Convention 2008: Day 4 (Part the Second)
Right, where was I?
The GA was spent in the back of the room (I have last row privileges that I chose not to exercise), working on Haag's skit (the best one of the night, thank you very much). Zach ran unopposed for president. Yay! Caitlin won secretary. Yay! Then we went for lunch.
Then it was crunch time. We had to get everything finished for the show. I took charge of the master script and getting everything for that. Jen and Steve worked on his skit. We made everyone else practice like crazy. Now, keep in mind, at this point, Jen and I hadn't slept since 11:00 AM Wednesday. It was now around 3:00 on Thursday. And we still had final prep, final rehearsal, the show and the aftermath to go. And it was the last night for The Ear, which I never ever miss. We were caffeinated and running on adrenaline.
Markowitz kept everything in line as a good chair does. After getting it all printed, I had the script and we all headed over Millet for final prep before rehearsals. That's when the fun began.
First, Tony asks to see the script. No problem, he's approved all the scripts and knows the order. Steve and I working on something when Tony finds us and asks why he wasn't aware that there was a script for Steve's skit. We explained that there wasn't as of an hour before (before this, we thought the video would have a voice over that COULDN'T BE CHANGED BUT HE SAID WOULD BE OKAY). He says, "Every thing had to be done by 3 AM." We were told that he said we had an extension from him and worked with that. Now, you have to understand, the show starts with ideas on the first full night. Then it gets written, or started the night after. The night after that, is casting, practice, tweaking. Sometimes, a skit is changing right up until show time. It's impossible to have this done ahead of time. We don't know who will be there, what the pop culture is, what is happening at convention itself, what props we have and so on. We're doing SNL with talent interspersed in less time and a much smaller budget. Steve just says, "Look, cut it if you want. We really don't care." At this point, we were so tired, that was true. "Oh, no, it's staying in."
Now, if he didn't see the script, he wouldn't have said a word. This was the LEAST offensive skit in the whole show. Tony had been ticking all of us off all week but this was just too much. We told Carolyn (who'd been getting the brunt of him all week) and she said if he really had upset us, she'd talk to him. We said no but that he really needed to back off. The stuff he worried about all week wasn't the stuff that needed worrying about. The acts (the JCLers) were provided with food (though they technically had time to get something at dinner) while we weren't and he told us we couldn't order anything either. That's ridiculous. We'd been running most of the convention all week and running this show. Was a little take out too much to ask? Anyways...
The whole show: act names, sounds, whatever, was set up as a PowerPoint presentation through Jen's computer and it was incredible. The projector wouldn't read Jen's computer. The sound/tech guy was a total jerk with her. Add to that her lack of sleep, she was almost in tears. I knew there wasn't anything I could do. Eventually, the guy got the thing copied over to his laptop (so, there's that) but the fonts didn't go with it. Still, that wasn't awful.
Steve (Haag if I didn't mention it before) and I were a tag team and he's the reason why I stayed sane all night. I was losing my voice so he would yell for me. We would split up to make thing run smoother. I somehow became Multi-Purpose Sara and did a bit of everything as was everywhere. It was fun but that could have been the sleep deprivation talking. Finally, it was show time.
Things were running a bit late because we opened the doors late, but that's what we planned the buffers for. Then the kip who played Chopin went on. You have three minutes to perform. He went on for 8 1/2. It was pointed out to the judges. Now, it was well played, but when one is going on 40 plus hours of no sleep, an instrumental, classical piano pieces isn't the best remedy to stay awake. Alright fine, we'll end right up to the buffer. No big deal. Steve's skit was THE hit of the night. And then came the JCL officers skit. This is the part where I point out, they never have to have their script approved ahead of time. And they're coming up to us asking to put in music and stuff. Stuff they should have had ready for us. We're not doing their act for them. Anyways, they had stuff that was totally out of line and we would have been slaughtered for. And it went for 17 minutes. Let me repeat that as I think it bears repeating. This time in CAPS LOCK. IT WENT ON FOR 17 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!! It wasn't even that funny. And the Racketeers were a bit disappointing for them.
Anyways, results. The judges deliver them to me so I can give them to the one presenting the awards. The lady who handed me the paper and said, "And we didn't give A DAMN that he went over." The Chopin guy won. That's good and bad. While he was very talented, he did break the rules. This makes it hard for us next year. Anyways, the awards (they get cash) were given and the goodnights said. We had to wait for everyone to leave as we had to do the final check. Then back to the dorms. I'm working on putting the videos I took up on YouTube. There will be spammage. Oh yes, there will be spmammage.
After changing into pj's we took our pillows and went downstairs. At this point, Jen and I had attempted to watch Dr. Horrible all the way through about five times and failed. But we did discover that it was amusing if you replaced every instance of Bad Horse with Jen Jordt. Jen went to bed and I shuffled over to the Ear office (it was right across the hall) and curled up on the floor. I somewhat participated in conversations but was losing the battle. I eventually crashed on the floor (which I knew I would do). I thought I had slept for an hour. Christopher said it was more like two. Either way. I did the final read through. And once they are up online, I'm linking them. I'm telling you all, you must read them front to back. Trust me on this. I'll happily answer any questions you all might have.
By the time I got back to the room, I did not have time to sleep as we had to go set up for the banquet. I'll leave Day 4 at that.
