A LITTLE ABOUT ME...

I’ve been dressing up as Jack since about 2006.  Back then, it was a basic store bought Halloween costume, but got me headed in the proper direction.  In the following years, I started down the path of making a more screen accurate version of the costume.  I would buy pieces here and there and slowly started getting closer.  I would paint and weather items myself when I could, and had a a lot of it made by makers online.  Even my wife and mother-in-law have helped make some of the pieces for me!

In 2011, My wife and I got to walk down the “Black Carpet”, in costume, at Disneyland for the World Premiere of the fourth Pirates movie, “On Stranger Tides”!  It was surreal.  We also got to watch the movie in the park, which was definitely a once in a lifetime type experience!

In 2012, we went to San Diego Comic-Con, where I spent one day as Captain Jack Sparrow and it was awesome!  Got to be on TV (G4, for those old enough to remember that station).  Also, I happen to (very briefly) run into Ve Neill, who was the makeup artist for Johnny Depp on the Pirates movies!  She liked my costume!

From about 2007 - 2016, I would bring the costume to Disneyland for their “Oogie Boogie Bash”.  But, Disney has pretty strict rules though for wearing a Disney character in a Disney park.  The two main ones were no signing signatures and no photos with guests!  The first one is easy enough, but the second one was hard, especially as my costume got better.  My wife and I would want a photo for ourselves and almost immediately a line would form from guests thinking I was Disney’s Jack and want pictures with me.  They always got sad when I told them I couldn’t or wasn’t allowed and I always made me feel horrible.  On the few times I tried to sneak a quick photo, security would always be there to quickly put a stop to it.  It stopped being fun and became more of a chore, even though I loved dressing up for the event!

In 2016, I decided I wanted to do more with the costume than just Conventions and parties.  I wanted to give back to the community.  So, I was able to get in touch with a local group and start doing charity events that we got invited to.  That led to more costumes (check out my JT Cosplayer page for more on all the costumes I have now), but I still bring out Jack whenever I can.  Doing charity events is extremely rewarding and I have been grateful to be able to bring joy to people while in costume (especially Jack).  I’ve been lucky enough to be able to do Children’s Hospital visits, Night to Shine Events, parades and even a Plane Pull for charity!

I also still do “fun” events as well.  I will still do Renaissance Festivals, Cons (Fan Expo, D23, etc) and even cruises!  In September of 2022, I wore my Jack for the “Halloween on the High Seas” Disney Cruise (for both the Pirate night and the Halloween night) aboard the Fantasy.  And since we were sailing around the Caribbean, as of 2022, I can say that I truly am a Pirate of the Caribbean!

To this day, I still make changes to my costume!  I still find new pieces that are better versions of what I currently have and upgrade them.  Or I add more weathering, or even revisit some of the pieces I made earlier on and make them better.  So even if you’ve seen me in costume before, chances are, there is technically something new on my costume the next time you see me.