TORA-CON 2014

That is me in the video above in the grey jacket. I pointed out that Colleen Clinkenbeard was in Samurai 7 and made a joke about the unintended side effect of the Gum-Gum Fruit when she replied to a request to do Luffy's voice by saying "I'm having a baby!" This panel was the first of four that I went to last Saturday at Tora-Con at the Rochester Institute of Technology. For each panel I stood in line for a n hour, but it was worth it to be only feet (or meters if you do metrics) from the voices of Anime. For the record these people are in my head every time I write dialogue for 7th Moon, Colleen in particular for Douji. Collen talked alot about the voice acting process and brought up "walla" which made me think of Soldier A, which I hope Vic Mignogna does when he comes for Roc-Con in September. However, Colleen had to keep her Luffy screaming to a minimum because she's pregnant and was afraid she would "gum gum vomit" over everyone. So if you see Colleen, tell her congratulations!

My next stop was the Toonami Faithful Podcast panel where I met the dude who does the Toonami Faithful Podcast, obviously. Just before he started I chatted with him about 7th Moon and he said he couldn't do much because he wasn't official Toonami, but he might mention it to Jason. That's Jason DeMarco, the head of Toonami. Yeah, he can't just drop that name and expect I don't know what's going on, he may not be much of a middle man, but he's closer than me, so let's keep our fingers crossed. I also mentioned the "Pardon our Dust" promo that inspired me and he said he didn't remember that, I said I was more faithful than he was. If you're reading this dude, just kidding, just watch the video on YouTube and you're all caught up. There was one dude who actually complained about too much Naruto on Toonami. How the hell do you complain about one of the Big 3 on Toonami? I a proud of Toonami that they have all three right now, Luffy gets on my nerves but I'd never publicly complain about One Piece...you know, aside from right now... Anyway I am biased because 7th Moon is Shonen and I want to keep Shonen on Toonami until I join the line-up. In the meantime, I've also requested Saiyuki, and I got confirmation that Jason DeMarco is dedicated to not letting live action ruin Toonami the way Reality television show ruined MTV. Also learned the true story behind Intruder changing TOM and replacing Sonny Strait with Steve Blum all those years ago, and we hope #Intruder2 doesn't mean the end of Steve. Personally, I hope there's some sort of time distortion that allows both TOMs to coexist simultaneously like in some certain episodes of Doctor Who.

Next it was "How to Audition for Animation" with Tia Ballard, AKA Happy the Cat. She was awesome, if you ever get the chance to meet her she is the most wonderful person, enjoy every second of it. She tried to teach us about how to audition for anime at Funimation including learning about characters by their appearance, and the poor thing kept getting picked on by people pointing out that "Blond hair and blue eyes tend to mean ditzy" and of course that describes Tia, except that she is nice and you should never call her ditzy. Also, try not to bring up Cat Planet Cuties, she says she didn't know about the nudity until she was too far into it, although it wasnt like she was naked, she was just lending her voice to a drawing of a naked character. Anyway we spent the second half practice auditioning, which is what took so long, I've been trying to find the video of me doing Rogue the Bat, my best line was "Mmm...what was that about? What did you do with my Emerald?" Only imagine it in a much more suggestive, and it probably sounded like Steve Blum's Orochimaru with a little bit of Leeron from Gurren Laggann. If you find the video, it is hilarious, please share it with me. Some other high points were when someone said Tails must be a mutant because of his two tails to which I had to reply "We just saw blue and pink hedgehogs and a bright red echidna and the two-tailed fox is what's throwing you off?" and also when people were trying to describe Dr. Eggman, guessing pear-shaped among others and I practically screamed "HE'S SHAPED LIKE AN EGG! THAT'S WHY HE'S CALLED DR. EGGMAN!" Also, Tia's favorite characters are Scratch and Grounder from the old Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog with Jaleel White and Tia pinted out a "Sonic Sez" where Sonic explains what to do if somebody touches you inappropriately, and yes she actually played this when I called it into question:

Finally I went to a panel with Colleen where she was joined by Chuck Huber. The man is insane in the best possible way, there are over a dozen videos on YouTube of the panel he did just before that I didn't make because I was with Tia(wouldn't have changed a thing). The best moment of the panel was when he was talking about how he sometimes does free voice dubbing for fans and when Colleen asked himwhy he said "I'm a whore!" to which she replied "But you're not getting paid." To which he replied "I'm a slut!" and Colleen said "I'M a whore!" I did find it very encouraging when he told a story of how one of his freebies turned into a very profitable situation when the game became a big hit in Australia and he got a large check for his part in it, and he didn't even know he would get paid at all. Oh for me to be the next miracle success like that!

After all that it finally hit me I'd spent about twelve hours in line or sitting in panels with no food or bathroom break. I went home exhausted and missed the rest of the convention. It's definitely more fun to just sit at a table and watch cosplayers go by and be worshipped as an author, and I'll get  that opportunity agian in September at Roc-Con, and I already got my ticket for Vic Mignogna! See you all then, in the meantime, after waiting in line and arguing with others about movies based on cartoons, I may have to present my case in the next post. Until then, watch Toonami and stay gold!