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Bad news guys.  The company I'm working for is "reorganizing" so no one is cleared for any vacations for days after 3/31.  There's no estimated date we're going to know when we can ask for vacation days. :(  So I'm out for Comedy Club.  I haven't even registered for the con yet since I don't know if I can go.  If one of you boys who participated before wants to put in for the panel instead, by all means, please submit the panel.  Sorry, guys.

How do we get on the wait list for rooms? I put two reservations down for the Crowne Plaza but I really want to the Hilton since I've stayed there every year since forever ;_;

Final e-mail coming soon.  Just waiting on one person to confirm an e-mail address.  If you guys have any last minute questions please e-mail or PM me.  

Start list is confirmed, I'll give you the order in the last e-mail.  We should be good to go.  The panel times are not listed in the website... and doesn't look like it will be before the con, so please please double check the schedule book when you get it at registration, but as far as the last communique I got from Panels we are slated for Saturday, 7pm-8pm in Panels 3 (Salons IV, V, and VI in the Marriott).  If I notice a change at con I will text you all.  If I am notified earlier I will just e-mail you guys.

Performers list updated.  I took one out of the lineup for no response :( 

Performers: Please expect an e-mail from me by the end of next weekend.  Hope everything is going well with your performance prep :3

Hey, participants, I need your contact information (name, e-mail, phone, badge name, what you want to be announced as, a bit you want me to say about you as I introduce you), confirmed set time, and confirmation you're still alive ASAP.  Send them to me via email to [email protected], thanks! 

Even if you don't have your confirmed set time (in which case you are defaulted to 6.5 minutes) please let me know you're still alive and still planning on going.  I only got ONE e-mail response and ONE PM confirmation so far.  Just because you performed before does not mean I kept all your contact info, plus it's just nice to know you're still alive and planning on coming.  If you do not reply by next Friday I will either give your minutes away or I will use them myself and the elimination will be final. 

And no, your prior PM's with absolutely no confirmation information save for "I'm coming!" or something like that does not count.  I need the information listed above.  If you did not just get an e-mail response or a PM from me today, then I do not have your information. 

Because if you're too busy to send me an e-mail with information you should have off the top of your head, I'm just going to assume you're too busy to write a comedy set.  As this is already an extenion of a deadline I announced on the 13th, I think I've given you plenty of time to get back to me.

Okay, people, NEXT FRIDAY.  May 1 is when I will be drafting up the start order and if you haven't sent me an e-mail by that day then it is too late. 

Hi Guys,

Just wrote back as response to the PM I got.  All good on the Stage Zero preview show if you guys are up for organizing it yourself.  Sadly I will be at Artist Alley so I won't be able to be there to check it out or help with it, but I can trust you guys not to burn down the  barn, right? O_o

(By the by, E-mail or PM are the best ways to get my attention, I don't come to check out the msg board every day.)

I think 1 hour is a better idea.  Last year I did a 25 minute set by myself and we DID kind of drag at parts, and I noticed some of you used stuff from last year and really did struggle at parts.  We kind of got away with it last year since the first year audience was SO SMALL so most of the second year (last year) audience members did not notice the recycled material, but this year we won't be able to do the same thing.  

As for timing, first year I do apologize I did not do such a good job, but second (last) year I did send out an e-mail (which not all of you read in its entirety since you were surprised I said we would do an improv thing at the end...) that I would not time since we had PLENTY of time to kill.  I was SWEATING BULLETS we would have too much time left.  I think 6 minutes worth of material with pause time is PLENTY for your AAA material.  Plus now you have more minutes at Stage Zero to make people laugh :D  I will do a yellow card warning at 5 minutes and a red card warning at 6 minutes and actually cut you off at a convenient moment at 7 minutes.  Fair?  More details to come.  You can also trade your minutes like Carbon Credits.  If someone just wants to do a 5 minute set, you can absorb that extra minute from them.  But yes, no shorter than 5 minutes please.  Plan on 5-6 minutes of material with 30 second laugher pause.

