The Couple That Cosplays Together Stays Together
An Interview with Shellane and Dean Demarest from Cos a Commotion Cosplay
I recently had a chance to sit down with Shellane and Dean Demarest from Cos a Commotion Cosplay, an authentic set play experience that allows people to take part in a fully-interactive photo shoot experience with their favorite cosplay characters.
I talked to Shellane and Dean about how they met, how they started their business, what they geek out on, and what advice they have for cosplayers and convention attendees.
Geek News Network (GNN): I’m here with Shellane and Dean from Cos a Commotion Cosplay. Thank you two for taking the time.
Shellane (S): Thank you.
GNN: So before we start on actual cosplay, let’s get a history on you two. You two are a married cosplaying couple.
S: Yes, we are.
GNN: How long have you been together and how did you meet?
S: We actually met online, just random chatting, and this year will actually be 10 years we’ve been married.
Dean (D): This August.
GNN: Wow, 10 years! So, was geekiness and cosplay, that kind of stuff, any interest at first, or did that come later
S: It came much later. We didn’t realize that we both worked at Universal Studios a long time ago at different times. So, that was one of the things we had in common…
D: Yeah, Shellane was Storm from Islands of Adventure, and I worked as the Chainsaw Killer during Halloween Horror Nights. That was our background to doing this sort of work.
GNN: That’s an interesting pairing…Storm and a chainsaw killer.
S: Yeah. That’s us.
GNN: So, how long in your relationship before the cosplaying thing came around?
D: Really, we’re fairly new to cosplay. It’s May now, and it was May 2016, so it’s been two years since we went together to our first convention, which was MegaCon Orlando. And we didn’t do it as Cos a Commotion. We just went as a couple just watching it. So, it’s even been less than two years that Cos a Commotion has existed. But the first time we went, Shellane got dressed up as Fish Mooney [from Gotham]…
S: Well, just to back up a little before we went to MegaCon, I went to Collective Con in Jacksonville, and I went as Michonne [from The Walking Dead]. When I went, I couldn’t believe the reception I received. It was like, I didn’t even get my bracelet on, and I was bombarded with, “Can I get your picture? Can I get a picture with you?” So, then I told [Dean] when I came home, I was like, “You can’t believe what kind of experience I had.” And he didn’t believe me. So that’s when we went to MegaCon, and I went dressed as Fish Mooney from Gotham, and he wasn’t dressed because he still had a cast.
D: I’d just come off a foot surgery, so I was in a cast. I went there to take pictures of her, and yeah, that’s right. So, my first exposure was May of two years ago, and I didn’t know what to expect. We got in, and we didn’t even get through the front door and there was a line waiting to get a picture with her.
GNN: Your Fish Mooney was incredible.
S: Thank you.
GNN: And I’m going to move up a question based on that. I believe there’s a picture on your website– Robin Lord Taylor [Peguin from Gotham] has never come to MegaCon in Orlando, so where did you meet him? His reaction to you looks like he’s amazed.
S: Well, I first met him when I was Michonne in Collective Con. But my first time meeting him as Fish Mooney was here [in Orlando]. Heroes and Villains were here.
GNN: Okay. Heroes and Villains.
S: And I was just standing in line waiting for his autograph, and I had purchased a general admission ticket because I didn’t know what to expect. But when the staff saw me, they’re like, “Oh my God, he has to see her,” so that’s when they came up with this joke. They called me up front, and they said, “This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to have you in his seat while he does a meet-and-greet behind a curtain. So, when he comes out from the curtain, he’s going to be blown away, because he’s going to think it’s Jada, but it’s not Jada, but oh my God– overload, you know?” And that’s how it happened. It’s on YouTube. It’s also on cosacommotion.com.
D: And what happened was, she did that. I was on duty at the fire station that day, so I couldn’t go to the event. So, then she texted me and said, “Hey, I just played this prank on Robin Lord Taylor,” and she sent me the video. I saw the video on my phone, and I just looked at it and was like, “oh wow, I wish I could have been their kind of thing.” And within 30 minutes, it went viral. It just started splashing everywhere, boom-boom-boom, and then I started getting it. And then I realized that she went viral on that night. That was when it took off. It was crazy.
