ConCarolinas – Day 2

Posted on 14 June 2010

I am shivering.  It’s cold in the room, but I also feel the anticipation tingle along my skin.  I rifle through my papers, doing the best that I can to apprehend the part that I am about to play.  I look down the table, where sit the rest of the cast, seven in all.  Missing were two actors, one of whom I was replacing.  I’ve been drafted at the last minute by Mr. Adventure himself, Podcasting’s Rich Sigfrit, to perform in a live presentation of the old-time radio serial Mr. Adventure.

And it was a blast.

The entire day was a blast.  Nathan and I arose early so he could make it to the Star Wars Fandom panel at 9, followed by a Lost panel.  Both panels went well.  Thankfully, and a bit surprisingly, everyone in the room  seemed to understand the Lost finale.  It was an interesting makeup of panelists.  The two women on the panel hated the finale because it didn’t answer many of the sci-fi questions that the series posted, whereas the two guys on the panel–whose gender would make one think that they two would want those burning questions answered–loved it for its emotional content.

We wasted time in the dealer’s room.  We ate lunch.  We shot the breeze in Joe and the Gilbertson’s room (I still think “Joe and the Gilbertsons” would make a great sitcom title), and we generally spent the day enjoying each other’s company.

We had fun watching Nathan and Rich and author Steven Euin Cobb talk about podcasting.  I even learned why people buy expensive equipment like mixers and limiters and compressors and what they do.  I had it in the back of my mind to ask Indiana Jim what all of that stuff was when I would meet him in person at this convention, but sadly he couldn’t make it.  So I’m glad I had the chance to ask Rich.  For that alone, I think attending the podcasting panel was worth it.

And then the Mr. Adventure panel started right afterward.  Nathan recommended me to Rich when he realized one of his actors was missing. He didn’t realize another actress was missing until her part came up, so one of the guys ended up playing her part as well.  We had a lot of fun.  Several of the actors who had done this before in previous years began to ad-lib lines, and Rich had to keep up.  Hilarity ensued.

I played a random citizen and a news reporter.  Rich said I did well.  I think I did well.  Here’s hoping my name sticks around in his mind so that the next time he needs a news reporter or something more significant, he will pick me.

We returned to the room to shoot more breeze, or whatever euphemism passes for “wasting time” in South Carolina.  And then we went out to dinner.  Joe wanted to go to the place they had eaten last year with Rich and Indiana Jim, but it was too crowded, so Nathan and I dragged them over to Applebee’s where I proceeded to pelt Joe with straw wrappers and Andrew with soda.

We then waited forever for the costume contest to start.  I think we stood in that hallway for about 45 minutes before being seated, and then we had to wait another fifteen to twenty minutes.  During that time Rich recounted how Battlestar Galactica’s Richard Hatch (not the guy from Survivor) big-timed him earlier that day.  Rich had been set to lead the panel for Mr. Hatch and interview him that morning, but Richard was very terse and wouldn’t let him, instead preferring to interview himself, so to speak.  And so it became something of an open secret that Richard Hatch doesn’t treat convention staff very nicely.  So Nathan and I giggled like school girls as Nathan texted nickname suggestions back and forth with Rich.  I think we settled on The Hatch™ as the one that was most apt (but its also one I feel least embarrassed to post on this blog ).

Anyway, back to the contest.  When it finally started, it featured a Princess Toadstool, a twenty-year-old Zoe from Firefly who looked the part (she was actually the lady in the white ballgown that Rob proposed to the other night), and a team of Doctor Who cosplayers (playing Rory, Donna Noble, and Tennant’s Doctor).

After the contest, Nathan needed to crash since he was leaving early in the morning. So I went up with him to our room so he could sign my comic books (which he wrote) and my copy of the Star Wars Essential Atlas (which he contributed to).  It was his first Atlas that he signed.

I then went back down to meet with Joe and the Gilbertson’s in Klingon Karaoke.  Princess Peach showed up, or at the least the girl who played her in the contest, as she had somehow changed out of the Princess costume and into a Rocky Horror costume (or lack thereof) and makeup in remarkably short order.  Other notable (and sometimes disturbing) singers tonight were the Rocky Horror group she belonged to, Podcasting’s Rich Sigfrit singing Safety Dance as Christopher Walken, a very good rendition of Kermit the Frog singing Rainbow Connection, and Satan himself featured in someone singing I’ll be Watching You by American Police.  He was singing backup vocals.  And it was pretty entertaining.  For the most part.  I was a bit shocked to discover that one of the witches dancing around doing air guitar turned out to be a man in drag.

Tonight, there are parties on almost every floor.  It’s quite noisy, but expected.  General merriment prevails, but as I was leaving Joe’s room for the last time, a fight almost broke out at the Fencon party next door.  It appeared that a member of the 501st Legion–a costuming group and charity organization–was trying to stay out of a fight that someone else was trying to start with him.  If its actually the case that he wasn’t part of the problem, as I’m pretty sure he wasn’t, then good on him.  The 501st can always be counted on to represent themselves well.

Most people will probably not return to their hotel rooms tonight.  But as for me, I’ll have to content myself with falling asleep to the sounds of the party just down the hall.  It will probably go on all night, this being the last night of the con and all.  Sigh.