Troy Bolton

Irvin's most ardent fandom, after Harry Potter, is High School Musical, and he spent many years dreaming of a group HSM cosplay. That dream finally came true in September 2018 (the 14th, appropriately enough). Irvin and his friends attended a double feature of dancing to Disney songs - a Little Mermen concert followed by a Disney DJ Night - and pulled together the single largest group cosplay Irvin's been a part of to date, with seven of them in full HSM Wildcat regalia.

The beauty of a large group costume is just how much focus it grabs. From the very first time "Chad" hollered, "What team?" and got a resounding "Wildcats!" in response, the gang from East High was the center of attention. The Little Mermen performed "We're All In This Together," so Irvin (and the other Wildcats) did their best to do the choreography to the song within one square foot of space.

It was much more comfortable to do the whole routine on the stage at Disney DJ Night, where that number was the first of many HSM hits played. Irvin's moment in the spotlight came during "Bet On It" - he'd studied up the choreography, and performed it with gusto! Irvin also insisted on recreating the iconic HSM jump shot from the poster - it took quite a bit of doing (and a little Photoshop magic), but the perfect shot was achieved!

The following month, Irvin and two friends (Angelica and Sara) went on a Halloween Disney Cruise, where one of the nights would be a costumed celebration of Halloween. For the party in the evening, Irvin planned to wear Ursula, but that seemed a bit much for the daytime festivities, so Irvin reprised Troy Bolton for the comfort and convenience of the costume. Completely without coordination, both girls had brought their Gabriella outfits, so they had a mini reprisal of the HSM group cosplay.

Since the Trio made themselves very much a part of the fun - getting up to dance "We're All In This Together" during Disney Music Trivia, and taking photos all over the place, they became known for the rest of the cruise as "the Wildcats" - a moniker they enthusiastically embraced. Towards the end of the cruise, they had multiple people coming up to them to remark that the Wildcats were having more fun than anyone on the cruise (true!). A particular highlight, when they were dressed as the Wildcats, was meeting Minnie Mouse, who promptly started doing the "We're All In This Together" dance with very fine form.