Paging Dr Fur…

It was FC 2012 last weekend, blasting into its inaugural year at the SJ convention centre.  People, places and fur – and for me it was the best con I’ve ever had.  Long-ish report ahead!

There’s so much great stuff and great moments from the con it’s a toss-up of where to start.  So I’ll start with all the friends I got to re-connect with, and I mean really re-connect with rather than just see for a brief moment in passing.  Add to that several pawfuls of new faces I met and conversed with coupled with running into some folks from last year’s con.  There was nary a dull moment, and being with everyone was just the delight of the con.  I walked in the parade using surgical scrubs and the straight sword as my ‘in theme’ elements  (about 8 minutes in here in this vid).    Wasn’t able to hit up any improv this year, alas.  Went to Frolic on Saturday and danced and danced and danced some more.  And my fursuit made it through another year, if perhaps just barely.

Once again I ran four panels this year, including the two tai chi classes, Northern Shaolin class and the return of the Stage Fighting Panel with Rev/Sanskritch.  And once again I was continually blown away with everyone coming, trying things out, sharing their knowledge, playing and participating.  I got to hold the Tai Chi (again on the ‘official’ track this year) classes in the large central hall in the convention centre and it was a joy to see fursuits and people many rows deep all moving in unison as we played follow-along, explored Too Lazy to Tie Coat, tested some other concepts, and repeated the form several times.  Soooo much fun.  On Saturday one person came up to me and shared that after doing the class last year she went to her father, who had practiced Tai Chi for many years, and asked him if he would teach her.  They are now practicing two times per week, and she thanked me for kindling that passion for her and her dad.  It was all I could do not to break down in tears, it was such a fulfilment of why I love sharing the art both here and elsewhere.

At the start of the stage fighting class this little girl, maybe around 5, came up to first me, then to Sanskritch and handed us a photo she had taken during our class last year.  She then hugged Sanskritch’s leg.  It was so cute!

This year I re-jiggered what I would say in the stage fighting class and purposefully made sure I shut up at the half way point to let there be a practical component to the class.  I split everyone up (maybe about 30 people again) into groups of 3 or 4 and gave them all a chunk of time to come up with a short fighting sequence while Sanskritch and I walked around and helped people out.  It.  Was.  Amazing.  The air of excitement and fun in the room was electrifying.  Everyone got right into it with full vigour.  We had each group present their little sketch one by one, then taking comments from everyone about what worked, and what didn’t work.  It was a great learning experience for us all and built up great camaraderie.  Sanskritch had me invite every person in the room to consider jumping in with a skit for next year’s FC: Unleashed.  There was so much talent and excitement in the room it made so much sense, and it would be great to see more acts…

Of course, he and I were back ourselves that year.  Back in the variety show, that is.  YES!  Rev and I made good on our promise to Sprout and worked on an epic sketch for this year’s FC:Unleashed and this year’s theme.  Enter:  Chekhov’s Veterinary Hospital.  We went BIG this year, with 6 weapons, hand sets, humour, dubbing, pre-recorded sound effects and music, puns and more.  And boy did I ever have fun with it;  I loved making it, I loved performing it and I loved being backstage with everyone and cheering each other’s sets and each other.  Just getting to play!

As for our skit, how did it go?  Exhibit A:  here’s a video!

Exhibit B:  here’s an image:

Wow.  Colour me stunned.  Both the Judges first place as well as Audience Choice.  Exciting and humbling at the same time.  Thank you all!  It was a delicious capstone to an awesome weekend.  I almost stayed late into the night on Sunday, and would have loved to, if tiredness and needing to be functional at work on Monday wasn’t a necessity.

And so FC 2012 drew to a close for me.  As I said, I think this my fursuit is on its last legs, despite having held together well enough for this year (plus, while it looks great head on there’s just something off about it when viewed from the side).  Don’t know what I’m going to do, as I think $ will be tight in 2012 so I will see how/what I can do in order to get a new costume.  I’m already planning for new skits next year, updates to my stage fighting panel, and maybe even a fifth new panel.  It will be great.  Thank you to everyone who came by to one of my panels, thanks for all the kind words, the great interaction, and a big thank you to the staff who put this together for us and made it all happen/work.  I’ll see you all again next year.

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