Sakura-Con YGO cosplay and... zombies?
Hey everyone, this post is going to be directed mostly at YGO fans who live in the Pacific Northwest area of the USA, but! I'm sure YGO fans of any persuasion can find humor in what I'm trying to do.
I want to do Thriller, with YuGiOh characters.
(I have some mad mspaint skills, yo.)
More to the point, I'm looking for any and all YGO fans interested in learning Thriller to perform at the anime convention Sakura-Con (in Washington state) April 6-8. Either in a skit, or possibly a flash dance (if we can't organize ourselves properly before the skit paperwork deadline of March 25th).
In the interest of sharing the wonder of Thriller and of trying to show why I think Thriller and YuGiOh go well together, here is a link to Michael Jackson's original production. It's probably been a while since many of you have seen it anyway!
Thriller is very special to me, and with Michael's passing it has possibly become even more of a novelty song & dance around the world than it already was. People go nuts for it- it's a ton of fun to perform it yourself or see it spontaneously performed by others. There is an infinite amount of humorous nods to Thriller out there... to link a few:
Filipino Inmate Thriller
Marching Band Thriller
Bollywood Thriller
Thriller at Dragon Con
Why not add a nod to both Thriller and YuGiOh to the bill?
In my opinion Thriller matches the YGO series because of the supernatural element. There are monsters and zombies abound in YGO, and my idea for a YuGiOh-themed Thriller skit would involve replacing Michael and his girlfriend (from the original video) with Yugi and Anzu/ Tea. As the zombies overtake Michael in the original video, so would the zombies overtake Yugi- and instead of him coming back up simply zombified, it would be implied he rises as Dark Yuugi (zombified optional).
I'm HOPING that other fans are interested in performing this with me, and if there is interest I'm welcoming all YGO cosplayers from any YGO series, and I'd even welcome people who don't have a YGO costume but want to be a part of this- they could simply wear zombie make-up. The connection to YGO is pretty much made with Yuugi and Anzu, though admittedly I'm hoping to get at least a Bakura and Marik (to go with the dark theme). Beggars can't be choosers though!
I've tried to rope friends into this, but people assume that I want dancers. Nay! I am not a dancer! Most people are not dancers! You don't have to be a dancer to learn and perform Thriller! Because of it's popularity there are numerous resources available that make learning and memorizing the dance exceedingly easy. I'm teaching myself the dance through the videos provided by Thrill the World, a Thriller world record breaking campaign.
I'm also not looking to perform the entire dance. Since skits are only allowed to be 3 minutes long at Sakura Con, we would only perform the first three minutes of the dance. Anyone can learn those first three minutes!
I plan to play/ dance as Dark Yuugi in the skit (and probably will zombify my face). I'd love to find someone else to play Yugi, and that cosplayer wouldn't even need to dance. (Unless they wanted to! We can have both Yugis. Who cares?! This is crack anyway!)
I live in the Everett/ Seattle area of Washington. If anyone reading this is interested AND lives in Washington, I can definitely arrange a practice dance group. If you're attending SC and are interested in performing, but live outside WA, you could still teach yourself the dance and the group could meet on Thursday evening (pre-con) to practice all-together. Thankfully, Thriller is a dance that involves very little (almost none) inter-personal coordination.
Because this is already a wall of text and I don't exactly have high hopes that I'll find a ton of people wanting to do this, I'll stop rambling and just say that if you're interested in this, I have more details about how we would perform this together. If you have any questions and/or want to join this endeavor, message me here on livejournal and we can talk about getting things organized together. :)
And again, if I can't organize this as a skit, I'd still like to perform it as a flash dance, perhaps at the YGO cosplay photoshoot at the con, haha.
I guess I'll end by saying, obviously performing Thriller at an anime con isn't being done in pursuit of a perfect rendition of the Thriller dance. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'm working hard to learn the dance right, but I really don't care how well anyone else dances. This is just for fun! If you end up forgetting part of the dance, PEOPLE WILL LOVE IT ANYWAY. It's Thriller! So if you're attending Sakura Con, I'd definitely encourage you to join!
