DeepSouthCon 50 Report: Day 3

[See Day 1 and Day 2, if you missed them.]

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Because Sunday was Father's Day, I had family obligations in the morning. Luckily, like the day before, the first concert wasn't until 1:00 p.m. Unfortunately, I was still a bit late and had to take a seat between two of Power Salad's songs. (I think it was the first two.)

Chris Mezzolesta of Power Salad

Power Salad is actually a writing duo, but Chris Mezzolesta, the only member present, does most of the performing. The concert went well, except for when he got to "The Fire at the Old Diploma Mill." There's a point in the song where it uses several fake names for the diploma mill's staff. Unfortunately, Chris had already performed the song at Friday night's Comedy Music Sampler Concert — See it here! — and his audience was almost entirely the same people, so we didn't chuckle nearly as loudly this second time.

After the concert, I took off the Star Wars tie I'd worn to church for Father's Day and put on a Star Trek: The Next Generation t-shirt. Thus covering both the major Star franchises in one day.

Luke and Chris do the Apothecary Sketch

Then it was to the main room for a performance by sketch comedy group Cirque du So What? The group is actually made up of four FuMP artists: Chris Mezzolesta of Power Salad, Devo Spice, Shoebox of Worm Quartet, and the great Luke Ski. As I explained in Day 2's entry, however, Devo was only present for Saturday's festivities. Therefore, either Luke's wife, Sara Trice, or Shoebox filled in for him when needed. (Not all members perform in all sketches.) Despite being on the main stage just before the closing ceremonies, the performance was sadly not well attended.

After that, the closing ceremonies moved in. All the guests of honor got to speak briefly, including Doctor Demento. And then it was over. Well, some of the dementia fans and artists hung around for a little bit, preparing to go. I believe it was during this time Luke and Sara left, giving me a farewell hug. (Sara, not Luke.) I helped Shoebox take his stuff down to Chris Mezzolesta's car. Then, after we returned to the lobby, I got to watch Shoebox encounter Howard Tayler, writer/artist of Schlock Mercenary and the con's artist guest of honor. Shoebox is the inheritor of Partially Clips from originator Rob Balder. They had mutual praise for each others' web comics, which made Shoebox most happy, as witnessed by the notes under the Partially Clips comic posted after DeepSouthCon.

Shoebox, Chris, and Rob Balder

After that, people pretty much dispersed. I did a brief hunt for Doctor Demento for reasons I now forget, but failed to find him. So it was off to home for me. I had a great time, but was so sad to see it end. Hopefully one day I will get to hang with all these fun people again.