April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 130

Photographer: Brett Greig
Photographer: Kris Ezergailis | www.WhatABigCamera.com

“MY CHOICE IN A COSPLAYER - I AM A MIXED
BAG! I WILL EITHER COSPLAY SOMETHING FROM
AN ANIME OR MANGA THAT HAS BEEN OUT
FOREVER, OR I WILL COSPLAY SOMETHING THAT IS
POPULAR BUT THEN I WOULD FALL IN LOVE WITH
THE COSTUMES OR CHARACTERS THAT NOT MANY
PEOPLE HAVE SEEN AROUND..”

cosplay

Jester Cosplay
Cosplayer from Gold Coast
Jester is a cosplay from Gold Coast
Australia, who started Cosplaying in
2004 and recently came back after
a 5 year break.. See what she has
to say about what it’s like to be involved in the Cosplay world and the
changes from then to now..
Welcome to Live Magazine Jester,
tell our readers a bit about yourself, what area you live in and
what cosplay you’re into.
I’ve been cosplaying since 2004, decided to take a small break in 2007
and just recently come back in 2012.
I live in Queensland on the beautiful
Gold Coast.
When I am not sewing, baking, being a crazy cat lady or fighting crime
like Sailor Moon meets Fionna from
Adventure Time, I am a Graphic Designer by day. My dream is to make
cosplay a Full-time job one day.
My choice in a cosplayer - I am a
mixed bag! I will either cosplay something from an anime or manga that
has been out forever, or I will cosplay
something that is popular but then I
would fall in love with the costumes
or characters that not many people
have seen around (like my first ever
costume Rikku Berserker from Final Fantasy X-2 or A.B.A from Guilty
Gears).

Do you make your own costumes?
If so, how long does a costume
take to make?

players mixing, which they do well,
but there are a few bad apples who
see cosplayers not as just people
having fun and expressing their love
for the character, which most do it is
just something fun to do with their
friends, a hobby, maybe a stepping
stone towards being a seamstress
or a voice actor or even modeling.
But this group of people see it as,
they are dressed as my favorite
character, it isn’t right, where is X, Y
and Z on their costume, which then
the person feels insulted that they
have not been “entertained” or they
haven’t represent the character and
they go and approach them or take
photos in a unflattering nature and
post them on online.

I make all my costumes myself, draft
and alter 80% of my patterns for costumes. Some costumes may only
take me anywhere from 2 weeks
to up to 10 months to make, all depending how quickly I can get my
resources together (fabric, wig, contact lenses, footwear and if the character has a prop).
I know you have called yourself an
ambassador for cosplay and zero
tolerance for bully’s. Tell us about
the industry and what you see (if
you’re comfortable doing so)
As I mentioned above, I started in
2004 when cosplay and conventions
were tiny in Australia and Brisbane
only had really one main convention,
and to many of us it was our way to
take our fandom of the character to
the next level. We were a happy little family as a sense, when no matter where you were from or what you
did during the day, we were always
there for each other.

I am not saying it is all sunshine and
rainbows in the world of cosplay because there are a few cosplayers
that can intimidate, belittle and just
make cosplayers feel unwelcomed,
specially newbies to the industry.
To me, bullying can be something
as small as making someone feel
unwelcomed, belittling them, intimidating them, rude remarks, and do
unacceptable things to a person
whether it will be verbally or on any
of the forums and social media sites
or through emails and personal
messages. That is bullying there is
no two ways about it.

When I came back into the cosplay
world after a 5-year break, alot had
changed. The conventions are bigger, more of what I would like to call
“Normals” attended a convention, it
was not just for cosplayers or Geeky
Nerds. I now see ‘normals’ and cosPhotographer: Luke West

What do you feel the answer is? I
know some sites now are taking
a zero tolerance to bullying and
abuse on forums or social media.
I feel that nothing will stop bullies,
there will always be bullies in our
lives. I personally feel the best action
is to take zero tolerance, so deleting
the comments and not adding fuel to
the fire (not commenting or arguing
back) plus blocking or banning people. I feel people do get labelled easily as being a ‘bully’ because they
speak their mind, or stand up for
themselves, which is totally different
from bullying on social media sites
and forums. I guess it goes back to
the old saying ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything
at all.’
You mention that some people can
use cosplay as a stepping stone
to careers in acting or voice work
or costume creating, do you see a
time where a cosplayer can make
a living out of simply cosplay?
Consider how in some countries
some gamers now are considered
full time athletes who compete..
The perfect answer to this is Yaya
Han, she was my inspiration to start
cosplaying, way back all those years
ago and now she travels around the
world being a special guest, a judge
and even selling her merchandise,
plus she has appeared on Heroes of