What substance do YOU use for pies in the face? And what substances look the best visually?

I'm curious to hear everyone's preferences for the substance of pies- specifically non-edible ingredients. I want to know what the best substance to use that has a good visual effect- like what clowns might use or tv shows. I know shaving cream is an option, but I'm hoping to find something that behaves a little more like real thing, without actually using food. Shaving cream can look good visually, but it's thick and doesn't necessary have the fluidity of a real pie. Does anyone know what game shows or tv/film productions use for pie in the face gags?

Also: does anyone have any experience ordering from "messysupplies.com"? They sell a foam pie solution and a more fluid "slosh pie" solution. Anyone use either of these products and/or have a preference?

For me, it's a filling (eg blueberry pie filling from a can) with lots of squirty cream on top. It sticks decently and falls off some and behaves like food in a food fight. Some want thicker, firmer things like cool whip or butter cream, but I like something that works like a real pastry.

Shaving cream with just a few drops of water (per pie) stirred in will make it a lot less fluffy and splatter more like you're looking for. But it's literally just a few drops - too much and it'll be like soup. Unfortunately, I can't provide a mathematical formula for how much to use - I tend to just eyeball it. You just have to experiment, but that *will* give you the fluidity of a real pie that you're looking for.

You can make shaving cream "behave" like real cream by mixing in water. It's not too hard to gauge the right consistency to make a nice splatter.

That said: Your targets are still gonna HATE the shaving cream.... It's gonna taste bad, possibly sting eyes and burn skin, etc etc. I really think the "chemicals" in Barbasol and others have gotten worse over the last decade. I used to use SC regularly and now I try to never use it, except rare occasions.
Also, most people can tell the difference and WAM fans tend to dislike SC now. (Although as always, there's a niche that only wants it.)
The rise of HD cameras probably spurred the demise of SC.... It looks pretty close to the real thing at 480p, but at 1080p or 4K? Pretty obvious it's just soap.

FTR most of the old silent films used real ingredients. The Stooges used two baked crusts, one on top of the other, to avoid breakage. But most theater productions use SC, along with a lot of TV from the 1950s on.... The famous Jackie Gleason "pie barrage" is all SC, for starters, along with all the Soupy Sales pie throws.

Shaving cream, mixed with "slime bath" and soap dye is my current favourite combination! Cheap, easy clean up, sticky, stringy, slimy and lightweight, so doesn't all just fall off!

I'm doing this from memory, as some ChiTrib obits might be in a paywall.

The Chicago WGN-TV Bozo show was live with audience partipation. Bakery pies were used, but were inpractical because floor was too slippery. So they went to shaving cream. A plus was that it was easy to brush off the costumes and wigs, as they dried.
Fire retardants for the costumes and wigs were necessary.

Hope this helps!

Rich - I remember a documentary from the late 1980's (or so, with Alan Thicke hosting) in which the typical 3 Stooges pie was described as a mixture of the following: pumpkin pie filling, ketchup, and shaving cream (where/whenever 'cream' was desired)...different amounts of each created the effect desired. In the classic 3S short 'In the Sweet Pie and Pie', the one and only pushed pie ("Gentlemen, Gentlemen, Please...PLEASE!")...looks exactly like shaving cream (with some crust).

I will note that never are any of the 3S pie targets seen eating/tasting the pies they were hit with. There is one cream puff fight where the birthday girl gets one in her mouth (but again, we do not see her eating/tasting it).

Mack and Mable originally used real pies (bakery made), according to one period bio-pic film...until (I guess here) the costs (of real pies) started to add up...studios have since always looked for cheap alternatives (edible or non, or a combo)....where "real" pies were needed, they were nearly always JUST the cream (and some holding crust or base).

The disappointing pie fight with Nanette Funicello used pies made with a barely spoonful of pudding topped with a dollop of cream (the yoga girl 's pie was decent and entirely whipped cream)...they made for a terrible aftermath (coverage) but they did give a adequate Splat! effect....point being: the lame /small volume pies where used to save money in an already low-budget film (guessing that the pie fight budget was an after thought).

Shaving foam mixed with a little water is best for bulk production. Top tip, if you leave the foam out to settle for 20-30 minutes it reduces the stinging. The venerable Tiswas used that trick and they threw approximately 1.4 zillion pies per show.

Cake mix and slime I mix together learned all my pie tricks from whatamess and https://umd.net/piboiva and https://umd.net/what_a_mess66

Depends on what you want to do with the pies. If you are just pushing them in a face, almost anything will work. But if you want to throw them from a little distance (a look I prefer), you need something with some weight to it.

My mess of the moment is Xanthan gum ( bought in Tesco,s) mixed with water to form a runny goo then add this to shaving foam it forms a marshmallow kind of consistancy
What show are you doing that requires pies?

I'd be interested to see what Nadia Valentine uses. The pies on the Valentine Network videos always look great. The pictures that I've seen of the models making the pies show them squeezing it out of giant bags. I've never been in the catering, baking, or restaurant business so I have no idea what those are.