On tour with Weird Al!!! (well, sort of...)
OK, I don't usually like to brag, but this was such as AWESOME thing for me I've just gotta cheer about it. Weird Al Yankovic has been on tour in concert for the past few weeks, and I had seen he was going to be in North Carolina for a couple of his stops. Being the huge fan (and geek!) that I am, I did a little more digging, and discovered that a few of my fellow 501st Legion stormtroopers in California had appeared with him as backup for the Star Wars parody "The Saga Begins..," and I thought, all right, I'm going to see if I can get the Carolina stormtroopers in on the action.
Well, I sent e-mails from both the tour/home website and Al's MySpace page, and nothing happened...then I called a few friends of mine who knew people on the tour staff to see if they could help and nothing happened...then I finally did what I should have done in the first place, which was contact our Legion Commander (who had helped set up the California show) to get him to pass on my info to the tour folks, and still nothing happened. When this past Friday (the 3rd) rolled around (the concerts were Saturday and Sunday), I figured, well, rats, it's a no go then, but I tried.
BUT! I was manning the 501st table at Trinoc-Con (a small literary convention in Raleigh) on Saturday afternoon when suddenly, out of the blue, I got a phone call from one of the tour promoters wanting to know if I could get at least six stormtroopers and possibly Darth Vader for the show on Sunday. Mind you, this is 4:30 SATURDAY AFTERNOON, and the show was SUNDAY EVENING, so I was a little frenzied! I had to hustle my butt plate in gear, post an emergency message on the Carolina Garrison forums, and make a few frantic phone calls, but by golly, by midnight Saturday I had confirmed six troopers (plus an alternate) and Darth Vader for Sunday.
Long story short (too late--long story already long)--I got to appear on stage along with several of my fellow stormtroopers in concert with Weird Al!!! I'll admit, that evening I had my second ever fan-girl moment (the first was when I met Mark Hamil....), but it was an awesome experience. As an added bonus, the two cheerleaders they normally have backing up Al on "Smells Like Nirvana" had not been arranged for the Raleigh show, and the tour staff asked for two brave trooper volunteers to take their place (apparently when it was discovered that the cheerleaders hadn't been arranged, someone jokingly suggested to Al that the troopers do it, and he liked the idea). So not only did I get to stand in formation and then rock and roll to "The Saga Begins," I also got to help choreograph a cheerleading routine, in armor, in less than two hours, and perform that on stage as well. Two stormtroopers cheerleading with big red pompoms is not something you normally see every day... I think my best moment of the whole evening was being put in place on the stage for the "Nirvana" number and seeing Al (who starts the song with his back to the audience, facing us), trying hard not to laugh his head off at us.
And as an EXTRA special bonus, Al met with us backstage after the show and signed autographs, took pics, etc. (there are more pics in my photo album area). What a great guy!!! It will be "a day long remembered!!"
Well, I sent e-mails from both the tour/home website and Al's MySpace page, and nothing happened...then I called a few friends of mine who knew people on the tour staff to see if they could help and nothing happened...then I finally did what I should have done in the first place, which was contact our Legion Commander (who had helped set up the California show) to get him to pass on my info to the tour folks, and still nothing happened. When this past Friday (the 3rd) rolled around (the concerts were Saturday and Sunday), I figured, well, rats, it's a no go then, but I tried.
BUT! I was manning the 501st table at Trinoc-Con (a small literary convention in Raleigh) on Saturday afternoon when suddenly, out of the blue, I got a phone call from one of the tour promoters wanting to know if I could get at least six stormtroopers and possibly Darth Vader for the show on Sunday. Mind you, this is 4:30 SATURDAY AFTERNOON, and the show was SUNDAY EVENING, so I was a little frenzied! I had to hustle my butt plate in gear, post an emergency message on the Carolina Garrison forums, and make a few frantic phone calls, but by golly, by midnight Saturday I had confirmed six troopers (plus an alternate) and Darth Vader for Sunday.
Long story short (too late--long story already long)--I got to appear on stage along with several of my fellow stormtroopers in concert with Weird Al!!! I'll admit, that evening I had my second ever fan-girl moment (the first was when I met Mark Hamil....), but it was an awesome experience. As an added bonus, the two cheerleaders they normally have backing up Al on "Smells Like Nirvana" had not been arranged for the Raleigh show, and the tour staff asked for two brave trooper volunteers to take their place (apparently when it was discovered that the cheerleaders hadn't been arranged, someone jokingly suggested to Al that the troopers do it, and he liked the idea). So not only did I get to stand in formation and then rock and roll to "The Saga Begins," I also got to help choreograph a cheerleading routine, in armor, in less than two hours, and perform that on stage as well. Two stormtroopers cheerleading with big red pompoms is not something you normally see every day... I think my best moment of the whole evening was being put in place on the stage for the "Nirvana" number and seeing Al (who starts the song with his back to the audience, facing us), trying hard not to laugh his head off at us.
And as an EXTRA special bonus, Al met with us backstage after the show and signed autographs, took pics, etc. (there are more pics in my photo album area). What a great guy!!! It will be "a day long remembered!!"