DragonCon 2005
I last attended a DragonCon when I was in high school, some ten years ago. All I really remember of it is walking through the art exhibit with my dad, unnervingly conscious of the scantily clad (and unclad) feminine figures adorning many of the pieces. Not exactly your archetypical father-son experience, walking through a maze of fantasy nude artwork. I returned this year with Jess, whom I think is much more at home in such surroundings (nerd surroundings, I mean) than my dad — she had warned me the night before of the things we might see, whereas ten years ago I was warning my dad.
We parked downtown close to 10:30am Saturday and began trying to find registration. On the way we maneuvered a crosswalk along with a gentleman with a sheathed longsword, encountered a woman whose zombie baby had decided on a Cesarian section (she was resting), two rather immense women who were colorfully and ridiculously dressed (think the fat ladies in the Cirque’s Zumanity, except wearing bright red), and of course a few storm troopers. One Trekkie wearing a mustard colored shirt was also seen.
The crowd was probably 50-50 costumed/t-shirted. Jess was a little less dressed-up than she’d been hoping to be, wearing a plaid skirt and a comment-garnering t-shirt that read, “ROCK IS DEAD: Long Live Paper And Scissors.” I think my favorite example of its power was when, after two hours of waiting in line, another attendee (I’m refraining from assigning labels) challenged her to a game of rock/paper/scissors. I was waiting for him to suggest that they play for a kiss when the line moved him out of range for further battles.
After two and a half hours of waiting in line, we donned our registration name badges, she going as Lola (Sarah Vaughan’s Lola, not The Kinks’, thank you), and I as Lawrence Welk. (I was wearing a pair of gaberdine pants from the 20-30’s I picked up at Stefan’s three years ago, along with their associated ancient suspenders and ancient white button-up. At one point I found myself face-to-face with a similarly-dressed gentleman; he had a varnished wooden box slung about his shoulder and was giving me a funny look, which I later recognized as some form of costume recognition.)
After lunch we met up with Jayson and waded through a sea of nerds in the vendors areas, past boxes and boxes of comic books, games, whips, artwork, t-shirts, figurines, and corsets. We were searching for a new wig to complement Jess’s skirt, but none were to be found. Instead she bought a Trogdor t-shirt (with majesty!), and the people were nice enough to cue up the Dragon episode so I could see what the heck the story behind Trogdor is.
Then it was off to find the British humor room, where the annual Whose Line Is It Anyway? contest was being held. There was really only one stand-out performer in the 4:00 show, whom I later saw in a grass skirt and coconut bra. After more perusing the vendor areas we found dinner and returned in time to see the 8:30pm Whose Line. Arriving late, we snuck in and found two seats for what turned out to be a much funnier show, almost all of the contestants very funny, if irreverent.
One of Jess’s friends is involved in the Whose Line show/British room, and so we waited to talk to him after the show while he ran an errand, aware of the “Monty Python Experience” program coming up next in that very room. In the program the “Monty Python Experience” was described as:
Everything you could possibly want to know about the Pythons, without a shrubbery. If you want to know where in the world Michael Palin is, or what projects Terry Gilliam is filming then this is your home, all things Python will be discussed.
Hrm. We agreed that it sounded kinda lame, and I quietly hoped Jess’s friend would return so we could escape before escaping became less doable. He returned just about in time for the program to start, after a group of people in Holy Grail garb had filed into the back of the room, and subsequently left. Is it a good or a bad sign that the most serious-looking Python nerds have come and gone?
The program was begun by the panel leading us in a stumbling rendition of The Lumberjack Song. Extremely geeky, but a little fun. Then one of the moderators began asking people to name their favorite Flying Circus actors, movies, sketches (I chimed in with “The Bishop!“, Jess with “The Ministry of Silly Walks“). This was about as exciting as it sounds.
Then came the part that I feared most: “Let’s have some audience members come up and act out their favorite sketches for us, shall we?” It’s one thing to joke about a sketch with your friends and toss out lines, but re-enacting some of the most sacred sketch comedy of all time? In a meeting room at the Hyatt Regency? I winced as the first contestants came up, doing something like the Parrot Sketch. It fulfilled my expectations.
Strangely, though, the tide seemed to turn, and I first noticed it when a girl came up to do the String Marketing sketch by herself, turning herself about depending on which part she was doing:
Simpson: …it’s only string!
Wapcaplet: ONLY STRING?! It’s everything! It’s…it’s waterproof!
Simpson: No it isn’t!
Wapcaplet: All right, it’s water resistant then!
Simpson: It isn’t!
Wapcaplet: All right, it’s water absorbent! It’s…Super Absorbent String! ABSORB WATER TODAY WITH SIMPSON’S INDIVIDUAL WATER ABSORB-A-TEX STRINGETTES! AWAY WITH FLOODS!
By the end we were laughing at the madness of the sketch itself and at the apparent madness of acting it out solo. More followed, ranging from the adorable (children acting out the Knights Who Say Ni! (photo)) to the unexpectedly completely hilarious (Wall scene from Holy Grail (photo)), to the rather un-funny (not pictured). It was the geekiest thing we’d done all day, and it was awesome.
Wandering about a bit more and starting to fade after our long day, we paused at the lobby bar and had a drink while watching the costumes mill about. A shirtless native played a hand drum while dancing about on a table; one of the bartenders was sporting a “Vote for Pedro” t-shirt and terrible Pedro wig. We strolled past the Marriott fountain and paused for a few photos, then made our way back to the car.
I really had a wonderful time, despite the registration lines (Jess says we were there for three solid hours, not 2 1/2), and I owe it all to Jess as my guide for the whole thing. You can see all of the fit-for-print photos in my Flickr set.
September 30th, 2005 at 8:49 am
Man, i was down there all 4 days this year. I hadn’t been in ages, but i went last year and had a good time. This year i got a room and everything. I’m certain we prolly passed each in the halls. I ran around taking pictures like crazy the whole weekend. I’ll stick some of them up on Flickr later.
Good to see you’re doing well!