GNN: Now what are you two interested in when you’re not cosplaying?
S: Movies. Yeah, movies, but we’re also gym rats. We’re trainers, so we do that, also. And we’re big animal advocates, so we’re going to shelters, we walk our dogs, and that’s our big thing. We just love animals.
GNN: So, since this is an interview for Geek News Network, GNN…who’s the bigger geek?
S: Me.
D: Yeah.
S: Yeah. (Laughs). Because I’m always quick to find an opportunity to dress up. Can I dress up for this one? My friends are like, “Why not just watch the movie in regular clothes?” I’m like, “Because that’s not fun.”
D: She dragged me into the movies. I was like a voyeur, but now, I mean– yeah, she’s still a bigger geek than I am, and she definitely follows it more than I do, but everything that we do, we do base on what she comes up with. If she has a character she comes up with, then I got to find a complementary character to work with her.
S: One that matches me.
GNN: So, what do you two geek out on together? What are your favorite things to geek out on?
Both: The Walking Dead.
GNN: All right. Nice!
S: Yeah. We will risk getting a speeding ticket, like, “Quick! Hurry up! Because it’s coming on!” Or, like, “Quick! Where’s the Wi-Fi?” Because we watch it on the phone. But yeah, Walking Dead for sure. That’s a big one.
GNN: Marvel movies? Have you seen all of them?
S: Guardians of the Galaxy in particular, yeah.
D: Guardians, for sure. Yeah. I mean, we’ve seen– there’s a few we’ve probably missed, but I think we’ve seen most of them. If it’s in the universe, we’ve probably seen it, I think.
GNN: All right. So, you had mentioned when you started cosplaying in general, just for yourselves. How did you make the transition into doing it as a business?
S: So, what happened– it was Florida Supercon two years ago, and I was Fish Mooney, and he was Oswald [Cobblepot, AKA The Penguin from Gotham], and that was our first appearance as these characters together. So, after the fifth time of somebody coming up and asking us for a picture and offering us money for it, that’s where we started thinking, “we need to monetize this.” Because this is happening way too frequently in this area alone. So, when we spoke with Cecil Grimes [a Florida cosplayer who cosplays as Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead]. He’s like the godfather of set play-and I was like, “Okay, tell me a little bit about your business model.” He gave us the template, and then he was like, “Now, go. Go run with it.”
D: Yeah, I think it even started earlier than that, though. I think it happened at the Orlando MegaCon that I had the cast when she was doing Fish. I saw Cecil for the first time, and I said, “How do we monetize this?” But we didn’t do anything about it until Supercon, but I already had it in my head; we had already traded contact information with Cecil. Cecil lives in Melbourne Beach. My parents live in Melbourne Beach. He literally lives around the corner from where they are. So, that’s how we had a little bit of a connection there. When I saw Cecil had…I didn’t even understand; I’d never even been to a con before. I didn’t understand that you could monetize it. So, when I saw his business model, I just let it ferment in my head for a while. And then when we went to Supercon, when we just got flooded, I went, “Oh, I have to call Cecil back.” That’s when, almost overnight, we decided to do the business. But, it was strictly because of what Cecil came up with. He’s been helping us more than I could possibly tell you. He’s an awesome friend.
GNN: So, the business you’re discussing, which we briefly mentioned earlier, is Cos a Commotion Cosplay. How would you describe it to people who aren’t familiar with cosplay?
S: It’s an interactive set-play experience. So, in other words, a person comes into our booth, and it depends on the theme, but they always come to our booth, and we have props that are associated with that theme. So, when we were Gotham, we had Gotham props. With Guardians and now Infinity Wars, we have different props that our guests get to hold, and they become part of the experience. The picture is taken there; it’s printed there; and then, of course, they get selfies, too. And part of that–what we’ve done this year–we’ve partnered with Pets for Vets, which is an organization that saves shelter animals, they train them to become therapy animals, and they are then paired up with veterans with PTSD.
GNN: Oh wow, nice. Helping on two fronts.
S: Yeah. And for me, that’s a personal note, because I’m a veteran with PTSD, and [Dean] can tell you, my dog is like my world. So, that’s why when I finally connected with them, we got their approval to do that.
