‘It’s okay to be Kokey’: Tim Yap wears original movie costume for Halloween ball

MANILA, Philippines — In a sea of content creators, actors, models and beauty queens dressed in their Halloween best at last Wednesday’s “Shake, Rattle and Ball presents Cirque” party in Makati City, Tim Yap proved that he is still the “belle of the ball” and its rightful organizer to have coined the term “eventologist” as he made a grand entrance wearing a very unexpected costume.

Through the assistance of several men, the model, entrepreneur and society maven entered the stage, at the cue of event host Janeena Chan, wearing the original outfit used by the alien protagonist in the 1997 Filipino science fiction film “Kokey” – even with the alien’s lighted up flying saucer in tow!

“It’s okay to be Kokey,” Yap said in an Instagram post yesterday for his Halloween costume unveiling.

“Because don’t you feel like an alien in these times? Growing up different, not fitting into the mold of things, you need to carve your own, come into your own and work it till you make it,” he said.

“Decided to be this Filipino alien and classic pop culture phenomenon for @shakerattleandball because I gravitate (toward) characters that have struggled and made it inspite and despite,” he explained.

According to him, he spent many hours, and even went through heavy prosthetics, until he arrived in the decision to become Kokey.

“Getting into this character (literally) wasn’t easy. It took so much prosthetics trial and error and in the end, I went for the original mask used in the show, resurrected from its resting place in a Bulacan warehouse to be given life for one night of Cirque!”

At the event stage, Janeena challenged Tim to wear Kokey’s mask, and after a minute or two, Tim took out the mask immediately because he could no longer breathe. He said he was actually already screaming inside the mask but no sound came out.

“Did I get claustrophobic inside this giant helmet where my line of vision was through Kokey’s nose? Could I breathe easily through the holes on the mask? Could I see where I was going through the thick membrane of this sculpture? No. But was it all worth it? Hmmm. Let me digest,” he added about his experience wearing the costume, as seen in his Instagram post.

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