't really a problem for me
because I wear that leotard.
So none of the areas of my body that are painted,
which is just by face and neck,
ever really touch my clothing much.
There is a little bit of blue residue
on the inside color of the cape,
but it's water-based so it comes out
really easily in the wash.
In general, you should make sure to seal your body paint,
to try and prevent it from rubbing off on things,
but sealants can only do so much.
(bright music)
Let's talk about the Jester experience.
People often ask me
how I eat or drink or talk or sing with the fangs in.
First, I will tell you that Scarecrow,
which manufacturers these fangs,
they do not recommend eating or drinking with the fangs in.
That is because you are at high risk of swallowing one.
Personally, I do drink with the fangs in,
cause I live on the edge, but I drink with a straw,
more to save the Jester makeup
than to worry about the fangs,
but it does help make sure
that they're not floating around in your mouth.
As for talking and singing,
it's just one of those things that you have to get used to.
I've gotten enough practice with them
that I don't feel like I have a very audible lisp.
Doing the Jester accent with the fangs in
actually kind of helps because when I'm speaking as Jester,
I open my mouth like really wide,
which helps get the fangs out of the way.
As for singing with them in,
I don't really sing with them in.
When I do music videos, I record that audio in studio
and I am not dressed as Jester
while I am recording the music.
I'm only dressed as Jester while I am filming the video.
If you find that fangs are really impeding your speech,
I would recommend not only giving yourself time to practice,
but also using the smallest possible fangs that you can.
I know that the larger classic sized fangs
definitely create more of a lisp for me
than these little love bites do.
How did you learn the voice
and how long did it take you to practice it?
So I've always been a pretty good mimic,
so for me learning the voice
was mostly just listening to clips of Jester speaking,
and then just repeating it
until I sort of got the hang of it
and learned how to wrap my mouth around it.
I have a whole video about the accent.
If you want to learn it yourself.
And I will link that in the cards and in the description.
As for how long it took me to practice it.
I think I only practiced it for about a week
before I filmed that first little video that went viral.
Do you want a doughnut from my bag?
Go on, take it, they're only a little stale.
But listening back,
I can hear a lot of issues in the accent I was doing
in that video that I have since corrected.
So it's definitely a process.
Do I ever start feeling like I'm Jester
or forget that I'm Ginny or get lost in the character?
This might sound like a ridiculous question,
but I've actually gotten variations on this question
quite a few times and listen,
like I get that you guys love Jester
and you really desperately want her to be real.
And I get it because I also love Jester,
but like I'm a person, I'm a human person.
I've been Ginny for decades longer than I've been Jester.
I am never going to forget that I am Ginny.
Getting into character as Jester is really fun,
but there is no part of me that has trouble
drawing a boundary between that fictional character
and my real self and my real life.
There are a lot of people who assume
that I am somehow intrinsically tied to Jester.
Like people like to assume
that my favorite food is also doughnuts.
People like to try and draw parallels
between me and the color blue.
Like I posted a picture of myself
at like six or seven years old at the beach
and I had like a blue bucket.
Somebody on Twitter was like trying to claim
that the color of the bucket
was like foreshadowing for Jester.
Blue is a primary color folks.
It's going to turn up a lot.
So yeah, do I love Jester?
Absolutely, do I love that you love Jester?
Completely.
Am I secretly Jester?
No.
Do you ever put on Jester just for funsies?
Absolutely not.
She takes so long to put on
and like I'm a professional content creator.
So when I take the time to put Jester on,
it's like to make content for my work.
I already have so many plans for Jester
and video ideas and concepts and photo shoots and stuff
that I haven't found time to do yet.
Just because putting on Jester takes so long.
So like if I put on Jester,
it's going to be to make a new video,
not like to wear to the mall or something.
I know there are a lot of people
who like wear a cosplay for fun,
but I've absolutely never been one of them.
Cosplay for me is a tool to create.
The wearing of the cosplay is a means to an end for me.
Do you ever wear Jester to conventions?
Yes, these days I wear Jester to every convention
because if I don't people get upset with me.
If you want to see which conventions
I am going to this year, assuming that they don't
all get canceled over coronavirus concerns,
you can check out my website, ginnydi.com/cons
and you can see my full schedule there.
Has Laura Bailey ever said anything about your costume?
Yeah, Laura is the best.
When I did that first little video with Jesters accent,
she retweeted it and said that it was a really great Jester,
which I of course lost my mind over.
And then of course, I got to meet her
at Emerald City Comic-Con, which was magical.
I have it on my wall actually, insert harp music.
(fluttery harp music)
A lot of people asked me to get video of me meeting her
and people were saying that they wanted to see like
her and I talk to each other
in the Jester voice or something.
When you do a photo op like that at a convention,
you are not allowed to take additional photos or video
and they move you through super fast.
You only have seconds with the person.
And also I would have felt like such an asshole,
like walking up to Laura Bailey
and like using her characters accent at her.
That would have felt very presumptuous to me.
But yeah, it was lovely.
I think that covers it.
If you have further questions that are not addressed here,
feel free to put them into the comments
and I will do my very best to answer them.
And of course, make sure to subscribe
for more "Critical Role" content
because it's the only thing that brings me happiness
on this entire barren Earth.