Fiyero Tiggular

Costume Debut: February 2018

Costume Reprised (Captain of the Guard): November 2021

The theme for Irvin's 26th birthday party, which took place soon after he moved out from his mother's apartment, was the Wizard of Oz - Irvin's original fandom, signifying there's no place like home. Leaning into the theme, the party took place at NY Dog House (because Toto). And Irvin committed to his most ambitious cosplay plays yet: four costumes at a single party. He would wear the four main costumes that Fiyero wears throughout the show of Wicked, essentially telling the story of Fiyero almost in real time during the course of the three-hour party.

The first costume of the four is Fiyero as a Shiz student, arriving asleep on the back of a cart, and corrupting the students during "Dancing Through Life." It was a fairly simple costume to kick things off - white shirt, red vest, boots, and tan pants that are essentially tights. With a Galinda and an Elphaba at the party, there were plenty of photo ops to be had.

The second costume was by far the most elaborate, as Irvin had to transform a dark green polo shirt into the Captain of the Guard uniform. This is the outfit Fiyero wears in the beginning of Act 2 - "Thank Goodness." The tough part was making all the decals on the coat - mercifully, they are uneven in the show as well, so they could be done a bit haphazardly. They are rectangles of cardboard, with two layers of fabric glued on to approximate the pattern of golden straw, and velcroed to the shirt. There are armbands and a belt that all have "OZ" on them, courtesy of hot glue and letters from Michael's. Thick yarn and various other beads approximated the gold braid, coming out of the epaulets that Irvin sewed on. In general, the coat was an epic undertaking. But it was absolutely worth it for that costume!

Third was Fiyero on the run, in the green pants, green shirt, and suspenders out of "As Long As You're Mine." It was simple, yet effective, as Irvin snagged the Elphaba cosplayer for a perfect romantic recreation of that song (with them on their knees belting in each other's faces).

Irvin closed out the night as Fiyero-as-the-Scarecrow, once he is transformed into the iconic character. He put the "coat" back on, but dispensed with all the fancy accessories (armbands, belts), replacing them with straw coming out of his extremities. A pointy hat completed the ensemble. As the Scarecrow, Irvin got photos getting brains from the Wizard. It was in this costume that Irvin blew out the candles on the cake - ironically, given the Scarecrow's fear of fire. (The cake was the yellow brick road, sour apple flavored to be thematically consistent.)

Irvin had a friend visiting from Germany that week, and she was certainly very impressed with how Americans party! This may have been the peak of Irvin's ambition for birthday party costumes - four seems like a natural limit for one party.

Irvin brought one of the costumes - the Captain of the Guard uniform - to CONjuration 2021. It needed some hot glued repairs, but it was swiftly brought back to form, and it was an outfit Irvin was proud to show off at the con. (Though considering Irvin danced into the night in the costume, perhaps the Shiz student would have been more appropriate!)

Of course, Irvin was there to promote his book, and made sure to take pictures in costume to entice people to the vendor table. This wasn't the first time Fiyero and Dumbledore intersected in Irvin's creative endeavors - as a teenager, he had written a songfic called Dancing Through Life based on the song of the same name, where a teenage Albus was in Galinda's role and a teenage Grindelwald took Fiyero's. It all comes full circle!