The GA was spent in the back of the room (I have last row privileges that I chose not to exercise), working on Haag's skit (the best one of the night, thank you very much). Zach ran unopposed for president. Yay! Caitlin won secretary. Yay! Then we went for lunch.
Then it was crunch time. We had to get everything finished for the show. I took charge of the master script and getting everything for that. Jen and Steve worked on his skit. We made everyone else practice like crazy. Now, keep in mind, at this point, Jen and I hadn't slept since 11:00 AM Wednesday. It was now around 3:00 on Thursday. And we still had final prep, final rehearsal, the show and the aftermath to go. And it was the last night for The Ear, which I never ever miss. We were caffeinated and running on adrenaline.
Markowitz kept everything in line as a good chair does. After getting it all printed, I had the script and we all headed over Millet for final prep before rehearsals. That's when the fun began.
First, Tony asks to see the script. No problem, he's approved all the scripts and knows the order. Steve and I working on something when Tony finds us and asks why he wasn't aware that there was a script for Steve's skit. We explained that there wasn't as of an hour before (before this, we thought the video would have a voice over that COULDN'T BE CHANGED BUT HE SAID WOULD BE OKAY). He says, "Every thing had to be done by 3 AM." We were told that he said we had an extension from him and worked with that. Now, you have to understand, the show starts with ideas on the first full night. Then it gets written, or started the night after. The night after that, is casting, practice, tweaking. Sometimes, a skit is changing right up until show time. It's impossible to have this done ahead of time. We don't know who will be there, what the pop culture is, what is happening at convention itself, what props we have and so on. We're doing SNL with talent interspersed in less time and a much smaller budget. Steve just says, "Look, cut it if you want. We really don't care." At this point, we were so tired, that was true. "Oh, no, it's staying in."
Now, if he didn't see the script, he wouldn't have said a word. This was the LEAST offensive skit in the whole show. Tony had been ticking all of us off all week but this was just too much. We told Carolyn (who'd been getting the brunt of him all week) and she said if he really had upset us, she'd talk to him. We said no but that he really needed to back off. The stuff he worried about all week wasn't the stuff that needed worrying about. The acts (the JCLers) were provided with food (though they technically had time to get something at dinner) while we weren't and he told us we couldn't order anything either. That's ridiculous. We'd been running most of the convention all week and running this show. Was a little take out too much to ask? Anyways...
The whole show: act names, sounds, whatever, was set up as a PowerPoint presentation through Jen's computer and it was incredible. The projector wouldn't read Jen's computer. The sound/tech guy was a total jerk with her. Add to that her lack of sleep, she was almost in tears. I knew there wasn't anything I could do. Eventually, the guy got the thing copied over to his laptop (so, there's that) but the fonts didn't go with it. Still, that wasn't awful.
Steve (Haag if I didn't mention it before) and I were a tag team and he's the reason why I stayed sane all night. I was losing my voice so he would yell for me. We would split up to make thing run smoother. I somehow became Multi-Purpose Sara and did a bit of everything as was everywhere. It was fun but that could have been the sleep deprivation talking. Finally, it was show time.
Things were running a bit late because we opened the doors late, but that's what we planned the buffers for. Then the kip who played Chopin went on. You have three minutes to perform. He went on for 8 1/2. It was pointed out to the judges. Now, it was well played, but when one is going on 40 plus hours of no sleep, an instrumental, classical piano pieces isn't the best remedy to stay awake. Alright fine, we'll end right up to the buffer. No big deal. Steve's skit was THE hit of the night. And then came the JCL officers skit. This is the part where I point out, they never have to have their script approved ahead of time. And they're coming up to us asking to put in music and stuff. Stuff they should have had ready for us. We're not doing their act for them. Anyways, they had stuff that was totally out of line and we would have been slaughtered for. And it went for 17 minutes. Let me repeat that as I think it bears repeating. This time in CAPS LOCK. IT WENT ON FOR 17 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!! It wasn't even that funny. And the Racketeers were a bit disappointing for them.
Anyways, results. The judges deliver them to me so I can give them to the one presenting the awards. The lady who handed me the paper and said, "And we didn't give A DAMN that he went over." The Chopin guy won. That's good and bad. While he was very talented, he did break the rules. This makes it hard for us next year. Anyways, the awards (they get cash) were given and the goodnights said. We had to wait for everyone to leave as we had to do the final check. Then back to the dorms. I'm working on putting the videos I took up on YouTube. There will be spammage. Oh yes, there will be spmammage.
After changing into pj's we took our pillows and went downstairs. At this point, Jen and I had attempted to watch Dr. Horrible all the way through about five times and failed. But we did discover that it was amusing if you replaced every instance of Bad Horse with Jen Jordt. Jen went to bed and I shuffled over to the Ear office (it was right across the hall) and curled up on the floor. I somewhat participated in conversations but was losing the battle. I eventually crashed on the floor (which I knew I would do). I thought I had slept for an hour. Christopher said it was more like two. Either way. I did the final read through. And once they are up online, I'm linking them. I'm telling you all, you must read them front to back. Trust me on this. I'll happily answer any questions you all might have.
By the time I got back to the room, I did not have time to sleep as we had to go set up for the banquet. I'll leave Day 4 at that.