We got in thursday night and went to check out the hotel. Ran into some people I know. Twas fun just sitting around learning new in-jokes and talking shop. We eventually ended up at my good friend Claudia's. (And her roomates. None of them even read this so I won't mention Andrew and Mickey's name. No point.) Went to bed in a coooomfy bed. Woke up on...
Friday: Went to shell out mah 125$ to register and compete. I remember when this con used to cost 65$. Guess they realized they was getting screwed. Oh well. Wandered around the dealers room a bit, saw some more friends and fiends and watched Oscar Munoz' lecture. A pretty lax day. Went to the evening show which was plauged by bad technical difficulties.. mainly the techies sucked. I told Mischief that the evening shows were the best part and I think Friday was the dress rehearsal for SUCK!! The opening act damn near killed a dove, had some dumb as a rock assistants and wore a god awful powder blue tux thing. I couldn't tell if he was a girl or a guy from where I was.
So after apologizing to Mischief for the lackluster show and saying that the others would be ok we went back to the hotel and made nice with all of the magi's. Finally went back to Claudia's, (And Andrew's and Mickey's whom I am not gonna mention), and started to rehearse for the stage contest at 8 IN THE AM!! Don't they know real performers sleep in past noon? I guess not. Anywho, after Mischief went to bed I managed to forge.. er.. aquire him a badge for...
Saturday: 3 hours of sleep, up at 6:30 in the AM, and getting things ready to go kill ourselves on stage. Got to the theater and unloaded and awaited our turn in line. Killed time talking to two gals, one of which I have known for many years but never really talked to. (Found out she used to be scared of the scary guy in the trenchcoat. Go fig. She took photos and video of the act, so I'll have that up when I get it.)
It's out turn to go up, and we break out like mad men. Mischief hits me with that bat hard as hell and the chase is on. We're giving it our all. We try out new material with the living vent act, and show off a few new things in the weird routine. We're done, we're changed, someone taped the act.. thank god.
Honestly, we thought that the second contestant was gonna beat us. A very good manipulation with CD's act. Strong stuff. The other acts were.. intresting. Another CD act, with an unresolved ending, a few comedy acts, a dove act (real doves, not boxes of soap), and a female magi whose act has good potential and nice gams. Contest over, many compliments by people whose opinions I valued were given. We managed to even fool them with one of my pet effects, the scarf thru the hand.
Back to the hotel. We're tired as hell. We laze about, walk around, watch lectures.. good lectures too. Charlie Frye was an awesome guy and killer peformer. The man could hat trick Kelly into an orgasm. The close up show was ok up until the end and then it kicked ass with Shoot Ogawa (A very nice and funny performer in Japan), and Armando, a man whose act could fry your brain in one sitting. Brilliant stuff. Evenign show for Saturday was SUPERB. Eric Mead MC'd and did a helluvajob. The show opened with a young guy named Dan Sperry from Chicago (Where my heart is) with a dove act that was actually enjoyable. Others included Wayne Dobson, a man suffering from MS in a wheelchair but that didna stop him from having everyone in pain with laughter. Damn he was funny. One of the highlights was a guy with a TV act that KILLED. (I believe his name is Tony Chapek) Brilliant stuff, especially in reverse. Show was over and back to the hotel for more mingle.
Mischief went out to meet a girl and left me there to fend for myself in the lobby and was the last one there. Seeing Shoot Ogawa a tad drunk was amusing and watching performers talk, teach, and perform is always great. I crashed out in a chair until Mischief got there and we were on the way back to.. BAM!! WTF was that? A piece of Houston had taken a bite out of the car. Oil pan damaged, car smoking, losing power. It was like the damn cardassians hit the enterprise. (I can't believe I just said that) Luckily enuff Andrew came to the rescue to take me to get ready to be funny at 8 in the AM for the close up competition. Which leads us to..
Sunday: I get to the hotel in time to set up and get in line for my turn to perform. Three rooms to perform in. The first ROCKED, the second I think is where they were putting the deceased con-goers, and the third room was a bit lax but still fun. After that, I took an hour nap until Shoot Ogawa's lecture. Good times. Got some food thanx to the generosity of someone's mom. Then it was time to see if we won anything.
In a word, Nope. In two words, nadda thing. In three words, WTF!! The one person no one expected to win did. From what I heard everyone who WASN'T a judge thought we should have taken it, but it was some tuxedo clad young kid doing doves and card manip. Gee thaz original. His act was rough... this isn't just saying this cuz' he won. It's the 13 years of performing experince telling me this. The guy we thought was gonna win was MAD! Cest' la vie. We didna go to win merely perform and have fun.. and we did. The fact we were the most talked about act that competed made me happy. As for close up, many compliments abounded, but still I lost to Cups and Balls and glitter covered lemons. Second time to lose to a tux and cups and balls. No more competing in TX for me.
Evening show rocked as much ass. Mac King is a god. (To quote P&T) Arden James lives up to the hype and Charlie Frye is a juggling dynamo. Closed out with an illusions how from a Canadian couple who werne't too bad. Their last illusion was very nice.
Once again back to the hotel. Watching people do shots from a thumb tip was well worth the 300$ I had to shell out to help repair the car.
Bizzaro.
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