CALGARY – When it comes to costumes this Halloween, one theme really stands out: super heroes. And one Calgarian has a special tie to a certain Avenger.
“For kids, it’s definitely super heroes,” said Jason Powers, with the Party Bazaar in Vancouver. “A lot of ninjas and pirates, but the super heroes are definitely the biggest thing for kids. For the ladies, it’s sexy costumes, for men, it’s a lot of super heroes and novelty costumes.”
Steve Venegas knows a thing or two about looking like a super hero. He gets mistaken for Iron Man all the time.
“I’ve been getting this since I was a teenager, and ever since I grew the goatee, it’s been happening a lot more,” said Venegas.
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Venegas grew up in Calgary but has been making waves all over the world with his doppelganger status. When the first Iron Man movie came out, he wrote an article about what it’s like to look like Iron Man. His graphic designer wife photo-shopped his face onto a picture of the real Iron Man. The picture is so convincing that websites started using Venegas’ picture instead of Robert Downey’s in many articles.
“It’s dozens, maybe hundreds,” Venegas said.
“It was picked up by places like Forbes.com and other places—movie websites, talking about Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. and they were running my face. So, it’s fooling people all over the world.”
Venegas said he gets a kick out of the whole thing.
“One spot that I really like is that it’s on a wallpaper downloading website for your computer, so there are people who have their computer wallpaper as actually a picture of me somewhere in the world. So, that’s kind of fun.”
Venegas is getting offers from commercial producers to pose as a Robert Downey Jr. lookalike, and says he feels like a celebrity at all the comic book conventions. Venegas even got to meet Avengers creator Stan Lee, who told him he looked like the star.
When it comes to dressing up as a super hero this Halloween, Venegas’ advice is to pick a costume that makes you happy.
“The one that makes you comfortable, that’s the one you should pick.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by the costume experts, who are raking in a lot of business this season.
“Just be yourself. Figure out your own super powers,” said Powers.
And if there was any doubt as to what Venegas is dressing up as this year, he said, “this Halloween I’m probably going to be Iron Man.”
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