When I saw the latest Joker movie, I felt like I was watching my dad on screen. Not only does he look strikingly similar to Joaquin Phoenix, but he is an amazing theatrical actor as well. He would have nailed the role. The scene on the stairs was one of my favorite parts, so I had to recreate it.

First part, costume. I bought an outfit online, which was almost a perfect fit. However, the pants were ginormous. So, I took in the waistline and hemmed the pant legs for a better fit. The cheap material kept getting caught in my sewing machine, it was ridiculous. I thought I was going to rip a giant hole in it multiple times, but I managed.

Makeup time! I got mehron makeup, clown white cream for the base and water activated colors for the detail. I used red for the nose, mouth and eyebrows, blue around the eyes, and black to add some depth. Kryolan green hair color spray (D33) worked perfect for the vibrant green hair. I held a piece of paper close to his face to avoid getting any of the spray on his face. Then I sprayed the color directly on the paper and used a small brush to color in the rest of the hair closer to his face.

After the makeup and costume was complete, we took a few fun shots at the house.

Then we headed to a high school my mom use to work at to use the stadium stairs for my composite image. After having my dad kick in the air and spin around a few times, he did his own dance down the stairs, which ended up being my favorite part. I wish I had a video recording, it was awesome. I felt like I had the real life Joker in my midst. So much fun!

I got the building stock images from Unsplash. Credit: First building (left) by Cody Isern and Second building (right) by Benjamin Massello.

I had trouble picking just one image for the composite, so I ended up doing 3. I also recorded my editing of the first composite image, which took a little over 3 hours to do. Worth every second.

I think Steve Martin is the real Joker. 🤡 😜