Your Middle-earth Role

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I can't deny it, I'd love to be Gandalf! Stomping about in a vast cloak and pointy hat, fighting the Balrog, wielding a staff, being sarcastic and tetchy at every turn. Fantastic! OK, so I'd have to get a fake beard and eat gravel to get a deep voice, but what fun!

Actually, you don't need to eat gravel to get a deep voice. Some years ago (hmm, when I think about it, it's decades ago, 1980 or so), I did Gandalf for a competitive masquerade. Took four hours to do the beard, wig, make-up, and various strapping-in necessary to make the look convincing. Normally, I have an mezzo to alto voice, but nature took a hand that weekend and gave me the mother of all chest colds, so my voice dropped by about an octave and a half, yet still managed to retain resonance, so I was able to pull it off rather convincingly (to the point that I had to show ID to prove to some people, in particular the incognito judges, that I was really a female under it all). It was all beyond cool (except for the fever I fell into bed with after I got out of all the make-up after the ball was over).

Needless to say, I'd go for Gandalf, too.