A combination of material textures and spraying onto the character with an airbrush tool seems to get close to what I want although you're not 100% on control where the brush wants to spray in two places at once due to the way I've created the mesh I guess.
So, the things I've achieved so far this summer:
1- Added Jiggle to the nose and eyebrows
2 - Animated expressions using a set of morphs
3 - Coloured up the skin using Body Paint
What's next:
1 - Create his gown
2 - Draw up the scenery
3 - Record the dialogue
4 - Piece the animation together syncing it to the dialogue
I want to get this sorted in the next 3 weeks so I can focus in my ideas for next year.