Roc-Con 2012-A Post Convention Report

[Haruhifan]

Roc-Con Convention Report from Rochester, NY on September 21-23/2012 - http://rochesterscifianimecon.com/

I welcome you back to my latest venture into anime conventions with my trip to Roc-Con, which was doing 3 days for the first time in their young existence and drew about 200 plus attendees, dealers, and guests who got taken care of by an enthusiastic staff and volunteer crew. It was the most unique location to perform in: a morgue of a castle (which is now a school) that is now doubling as a paintball dungeon. The weekend long set of shows grew with each one. It started with a late night show on Friday with 20 plus attendees. The workshop was a success for young and old coming for about 4 different groups to be made of 5 plus people each learning about the beginning tips on improv comedy, then getting to try out their hand at scenes and games in front of both their fellow participants and about another 20 more attendees who watched. It was a pleasure to teach our groups things like making a scene from 3 named things and clap focus, to working in smaller groups where my young female cast worked on Questions then Statements Only.

By the Saturday show word of mouth was excellent as 50 plus congoers came to the show after Eric Stuart’s band, which even had a violinist which harkens backed to the days when I used to attempt taking lessons, which were a great band to hear. The Sunday finale had 25-30 attendees come to see The 404s show to cap off a grand weekend where over 200 people came to all 3 days of the convention.

Here are some of the performance highlights:

*By the last day the crowd’s still kept coming! We had a Dating Game on Sunday with a special guest from the Cosplayers (http://www.cosplayersmovie.com/ ) playing Princess Peach who had to choose from a foot lover, someone giving birth to aliens and a guy who used long words he didn’t comprehend. There was an interrogation of someone who had done crimes against grammar with Sarah Palin at Big Ben.
*There were some very creative random lines given by the crowd of Rochester! This was a very good creative crowd for suggestions too. A few scenes from a hat suggestions ranged from learning the swordsman just met and killed was also your father, to the Hulk learning what 4Chan is. The suggestion for “Hey You, Down There” began an instructional video about how to compete in shoving ferrets down tied up pants.
* Accents can be hard to imitate, especially when one is a puppeteer for Dead Bodies to explain how boomerangs spice up the love life of a couple! Some creative thinking had to come into play too as Industrial Music became songs about factories. Satan suddenly had a creepy Uncle too in another scene. The Press Conference got very specific to explain Dr. Scholl endorsements and avoid dog entrails was to reveal that Frodo had smelly feet issues. In other guessing games, Murder Telephone tried to explain how a doctor killed with toothpaste at the ice cream truck. Then at the Party, Quirks from the party goers included My Little Pony bros, a religious thumper and Slenderman who got mistaken for the Stephen King character from Thinner.
* A ton of scenes got some great crowd additions. For Options it became a man who was really a goat revealing himself in a Russian Musical. Powdered Toast Man appeared to combine the Dragonball Kamehameha into a fart to make perfect toast. Cyrano involved a serenade about android chests, dark voids and fantastic links to wooing from a fantastic sunlight. The crowd got in on Moving People to produce slow motion chopping in battle. Dr. Know-It-All brought on stage some help too to explain how cats do the dishes, while defining that feral Bengali cats are the best for such a task. We did some Narwhals hunting in Living Scenery with help from our participating audience members as the props, to getting some crowd aid in Sounds Effects, helping on the Enterprise that involved the Teleporter and Scotty’s loss of his Scottish accent.
* Risks come with acting too-my foot is better now after being Pika-stomped in Touch to Talk Pokemon battles.
* Scenes all weekend ranged from Pinkie and the Brain got in on freeze tag in reanimating zombies, to even a little tango dancing like from True Lies, ironic considering Schwarzenegger warmed up the crowd to talk about how to kill dentists and more.
*Capping some shows had marshmallows stuffed in mouths for a funeral to the world’s worst martial artists from Konoha (Believe it!), Goku using his powers in a fight the wrong way to the lesser known Help Man coming to people’s aid.

Aside from performing, I played in a small Yu-Gi-Oh tournament and went 1-2 with a bye while showing off my old school meets new school Legendary Ocean. There were some interesting ruling situations during a game with a Neo (Matrix) cosplayer when I saved myself with Tornado Wall during the summon of Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En just after seeing a Gravity Bind get taken away by another monster. I played against a Lightsworn deck which was fun too, and got some boosters for participating.

Meeting Vic again was a real fun time. His line was always packed while another voice acting guest Eric Stuart would come by too. The lesson of the weekend though is to never EVER take a picture of a Dalek from Doctor Who and NOT expect retaliations. Simply put, they shot me in the face with some air/water spray. Thanks to Vic Mignogna and congoers, who helped the situation...by laughing hysterically at my plight! I’ll get you next time Dalek, next time...

My Bountiful Finds This Trip:

*I found by pure luck a Celty plushie (from Durarara)! Now I can complete my Shinra cosplay for a Halloween return.
*For playing in that Yu-Gi-Oh tournament I got 2 boosters and pulled some decent cards including a Shiny new White Night Dragon for my deck. I also traded some cards to get my own Power Tool Dragon.
*I got the Mewtwo EX new CCG tin with some great pulls including a rare Reshiram.
*Vic Mignogna’s Metafiction CD which I got from him this convention is playing some good tunes on my CD player as I type this report. (His new website is at www.risemboolrangers.com so check it out!)
*Some giveaway Hulk postcards were smashed onto my wall...with tape.
*The biggest finds were some interesting eateries. From smoked chicken wings from Buffalo’s Smokey Bones on the trip up to within Rochester we ate at Jay’s Diner to taste what a “garbage plate” is (2 burgers with cheese on top, along with fries, bread and some amazing macaroni salad I kept calling Mac and Cheese for some reason) to the best trip of them all: Dinosaur BBQ. I had seen many good reviews on TV and the proportions didn’t disappoint nor did the smoky BBQ cooking. I got the Beef Brisket dish the BBS that was so filling with some of the best French fries ever.
*Finally we did a little counting game find. First off with Wendy’s now owning the Canadian Tim Horton’s franchise they were no longer scarce. We did count churches (10 on 1 stretch of the trip that was only within 15 minutes of the count start and most had cemeteries next to them!), gun raffles (2, both done by a fire department!) and Gamestop shops (we almost gave up hope but found one on the last day to peruse games and test customer discounts across borders that had some hilarious results). It’s an intriguing way to pass the time away, but then again we’re impressed easily by all the variety of things in the USA.

As always, all videos of the Eastside 404s shows and more can also be found on a playlist at:
Older First Set - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2940D4CF10ED601B
The Current Ongoing Set of Videos - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA0B3C6356020E27B
And here are a few different playlists for various convention videos mixing conventions I’ve been to and others I liked seeing online: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL219D2649FE1180BE AND http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...eature=mh_lolz
Finally, check out this regularly updated photo album of my convention photos at: http://www.crunchyroll.com/showphotoalbum?id=10061028
The 404s latest info can be found as well at http://the404s.com/
Enjoy!