List of disguises

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The Residents have appeared in a large number of different costumes and disguises since their inception in the early 1970s, far beyond their most recognizable costume of eyeball masks with top hats and tuxedos.

This page attempts to list the many different costumes The Residents have used to hide their identities since 1971.

The Residents' costumes and disguises

Origins (1965-1972)

The Pre-Residents with N. Senada at The Boarding House, 1971

Prior to meeting the Bavarian avant-garde composer and musical theorist The Mysterious N. Senada in 1970 and adopting his Theory of Obscurity, the group who would later become known as The Residents did not generally bother with disguises, with members even appearing unmasked (and nude) in a notable early photograph.

After meeting Senada, they gradually began to incorporate his ideas into their experiments, though as they mostly continued to perform at home, they did not usually require costumes at this point in their career.

This began to change with Residents, Uninc.'s earliest known performance at an open-mic night at The Boarding House in San Francisco in 1971. For this appearance the members of the group wore high school cheerleader outfits, and introduced the heavily disguised N. Senada and the fabulous Miss Peggy Honeydew.

Not Available photo session (1972?)

The Residents appear costumed, apparently in the guise of the characters from their long unreleased second album Not Available, in a Denise Byroads photo session likely dating from 1972 - two years prior to the recording of the album.

These photos have been included in a number of reissues of the album in recent years, though were not included in the original pressing; some (such as the picture of "The Porcupine") have seen release in promotional material.

Vileness Fats (1972-1976)

A masked Resident in Vileness Fats

The Residents, along with their friends N. Senada, Peggy Honeydew, Sally Lewis and the members of The Cryptic Corporation, all appear costumed as various characters in the footage for the unfinished feature film project Vileness Fats, shot between 1972 and 1976.

Notably, The Residents appear in the nightclub scenes as a masked and suited horn section, backing Senada on saxophone and vocals on the songs "Kamakazi Lady" and "Eloise", as well as Honeydew on "Lord, It's Lonely".

A still from The Third Reich 'n Roll short film, showing two costumed Residents on the right and the future Mr. Skull on the left, 1976

Newspaper costumes (1976-1977)

In order to create provocative graphics and a promotional short film to promote the release of The Third Reich 'n Roll in 1976, The Residents created a set, prop instruments, and four costumes out of a hoard of old newspapers which had been left with the group by Palmer Eiland after he left their studio following a nervous breakdown and multiple suicide attempts.

Despite the use of Nazi themes in the album's cover and promotional art, the resemblance of these costumes to the hoods and cloaks worn by the Ku Klux Klan was not intended by the group - this simply was the easiest way for them to make headpieces from newspapers.

The set from The Third Reich 'n Roll short film, aside from neatly recycling set and costume elements from the then-recently abandoned feature film Vileness Fats, later ended up inspiring the creation of Mr. Skull, a recurring element of the group's eyeball costumes from 1986 onwards.

The Residents and Snakefinger at the Oh Mummy! show, 1976

Oh Mummy! performance (1976)

For their 1976 one-off performance Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy!, The Residents appeared swathed in bandages, appearing like mummies - an idea which was interesting in theory, but in execution made it difficult for the group to play their instruments.

The Residents were supported during this performance by Snakefinger, who played guitar while dressed as a giant artichoke.

Tourniquet of Roses photo session (1976)

At least one Resident appears shirtless and wearing what appears to be a cow mask in the photo session for the group's planned studio album Tourniquet of Roses, which would eventually become Fingerprince in 1977.

Eyeball masks (1979-present)

The wiki has a page dedicated to this topic. For more information, read this article.

The group's famous eyeball masks were designed originally for use only on the album cover and promotional material for their 1979 album Eskimo, but quickly aided the band's popularity and proved to be an easily recognizable and identifiable image.

This resulted in the eyeball masks being used (with numerous variations) for the rest of their career, in 1983 during The Mole Show, in 1986 for their 13th Anniversary Show, in the software design and cover art for their run of CD-ROMs, and most recently on the album art and promotional material for their 2017 album The Ghost of Hope and in their 2022 feature film Triple Trouble.

The Mole Show (1982 - 1983)

A Mole Show costume on display at Bandits-Mages, France, 2019.

During the first act of their first live tour The Mole Show, The Residents were hidden behind burlap curtains in tuxedos, with three members wearing cardboard cut outs in the shape of their eyeball masks on the back of their heads. The Singing Resident wore the "Mr. Red" eyeball mask, which is revealed when he walked in front of the curtain to sing "Migration".

In the second act, The Residents wore trench-coats made of shredded newspaper, with blue shorts and Groucho Marx-style novelty glasses (the latter of which were also worn by members of the tour's crew).

For the final Mole Show performance, "The Uncle Sam Mole Show" in Washington D.C., The Residents dressed in black full-body suits, due to their costumes being held in a storage unit in London.

Mr. Skull (1986-present)

The wiki has a page dedicated to this topic. For more information, read this article.

Randy, Chuck, Bob, Carlos and Rico (2010-present?)

The wiki has a page dedicated to this topic. For more information, read this article.

Unused costume concepts

• One early unused concept for The Residents' visual representation was that they should never be shown walking, and their feet should never be pictured, to encourage the perception that they did not move by walking, but rather by mysterious and unknown means. This idea was short-lived as it would prove to be impractical.
• In 1979, prior to conceiving the eyeball masks for the cover of their Eskimo album, The Residents originally planned to have spherical, reflective silver helmets which would reflect the Arctic tundra. This idea proved too expensive to produce.

See also

• Eyeball masks
• Mr. Skull
• The Big Bubble
• Randy Rose
• Charles Bobuck

External links and references

• "The Costumes" at RZWeb