I wasn't really sure where to put this but I think it's mostly acting so here seems okay.

A large part of my job is skins work which for anyone who doesn't know is performing inside a character costume, the costumes have heads and are supposed to be believable characters. Of course they rarely are once your over the age of about 8.

I mostly play animals, bears, tigers, elephants, monkeys... sorry I mean Gorilla, he gets angry if you call him a monkey. I've even been a reindeer. There are the odd humans too but I can't play the boys because my er assets make it way to obvious I'm a girl.

I can't talk about where I work because skins is very secretive work, you can't ruin the illusion by implying in anyway that the characters are not real. Anyone who has been to where I work will probably recognize the characters I've mentioned just please for the sake of small children who may be googling the place don't say the name thank you.

I was just wondering if anyone else does this sort of work and what they think of it?

I do two sorts; shows where I'm in the skin on a stage and act along to a pre-recorded script telling a story with other characters and usually dances. And meet and greets where you are out and about so children can meet the character and have photos done. You always have a walker at those times because vision is restricted and you can easily walk into things.

I much prefer shows, it can get quite boring if you are doing a long meet and greet. Although it is very hot in the costumes and once you add stage lighting and dancing it gets much worse. This is an incredibly effective weight loss program though. Last year we had one show which was just solid dancing and the first time I did it I was really dizzy after and had to stand out in the cold to recover.

It's not fun getting majorly sweaty in a skin then having to continue working all night and wondering if people can tell. But that really is the only downside. It's great fun to do, my favorite characters are the human ones because they're not furry which makes them cooler and the eyes are in the right place so you can see well and move quite easily.

Is there anyone else out there who does this sort of thing?

I used to do this years ago. Mall events, stage shows, an amusement park, school mascot, etc. It was hot, sweaty, smelly work. But it was fun! The little kids loved it. I preferred being in the mall passing out balloons because it was cooler.

Oh, if they would only clean those costumes more often! I liked having my own costume. Sharing was just gross!

kk~

Oh I totally agree, I was once lucky enough to have my own set. Some error meant we had two of every costume so one set was mine and one the other performers. It's not too bad with the girl ones but there are two characters who are always played by boys and those costumes smell pretty bad, there was once a complaint. We are in charge of washing them ourselves though so we just stepped it up to every other week it's usually once a month. But that is a tough operation, you have to sneak them to the laundrette in the night then get security to come and lock them in. Or stay in there the whole time with them, then carrying them back wet is not fun they are very heavy. I once spent the half an hour washing time sat inside the tumble drier though, fun times lol.