ONE SIZE FITS MOST is a 1/2 hour-ish comedy series detailing the day-to day struggles of a ragtag group of employees dealing with their regular (and irregular) clientele at Gotham Costume Supply, New York’s landmark year-round costume shop.
“Great, kid. I just lost the deposit on this rental.”
Just as we were wrapping up this pitch, it was announced that New York Costumes/Halloween Adventure is permanently closing its doors. This is a gut-punch, because it was one of the last places we could look to find the old, spirited New York. Not just a costume shop, it was a magnet for the marginalized, where no one was an outcast. We know it intimately, because Blaine worked there for years. And the stories are endlessly entertaining.
With that, we are determined to capture the colorful and defiantly independent spirit of the shop, so that it might live on within this series. And, for anyone and everyone who’s ever felt like they don’t quite fit in a category, or just don’t want to… even if there isn’t a place for such a store in this new world, there is the place for you here.
~ Blaine & Trevor
Barely staying afloat.
Our fictional Gotham Costume Supply is the last bastion of New York’s seedy former greatness. Surviving years of gentrification, the shop is steeped in character, leak buckets, and what is most likely black mold. Serving the very colorful communities of theatre, film, stage, burlesque, magic, drag and (begrudgingly, but most profitably) Halloween… the store sells everything from costumes, masks, props, wigs and make-up, to magic, novelty dead rats and custom goth fangs. It is THE place where anyone in the city goes for ‘weird’, and has become a de-facto home for a fabulous staff of misfits, underdogs, freaks and oddballs of all shades.
But as the new manager who was brought in to right this ship is finding out, they’re more than a little hesitant when it comes to change. Sink or swim, indeed…
Gotham Costume Supply: Encouraging bad ideas since 1996.
A new shade of sitcom.
On the surface the series operates as a workplace comedy. But when it’s vampires, drag queens, and ren faire princesses selling falsies and sexy super hero costumes, the typical human annoyances, awkward conversations, and petty hierarchies take on priceless layers of irony. And appropriately, in spite of all the weird in the shop, the show is at its best – at its funniest and perhaps most meaningful – when our characters are revealed as nothing more than flawed, well-meaning humans just trying to pay the bills. You know, people.
Pauper costume: $250 per day. (plus cleaning fee)
A staff of lovable conundrums.
The store hires people of every ilk, some of whom change their ilk on a daily basis. Some, on their lunch break. But behind their unusual exteriors you’ll meet complex and rich characters. Not stereotypes. Social justice vampires. Conservative drag queens. Lazy magicians. (You’ll never guess who attends ren faires as a weekend wench.) At the end of the day however, this is a business so the challenge remains: can they successfully look busy when the boss walks by? Or worse, can they manage to bite their tongues long enough to make a sale when the onslaught of normies makes a mistake by shopping there?
Kicking ass. Comfortably.
Okay enough about the show.
Check out some photos of the inspiration for Gotham Costume posted by the many fans of the original store…
About the series creators.
Blaine and Trevor met in 2009 on a Marvel commercial shoot Trevor was directing, but it wasn’t until his next project that he wandered into the costume shop looking for oversized flies that we started collaborating more steadily. And we’ve been warming up for One Size Fits Most ever since by co-writing and shooting music videos, short films, and commercials. We also successfully snuck our Air-drumming Homeless Dude character onto “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”.
Trevor McMahan is a writer/director whose journey started with a slow motion food fight music video and has grown to shooting commercials around the world. With a passion for character and humanity, his commercial work for global clients like Google, Volkswagen, Coca Cola, and Cadbury has garnered him the cfp-e Young Director’s Award, AICP honors, multiple Cannes Gold Lions, and induction into MOMA’s permanent collection.
Blaine Kneece is a writer and performer who began his career with a move to New York City and a day job at New York Costumes he never thought would come in handy. As a member of both The Second City and Upright Citizen’s Brigade, it’s been his unconventional use of multimedia that led to a following on the NY comedy scene, which has, in turn, garnered him writing work for numerous comedy series as well as The Andy Kaufman Award.
