with a week between us

It's been a week since doing OtakuHELL at AnimeFEST. And I'm actually surprised that I only came out of it with an aggravated sprained ankle. No con cooties, even. And I recovered from the show fatigue pretty fast. It took me a week to recover from the A-Kon show.

I wanted to mention this. One of the great things about doing a show at AnimeFEST is the audience. I really don't know why, but whenever we do OtakuHELL as AnimeFEST the response we get is overwhelming enthusiasm. People get up and dance and sing along and pretty much just join in on the goofy fun. We get some of that at AKon, but not quite as much as we get at AnimeFEST. We certainly didn't get it at OhayoCon. I have no idea what we do to get this kind of uninhibited reaction. Maybe it's because we're unfazed by it, or because we're tired and running ourselves unfiltered. Don't misunderstand. We're trying to put on a show, to entertain them, and they let us. But also, it's like they're joining us. They're a part of the show, too. Something odd and wonderful happens, and I wish I could understand how it happens.

A moment I'll remember and cherish: I'm showing the classic Sid Davis short Live and Learn. I've shown it a bajillion times, but it's one of my favorites. And it's always fun to shout at. Nothing like watching kids being put in to peril over and over again. Sid Davis shamelessly shows us the evils of playing with matches, running with scissors, and wants you to know that you will shoot yourself in the eye with that BB gun. Near the end of the short one of the delinquents decides to hop over a fence and promptly falls over a cliff side. His more sensible buddies runs off to find a cop. Luckily the policeman has a coil of rope with him and proceeds to repel down the side of the cliff to rescue the kid. As the cop is playing out the rope, Bruce starts to sing the Indiana Jones theme. Da-da-da, Da-da-Da-Da! AND THE WHOLE CROWD STARTED SINGING ALONG. For the duration of the rope wielding cop sequence the audience sang the Indiana Jones theme as loudly and passionately as they could.

Now, I've probably played Live and Learn at about every OtakuHELL I've ever done. And this was the first time this ever happened.