If you take a pillow and angle it on your head in the correct fashion, you can make yourself look like a member of the Vatican.  Granted, you might find it hard to convince members of the clergy that you’re a genuine bishop, but if it means learning people’s secrets in confessional booths and getting free bottles of communion wine, then it’s certainly worth a try.
 
I discovered this simple disguise on a holiday away with some friends, when I put a pillow on my head, and Richard Streep suggested I looked a bit like the pope.  This gave birth to a new character: The Fun Pope.

Unlike the current Pope Benedict XVI, The Fun Pope is slightly more modern.  He speaks with an Italian accent, and is well known for his catch-phrase: “Don’t make-eda sex, make-eda pizza!”  It’s debatable whether that slogan would be effective in a campaign for abstinence, but I think we can all agree that it would look great on a t-shirt.

After discussing the likelihood of myself being elected as the new pope, and how well the previously mentioned t-shirts would sell as souvenirs at the Vatican, the conversation moved onto other things, but it was clear no-one had quite had their fill of The Fun Pope yet, as he kept on appearing in various occasions during the weekend.

On one such occasion I was actually woken up by three of the woman we were away with, boasting pillows for hats, shouting in my room, claiming Fun Pope status.  Of course, with hindsight, this didn’t quite count as an appearance because obviously these ladies were pope-imposters, as in the words of Richard Streep, “there can never be a female pope”.

Eventually it all culminated into a hidden camera prank on the last night of our holiday.  Richard’s fiancée invited her brother and one of his friends to come round for waffles.  The idea was simple: I’d hide in my room, they’d arrive, and once they’d settled down a bit, I’d come out dressed as The Fun Pope, and the others would try act as if this was absolutely normal.

It didn’t go quite according to plan.  For starters, I climbed out the window and much to everyone’s surprise actually came through the main door, and secondly, the others couldn’t quite keep a straight face, but all in all, the plan was suitably effective.

I’m not going to claim this was a work of genius, but it was fun at the time and I guess that’s what counts.  And... fortunately Tim P Streep and our good friend Monique Mouissie managed to catch it on camera.  I hope you enjoy...