‘Masked Singer': Octopus on How Designer Made Show’s Tallest-Ever Costume for Him
(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 6 premiere of “The Masked Singer.”)
The first contestant bumped off “The Masked Singer” Season 6 happens to be the one who sported the Fox singing competition’s tallest-ever costume: Los Angeles Lakers player Dwight Howard.
Of course, coming in at 6’ 10” when unmasked, it was only natural that the NBA star would need his “Masked Singer” look, Octopus, to at least match his height — if not tower over that stage even more than Howard already would without the more-than-8-foot-tall, eight-legged costume.
Luckily, “Masked Singer” costumer designer Marina Toybina was up for the challenge.
“Yes, we had conversations about the outfit,” Howard told TheWrap in an interview ahead of his “Masked Singer” Season 6 premiere unmasking. “I enjoyed the whole process of, you know, getting the color schemes and then trying to figure out how this outfit is going to work and everything. And it came out great. The only issues was it was hot. But other than that, she did an amazing job. The crew and everyone who was involved, they did such a good job of making the outfit and the mask and everything was just so perfect. I couldn’t believe that they found some shoes to fit me. It was great, you know, so I was so grateful and thankful that I had the opportunity to just do the show. It was awesome.”
Howard says that with his Octopus mask on, he “felt like I was Yao Ming.” But you were actually taller, Dwight, as Ming is 7’ 6”.
Octopus’s stature automatically made “Masked Singer” panelists Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke, Nicole Scherzinger and Jenny McCarthy all guess that he had to be an NBA player, but only Jeong actually guessed the correct NBA player, a fact that surprised and delighted Howard.
“I was happy — and shocked — that Ken was right,” Howard said. “But at the same time, when the other judges made their guesses, I could tell why they chose those people. You know, the Shaqs, the Kevin Garnetts, Dennis Rodmans. We’re all charismatic. We love to have fun. We love to dance and stuff like that, to sing and have a good time. So I can see why they chose those people. And I saw why Ken chose me, because we did a commercial together.”
The two-night “Masked Singer” Season 6 premiere continues tomorrow, Thursday, at 8/7c on Fox.