As for the music request, I'm really sorry, but I cannot accommodate that.  The reason is that I don't have the time for you to set up or break down the equipment.  I don't want you doing that during someone else's set, we're cutting it pretty close already and I don't want you to break down or set up during someone else's allotted panel time.  Plus this is a stand up open mic, so you get a mic (probably). 

Okay, can the performers do me a favor and try to cut down their sets to SIX AND A HALF minutes?  I had another performer try to contact me on the 21st but apparently her e-mail never made it.  So six minute sets plus some laughter pause would be 6.5 minutes and would give us time to transition between the now EIGHT performers and have a little breathing room at the beginning.  Otherwise I'll have to limit the poor gal to 5 minutes and cut my own set to 5 :(  I'll be very unhappy.

Okay guys, I've updated the entire first post, so if you haven't read it since 3/28, go read it to make sure you are updated!

I don't care if you do a Chris Hanson joke.  Hey, if you can still work it in in a surprisingly funny way, go for it.  It's not totally relevant anymore since the show hasen't been on for years, but hey, you can still make it work.  (On a related note: The "It's over 9000!!!!" joke seems to still be funny, and DBZ has been over for how long?) 

Again, it's not my intent to control your material and do jokes that only I think are funny, but my concern is that I did not tell Fanime that this is an 18 plus panel, so if you start doing 18+ jokes and someone complains, you are jeopardizing our ability to come back next year. 

Well, you can mention dog droppings, that in itself is not so bad.  You can mention pedophiles and make fun of them in general, but joking about the nocturnal habits of pedo fan(man)boys is probably out of line (I don't want to hear it, and I'd imagine a lot of other people don't want to have that mental image etched in their imaginations either.)

It doesn't have to be Saturday afternoon clean... let's go for Prime Time levels.  If the FCC is okay with it, it's cool with me.

Yeah... don't joke about the Sharks.  Bad idea.  We love the Sharks... and their practice rink is not too far away, so don't be surprised if they are waiting for you outside with their hockey sticks this year.  ^_^;;;

We're (planning on being) back for another year of stand up comedy at Fanime!  

Sign up is currently CLOSED.  We have SEVEN confirmed performers for a 1 hour panel.  

Performers: Please have your set at or under SIX AND A HALF MINUTES. You must write, rehearse and TIME your performance!  This time limit will be strictly enforced.  (I will have one of those Looney Tunes canes...)  If you do not require 6.5 minutes, let me know and I can maybe give it out to someone else who wants your extra minutes.  Your set should be at least 5 minutes, though.    

I will not be able to accommodate any additional equipment requests.  You get a mic if the room is big enough.  If you want music or video, sorry, this is not possible.  I cannot afford to spend additional time on set up or breakdown as well as for equipment failure. (Or even of the distraction of you setting up and breaking down during someone else's set.  Sorry!)

Current count: 8 7 performers

Current confirmed:
havok rt (confirmed)
passLion (confirmed)
The Doctor (confirmed)
radpaolo (confirmed)
G-Force (confirmed)
Glitch (confirmed)
Aya Brea X (Me)

For more information on what goes down in this panel, check out last year's thread.  (Hey, whatever happened to that guy who taped all the sets last year?)  

One last thing for performers, please send me an e-mail with your confirmed time (remember 6.5 minutes or less!), your real name, badge name, phone number that I can reach you at the convention, what you want to be announced as and a tidbit about yourself so I can work it into your introduction.  I will need this by April 24, 2010.  I will in turn send you my phone number so you can contact me at con in case anything happens.  

IF I DO NOT GET AN E-MAIL FROM YOU WITH THIS INFORMATION BY MAY 1 2010 12:01AM , THEN YOU ARE NOT PERFORMING.

I just sent an e-mail or PM to the three people I am still missing this information from, so if you fail to respond to me via e-mail, you have NO EXCUSE if I drop you from the start list.   THERE WILL BE NO ADDITIONAL EXTENTIONS.  If some crazy emergency prevented you from checking here or your e-mail for two weeks, you need time to get your stuff together rather than worry about this show.  

