As far as the difference between Friday and Saturday costumed revelry, Halloween was a question of quantity vs. quality at nightspots, and also in this case. timing of night proved to be everything. Specifically concerning Friday, it’s apparent that the undead who decked themselves out the best just couldn’t wait until the middle of the weekend, when the costumed ghouls were far greater in number — hundreds not just dozens — but weren’t as consistently ghastly.
Still, most venues were packed to the gills on Halloween Saturday, when the vast majority of parties were held. The crowd came and went depending on the time of night, and the fact that most costume contests were held at about the same time, midnight, but in some cases ranged up to 1 a.m. Some of the almost dozen area venues that featured such contests had first-place prizes under the $100 mark, although most were in the $150 to $200 range, coming in the form of either cold cash or gift cards and certificates, but even the places with lesser amounts drew dressed-up people who sometimes numbered in the hundreds. However, the King of the Hill was the Smilin’ Moose, which offered a first-place payout of $500 on both Friday and Saturday nights, and when it got a bit later on in what actually morphed into early Sunday morning, it was standing room only, with certain of those tight, squeeze-by areas that every bar has, being simply clogged to the point that patrons with bulky costumes had trouble moving around.
All in all, though, the majority of eye-catching costumes were not as captivating as the ones the night before, when attendance was obviously less, but again they made up for that in sheer numbers that largely held firm — although there were notable exceptions — through the extra hour offered by the Daylight Savings Time change. (The way that alteration in hours played out just across the river in Minnesota, with their own notable contests being just a few-minute-drive away in places like Lakeland and Bayport, was more iffy).
With that said, here is my pick of six for Saturday, with the props they used to prop up their foreheads pushing them to the forefront, in some cases:
— One man, the most notably duded up at Seasons Tavern in North Hudson, wore what was a combination of a robot, such as Bender on Adult Swim, and beer keg. What made his costume so intriguing was that on top of the metal spigot that spiked upward from his headgear, were stacked several plastic beer glasses.
— Another was gaudily costumed and wore make-up to the hilt, but this Liberace was also carrying in front of him, not just setting on a piano, a realistic looking big candelabra.
— A French-looking painter was wearing the trademark beret, but that’s not where the act stopped. He actually was carrying a pallet of several colors, and using it to do portraits of patrons he met — or should I say brashly approached — at Dick’s Bar and Grill.
— Speaking of which, (or should I say witch), a woman nearby had her face stuck in the middle of a large picture frame containing a pastoral scene, which was enhanced by flowers on either side.
— This was quite the brat special. A man standing almost eight feet tall was dressed as the sausage that circles the field in races at Milwaukee Brewer games. No mention on the possibility of him having the famed Special Sauce as part of his get-up.
— A contestant who from the stage was called “Blue Balls” was anything but singing the blues, as he won a major prize at the Smilin’ Moose.
— Favorite picks by my friend Tom were Cheech and Chong, Sonny and Cher and The World’s Most Interesting Man. One prominent promised act we could not find at the costume contests was Eggs and Ham. Maybe that late closing ended up being too close to breakfast time.