I wanted to be a lion tamer, but had somehow gotten it in my head that lion tamers wore capes. Wandering around with a top hat and a cape made everyone think I was dressed up as a magician. When I would show them my stuffed lion...people would just make the "wrong hat" wisecrack from the old Bullwinkle Show. To improve on my lion tamer look, I yanked some rope out of the garage of one of the kids I was trick or treating with to act as my lion whip. People still thought I was a magician and now expected me to perform some sort of trick with the rope.
It was an all around frustrating experience.