GNN: Nice. So how many different cosplays do you do? You do Gotham, you do Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange, you do Michonne; I think I saw a picture of you as Rick…
D: She does Michonne; I do Rick. We do that mostly during charity events just on our own because Cecil does his Rick and it’s kind of a professional courtesy thing. That’s Cecil’s thing, and I wouldn’t presume to even compete with him.
S: Even though I have worked with him as Michonne.
D: Yeah, she has– yeah, you’ll never see me work with him on that, obviously. Our specialty pretty much comes down to the Gotham TV series, the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and then the Infinity War movies going forward. I’ve been doing double duty– sometimes I do Star-Lord, but we have several Star-Lords who are amazing, and we have some locals that look like Chris Pratt without the mask, so when they’re available, I do Ego. I gray my hair, my beard, and I have a really good Ego cosplay, which I prefer doing. I like doing old guy cosplays anyway. So, we do that, and now, of course, our cast has grown bigger and bigger, and the Infinity Wars cast has grown bigger and bigger, so we have an Iron Man, and we have a Black Panther, and we have Scarlet Witch and Black Widow, and we have all these characters that we can plug in.
GNN: So, of all the characters to cosplay, who’s your favorite? I mean, I know you look a lot like Fish Mooney, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s your favorite…
S: No, they’re all my favorite.
N: I guess it’s like asking you to pick your favorite kid or dog…
S: Yeah. Because each one of them has a special characteristic about them. But I like all the strong women characters.
GNN: Sure.
S: Now, as far as my preferences, Fish Mooney’s easier for me to cosplay because Gamora takes me three hours to do…
GNN: Wow! Three hours?
S: Because we airbrush it, and if we have to be at the con at 9:00, I’m up at 6:00, and I’m starting the process.
GNN: So, you met Robin Lord Taylor as Fish Mooney. Any other cool celebrity interactions based on who you were cosplaying as?
S: Well, at the Ace Comic Con in Long Island we met Gal Gadot…
GNN: Oh, wow. Really?
S: Yeah. She’s very tall. Very tall.
D: She’s beautiful and she was very nice. We also met Charlie Cox [Daredevil on Netflix].
S: And he had to be the nicest– you know how they rush everybody through? He wouldn’t have it. He talked to everybody. He asked where we were from; talked to us. That had to be the nicest guy ever. He slowed the process down. He said, “I don’t care.”
GNN: This was during his photo ops or at his table?
S: During his photo ops.
GNN: During photo ops! Oh, they must have been steaming! They hate that!
D: They were angry at him. They were. They were angry at him. And he’s, “Nope.” He stopped, asked our names, asked where we were from, and he did it to everybody. He was so nice.
GNN: So, do you have where they actually do photo ops with you two, or is it just your booth where the photo ops?
S: No– it’s our booth.
D: We have our own photographer and our own printer machine. So, yeah, we do it ourselves.
GNN: I remember the days where you had to stay at the con for four hours to get your photo. Now it’s just a line. I went to a con back in the day where they were like, come back in four hours and we’ll have it at the table ready for you.
D: It takes us about two to two-and-a-half minutes to get the picture. It just kicks it right out, and the next group goes in and kicks it out, the next group goes in and kicks it out.
GNN: Nice. Any other cool stories from cosplaying, like, has anyone come up with a costume that’s amazed you two, like, any cool fan interactions? Any Fish Mooney cosplayers that were like, “Oh my gosh, next to you we look like twins!”
S: There was another Fish Mooney, but she acknowledged right away, she was like, “I’m Fish Mooney, but it’s like, it’s like, yeah.”
D: I got my picture taken in the middle of the two of them. And she was good. She was good. Yeah. We were pretty impressed with her. We gave her credit. She knocked it out of the park.
S: Well, I think it looked to me– the most amazing interaction took place in Clermont, and there was a girl that kept walking by, and she kept fangirling over Dean as Oswald. And she was so nervous and crying and walking by that he finally said, “Okay, that’s enough, we’re going to go to her.” And when we approached her, she literally was crying, hands shaky, she dropped everything that she was holding, and then finally, she calmed down and he shook her hand, he introduced himself, and it was kind of unfair, because he knows how to sound like him, too, so of course it’s like– I really thought she was going to faint. But to me it was such a genuine fan experience, you know?
