Exploring the Different Types of Cosplay Performances

Legend has it that there are only seven stories in the world, and every one since is a variation on an original. Similarly, most cosplay performances fall into one of seven categories. More often than not, these categories overlap with each other, eg. a dramatic musical performance, or a comedic fight scene, but deciding your preference or pin-pointing your speciality can be a good way to help create your skit.

With the weighing for performance at the MegaCon Live Cosplay Masquerade increasing from 20% to 30%, reflecting the quality of skits at Guild competitions, our judges will be more focussed than ever on the stage element. In addition to amending the rules to allow set pieces, props, stage ninjas and stage tricks, to we’ll be delivering regular blogs exploring how to level up your performance game in time for the first brand new contest of the year: MegaCon Live London.

Guild tip: To determine roughly how much time you should spend on your costume vs. your skit (creating set and props, as well as rehearsal time), look at the weighting of the competition, eg. for a 30% performance competition, it’s advisable to spend around 30% of your preparation time on your performance.

Below, we’ll outline each category and give some examples of stand-out performances to help you brainstorm your next winning skit.

Walk-ons and choreographed walk-ons

A ‘walk-on’ performance is the simplest type of stage performance, consisting of a small number of poses, usually to stage left, stage right, and centre stage, allowing you to show off your costume for photographers to take photos. Choreographed walk-ons are more scripted, work best for small groups, and encourage storytelling and character movement as you travel from one pose to another. Competitions like ReedPop’s Crown Championships of Cosplay are 100% craftsmanship and consist only of stage walks.

Guild tip: For competitions where the stage performance is essential, eg. the MegaCon Live Cosplay Masquerade (30% performance score), remember that a walk-on will usually only manage to gain a low marks, because it allows few opportunities to show off character performance and interaction with the audience. You may want to consider combining a walk-on with another performance type!

Search your source material for signature poses that clearly convey your character and practice them in front of the mirror to ensure the angles work – like making sure that you’re not holding your hand in front of your face. Direct your energy to the audience, and hold each pose for 5-10 seconds. It feels like a lifetime while you’re up there, but it’s much shorter than you think!

Practice moving between those poses in character, interacting with your props, with the audience, or with others, if you’re performing in a group. By entering and exiting the stage in character, and not dropping character as you move between your poses, your performance automatically looks more polished, and you give yourself more opportunities to play the role.

Recreating a dramatic scene

The most common type of performance is a recreation of a scene from popular media, by lifting the dialogue/audio clip directly from the source material. Different scenes can be cut together to tell a longer story in one performance. For inexperienced performers, this is an easy way to deliver a good show while staying in character – it would be hard not to be, because the lines are provided for you.

But watch out: lifting copyrighted audio from movies, TV shows, or anime can lead to any videos of your performance being removed from YouTube and other streaming sites. The way to avoid this is either by constructing a silent skit, telling the story through gesture and movement, or by writing your own script and recording the lines yourself – a decent microphones can be bought for as little as £30. Keep an eye out for a post about audio editing soon.

Guild tip: Recreating a scene can be a great way to start experimenting with set, props, or stage tricks, as you can use the original scene as a reference. It’s the gateway drug to writing your own scripts!

Monologues – one character talking to themselves – can be very challenging but are a clever way to slip inside a character’s head and better share their motivations and the reasons behind their actions with the audience.

Duologues – two characters talking – help demonstrate the dynamics between characters and understand their motivations. Acting is reacting, but if you’re performing by yourself, remember that a voiceover can act as your second character.

Singing or miming a song

Most performances will bet set to music, whether it’s a piece from the score, a track from the original musical, or a pre-recorded song. You may be able to sing live if the event permits – but read the rules and check with the organiser in advance that you’ll be able to have a live microphone on the day. Remember, technical difficulties can and do occur, so we highly recommend using the original track or pre-recording your audio and lip-synching wherever possible.

The limit for performances is around 2 minutes, but most songs are longer than this, so you’ll need to cut down your track. Editing software such as Audacity is free and incredibly user friendly. Most songs are best kept to the first verse and a chorus, especially if they’re slow or repetitive. You don’t have to use the entire time you’re allocated so if your song is an awkward length, come down on the shorter side.

When choosing and rehearsing your song, remember you’ll still be judged on your character performance, so think about telling the story of the song through your movements, and using a prop to give the audience something else to look at. Try not to remain static in the centre of the stage if you can.

