Just twenty-four years old and weighing 155 pounds, Geraldo Vieira jr, danced his 400-pound costume "Winds - An Element of Life" , from the band Winds of Change, to the King of Carnival 2001 title. Geraldo, a first year student, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Arts at the University of the West Indies, had for the first time designed the King's costume, unlike the past five years when it had been done by his father, Geraldo Sr, and he had designed the Trini Revellers band.
Explaining the concept behind his prize-winning costume, the young King said: "It is winds that we are playing so we featured faces of men blowing wind, so as to personify wind. The idea is really a parallel to the American's Old Man Winter - an old greyhaired man blowing cold winds. I turned it around, making him a tropical man of African descent, with dreadlocks, blowing hot winds. Wind has an effect on all the other elements, like fire shown as the backdrop to the two front heads, fire can't survive without air or wind as it needs to breathe. Then we have rocks below depicting the earth. Wind transports Sahara dust so we show sand moving with the wind and to the rear of the costume we feature bones which are fish bones showing that the sea or water is also influenced by the movement of the wind. Bones also show that wind can be destructive. The colours were basically white and purple, with hot colours like red, orange and yellow. The faces were painted like a negro man."
Vieira Jr would not even mention a ball park figure in costing his costume, but did say that the $45,000.00 prize was nowhere near the overall costs.
At age nine, his father, Geraldo Sr, who "has been in mas since 1959 and designed and produced lots of senior kings" made his son's first costume, "Scorpion Fish- Savage of the Sea" which copped the Schoolband King of Carnival title. And although he competed for three years at junior level "I never actually won the major titles, like Red Cross or National Carnival Committee, and we had some good costumes."
Once Geraldo entered Fatima College in 1989 he played no mas as "I was concentrating on studies and school work. Also I was too old to play junior Carnival King and too young to play senior King." However, in his final A level year in 1996, at age 19, he became the youngest ever King of Carnival as "Rainfest". "It was the first time for pyrotechnics in the savannah, my Dad designed and produced the costume, I designed for the band brought out by Cascadoux." In the same way that the young king was to spend two years at the John Donaldson Technical Institute pursuing a Mechanical Engineering Technician's diploma, before deciding "that Engineering wasn't for me, I was more into art", it was to take another two years of being a finalist before the young, slightly built masquerader would win the King of Carnival title, this time in 1999 parading as "Let There Be Light" from Cascadoux's presentation of the "Savage Garden." And although Geraldo jr and his mas camp learned from the mistakes of those two unsuccessful years and simplified things so that there was movement and impact "it was actually still a hard year because my Mom was very ill, she had suffered an aneurysm and was in bed so it was mentally for me a challenge." Felicia Vieira died seven months after Carnival, and "that year was dedicated to my Mom."
The Vieiras learned from 1997's "Abracadabra" from the same band which had changed its name to Camboulay. "It came on stage horizontal at first as a musical top, and changed on stage to a vertical position revealing an Australian Frill Lizard, but because of the amount of engineering in it and the shortage of time to make the costume, there was not enough time to see that the change was made properly. We didn't cater for the weight and the change of balance. i managed to get across, the change wasn't effective as it should have been until the return and so I placed eighth in the finals."
In 1998, Camboulay became Trini Revellers and Geraldo Jr placed second with "In the Balisier". "Again we lost focus" says this very knowledgeable designer/producer "Dad got carried away and did so much that we couldn't finish properly again, because in the rush of the Carnival season where we don't only work on our king and work for other bands, time was limited, there was no time to try it out and I suffered on stage as that was the first time I got to actually perform and try out."
In 2000, Vieira Jr placed second as "M'ganga The Witch Doctor" from Trini Revellers "Serengetti". With a wry smile, he explained "when we win we get carried away and want to do so much that it becomes impossible in the end. There are so many things I must remember to do on stage. There is a control panel as we are known for pyrotechnics, little gadgets and winches almost to robotics, which is similar to a puppet's face moving by using a mechanical device, arms and different things are moving, and I sometimes have to operate about 24 buttons. I have to learn the audio, the whole thing is highly technological and we sit down some nights before with a team, like the lighting crew and sound man since we actually go into the studio and create our own sounds for different effects. We plan out where we will hit first on stage, either north stand or grand stand; plan out music to go along with pyrotechnics and different special effects to get visual along with sound or audio impact. I must learn all the buttons, the whole tune, so that when I hear a crash of cymbals or drum beat, ten seconds after I must press No 1 or No 5, plus dance the costume for the crowd. With all this going on, we get carried away, there is too much to do, so we end up throwing it away on stage. It is really a shame, because we not only like to win the competition but show the audience what a little Trinidadian can do."
The young King of Carnival who had in 1999 and 2000 designed winning Kings for Carnival in Miami and Barbados, says "we definitely learned from previous mistakes, so there were no problems this year. The second place in the semis could have been that one of the bones fell off so we had to make sure this didn't happen on final night" And the feelings he experienced on Dimanche Gras night when he was judged King of Carnival. "Firstly pride, especially when we come back to homeground, Barataria, where we live because the people feel proud as well, having the King of the Bands from Barataria. There was joy on their faces, the members of the band and the camp. And although we feel good, and are there to present the costume and show it off to the public, having a good time comes first. Some people are sore losers but this should not be because you are there for fun and the art form."
Geraldo, who has one sister, heaped praises on his father who is a pattern maker, dealing with moulds "he is gifted at that so although we are not engineers, my costume was properly balanced. Also I was a boxer from 16 years old so my legs are strong and accustomed to roughness."
He was concerned that "some people in the Carnival accuse us of changing the mas generally, or what they term the normal King of Carnival costume, because we encourage pyrotechnics, robotics and different special effects, but if we stay back then we will be still in wire bending, papier mache and foam, and time will move on with new materials being invented and then we wouldn't be into fibre glass rods, aluminium, plastics and other alloys. As a result, the public enjoys the show 200% more, instead of just seeing a costume cross a stage under lights you get a whole stage performance like a Broadway play right here, seeing a whole costume transforming on stage, lighting, audio, dance. The whole performance has changed from stereotype with soca playing and prancing across stage, that becomes boring, so you must change to keep the show alive or end up like Best Village which has become unappreciated and poor in standard. We must give the audience what they want, movement and change, they love that."