D: Yeah. You get people that say something like, “Yeah, I really love your show.”
GNN: You look good as Oswald, but you’re a little bigger physically than him. Her as Fish Mooney is incredible. I mean, that picture on your site…I did a double take when I looked at it because you’re sitting there and Robin’s in it and I thought it was the two of them.
D: It was funny, too, because when I finally got to pose with Robin that one time, it’s a little weird because I’m a head taller than him.
GNN: He’s a little guy. In the one picture, he’s Shellane’s size.
D: It’s a little weird, but if he’s not there to compare, people don’t really pay attention to how tall I am.
GNN: That’s a good point.
S: They keep thinking you’re Doctor Who.
D: Yeah. That’s why I like doing the Doctor Strange a little better because it kind of is a better fit.
GNN: So, have you met any of the other Gotham cast members? I know Sean Pertwee [Alfred on Gotham] does a lot of these…Drew Powell, who plays Butch…
S: I want to meet him…Butch. I didn’t get around to because I went the last time – where was I? In Chicago, Walker Stalker/Heroes and Villains Chicago. And I was talking to Robin for a little while, and Drew was like right there, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, but it’s like, I heard him say, “She looks just like her.” You know. Because Robin and I were talking, and after a while, I’m like, “I guess you’re going to have to go,” and he was like, “Yeah.”
GNN: So, are you looking to expand the cosplays you’re doing? Anybody else coming to mind? You look so much like Gamora when you cosplay Gamora. I was wondering like, Zoe Saldana from Star Trek might work.
S: Yeah. Maybe.
D: I don’t know. I don’t think we’ve looked forward past Infinity Wars because it’s going to be pretty big for a while.
GNN: Right, yeah, you’ve got a point.
S: I mean, I know for me, I’m just waiting for the other pieces to come together, but my next cosplay is going to be General Okoye from Black Panther.
D: Yeah. So that’ll definitely happen because we already have the cosplay set and the skullcap and all that is ready to go. So, we’re going to use that. I don’t know what role I’m going to play in that yet. I don’t know.
D: She does already have a six-foot authentic spear.
S: Actually it’s 5’10”…and I’ve been training to learn how to use it. So…
GNN: Dean, does that worry you at all that you can’t get out of line anymore? I would never in a million years give my wife a six-foot spear.
S: Well, I mean, it’s all the other stuff: my sword training, my stick training, boxing– I do a lot of different things.
D: She does a lot of weapons work, and then she posts it on her video.
GNN: Yeah, I guess for Michonne– if you’re going to accurately play her, you’ve got to know the swordplay…
S: Yeah. I have four katanas at home.
D: So, she’s always practicing on film with that. Then the guys at the firehouse see that go, “Don’t go and piss her off!”
GNN: It’s funny. I interviewed another actor on The Walking Dead and I asked him how he would fare if the apocalypse happened. He was like, “Do you know what would kill me in the apocalypse? Asthma.” Because he doesn’t know if he could get an asthma inhaler. You two, I think, I would do all right with. Swordplay and spears, firefighter—you have to have some basic medical training…Do you two mind if I give you a call if things start to kind of go to hell?
D: We definitely have a zombie apocalypse skill set.
S: Yeah.
GNN: You’ve got all the bases covered. So yeah. All right. Cool. I’ll keep your number.
S: Yeah, absolutely. Keep us on speed dial, you know?
D: It’s funny. At the firehouse, we talk about it as if it’s really going to happen– about the apocalypse– and we literally say, “We need to come to the firehouse because it’s like a reinforced building.” But we actually planned to all meet each other back at the firehouse for the apocalypse.
GNN: That’s a good plan. I tell my wife since we live so close to Orlando, Disney hotels would be where we’d go. I mean, if you think about– most of the Disney– the property is relatively secure.
D: There is food there.
GNN: There’s a ton of food.
D: And you can get up high, and you can see them coming.
GNN: Bingo. So, yeah, I’m thinking a Disney hotel…food, good vantage point, and they’ve got to have first aid.
