Ventriloquist Dummy Illusion Costume

Inspired by the RL Stine character Slappy.
Made this costume with everything we already owned w the exception of the mask. Wound up finding a George Washington mask for 3.99$ and colored the hair in with a sharpie.

Step 1: Collect Materials Needed

• man's suit [suggest suit, not separates to make more cohesive]
• mens dress shirt or turtleneck
• mask for ventriloquist
• towel to be balled up and fill mask
• bamboo sticks or similar to support head
• backpack to support vent torso and head
• overalls for child
• stuffing [batting in long socks to use for "puppet's legs"]
• child's shoes
• child's vest [must be willing to cut back]
• swimming "noodle"
• long belt or 2

Step 2: Create Puppeteer

• stuff backpack with flat cushion [I used patio cushion]. flat gives the ventriloquist a flat back as opposed to rounded.
• put men's dress shirt on backpack
• insert noodle to fill as arms
• feed belts through sleeves of shirt
• take balled up towel, insert bamboo stick[s] place mask over and poke through noodle at neck hole

Step 3: Create Dummy and Add to Ventriloquist

• shorten / hem pants [can tape up if not willing to cut / sew
• use belt to cinch "men's" pants around child's waist
• put on dress shoes [these will appear to be men's feet - so a mature style a must!]
• place overalls on child w stuffed legs and shoes already attached
• folding legs up [have child hold] wrap a belt around child and pinch bottom of stuffed legs in belt. when then flop down they will be short.
• put vest on child to hide backpack straps
• put suit jacket on vent buttoning just under the legs hiding the bel from 2 steps above
• take belts from vent arms joining via belts that were fed through arms connecting under stuffed mini legs. this will give appearance of holding the child

Step 4: Makeup

using the web to find a style of dummy makeup that I preferred. used women's makeup for the following:

• cream foundation to give smooth artificial look. a lot of this.
• liquid eye liner o create painted eyebrows, lines around eyes & lines on mouth
• blue/green shadow just applied to center of eyelids and high enough to brow to see when eyes open creating a "doe" look adding to artificial feel
• bright red lipstick sparingly applied because it stains

Step 5: Final Product Was a Hit

this costume cost $4 total. everything else we already owned. lass than 30 minutes to put together though may be slightly longer for people who haven't done many costumes before. was a huge hit with all who saw!