UPDATE: 5/3/2010: Thank you for those who sent in confirmations.  Please see above for the updated performers list.  Good luck working on and practicing on your set!  Please expect an e-mail from me by the end of next weekend confirming the details and the start order of the performers.  If I have not already provided it to you, I will give you my at-con contact number at this next e-mail.

Tentative time is slated for Saturday night, 7pm.  I will confirm once the final time listing is out.  

Update 5/16/10 Final e-mail coming soon.  Just waiting on one person to confirm an e-mail address.  If you guys have any last minute questions please e-mail or PM me.  

Start list is confirmed, I'll give you the order in the last e-mail.  We should be good to go.  The panel times are not listed in the website... and doesn't look like it will be before the con, so please please double check the schedule book when you get it at registration, but as far as the last communique I got from Panels we are slated for Saturday, 7pm-8pm in Panels 3 (Salons IV, V, and VI in the Marriott).  If I notice a change at con I will text you all.  If I am notified earlier I will just e-mail you guys.

If you have any questions regarding this event, please feel free to send me a PM or an e-mail at [email protected]

Unfortunately, its just that, you have no idea what our fiscal picture is, nor the costs of putting on a con. AA was never a place for an artist to make money, it has been to provide a location to share your wares.

I have an idea of how much your hall rentals costs, enough to know that to try to break as a convention on AA table rentals alone is a ridiculous proposition. 

I have NEVER made that much money on AA when combined with table costs plus badge plus hotel.  It took me several years to scrape past break even.  I did not say I refuse to not make a profit, what I am saying is there is only so much I am willing to eat loss-wise to do this. 

It's happening.  I've just put off posting something since they only recently posted the panel request form.  More details to come, probably after I work on it this weekend.  I will start a new thread when I submit the panel.  Meanwhile, if you are interested in performing, PM me so I can get a headcount.  Pretty much the same format.  If I get more than 10 people I will consider a 2 hour panel, otherwise, a 1 hour panel it is. 

The price was $30 last year and only those that registered at con were allowed to select their tables, which numbered around 100.

The demand has been high for a number of years but in the end the $30 was not covering the cost of the tables and chairs let alone anywhere near the cost of the room.

FYI - AX is $100, SakuraCon is $100, Anime Boston $80 (8ft) and Sac Anime is $45(NOT including the $30 table that you can rent).

Even at $200 per table you could not hope to recoup the price of renting out the hall and hardware.  If the point was purely fiscal in terms of making money from AA ONLY CONSIDERING the table rental fee, you might as well shut it down and not have an artist alley and save many thousands of dollars.  It's something for the attendees to check out as well as the artists to do (and something for you guys to staff at).  We might not be the #1 reason people go to Fanime, but we're certainly one of the reasons.  I suppose even if tomorrow there's no more AA at Fanime people would still go to your con, but be less satisfied.  I have no idea what your fiscal picture looks like, but the 45 registration fees for attendees go to covering stuff, too.

I guess if my parents were still paying my bills, then the exponential price hikes every con is doing would not bother me, but there's only so much loss I could eat before it's just more sane to go to the con, sit in a corner and doodle with others who cannot afford this luxury.  When AX hit 100 I just gave it up and joined staff.  Where is this going to stop?  Until we're paying the same price as the dealers so you guys are a bit closer to recoping cost?  I'd rather just take that money and fly to Japan for the weekend.

Not the end of the world, mind you, but it's still kind of sad.

Wow, that is a pretty steep price hike for the per table price.  It also seems like we're getting less services as only the first 100 get to choose tables even when we are all paying twice the price of last year.  Is there any reason for the major price jump other than demand?

Did you guys notice that the Hotel link from the Fanime's Location page still takes you to 2009's closed reservation page?  Anyone who does not look here in the forums would not know how to reserve a hotel room. 