D: See, we have all the medicines; we have all the stuff that you need for any kind of injuries, plus every firehouse has its own room that is just one gigantic diesel-powered generator. We have AC, heat, lights, and we’re surrounded by a
GNN: You two are custom-made couple for the zombie apocalypse.
D: I’m ready for it.
GNN: All right. All right. Let’s see what else we have. So, a lot of people reading this might be thinking of doing cosplay, but don’t know where to start. Do you have any advice for people who want to do cosplay but maybe haven’t for one reason or another?
S: You know, you have to pick a character that you identify with, one that you really like. And then for us, we always recommend take a step further; study that character, so if there’s a certain little gimmick that they do, then master that. Make it more believable. So, with Fish Mooney, I know she does [a finger wag] a lot. So, I mean you have to pick up on certain things, like when Rick– he does this [pantomimes holding a gun like Rick Grimes]. And I always know when this happens, something bad is going to happen, you know? So that’s what I would recommend– try to become the character.
GNN: Are there any shortcuts…I know shortcuts has a negative connotation…but some of these costumes I see are expensive. Do you have any advice for people who are looking to save some money on cosplays?
D: It’s hard. I mean, you can make it as expensive as you want to make it. You can also get a bunch of tissue boxes, tape them to you, and you can be Iron Man, but, you know–
GNN: Somebody did that as Optimus Prime– they did beer boxes and they were Hoptimus Prime. and I’m like, “Bravo to you, sir.”
D: (Laughs) That’s funny. I would take a picture of him. I want to see that. But, yeah, it gets really expensive. Certainly, the business end of what we do is not for everybody. And it’s hard for younger folks– we’ve been around a little longer. A lot of people can’t. I mean, it can get pretty expensive. You have to wait a long time for a return on your investment.
GNN: I was about to ask. I didn’t want to get too personal, but at first was it more in the red and it took a little while to get into the black, or…?
D: In our case, given that most cosplayers– it’s not a business, right, so– you’re always going to be in the red as a cosplayer, because you’re not getting a return on your investment, except for the fun of doing it. But from a business, it’s like any other business; we had a certain amount of startup, and we were lucky enough to have that and put it into it– because you’re paying for costumes, and makeup, and purchasing a trailer, and all these things, and then at first paying your own way rather than getting paid. That’s all overhead. You have to be willing to absorb that. But that’s just from the business point of view. For your average cosplayer, they’re just going to always be spending money. It just depends how much you love it. Most people do it for the love of doing it. And see, that’s part of our business model, also. For instance, we’re going to Heroes and Villains Nashville in about nine days coming up, right? So, what we do is– of course, it’s our business to do this, so we’ll bring ourselves plus two more actors. We’re going to have Dr. Strange, Gamora, Black Widow, and Winter Soldier. That’s going to be the core. Then, we put an “all-points bulletin,” out to the people of Nashville via Facebook in the cosplay community and ask if there’s anybody that has any of the other characters, but not including those, that would like to sit in with us for an hour on our set. And we schedule: 1:00 to 2:00, 2:00 to 3:00, 3:00 to 4:00. And the guys at Nashville just came out of the woodwork, so every hour, we have a fifth character who’s going to be doing it…not for the business, like I said, just for the love of cosplay. I have a Captain America coming at this time, and a Spider-Man following him an hour later, then an Iron Man coming in an hour later, then a Mantis an hour after that, and they all get to participate. They’re not in it for the business; they’re just in it to have a great time, and they want to be part of our thing. So, it’s kind of a little bit of a hybrid thing where they’re not doing this for a dollar; they’re doing it for the love of it, but it gets everybody involved. So, we must have eight or nine Nashville cosplayers that are joining us. Literally, we have every hour booked on Saturday.
GNN: That’s incredible.
D: It’s great fun because their friends get such a kick out of seeing them in there with us.
GNN: Is there an audition? Do they have to send you pictures? I mean, clearly, you’re not going to just randomly pick folks…
S: Yeah.
D: Well, yes and no. I mean, we want them to participate. I mean, fortunately, most of these folks…everybody that I saw…sent in a picture to us behind the scenes. They’re good at what they do, and we’re going to put them in there. But we’re not going to turn anybody away. We want them to come in and do it with us. It’s fun.
