Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Ken Patterson has put together a BASFA outing to this Friday night's performance of The Game Show Show. Lisa has decided that she'd like to see it, although she always is nervous about such things due to her tinnitus. Speaking of nervous, a storm is heading into the area that it apt to drop snow on the passes Thursday (and on Fernley on Friday), so she's coming on down to San Jose tomorrow to get ahead of the weather. We are very much interested in seeing what the revamped production is compared to the "workshop" version earlier this year. We wish the folks at the Retrodome well; alas, the Dome will be closing at the end of January, inasmuch as the property owner is not renewing the lease on the building in order to redevelop the land.

As some of you know, Lisa and I are fans of the musical 1776. That musical apparently also had a sort of workshop in its early days, which included numbers that never made it into the final stage show (or the movie). There doesn't appear to be any record of what those lost numbers were. We've always wished we could have seen that early production. If Game Show Show manages to go on to future greatness (fingers crossed), we'll be happy to be able to say We knew it back when....

After seeing Lisa off to head to Fernley this afternoon (she's back home safely), I headed off this evening to see (again) the final evening performance of Thanks for Playing the Game Show Show at The Retrodome. Shortly before curtain, I heard a familiar voice say, "Is this seat taken?" and David W. Clark sat next to me. By sheer coincidence, Dave ended up booking the seat right next to me, which is doubly odd (or else people spread out) because nobody else had seats on our row.

I had yet another great time on this third time through the show. Partially because the nature of the show and the audience members participating as contestants, no two performances are quite the same. Tonight's show seemed very different from last weekend's. In particular, the "Match Game"-esque show in Act 2 had far more of what Match Game aficionados might call a "Thursday show" feel in it, and what seemed like a lot more improv than we've seen before. I started feeling the same sort of vive we've had in our Match Game SF Late Night shows, and that's a positive thing. It also helped that all five audience contestants were live wires and good sports, and they all added to the show. One of the contestants threatened to steal part of a scene in act 1 just by the expressions he was pulling; it was very funny.

After the show, I spoke to many of the cast members again, including Ric Iverson ("Tripp" MacMurray), who greeted me by name. "You remembered me!" I said.

"Sure," he laughed, "I'm your stalker, remember?" (He posted, in character, on my initial review of the show.)

I also spoke briefly with Shannon Guggenheim, the female lead and co-producer (and book & lyrics writer and choreographer!) of the show. I thanked her (and also Stephen Guggenheim, the male lead (and co-producer/musical director)) for bringing this show to stage. I know from having read reviews and interviews that they would like to see if they can get this production on the road and maybe even to Chicago or off-Broadway, and I really hope they succeed.

I nearly floated home on a cloud of feel-good, which I have had from every time I've seen the show. On the spur of the moment when I got home tonight, I booked a ticket for the final performance, coming up at 2 PM Sunday afternoon. I think I will have the seat in Row D next to Ken and Jerry Patterson.

The only regret I have is that I can't be a contestant again. It wouldn't be fair; besides, I'd know what was coming — you might think the show was rigged!

Last night I attended what was officially a "preview" performance of Thanks for Playing the Game Show Show, a musical about American game shows of the 1950's, 60's and 70's. I arrived very early and was asked if I wanted to be one of the audience members who become part of the show as contestants, and of course I said "Yes!" So they took down my name and told me it would be their version of Match Game. Oh, how appropriate!

( In which it is suggested that I'm a 'ringer.' )

The show's director, Scott Evan Guggenheim, came out to introduce the show and explain that this was a "preview" performance and that subsequent shows might be quite different. The cast actually entered through the audience. One of the women (I've now forgotten which character, but I think it was "Helen Hart" (Lee Ann Payne).) asked me if I was alone tonight. When I said yes, she said, "Well, not for long!" I don't know if she realized I was going to be one of the contestants or not.

( Act 1 )

( Kevin gets into Act 2 )

Jazzed up from my turn on stage, I returned to my seat and watched the rest of the show play out through the finale. The cast then exited through the audience and was available in the lobby thereafter. With such a small audience, it was no problem coming out to talk with them, thank them for their performance, explain that I'm the game-show-hosting owner of the vintage microphone they're using, explain what my ad-lib was going to be and let them know that I understood why they had to squash it, and otherwise enthuse. What I didn't do — and I'm kicking myself over this — was not get a picture taken with the cast, even though I'd turned my Droid back on and primed it for photography.

I had an utter blast attending this show. They'll be playing Friday-Saturday-Sunday through May and into early June. I heartily encourage anyone who can do so to get down to the Retrodome and see this show while it's available. If I understood what they were telling me, I think they've invited me to a later performance as a thank-you for the equipment loan. Lisa and I need to talk about whether she wants to make the trip down from Nevada to attend, too. She has to be very careful about shows she attends because of her precarious hearing, but I think this should be okay.

It was a great deal of fun being there. Of course, I assume that they won't ask me to be a contestant if I'm there for a subsequent show since it would spoil the charm of having "cold" reactions, but even so, I'm sure I'd enjoy seeing it again.

Oh, and I got a "lovely parting gift" as a contestant: a box with chocolates and a certificate for free popcorn at a subsequent show at the Retrodome. I gave them back the box not only because I don't have enough room in this postage stamp of an apartment to keep much clutter, but also because, as a show producer myself, I know the hassle of putting together all of this stuff, so if they can reuse the decorated parting-gift box, good for them.

