It all started at Costume-Con 11 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when a number of first-timers from Canada attended the convention. After the Science Fiction and Fantasy Masquerade awards ceremony, a number of the first-timers asked why the funniest entry didn’t win the New Jersey / New York Costuming Guild (the Sick Pups) “Spazzy” award. It was explained that a member of that group is not allowed to win the award.
After Costume-Con 11, a couple of Canadian members who were regular Costume Con attendees (Barb Schofield, Martin Miller and Eric Cannon) decided that they need a Canadian version of the Spazzy.The original rules would be the same as for the Spazzy, except that the Sick Pups would be eligible to win the award but Canadians members could not.
The next thing was to design the award and come up with a name. Some of the designs we thought of included a beaver (Canada’s National Animal), a Canadian goose, a loon, a polar bear, a buffalo, a moose, and a bottle of maple syrup. In deciding a name, we wanted our award to rhyme with “Spazzy”. Well, Beavery, Goosie, Loony, Polar Beary, Maple Syrupy, and Buffaloy didn’t work, but Moosie did, so the Moosie was born!
The Spazzy is a glittered dog biscuit, so the Moosie should be of the same caliber. Following in the steps of the Spazzy, the Moosie became a can of hair mousse painted brown with antlers, eyes, nose and mouth,
The first Moosie was presented at the Costume-Con 13 Science Fiction and Fantasy Masquerade. The original judges were Barb Schofield, Jacqueline M. Ward, Penny Lipman, Gordon Rose, Martin Miller, and Eric Cannon. The winner of the very first Moosie was Toni Lay. The first historical Moosie was presented at the Costume-Con 13 Historical Masquerade. The Winning entry was “The Ding-A-Ling Sisters” presented by Laurie (last name unknown), Zelda Gilbert, Sandy Pettinger, Ann Gilbert, Bridget Landry, and Pierre Pettinger.
After its introduction, the Moosie was awarded sporadically, depending on the availability of chapter members. Eric recalls that the original Moosies were presented at Costume-Con 13 through Costume Con 16, where he was the presenter, but he does not know about awards presented at Costume Con 17 onward. The only change to the rules came after Costume-Con 14. The new rule states “An entry cannot win a Spazzy and a Moosie at the same event.”
The award has become more prevalent recently. The award itself has varied as well, evolving from the original can of hair mousse, to a moose figurine, to its current form, a 10 in x 12 in (25.4 cm x 30.4 cm) moose-themed quilted wall hanging, made by chapter members. Award criteria has also changed. It is now presented to the non-Canadian costumer (SF&F and Historical Masquerades) who we would like to see come up North and join in with our costuming community.
We are working on a complete list of winners from the Archives and guild members’ memories.
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