I’m right up there in the big leagues. Rubbing elbows with the big dogs. Um…that’s as many metaphors as I can think of right now, but I’m doing very well, I think. I know that because I got to paint someone orange last night and it was the most gratifying thing ever.
I’ve always had this kind of…affinity for makeup. Like, I really loved doing creative things in the mirror, making my face look like a tiger or whatever else. I wasn’t all that good when I was younger, but that was long before I started looking for a makeup course. Honestly, when the world-famous production of Unpleasant came to Brisbane, I didn’t think I had a chance. Makeup specialists from all around the world would’ve given their limbs for the chance to paint the lead character orange, over and over again, every night, until the show finishes or the stars burn out. What chance did I have? I mean, I still specialised in tigers, and they’re kind of orange, but you needed more than a tiger speciality and a diploma. You needed experience. I was sure I was going to be upstaged by some prissy thing from New York who’d grown up on Broadway and had probably met all the big stars already.
Still, they asked for people to do makeup, so…I was in for a chance. They actually had auditions, so all I could do was go in there and give it my all. Nothing in my makeup diploma had prepared me for this; had to mix my own colours, in front of the judges! But then at the end, I was given free reign to create anything. And have I mentioned how good I am at tigers? I’m very, VERY good at tigers. They were blown away, and then tigers are kind of orange…anyway, I got the part. The part doing makeup. I think my makeup course in Brisbane taught me the most important lesson of all: a steady hand under pressure. All that stuff about mixing colours did help as well, though…
-Leilani