Thriller NYC + Village Halloween Parade = Awesome

This year I decided one costume wasn't enough, so after doing Samurai for a Halloween party over the weekend, I decided to zombify for the NYC Village Halloween Parade. This breaks with the 4 year old tradition of dressing up as Groucho Marx and the Marx Brothers with my friends. While I missed being able to interact with people using puns and cheap come ons, it was more than made up for with doing Michael Jackson's Thriller dance 25 times going up 6th Avenue!!

It really was amazing, hearing the crowd reaction. When the music would swell into the beginning stinger of the dance and we'd take that first lurching step forward in unison, the crowd would go crazy. Then, just a few beats later when we busted into the side stepping hip thrust, the crowd would go INSANE - it was like the first roar was, "Oh cool, they're moving in unison," followed by the realization, "Oh, crap, they're going to do the ACTUAL dance!"

Got my picture taken by the Village Voice (above) and apparently I was right in front for the NY1 coverage. A friend of mine taped it, so I'll post it along with edited video of the event when I get all the footage together.

Super awesome fun. I still have makeup and greasepaint in my hair.

But next year... Zombie Groucho Marx, definitely.

For Halloween I'm dressing up as a (zombie) hipster!

Although it dangerously treads the American Apparel-clad borders of hipsterism (a movement I consider to be the death of culture and creative thought), my love of Halloween and the Halloween Parade, combined with the genius of (1980's version of) The King of Pop, is far too great to resist this:

http://www.thrillernyc.com

ThrillerNYC is, in their own words, "a group of New Yorkers who once a year become one of the undead in order to follow the king of undead, Michael Jackson, through the streets of the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade."

What's not to like?

I'm going to end up missing the first two rehearsals, but I plan on forcing my roommate, who is also doing it, to teach me. I've made a copy of the convenient choreography handout he received from the group; it contains such helpful move descriptions as "Zombie Cheerleader" and "Zombie Swim."

While I will miss the 4 consecutive years I dressed up as Groucho Marx and ran around like an idiot with my friends dressed as the Marx Brothers, sometimes you just have to move on.


Although, I could always go as ZOMBIE Groucho. Hmmm....