Come to think of it, I do have a story from the convention.

I conned everyone into attending the Dawn Look-Alike contest, which I had remembered as being highly entertaining from two years before when Anthony Daniels (C3PO) hosted. When we got there, we’d just come from a lovely dinner, which originally was just going to be drinks and the next thing we knew we were eating lobster grits and calamari. (Who knew calamari could be so tender and not so rubbery?) All thanks to a waiter who sold us by merely describing the food.

The room was dark and we ended up somewhere towards the back as each contestant strode across the stage to moody goth music. Sure Voltaire (give that a moment to load), the emcee for the evening was entertaining enough, but it was missing something special – like drunken Denise Crosby standing up to give the crowd the finger – cute girl. So, by around contestant 50, I had reached my limit and was moments from beating my head on the chair in front of me while trying to apologize to April for making everyone attend.

Out shuffle three cloaked figures to more moody music with overly done descriptions about how they’re representing some aspect of Dawn and I pulled the chair in front of me back a bit so I could lay my head down. I was waiting for the big reveal – something with red hair, possibly wings or big armor judging by the capes. A white-cloaked figure shuffled out – obviously the main Dawn, and more waiting as the description carried on. All I could thing was, “God, I hate interpretive performance art. Just toss off the capes and drive on already.”

Finally, they threw off their cloaks and revealed themselves as BOX STORMTROOPERS and BOX DAWN! Mind you, the boxes were my absolute favorite costumes this year. People who had taken square boxes and created Star Wars characters. Box Dawn had red streamers for hair and red balloon boobs and she and her Stormtroopers scampered from side to side on the stage. Everyone cheered! It was hands-down the funniest thing I’d seen all night. What made it even better, is she won Most Outrageous – again, that made the crowd go wild.

… and I found a video!

To put yourselves in the mood, pretend it’s late at night and you’ve just seen 50+ very serious red-haired gals strut across the stage – each providing a lengthy detailed description about her costume and how she best represents Dawn. By 50 you’re a bit loopy and this was perfect!

Another quick plug for Voltaire – if you get a chance, go to iTunes and look up his pod cast. He’s got some great Star Trek parodies and you can listen to them in their entirety. He really wasn’t what I expected from someone who calls himself a Goth musician – great voice – entertaining lyrics – solid emcee.
That’s my story.