Now that I’m back to posting regular updates, I want to write about what kept me busy this winter: Performing Super Smash Opera at MAGFest 2016. Yes, I know the convention was a month ago already, but there’s still a lot that I didn’t get to share with you, so please forgive me for running old news.
Let’s start at the very beginning. MAGFest is the Music and Games festival, which meets every year in National Harbor, Maryland.
Last year, my friends and I had written a short parody opera called Super Smash Opera, which we wanted to perform at MAGFest. The opera, based on the Super Smash Bros. game series, tells the story of a Smash Bros. fighting tournament, told from the perspective of the game characters.
Our show first premiered at last year’s MAGFest, where it was a pretty decent success. In fact, it was so moderately successful that we were invited back to perform again this year. Only this time, we were featured guests of the convention. We were given some free publicly, some generous perks, and fancy con badges that were a slightly different color than the rest of the attendees’ badges.
(Here’s the video of our 2016 performance. Please be warned, this is the complete 50-minute show. Make sure you have 50 minutes to devote to this before you get sucked in.)
The 2016 performance went from being a decent success to a huge success. We filled every seat in the panel room. In fact, the convention center crew had to send people away once all the seats were filled. (Fire laws, what can you do?)
This year was special because we were able to recruit a live orchestra to perform the music. In 2015, we had no orchestra, so I ran some prerecorded tracks that played alongside the singers. Naturally, a video game-themed show is a little more forgiving about using simple digital music, but a live orchestra was easier to hear, was easier to balance, can adjust tempo to keep up with the singers, can pause for applause or laughter, and just plain sounds better. Our musicians were talented, professional, upbeat, and a joy to have around.
The show began and everything looked and sounded amazing. I knew that the live orchestra would be more flexible than pre-recorded music, but I had no idea how much that would improve everything. The singers and orchestra played together like they were having a conversation.
This is getting pretty wordy, so I’ll just post any other important topics as bullet points:
-Last year’s Pokemon puppets were almost completely worn out, so I made larger, fancier puppets for the larger and fancier show, including a new chorus if Pichu marionettes.
-As the graphic artist, I designed our event poster and some character cards for the actors. This year, I also designed a mascot for SSO: an opera aficionado Pichu, who the crew named “DapperChu”
-Days before I left for MAGFest many of my friends and family had caught the flu. I pretty much locked myself in my puppet workshop to stay healthy for the show. Then I got food poisoning from a cheese pretzel I ate on the way there (curse you, rest stop food.) By showtime, I was in pretty good health and able to do my job, but I missed the first rehearsal and that caused me a good deal of irritation.
-Members of the orchestra and crew were encouraged to wear Nintendo costume pieces, if they had them. My part of the show was to run the supertitles (the song lyrics projected on backdrop screens). I decided to make a Mewtwo hat, since Mewtwo is known for projecting his words into human minds.
-Undertale was everywhere at MAGFest. I made time to visit the Undertale Hangout. That game does not lend itself to easy cospaly, but that does not stop people from trying – with some impressive results.
-Speaking of Undertale, apparently, if you ever make dangling skeleton keychains, then decide to hang them from your backpack or lanyard at a video game convention, a lot of strangers will fuss over you. And in a cool way, not a creepy way.
-The Disco Cactus show was great. A lot of the Disco Cactus team performed with us, so I would have seen their show just to give a little support, but they put on a genuinely fun show. Aside from being good musicians, they have a very natural stage presence, You can’t help feeling drawn to them.
-When I was in the market place and free arcade area, a group of kids who seemed to be in their early teens made a big deal about talking to me because I was a “guest,” while they were just common “attendees.” It was very cute and made me feel like a rockstar.
-On the last day, some guy noticed I had a DapperChu button on my backpack. I didn’t see his face, but I think he was one of our new recruits. I overheard him mention how great DapperChu was. He probably had no idea he was looking at the designer.
-I have very few memories of the first days after I got back. During MAGFest weekend itself, I didn’t have much time to recover from my illness. I completely missed the first day of the con, when my sickness was at its worst. For the rest of the time I felt mostly like myself, but that was solely through some combination of joy, adrenaline, determination, and Red Bull. When I got back home, it was clear that I had been tapping into some emergence reserve of energy. Once I was away from all the fun and obligations, I crashed hard. That’s the biggest reason why it took me so long to get back to comics. It’s really important to me that I add new content to this site on a regular basis. But it would be helpful if the world poisoned me a little less often.
By the way, if anyone found this comic form MAGFest or Super Smash Opera, then thanks for checking out the site. I hope to give you reasons to stick around.
