Think Lynsen

7.10.2009

CONvergence highlight: Dr. Horrible Sing-Along

The only thing better than watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is watching it in a room full of fans and singing along with all the songs while wielding a tiny Bad Horse finger puppet.

It was my first time seeing the movie projected on a big screen (well, a screen bigger than my television, anyway), and we managed to sit right up front, which was awesome. The experience was full of communal, Rocky-Horror-esque joyness. And speaking of Rocky Horror, the sing-along was immediately followed by the "Rocky Horrible Picture Show," where you could buy a small bag of props for $5 each and hold them up, throw them, etc. at specific points in the movie. They even had lacy, gently-wafting curtains in there. Glee!

7.09.2009

CONvergence highlight: Killer B's Spectacular Improv Movie Show

Riffing on bad movies extemporaniously is tough work, but the riffers at Killer B's make it look easy. It could be something in the beer they're drinking during the show...

For the uninitiated, Killer B's is basically an MST3K-like performance, only it consists of clips of bad movies with the sound removed. There's a live theramin performance to accompany the movies, and the riffmasters fill in the dialogue and mock the proceedings. A big shout out goes to Melissa, who not only assembled the footage for the riffing, but also live-tweeted the best riffs throughout. If you have patience, you can dig through her feed to find them, but they probably won't make much sense out of context.

Still, mad props to all who were involved. The group I was hanging with were laughing so hard we could hardly catch our breath. It was definitely one of the highlights of CON.

7.08.2009

CONvergence highlight: Masters of the Universe gets its due

The first night of CONvergence there was a midnight show of the movie Masters of the Universe, based on the popular He-Man cartoon/toy franchise from the '80s. Tim Uren and Joseph Scrimshaw were the riffmasters of the evening, and got us through the horror that was the bad acting, poorly-conceived plot and bad costuming with a steady stream of well-rehearsed and well-timed jokes. (My favorite: when Frank Langella's name came up in the opening credits, they said, "I'm saying that when Skeletor does it, it's not a crime!") The whole crowd was laughing throughout, and the experience culminated with a hysterical five-minute rant by Joseph that truly must be heard to be believed.

I beg the great CON masters...please create a downloadable MP3 (a la Rifftrax.com) of their performance so people can download it, sync it up with Masters of the Universe on DVD, and continue to enjoy. Heck, I'd even pay for the privilege. It was so well done, and though I know their performance wasn't recorded at CON, I'm sure they could reproduce it in a better audio environment.

And one more thing that made the showing awesome - an appearance by an incredibly well-costumed She-Ra. I wish I had gotten a photo - the costume was spot-on!