Guild tip: Most live microphones are handheld, leaving you with less opportunity to hold props or interact with set pieces. The MegaCon Live Cosplay Masquerade now allows you to use a stage ninja to assist your performance if you need an extra pair of hands. Read our article about stage ninjas here for more information.

A comedy performance

The word ‘skit’ is usually used to mean ‘a short, often comedic, performance’, but has taken on a different meaning now fewer cosplay performances are routed in humour. Stage comedy can be verbal (telling jokes or one-liners, stand-up, and parody songs), or physical (pratfalls, mime, or slapstick fight scenes). Crossovers often fall into this category, and a self-recorded track allows you to alter the lyrics to any popular song to your heart’s content.

Comedic skits are most successful when they appeal to a broad audience. Not everyone watching will be a fan of your media and understand the in-jokes, and you won’t get all the laughs you’re expecting, but try not to be dissuaded by the audience. Keep the energy high and finish big.

Guild tip: Shorter comedy performances are usually recommended, particularly if your skit only revolves around one joke or punchline. Leave them wanting more!

Crucially, your comedy must not be rude, insensitive, or otherwise offensive, and must be appropriate for a family audience. Do not swear on stage, or in a pre-recorded track. Remember how inclusive the cosplay community is; no one should be laughing at the expense of anyone else.

A fight or combat scene

Fight scenes are one of the most difficult types of performance, whether your character is using a weapon or their fists. They take a lot of time to perfect and can be dangerous if not performed safely. It’s best only to work on a fight scene if you already have some experience of martial arts, dance, gymnastics, or similar.

Begin rehearsing with your partner/s as soon as possible. It can be tempting to wait until you are already good to start using your audio track, but try to introduce it as early as possible so you can work on matching your movements to music and dialogue cues.

Your characters should have a reason for fighting. Are they training together, does one want something from the other, or are they mortal enemies? Move with purpose: every stage beat should be choreographed, and you should know your partner’s moves as well as your own.

Fight scenes can suffer for feeling one-note throughout, so switch up the pace depending on the dialogue of the fight, ie. who’s winning at any given moment – and maybe even change your weapons and props throughout to keep it interesting.

Guild tip: If you intend to do a fight performance, you will be asked for videos of rehearsals, previous performances, or demonstrable experience, so the organisers can be confident you will perform safely. If you cannot provide these, your performance will not be accepted.

Think about your costumes as you rehearse, and think about the actions you’ll be doing on stage as you make your costumes; they should be comfortable and easy to move in, not dangerous or restrictive. Ensure that your shoes have enough grip to be safe, as many stages are carpeted. Your health and safety should always be the priority.

A dance routine or movement piece

Dance sequences can vary from tightly choreographed full routines to more abstract ‘movement’ pieces. Think about the dance style you’re performing and how your character will come across through that – there’s a big difference between a character explored through ballet and through krumping!

Guild tip: You can dance to whatever music you want, it doesn’t have to be from the original media. Keep the audience guessing!

Use the whole stage space available to you, and think about how your costume will move with or against you. Are you wearing tight trousers that will hug the body and not get in the way of your sharp, clean movements, or graceful skirts that will flow around you?

Group performances, including Idols, look best when they’re well-rehearsed to ensure your group holds formation on stage and each performer gets their time to shine. If you’re performing a well-known routine, expect the audience to get up and dance too if they know the steps!

A skill or costume-driven performance

What does your character do that makes them unique? What can you, as an individual, do that no one else can? Maybe you’ve been learning martial arts or rhythmic gymnastics since you were a child. Maybe your character is amazing at circus tricks, and so are you, which is what drew you to them in the first place.

Or maybe you’ve built a smoke machine into your jetpack, or animatronic wings that move on cue, or designed your incredible armour specifically to be a quick-change costume, and it’ll transform into a ballgown on stage?

Guild tip: Whatever your secret special skill or costume trick, be ambitious, but be considerate – you should always be aiming to surprise the audience, not the stage crew, the organisers, or the judges.

Research the character to see what performances others have already done. There’s no harm in drawing inspiration from cosplayers who have come before you – that’s what everyone shares their work online for, after all – but how can you make your performance stand out? Remember, you might have spent thousands of hours crafting a meticulous costume, but a percentage of your overall score still comes from those precious two minutes on stage.

Any questions?

All performances are different, and we know how difficult it can be to judge whether you’re staying within the rules. If you’d like to talk through your plans before the next round of Cosplay Masquerade sign-ups/applications open, please feel free to reach out to us: guildofnerdscosplay@gmail.com