I love cosplay skits/acts. There are so many good ones that make me laugh! However, I have noticed many cosplayers struggle with writing acts. I will write out points to keep in mind when writing a skit/act and I will make dedicated pages for more specific things to keep in mind. This will focus on writing your own story skit and not replicating, dancing or singing etc. (All valid options, but I feel like I’d be terrible at those and I will not advice on those.)
1. Story
Most acts/skits try to tell a small story in a 90 second timeframe. Which can totally work! General writing tips are the basis for any act I write. Who, what, when, where, why, how? is something I try to establish before I give more body to my act. I need to know what my act is about before I can convey it to my audience and this greatly helps!
Of course you also need a beginning, core and end of the story. You might hate TV ads because they are oversimplified, but look some of them up, figure out their story and you’ll find that there are a few who do this really well! A cosplay skit has more time to tell the story, so find your balance between a simple story and enough details to entertain the audience.
Using stereotyopes also helps when writing a simple story. You don’t need to fill in all the gaps of a character’s personality, because a clear stereotype will convey to the audience easily.
2. Audience
One of the most important things is to know your audience. With cosplay, you have a group of people loving certain style of nerd things. At an anime convention, it is Japanese stuff. At a comic convention, it is more comics and movies. Knowing the recurring tropes and jokes in that fandom will help you make your act accessible or make it more generic: “What if my character found a love letter in their locker? How would they react?” or “It is almost Christmas and they are late with gift shopping! How do they solve this?”. If you make your act too in-depth on the series you’re cosplaying from, you will lose at least half of the audience and the judges might be confused too! Subtle nods to the fandom will be picked up by them for sure, keep it to that and you have an act that a lot of people can enjoy!
3. Stage
To keep your audience engaged with your skit, you need to be visible to them. And your special effects too! Knowing the stage lay-out and the way the audience is seated, can help you plan your movement. If you are invisible to the audience and do something important, you lose them. If your movements are too small, you lose them. Stage acting is different from film acting: you need to exaggerate everything a little! Let’s say you are planning an Avatar: the last Airbender act and want to show your Avatar-state. Using only those UV-contacts will not reach people in row 3. Imagine row 10. Make it bigger! You can use lights, music and your own dramatic movement to convey the change to the Avatar-state. If you don’t know how to do it exactly: contact the convention! Most conventions have a main stage team that is willing to help and think along with you. Exaggeration is key here and collaborate with the team to make it work!
4. Research
If you are just planning/writing an act and do not have a specific convention in mind, you can always head to YouTube and look up acts/skits there. Write down what you liked and disliked. But beware: don’t copy an act! People will figure it out and the backlash is not worth it! Also, writing and acting tips are good to have, when you aren’t sure on what to do. If you feel like getting more serious with cosplay acts, taking acting classes might be fun. I haven’t done so myself, but I have been doing show/stage sports for over 10 years of my life. There is plenty of advice you can get there as well that will help you with improving your act writing!
5. Feedback
Having a panel of friends who are willing to provide you with feedback on your plans is valuable to have. Ask people for feedback when you have an idea, when you are stuck, and when you are finished! At all those times it is important to check back with your “panel”, so you can have a better idea of what the audience will probably think of your skit. They also should check your practice footage! Get yourself a webcam and get going. You’ll gather valuable information for your act, which can make all the difference. This way you dont have to visualise all of your movements, but you can actually check if they are on time, big enough etc.! And how your prop planning on stage works.
6. Practice
Practice your act beforehand! It will help you find mistakes and correct movements that take too long. You will also know how to improvise in case something goes wrong. The practice footage is also good for your feedback group to look at. They can help you point out things that you might have missed in your own review! The test-run show at conventions is for their tech department to set up stuff correctly. It is NOT your time to start changing stuff, because you noticed it won’t work. At that time, you have to go with what you came up with.
Knowing your stuff also helps when some malfunction happens. Don’t panic, get creative! During my act with Aloy for Nishicon, my Watcher didn’t respond to my input and the eye didn’t change colour. I can’t re-do, so I keep going on. It was dumb that I did test the input before and I wasn’t wearing gloves or something. It just decided to not work with me. (I think the button of the pre-wired leds decided to hate on me.) So I shrugged it off and kept going. I know the literal shrugging would work with my act, so I was okay with it. But yes, it would have been so much cooler if the leds worked with me! Having practiced my act, really helped me out!
Conclusion
This became a little bit more than I planned, but these are my basic tips for cosplay acts/skits. Go on stage and have fun! Do you think I should make a panel about this? Please let me know and ask conventions for panels on this subject. I would love to host a panel on this subject!