I'm a Guest of Honor at CONvergence, which describes itself as "The place where Science Fiction and Reality meet." It's a friendly convention run by friendly people who create a friendly atmosphere…and that's the most important thing I've observed so far.
One of the other Guest of Honor people is a talented gent named Wally Wingert, who lends his voice to countless animated cartoons, videogames, commercials and other endeavors that employ voiceover actors. When you see me mention that I've been directing the voices for a new series of Garfield cartoons, one of the people I'm directing is Wally. He's the current portrayer of the cat's long-suffering, lasagna-serving owner, Jon.
Anyway, I left my room this morn for a walk and promptly ran into Wally, who was about to speak to a group of fifth and sixth grade students, explaining to them about the bizarre/fun way he makes his living. He let me tag along and it was fascinating. I'm not sure all the kids "got" that this strange man in the front of the hall actually supplied the voices he demonstrated for Family Guy and Invader Zim and other shows they watched religiously. I think a few of them thought he was just a guy who could sound a lot like characters on TV…but the ones who understood were mesmerized.
After that, Wally, his parents, a few other folks and I hiked over to a DQ Grill & Chill — or maybe it's a Chill & Grill. Whatever it is, it's the kind of Dairy Queen fast food outlet that one does not find often in Southern California. They have little counters in mall food courts but free-standing, full-menu Dairy Queens are few 'n' far between in my homeland. If I still ate ice cream and similar confections, I'd regret that more than I do. Seemed like a place the old me would have enjoyed a lot…and the burger I did have was a step or two up from most fast food places.
CONvergence officially kicked off in the evening with the Opening Ceremonies, a cleverly-produced show with a video that I hope gets posted online so you can all see it. Guests of Honor were introduced (there are 23 of us) and announcements were made. Unlike a lot of conventions, this one runs on volunteerism and there's a lot of it, which leads to a pretty happy, congenial atmosphere.
I was on a panel after that called The Cereal Mascot Smackdown. Basically, a group of "experts" were asked to argue whether one cereal box superstar could annihilate another in a steel cage, to-the-death match. Could the Trix Rabbit take on Count Chocula? Could Captain Crunch beat up the rooster on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box? How about Fred Flintstone (on the Fruity Pebbles box) versus the Lucky Charms Leprechaun? When it was my turn to defend the honor of Sonny the Cocoa Puffs Bird, I called for help. I whipped out my cell phone and called Chuck McCann, who did the voice of that bird for a quarter of a century and held it up to the microphone so the whole audience could hear him. Pleading his own case, Sonny won his round…but the ultimate winner of the whole competition was, as you might imagine, Tony the Tiger.
During the discussions, we were served an endless stream of every cereal under discussion. Having given up any food with much sugar content, I took but a small sample of each…which was enough to convince me that Boo Berry is the crummiest cereal I've ever had and that Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch — which I'd never had before and may never have again — was my favorite. I did at one point mix Fruity Pebbles, Fruit Loops and Trix in a bowl and went momentarily blind.
As may be apparent, it was a lot of fun. Everything here so far has been a lot of fun. I'll let you know if things change as the weekend progresses but somehow, I don't think they will.