S: Also, to kind of piggyback on the back half of your question, what we did in the beginning to kind of take the shortcut, as you were talking about–we went to thrift stores and we’ve taken things that to someone else, I mean this is a glass, but if you turn it upside down, spray paint it, and glue this…now it becomes something else. So, it’s a matter of having it on and being able to go the more frugal route as far as doing your cosplay.
GNN: Yeah, that was the kind of stuff I meant. Like going to fabric stores and looking for a fabric that’s going out of stock…
S: And then there are so many different cosplayers that are out there– you know if there’s a specific cosplayer that’s really good at armor, then go to him and say, “Hey, I need some tips on how to make blah blah blah– armor from this cosplay.” And that’s what you do– you collaborate with other people.
GNN: Right. The cosplay community seems to be pretty tight-knit. So, this seems to be the beginning…if there really is one…of convention season. You’ve got MegaCon coming up, and Supercon, and I’ve always said – maybe you guys can answer this one for me – in Florida, why is Cosplay season during the hottest months? Walker Stalker Con is coming back to Orlando, and it’s in August. That’s just brutal!
S: Yeah, I know.
D: I think it’s probably because those are the months where the convention centers’ fees are the lowest.
GNN: I would think like February in Florida…
S: Well, you got to think about this. Other conventions that are going on like trade shows. I know I work for a veterinarian company that therapy convention is in– usually, it’s either the last weekend of January or the first weekend of February.
D: They’re probably willing to pay top dollar for that floor space. Cons probably aren’t.
GNN: That’s a good point. Now, other cosplayers I’ve interviewed had tips for interacting with cosplayers. Like earlier when the girl was geeking out over Dean. Do you have any advice on interacting with cosplayers? Like, again, she walked by all these times all nervous, and it’s like, are there any dos and don’ts? I know one big one is with the females who dress in the slightly more provocative outfits that guys just think, “Well you’re dressed that way. Clearly, you’re going to allow me to do what I want…”
D: Well, yeah, the cosplay is not consenting.
GNN: Right. That’s a big one.
D: As far as dos and don’ts…you have to be very, very aware of children. Children love our characters. Now children don’t really love the Gotham characters – that’s an adult thing – but children love the Guardians. Children love all the Infinity Wars characters and the Marvel characters. And they don’t know that they’re invading space, so you have to get down to their level, you have to avoid doing things like hugging, and you have to show a lot of jazz hands.
S: Yeah, in the pictures, make sure both hands are visible.
D: Our hands are visible at all times because it’s a weird world, and kids are awesome. We are hyperaware, and that comes from working at Universal Studios because they have entire classes on how to interact with kids–
GNN: Yeah, I bet.
D: Well, not classes, but during the orientation, they teach how to talk to kids. And we do the same thing in our sets. The kids are awesome, but superheroes don’t hug, they high five. You have to be proactive. Kids go in for the hug. And you have to suddenly stop them; that stop sign turns into a high five.
GNN: Gotcha. Yeah, that’s kind of interesting.
D: Yeah, you have to be hypervigilant with children.
S: And nine times out of ten with me as Gamora, because I emulate a lot of Gamora’s characters, Gamora’s not touchy-feely. There’s not a lot of smiling going on. So, when I’m posing, it’s my fight stance. And Dean basically knows which side I typically pose on. So, if I ask him to pose on a different side, that’s my signal to him that I don’t feel comfortable with this person. We communicate. You have to communicate to your team. If there’s something that’s not quite right, if you’re not sure or whatever, or there’s somebody that’s acting a little peculiar, you have to communicate to everybody else so they’re all on the same page.
D: Yeah, whenever I have my cast in the set, we have this unspoken thing; we all kind of know how to move around and give each other the eye, and everybody knows how to move around, keep things safe in there.
GNN: That’s all good advice all the way around. I’ve noticed that now that Deadpool is a thing, people cosplay as Deadpool, and they think it gives them license to do whatever they want. They think, “Well, Deadpool does it, so I can do it.” I’ve seen some Deadpools do things and I don’t understand how these guys aren’t getting punched or guided out of there.
D: You can get away with a lot, though. You can get away with a lot of stuff.
S: I forgot where I was, but I actually heard that Deadpool’s one of the characters that they try to limit, but not forbid altogether to come to the convention.
