Greetings
As I said in the first blog about this, the theme of the concvention was Masquarade.
As part of this, posters had been put up around the convention space. They were all riffs on actual operas, but with a Discworld spin and with some terrible puns.
it took me a moment to get the joke, due to the germanic script. Lohengrn turns into Loan shark
Another terrible pun. Cosi Fan Tuti becomes cosy fan heater
This one was my favourite, as it is an excellent re-rendering of the original poster...
It was nice to be at the con and not to be in the chaos costume room all the time. I could actually go to programme items and wander round the dealer's room more than a couple of times...
This did , however also lead to me being roped int.... invited to take part in two items. The first of thse was due to Teddy lertting slip that I'm a filker and, hence, can sing and have sung Gilbert and Sullivan. More on that later.
The other item was due to my liking for word-play.
One of the items on the programme was a game of "Just A Minute".
This followed the rules of the BBC Radio 4 game; A player is given a subject and must speak on it for a minute without deviating, hesitating or repeating anything except the words in the subject. The chair has discretion to allow the rpreating of small words, as long as speaker doesn't abuse the priviledge.
The other players can challenge for repetition, deviation or hesitation, or (if they choose) for a spurious reason that's funny. If the chair upholds the challenge they get a point and take over the subject. If the chair denys them the original palyer gets the point and has to carry on.
I had joined the audience for this item and it rapidly became apparent that there was a problem. The chair was present, but, unfortunately, all four planned players were unable to be there.
Consequently, the chair called for volunteers from the audience and, four foo.. volunteers duly took their places and played two rounds. This was very amusing, especially as one player was trying to game the system.
At this halfway point, the chair asked if anyone else wanted a go and three of the four immediately resigned. I was then persuaded to have a go.
It is remarkably diffiicult, as you find yourself constantly trying to self-edit and simultaniously both carry on and think of alternative words. It was rather like my attempts to leave voicemail ,or answerphone messages. I find myself trying to remember what I have just said , while still trying to form coherent sentances.
It was challenging, but still quite fun. I was quite good a challenges, and even managed to challenge one player for repetition twice- for the same word.
I came third and must have done something right, as the chair later said that I should volunteer again.
I will tell you about the other programme item later.
Until next time
Adieu
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