I know that April 1 is very late to be announcing a change to a show that we're doing on April 2 at Norwescon (9 PM Friday evening, Cascade 9), but after much reflection and consideration, we've decided that recreating a 1970s game show is simply too retro for most of our audience, a really significant number of whom weren't even born when the show originally aired. So we're going to catch up to the early 2000s by changing the show to:

Win Spring Schoenhuth's Jewelry
(AKA "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grade Teacher?")

Contestants will take on the owner of the Retro Rocket Emporium in answering trivia questions related to SF, Fantasy, Fandom, and related subjects (that includes science). The winner of the main game will face off with dinogrl in a Best of Ten Trivia Challenge with the grand prize being a fabulous collection of gold and silver jewelery from Springtime Creations with an estimated retail price of One Million Dollars more than $1000!

I'll be doing the "Jimmy Kimmel" role as second fiddle and question-poser during the second and bonus rounds. In related news, I'm delighted to announce that I've recruited a new Show Producer to deal with the on-the-day setup work, which will make my job as show (co-) host considerably easier. yourbob is always my first choice, but since he's not available, welcome Opal Firlo to the team.

While I would have been happier if we'd had a bigger audience for Match Game, the show itself went very well, and we had a good set, and great panelists and crew who made it all work. I think we had between 20 and 30 in the audience overall, but far few put their names in as potential contestants, so that we were able to draw almost every person who wanted to be a panelist. I guess a lot of people are too shy.

( Photos of the show )

Unfortunately, not all of the contestant photos were usable, nor were those of announcer David Gallaher and Crack Technical/Sound Operator Lisa Hayes. (Light conditions were low, and we were not using flash because it washes things out.)

I had a great time, and hope I get to do it again under such great stage conditions and with such a good team. Thanks to everyone who participated and watched the show!

Lisa was exhausted last night and went to bed early, and the extra sleep seems to have done her good. I was up earlier this morning than other days, and when I finish typing this we will head off for breakfast. After that, I'll change into my suit -- no sense risking getting something on it while eating breakfast, given that we have enough time -- and we'll move the gear down to the Pavilion and get to work on set up.

I hope we'll have photos of the show, although Lisa will be too busy running the sound to take them.

Here's a blog post from a Match Game contestant.

FYI, I consider Match Game to be "PG-13," but the panelists may have restrained themselves due to the presence of younger children in the audience.

I was up extra-early for me at a con (7 AM; I understand that this was when Christian McGuire went to bed) so I could go eat breakfast in a leisurely, unrushed manner. Lisa, who had not come back last night, joined me part-way through -- it appears she was coming down the elevator as I was going up. She'd been very restless and stayed up watching anime and wandering around, then went and slept in her van (it has a bed in the back, and she's used to sleeping in her 3-ton security blanket).

( On With the Show! )

Thank you to everyone who made the game a success: panelists, contestants, tech support, announcer, and sound crew. I had a great time presenting it, and hope we get a chance to do it again sometime.

Fortunately, there was nothing immediately after us, so we had an hour to break down the set, which is good because it took a while to clean up everything. Then it was back to the room to give me a chance to cool off -- my business suit is very warm.

There were lots of people taking pictures. I hope I get to see some of them on-line eventually.

I've been asked if the Match Game panelists (and staff, including me, Announcer Eric, and sound tech Lisa) could get together on Saturday to refresh everyone's game mechanics. Unfortunately, checking Saturday's schedule, at least one of our panelists (and sometimes more) are on other panels except during the 5:30 PM block. So, I propose that those of panelists who can do so meet with me on Saturday at 5:30 in the Fanzine Lounge on the 2nd floor (assuming Chris Garcia doesn't mind us using the Fanzine Lounge that way -- I figured it would be easier on him on account of he's running it).

It's likely that we all will not be able to meet. That's okay; we'll do what we can. I would like for Lisa and Eric to get a chance to practice with the equipment a bit, so we can get the timing on the opening titles right.

I have printed the Bonus Round prize envelopes and inserts and scrambled them up so that even I don't know what is in which envelope. I've printed the MG logo on the backs of the 4 x 6 cards we will use both for answers and for the audience members to write their names so they can have a chance to play. I've printed the panelist name tents. (I know that BayCon gives panelists name tents, but not all of our panelists are official BayCon program participants, so I made standard, Match Game-esque, first-name-only name tents.)

Still left to do:

Print the large MG banner

Write short prize descriptions to go with each prize. ("Eric, tell us what our contestant has just won!")

Write PSA-ish ad copy for a couple of fannish good causes I've agreed to plug during the show.

BayCon programming tech support says that they do have a data projector, and that it's not booked for the 11:30 AM Sunday slot, so they'll bring it along. I hope we can figure out where to put it in order to throw the graphics up on the wall appropriately. If that works, we'll be able to show the animated opening title sequence, including the "build" of the panelists' names as they're introduced. (I can't figure out how to reproduce the actual opening titles of the show without at least two video cameras and a bunch of extra equipment that is certainly overkill for this application.)

I only wish we had more time to rehearse the opening and the tech. As it is, we'll have to get it right with minimal rehearsal. Ah, live performance, gotta love it. Of course, even with all of the extra complexity I've layered onto this performance, we could still do it "manually" without sound or electricity. The game design is such that we can always fall back if the fancy plans fail.