GNN: Right. Yeah. And again, some of them are just having fun, and they push the envelope but don’t break it. But there are some– I mean, I’ve seen guys– they’ll just walk up, and I’m like, seriously, man, I get that– and that’s their excuse is that the character does all these weird, wild things. I know he’s the “Merc with a Mouth,” and he swears, but kids are there. It’s a kids’ thing. And…
D: Yeah. You have to– and this is for the kids. I know it’s adults, too. I get it. But kids are the ones that get the biggest charge out of it, and you have to cater to them. We love having kids in the set. Kids just get such a charge out of it. We have these life-size props in the set; I build all the sets myself, and we travel with the sets to set them up and break them down, but always in the Guardians set and in the Infinity Wars set, we have what would be a life-size Rocket Raccoon.
GNN: You have a Groot! I saw you had a Baby Groot in one picture!
D: Yeah. And a life-size Baby Groot, yeah. And kids just want to hug them. I mean, this Rocket is what, three feet tall? Yeah, and the kids just want to be near those characters. Yeah. It’s neat.
GNN: So, you’ve mentioned events coming up. What do you guys have coming up? Nashville, you said?
S: And Phoenix. And then after that, June we kind of take a little break, and then July we go again with Supercon and then Raleigh–
D: Yeah, so we’ve got Fort Lauderdale, Raleigh, St. Augustine–
S: Yeah. St. Augustine is September–and I think November is Louisville.
GNN: You skipped August. So, are you not doing Walker Stalker [in Orlando] when it comes?
S: Well, I take it back. Because I work with that tour company, I am working Walker Stalker Orlando, and I’m working Walker Stalker Atlanta.
D: Yeah, we’re not going to be Cos a Commotion during that.
S: Yeah. I’m Michonne, but I’m working with the Georgia tour company.
GNN: So, off the topic of cosplay. On your website, you support a charity: Pets for Vets. Can you tell me a bit about that?
S: Yeah. Pets for Vets is an organization that rescues shelter pets, and I say shelter pets because it’s not always a dog. Sometimes it’s a rabbit, sometimes it’s a cat– but they take animals that were– unfortunately they were going to be euthanized. They rescue them and put them into training for the veteran who has PTSD. Then they pair them. So, depending on where in the country that this veteran’s located and where this animal is located, they go ahead and they pair them, and if they’re a match, then they go off and live happily ever after.
GNN: Oh, nice. That’s awesome. So, where can readers learn more Pets for Vets, or Cos a Commotion, or your events, or just learn more about you two?
S: Well, our main point of reference would be the website, www.cosacommotion.com. On there, we have contact information for anyone who’s interested in booking us. We actually have our press kit on that website as well. And then of course, on our social media, we have Instagram, and we have Facebook, and we have Twitter.
GNN: Okay. How can they find you? I guess if they just type Cos a Commotion on Facebook, they’ll find you.
D: Yeah. It’s the same for all of them. If you type Cos a Commotion on all the social media sites.
GNN: And if they’re interested in maybe joining up with you for an event? Can they reach you that way?
S: Oh, definitely. Yeah. I mean, it seems that a lot of people have Facebook, but we’re getting a lot of interaction with Instagram, also. That’s how we landed Amarillo. But, they can inbox us and just introduce themselves and what they’re interested in doing, and just have them tell us a little bit about themselves, and we have them leave a few links of their own so we can research them and check it out and see whether or not they’re a good match.
GNN: Okay. Well, all right. Before we go, have you guys ever think of writing a book? Books? Have you written a book? Maybe I didn’t do enough research!
S: You know, I’ve had a ladies’ group ask me if I’d consider writing a book. And that’s something that’s in the back of my mind. I guess I just don’t know how to go about it. But yeah, I’ve thought about it.
GNN: I’ve got the title for your book: Married to a Woman With a Spear and a Katana…wait, how many? Four?
S: Four.
GNN: Four Katanas. That’s a perfect story.
D: Yeah. We have an arsenal at our house. (Laughs) Spears and katanas.
S: That sounds like a comedy: Four Katanas and a Spear. That sounds like a comedy.
GNN: Yeah, that’s good. I would watch that! Well, that’s about all I have. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
D: For sure.
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