Drew Carey Mimi Bobeck - Wingspan

14
October 18, 2004
Wingspan
Wingspan
lccc.wy.edu/wingspan
15
VOTE
B
Kurt Caswell
as
Drew Carey
Page12-13.indd 12
Best Extreme
Makeover
Oct. 20–29
Randy • Before
Kurt • Before
atting his
long eyelashes at his
reflection, Randy Fetzer
smiles contentedly.
“I feel ravishing,” he
announces, fluffing the
cloud of platinum blonde
curls that spill over his
forehead. He throws in a
glittery wink and blows a
kiss at the mirror.
“Or ravished,” adds
Kurt Caswell from his seat
to Fetzer’s left. He casts
a glance in his crossdressing companion’s
direction, taking a break
from scrutinizing his own
prominently wrinkled
and unusually pale
reflection. Both men
catch each other’s eye
in the mirror, and their
booming laughter fills the
dressing room. It’s not
just any afternoon that
two grown men are willing to play with makeup
with Wingspan’s Extreme
Halloween Makeover
team.
In the case of Randy
Fetzer and Kurt Caswell,
both English instructors at Laramie County
Community College, the
circumstances were a bit
different. Not only were
they more than willing
to experiment with the
makeup but Caswell was
also eager to pack on an
extra 100 pounds and
Fetzer was thrilled to
acquire a brand new set
of Nerf ball breasts.
Where is the method
to this madness, you ask?
The two men were on
a daring quest to bring
the characters of Mimi
Bobeck and Drew Carey
from “The Drew Carey”
TV show to life.
The transformation
began under the bright
lights of the theater
department’s dressing
room. Armed with an
arsenal of stage makeup,
communications and
theatre instructor Dave
Gaer served as the day’s
official makeover technician.
Caswell’s quest to
become Drew Carey
began with basic brown
contouring makeup applied around his mouth
and eyes in order to age
his face. Gaer highlighted each contour with
white to make the new
“wrinkles” stand out,
then blended the two
colors together to create
a realistic look. After
lining each of Caswell’s
eyes with black eyeliner,
Gaer drew a white stripe
drawn down the center of
each eyelid, blending to
highlight and draw focus
to the eye area. To bring
back the natural color
taken away by the base,
a light lip color and one
swipe of rouge on each
cheek was applied. The
final step was a wash of
translucent powder to
set the makeup, leaving
a newly aged Caswell to
be audience to Fetzer’s
transformation.
Gaer began bringing Mimi to life by using
brown contours on
Fetzer’s face to soften
his male features. Before
Fetzer had time to admire
his feminine complexion,
Gaer had a full brush of
Mimi’s trademark electric
blue eye shadow in one
hand and instructed
Fetzer to close his eyes.
Gaer followed the wash
of indigo shadow with a
set of brand-new liquid eyeliner eyebrows,
highlighted with white
to help them stand out.
Next, Gaer applied long,
luscious (fake) lashes to
Fetzer’s upper eyelids and
swept turquoise glitter
beneath each each eyebrow. Once the final addition—a head of flaxen
curls—was atop Fetzer’s
head, Gaer handed him
a tube of fire engine red
lipstick to apply the finishing touch.
With his lips sufficiently coated, Fetzer
cast a flirtatious look at
himself in the mirror.
“It just says, ‘Where
have you BEEN all of my
life?’”
“You’re a real man
to endure this,” Caswell
commented, surveying
the woman who was once
Fetzer.
Mimi and Drew were
now ready to face the
world. Mimi pranced
from the dressing room
in a gigantic muumuu,
splashed with an attractive variety of mushrooms in tones of green,
orange and brown, and
a pair of bright yellow
gardening clogs decorated with ladybugs. Drew
chose his attire a bit more
carefully, opting to make
his appearance in a gray
pinstriped suit.
On the way to their
office photo shoot, Mimi
stole the hearts of every
male “she” encountered.
“I just love a man in
uniform,” “she” exclaimed in the student
lounge, winking and
blowing kisses at a blushing Army Guardsman.
Drew preferred to lurk
inconspicuously behind Mimi, occasionally
beaming toothy grins at
passerby.
It takes a real man to
endure layer after layer
of makeup that would
put many a drag queen to
shame. As much fun as it
would be to say that Caswell and Fetzer allowed
the Extreme Halloween
Makeover team to make
a public mockery of them
for no reason, it isn’t so.
The LCCC Foundation
is currently conducting a
Matching the Spirit campaign that matches each
donation from the community dollar for dollar
with funds provided by
the Wyoming Legislature.
Caswell and Fetzer
are such nice guys,
they agreed to put their
random act of public
mockery to good use.
Between Oct. 20 and
Oct. 29, Wingspan staff
will set up a table in the
student lounge to take
monetary votes from
the students, staff and
faculty for which Halloween makeover turned
out best. To vote, you will
need to place a donation
in the jar corresponding
to your favorite makeover
victim; the jar with the
most donations wins.
All donations will go
to the LCCC Foundation,
matched by Matching
the Spirit and, placed in
a fund to benefit LCCC’s
literary/arts magazine,
High Plains Register.
In the spirit of Halloween, Wingspan
Online has an additional
treat. Visit http://lccc.
wy.edu/wingspan for
details.
Story by Ashley Arneson • Photos by Kristi Barkhurst, Leigh Ann Sywassink and Shellie Felzien
Randy Fetzer
as
Mimi Bobeck
10/14/2004 5:53:24 PM