Con Geek History, Part Two

Good morning, everybody! Are we still doing okay? I hope so. Now, today I’m on my way back from Lexington, so I’m going to give you another day of convention experiences. I hope you don’t mind that I’m not really here, but this seemed like a great time to talk about past conventions I’ve been to.

I have had some great experiences at conventions, both as a guest and a host. However, some of my best experiences have been as a guest.

First, I remember a small convention that I found out about and hit when I was working at Big Entertainment back in the late 90’s. I don’t remember a name or precisely when it was, but it was a big deal to me because I got to meet both the great Luke Ski, and the gentlemen who work with Magic House Productions.

The great Luke Ski is a parody artist specializing in sci-fi and pop culture rap dementia, and since then I’ve had a chance to see him grow and improve, moving from small cons to being a backbone of the current Funny Music scene. He is regularly played on the Dr. Demento show, is a founding member of the FuMP, or the Funny Music Project, and is still as great a guy as he was when I met him.

Magic House Productions and its founder Marc Racop, which came out with Rock and Roll Starship, now also has a business building Adam West-era Batmobiles, licensed by Warner Brothers/DC Comics. If I’m not mistaken, they’re actually part of their DC Direct line. Both of these guys are great, and it’s outstanding seeing them succeed in their fields.

Next, at San Diego Comic Con back in 2001, I was walking around with Shannon. She was dressed as a Biker Scout from Return of the Jedi, and I was in an X-Wing Pilot costume. We had spent some time with the local 501^st contingent, and I was one of the only pilots there. Yes, I was blaze orange in a sea of white armor, and that is what I credit for what happened next.

I was approached by a film crew, a film crew headed by the guys who did American Movie, which someday I will seriously watch so I know who the heck they were. They were filming a segment for an upcoming episode of David Letterman. Being a fellow Hoosier and a showoff, I was more than willing to perform for them. So, I signed the disclosure papers, did my stint, struck a “heroic pose” and went on with the con, stopping for photos and talking with friends.

A few weeks later, I got a call from Worldwide Pants that I had made the cut. It turns out that I was towards the beginning of the bit. The guys from American Movie introduced themselves, they showed a wide shot of the con floor, and then they showed the shot of me in my “heroic pose” shooting up from the top of my boots to my glorious helmeted mug.

It’s great when your 15 minutes get wiped out in 2 seconds.

A few years later, Shannon and I were walking about GenCon in Indianapolis, this time she was dressed as a pirate, and I was a Rebel Fleet Trooper. That time, we were stopped by yet ANOTHER camera crew, this time headed up by Adam Sessler from X-Play on G4. Finally, someone we actually recognized. He interviewed us, commenting on the weird paring of a pirate and rebel cannon fodder, and we signed our forms and moved on. When we saw the bit later, we weren’t on it, but we were kind of glad because it look like he took some honest interviews and they were recut to be snarky and put people in a poor light.

You’d really expect better of a channel that caters to geeks.

Either way, conventions have provided some interesting experiences, and I’m never quite sure what’s going to turn up next.

Tomorrow, I’ll let you know if something turned up in Lexington.

Have a great day!
Tony