“Orc, orc, orc, orc!” the masked and costumed crowd chanted around ManRay’s main stage half-past midnight on Halloween.
Saturday at the legendary club is typically reserved for Heroes, a postpunk and ’80s new wave night that has no dress code but encourages creative attire. When Halloween fell on this Heroes night, partygoers took that guidance to the extreme, some for a costume contest. Among them were people dressed as superheroes, pumpkin heads and an orc – who in human form happens to be a ManRay regular.
The orc, Allan Knowles, pumped a green foamcore fist, peering out of the eyeholes of a ski mask hidden behind the matted gray beard of the creature’s head – which added an extra foot or so to his total height.
The chants gave Knowles an edge over the third-place winner, a Legend-of-Sleepy-Hollow-meets-Las-Vegas headless showgirl, and runner-up, who dressed up as the Colin Robinson character from the comedy horror series “What We Do in the Shadows.”
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Allan Knowles, in costumes as an orc, throws up furry, clenched fists Saturday, cheered on by spectators at ManRay. (Photo: Summer LaRose) -
Dante announces Knowles’ orc as the winner of the Halloween costume contest. (Photo: Summer LaRose) -
Knowles takes a breather outside ManRay with wife and demon princess Erika Knowles. (Photo: Summer LaRose)
“Here’s your money. Don’t kill us,” said the Dr. Frank-N-Furter emcee, Gene Dante, to Knowles, delivering the first prize of $1,000 cash to his temporarily ungloved hand.
Dante knew how to hype an event, and exhorted the crowd to scream and shout. “Make them cry at The Middle East,” Dante said. The club complex down the street in Central Square was hosting its own Halloween events, including a bar crawl and aerial cabaret.
Glam rocker and actor Dante, part of the original “Rocky Horror Picture Show” live shadowcast at Harvard Square while in college circa 1991, donned Frank-N-Furter’s signature corset and fishnets by invitation of Xtine Santackas, the Heroes Halloween hostess.
“You may recognize him from the band Gene Dante & the Future Starlets,” Santackas said. “You may also recognize him from a Progressive commercial.”
Santackas shared the stage as Elvira, mistress of the dark, gauging spectator appreciation for each costumed contender after an initial wow-factor assessment round. Though she was Lily Munster earlier in October, she said the Elvira costume for Halloween was decided in June.
“Last year I did Morticia Addams,” Santackas said, “but I wanted to do something dark.”
Halloween is a major undertaking at ManRay. Santackas, whose role at the nightclub is best summed up as events coordinator, said planning for next year’s party begins the day after the holiday. New Year’s Eve isn’t too far off, and MayRay holds a Fetish Ball in May, so it’s important to think ahead. “With that many big events that happen throughout the year, you have to start planning really early,” Santackas said.
Santackas has hosted the Halloween party for around five years, but her ManRay roots go back to its original Brookline Street location, where the club rose to acclaim among Greater Boston’s alternative crowd in the ’80s.
High above the crowd at ManRay, Amy Jozan go-go danced in a cage at her first ManRay Halloween in red horns and wings.
In a purple-walled basement dressing room before the party, she’d stood before a brightly lit mirror to add the finishing touches to her bedazzled skull face paint. “A devil is where I’m going, but a beautiful one – because why not?” she said.
She moved to Cambridge from Atlanta almost a year ago. The people of Cambridge are more “authentic,” she said. “The mask is just off, and people are feeling okay to be creative and themselves, and I love that. I’ve always wanted to be a part of a kind of community.”
Outside the club after his win, Knowles popped off the massive head of his orc suit and breathed in fresh air. He reserved the costume at the top of the month for $175 at Boston Costume, one of the departments inside Cambridge’s Garment District shop. He picked the rental up on Thursday and, between hosting an open house at his business and the hordes of trick-or-treaters to his home on Lexington Avenue in Somerville, he hadn’t really taken it off since, except for dinner.
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A contestant dressed as a “headless showgirl” poses for the audience in the ManRay costume contest. (Photo: Summer LaRose) -
Dante picks out the costume contestants from the crowd. (Photo: Summer LaRose) -
A contestant takes the stage as the Colin Robinson character from “What We Do in the Shadows.” (Photo: Summer LaRose) -
Carlos Festi, dressed as Michael Myers, pauses near the go-go cage at ManRay. (Photo: Summer LaRose)
“It’s hard to eat. But [the costume is] starting to feel like a second skin,” he said.
Knowles credits Eric Propp, rental supervisor at Boston Costume, for his costume’s larger-than-life design.
“He did this and two other orc costumes for a Northeastern play three years back. He’s a goddamn wizard,” Knowles said. “He did an amazing job. Great fan of his work. Two green thumbs way up.”
Knowles runs Danger Wizard, a dungeon master Service in Somerville specializing in D&D programs for kids (“The title I gave myself is arch magus, or archmage, and the title I can tell the IRS is ‘owner,’” he said). Orcs are in his wheelhouse.
Erika Knowles, his wife, came to support him in a coordinating costume. “I’m just a demon princess here to help the orc navigate and hopefully not stab anyone with his, uh,” she gestured toward an oversized prop ax.
Knowles plans to compete next year, too, he says, perhaps again using scale to his advantage.
“Going big and tall seems to help,” Knowles said, “and a little glow stick doesn’t hurt.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Cambridge Somerville Independent and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.