The HECK, they're already out of Hilton on Thursday night?  NARG!  WRRYYY!  I'll just e-mail about putting myself on a waitlist, then.

Glad you guys are already thinking up ideas for next year.  Honestly, I haven't even thought about next year yet at this point (right now, I'm working on a panel in 2 weeks for Yaoi Con).  I'm leaning towards cutting the panel back to 1 hour since we really struggled to fill the 2 hour time slot even with the bonus performer we picked up *at* the convention.  I don't think it's really anything negative to cut back to 1 hour, considering I did a nearly 25 minute set by myself to try to fill up as much time as possible XD   I have no problems doing just a 10 minute set!  It'll be a lot less stressful on me and probably the other performers who also feel like they have to fill up as much time as possible.

I'm definitely not interested in going the competition route, I really like the open mic format.  I have no prizes to offer, nor am I interested in finding sponsors.  I'm really just out to have a good time and some good laughs, and that's been my goal the last two years.  If it's prizes you're interested it, come on down to AX and have your try at AX LCS (which I see some of you did. *thumbs up*). 

I'm not going to go back to the 2 hour format unless we get at least 10 people committed, as in they have signed a contract in blood, or something equally serious.  Right now we have six people (assuming everyone comes back) probably 8-10 minute sets each to fill up the hour.  Seven if G's friend joins up, so that's 7-8 minute sets each.  I'm really happy with the group we had this year, so I'm not actively recruting for this coming up year unless someone drops out.  If any one of your friends are interested, let me know. 

I'm actually not sure how one gets art for the program guide.  If so, we could make something happen.  Though I don't think we have a problem finding an audience XD it would be nice to get some extra space in the program guide for us. 

More info on next year's panel to come... probably whenever they announce the hotels and people start seriously considering going to the convention.  Thanks!

Hi Everyone.  Time is now confirmed for Saturday night 9pm-11pm at Panel 3 (Marriott Salon IV, V, VI!!!) :3

Participants: I sent out an e-mail to you.  If you did not get this e-mail, please let me know via PM or e-mail.  Thanks!

We're now tentatively slotted for Saturday night (confirmed date) at 8pm-10pm (time tentative)  Don't know if this is suddenly good news for anyone else holding out from signing up, but I am hoping to get at least a couple more people signed up... if not, we'll still make do (but come on, join in the fun!)

To those already signed up, there are five of us.  This means I will need slightly longer than originally planned sets if you are up for this.  Individual times may vary, and please don't feel like you *have* to do a 10 or 20 minute set (though I'd like it very much if you did *wink wink*).  Whatever time you do decide, please let me know... I think last year most people had closer to eight to ten minutes, so come on, just a little longer than last year! XD This will also probably mean I will be a lot less strict about when I will cut you off, so everyone can feel less rushed (I will still make the cute warning signs as I promised, but you can let me know when you want me to raise it, or not at all.  I highly doubt we'll run out of time :3) 

I will try to at least do an audio recording of the entire show, no guarentees on audio quality, but I bought a pretty good voice recorder that worked out fine for me for the last time I did a stand up show at Yaoi Con, so I'm hoping I can post the audio clips somewhere, and maybe even burn them onto CD and mail them to you guys if not give you a copy at the con (probably Monday at my Artist Alley table.  I'll try to burn them at the con on Sunday night.)  You are VERY welcome to bring any other video recording equipment/lackey to record your own set or the entire show.  We can probably set them up in the back so they can stand up and/or set up tripods (though probably not in front of doors or in the aisle, fire hazard.) 

We're also most likely going to do some improv skits at the end.  I will take suggestions from the participants only (element of surprise, I guess :3)  Please PM or e-mail them to me.  We'll throw them in a hat and have audience members draw them out.  Ideally this should only be a wrap up part of the show as there is an entire other panel that's skits that existed before we came to be, so I don't want to look like we're ripping them off... so please work on those sets! *thumbs up*  Gambatte! 

I'll e-mail everyone signed up this weekend, so if you're on the fence about signing up, now is a good time! :D