Cosplay Superstar Interview: HezaChan

Speaking of TV (and on a much lighter note), one of your most recent gigs was a local Green Bay program called The Ned The Dead Show. How did you land that role?

Pure accident. The director and assistant director had been wanting a female role for the show and they had been looking a lot of places but didn’t quite find someone who fit the bill — or so they told me. I had been found on Facebook in the “People you may know” side bar. They saw my costumes, liked them, and decided to shoot me a message about the whole ordeal.

Now, I had never seen Ned the Dead on TV because I’m usually stuck to my computer. I figured there isn’t many cool shows on local Green Bay television, but I’m sure if I had known of it’s existence, I would have watched it religiously. I went to have a quick interview of some sort with the director and assistant director and they liked my style.

I started filming a week or so later. I’m still not 100% used to being in front of the camera and trying to keep up with Ned’s antics, but I’d say I’m learning rather quickly

Is the show still currently running? Is there a place where non-Green Bay residents may tune in to see Vicki Vixen in action? What’s the premise of the show, for those unfamiliar?

Right now we are on hiatus due to the assistant director’s wife having a baby. He had to quit in order to be with family, which is understandable. The show will return in the fall with a few new changes and hopefully they will all be for the better! The show itself is kind of like Mystery Science Theater 3000. We make fun of corny and hilariously bad horror flicks from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Ned the Dead is the host with his assistant Doc Moreau. We also have Vicki Vixen with “Things we like to Enjoy”, Small Town Steve with the “Small Town News,” and the crazy antics of Evil Eddie.

Since you’ve spent some time recently in Japan, how would you say the anime fandom varies from the American breed of otaku?

Japan is a very strange but fun place to visit. You see things there that you wouldn’t see anywhere else. I’d say that the fans over their are a lot weirder than fans over here… well at least looking at outward appearances. How many men do you see walking down the street in a Haruhi Suzumiya cosplay with white and blue striped tights on? You don’t see stores advertising H-games outside on the sidewalk with bright anime costumes in the windows either. Also, you have so much anime/manga/doujin/games readily available there and figure collecting is a bit more accepted (at least it seems). I seen grown men in suits buying gundam figures and Metal Gear Solid figures at stores in Akihabara. I’d say in the U.S. a lot of older people would look down upon it as if only children should collect “toys”.

With your homepage, MySpace, LiveJournal, YouTube, DeviantArt, etc., how do you juggle and manage it all?

I’m not on MySpace hardly at all. I don’t really care for the layout at all, and it seems pretty hectic at times. I only go there if I get notifications of comments or friend invites. YouTube, LJ, deviantART, and other accounts I check daily. It’s hard for me to keep up on livejournal a lot of times because people constantly update, especially those who have Twitter updates for entries. HOLY CRAP I can’t stand twitter! I’ll be sifting page after page of twitter updates when they are mainly replies to other people’s twitter updates whom I don’t even know! It gets so crazy it makes my head want to explode on occasion. I also get lazy with deviantART and don’t always comment back. I make sure I read all the comments though! Honestly I don’t know how I do it. Maybe it’s because I have an internet addiction?

What fellow cosplay models do you admire? Have you had the chance to meet or compete with them?

I’m a fan of Jia*Jem, WindoftheStars, OwlDepot, Yaya Han, AnimeAngel, Omi Gibson, Kipi, Rynn, Heidi, and many, many more. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Yaya Han at Anime Central ‘08 and she was a pleasure to talk with! I also met Heidi, and I also got to cosplay with Jia*Jem at Anime Central ‘09. I had tons of fun and hope to cosplay with Jia again. I haven’t competed with any of them though. Jia and I thought about it but opted just to have fun and roam the halls instead.

You think you could take her? If you were to compete–like, “there can be only one”–which costume/character would you pull out as your big gun?

I don’t know if I could really compete against a friend of mine. I’d feel pretty awkward.

The Puma Twins photoshoot was pretty hot… Could you elaborate on that experience?

I was soooo tired when those photos were taken. We had 3 photoshoots in a row, and it was all pretty random. We had planned one photoshoot with LJinto, but the other 2 just popped up out of nowhere. It was pretty fun because I had never really experienced that sort of thing before. All of us decided on a remote location where a lot of people wouldn’t be in the background. The hallway we were in was VERY cold, and my feet were killing me from being in heels all day. Me and high heels don’t get a long…

What insight would you like to offer to aspiring cosplayers out there?

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! Read books, take classes, and watch tutorials online for cosplay tips and hints, they are a HUGE help. Also stay true to yourself and cosplay characters you like

I thank HezaChan for participating in this interview. It was a pleasure to see the fandom through her eyes and then share it with fans like you!

To see what HezaChan is up to these days, you can check out her website, HezaChan.com. There, you can view photo galleries, artwork, and find links to all her latest projects.

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