Okay I'll shut up now. Thanks for reading!
I want to do Thriller, with YuGiOh characters.
(I have some mad mspaint skills, yo.)
More to the point, I'm looking for any and all YGO fans interested in learning Thriller to perform at the anime convention Sakura-Con (in Washington state) April 6-8. Either in a skit, or possibly a flash dance (if we can't organize ourselves properly before the skit paperwork deadline of March 25th).
In the interest of sharing the wonder of Thriller and of trying to show why I think Thriller and YuGiOh go well together, here is a link to Michael Jackson's original production. It's probably been a while since many of you have seen it anyway!
Thriller is very special to me, and with Michael's passing it has possibly become even more of a novelty song & dance around the world than it already was. People go nuts for it- it's a ton of fun to perform it yourself or see it spontaneously performed by others. There is an infinite amount of humorous nods to Thriller out there... to link a few:
Filipino Inmate Thriller
Marching Band Thriller
Bollywood Thriller
Thriller at Dragon Con
Why not add a nod to both Thriller and YuGiOh to the bill?
In my opinion Thriller matches the YGO series because of the supernatural element. There are monsters and zombies abound in YGO, and my idea for a YuGiOh-themed Thriller skit would involve replacing Michael and his girlfriend (from the original video) with Yugi and Anzu/ Tea. As the zombies overtake Michael in the original video, so would the zombies overtake Yugi- and instead of him coming back up simply zombified, it would be implied he rises as Dark Yuugi (zombified optional).
I'm HOPING that other fans are interested in performing this with me, and if there is interest I'm welcoming all YGO cosplayers from any YGO series, and I'd even welcome people who don't have a YGO costume but want to be a part of this- they could simply wear zombie make-up. The connection to YGO is pretty much made with Yuugi and Anzu, though admittedly I'm hoping to get at least a Bakura and Marik (to go with the dark theme). Beggars can't be choosers though!
I've tried to rope friends into this, but people assume that I want dancers. Nay! I am not a dancer! Most people are not dancers! You don't have to be a dancer to learn and perform Thriller! Because of it's popularity there are numerous resources available that make learning and memorizing the dance exceedingly easy. I'm teaching myself the dance through the videos provided by Thrill the World, a Thriller world record breaking campaign.
I'm also not looking to perform the entire dance. Since skits are only allowed to be 3 minutes long at Sakura Con, we would only perform the first three minutes of the dance. Anyone can learn those first three minutes!
I plan to play/ dance as Dark Yuugi in the skit (and probably will zombify my face). I'd love to find someone else to play Yugi, and that cosplayer wouldn't even need to dance. (Unless they wanted to! We can have both Yugis. Who cares?! This is crack anyway!)
I live in the Everett/ Seattle area of Washington. If anyone reading this is interested AND lives in Washington, I can definitely arrange a practice dance group. If you're attending SC and are interested in performing, but live outside WA, you could still teach yourself the dance and the group could meet on Thursday evening (pre-con) to practice all-together. Thankfully, Thriller is a dance that involves very little (almost none) inter-personal coordination.
Because this is already a wall of text and I don't exactly have high hopes that I'll find a ton of people wanting to do this, I'll stop rambling and just say that if you're interested in this, I have more details about how we would perform this together. If you have any questions and/or want to join this endeavor, message me here on livejournal and we can talk about getting things organized together. :)
And again, if I can't organize this as a skit, I'd still like to perform it as a flash dance, perhaps at the YGO cosplay photoshoot at the con, haha.
I guess I'll end by saying, obviously performing Thriller at an anime con isn't being done in pursuit of a perfect rendition of the Thriller dance. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'm working hard to learn the dance right, but I really don't care how well anyone else dances. This is just for fun! If you end up forgetting part of the dance, PEOPLE WILL LOVE IT ANYWAY. It's Thriller! So if you're attending Sakura Con, I'd definitely encourage you to join!
Okay I'll shut up now. Thanks for reading!