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Jedi-Con 2010 – Day 2
4 April 2010 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday, April 4, 2010 *Workshop – Show – Super Jedi
After arriving back at the Maritim Hotel at 8:30 after only four hours of sleep, we prepared the booth, tired but full of energy – after all, every lightsaber needed to be in its place when the doors opened to visitors at 9:30 and lots of interested Star Wars fans wanted to learn about this elegant weapon.
Then we took more photos of the team and our new booth, which had already attracted a lot of attention on Saturday, and practiced once more the choreography we would present in the main show in the evening.
After a short team meeting, the first visitors began to trickle in.
So all morning long we not only explained how lightsabers worked and what the pros and cons of each one were, and sold raffle tickets, but also got to know new people, had interesting conversations or fought duels – sometimes with kids holding a lightsaber for the first time, sometimes against stormtroopers, dark Sith Lords or other team members.
At around 13:00 it was time for our workshop, which took place on the big stage in the Coruscant hall. After Tim and Andre had introduced the different sabers, it was down to business: the participants learned how the attack/block combat system worked, what to pay attention to in lightsaber combat and which techniques are helpful.
After the explanations, Andre and Tim brought volunteers on stage, who then put what had just been explained into practice together with the two Jedi Masters. So sabers were swung, and there was lots of laughing and fighting. The workshop went completely to our satisfaction, since the participants were in high spirits and had fun too.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team at the booth had their hands full satisfying the con visitors' thirst for knowledge. Just like the day before, we gradually went in small groups to the nearby airport terminal to find something to eat. Once all stomachs were full, the workshop was over and the team was back at the booth, refreshed and ready for action, we used the opportunity to go hunting for autographs and photos with the guest stars. Among others, we got to know Steve Sansweet, with whom we built a good rapport over the course of the con, so much so that he even agreed to announce us in the main show.
As the evening and with it our performance approached, we started making some technical preparations before we all headed backstage together at around 17:30 for the dress rehearsal in the dressing room, which was promptly declared the personal Saberproject dressing room, leaving our booth with a skeleton crew. After transforming into Sith and Jedi, we went behind the stage to rehearse our entire performance once. After some organizational confusion we ran through our program, and the odd mistake couldn't faze the team.
When the room opened to visitors at 20:00, the team sat nervous but confident in the front row, so they'd have a good view of Saskia and Jana's appearance as they announced us together with Steve Sansweet. Then our fan film „Battle on Hoth“ was shown on the big screen and thrilled the audience.
Next came the Super Jedi contest, in which three candidates had to compete against each other in various games. We were represented too: Tim took part for Saberproject and competed for the title together with artist Randy Martinez.
As part of this contest, we also performed our show fight. When the music started, Scoulcher entered the stage with his hood pulled deep over his face. Shortly afterwards, Shane appeared on stage with her purple lightsaber and held Scoulcher at bay for a while, until he struck his opponent down with a confident sword stroke. While Scoulcher screwed his double-bladed saber together for the next fight, Swaktor crept onto the stage to take on the dark Sith himself. After a fast exchange of blows, the two suddenly stood facing each other, silent and at a loss. Apparently neither really wanted to continue the fight – or didn't really know how. When the two had decided to swap their sabers with a somewhat botched throw, in which Swaktor almost dropped his saber, the fight continued until Swaktor met his death by Scoulcher's lightsaber.
Anatim stormed onto the stage, just in time to witness Swaktor's defeat. But before Anatim could attack Scoulcher, the latter unexpectedly got support from Pantaloon, who faced Anatim with two sabers. But Anatim got reinforcements too: DarshaJela rushed to help from the other side of the stage.
And so a double fight broke out, which Anatim and DarshaJela ultimately won – the light side seemed to triumph. But then the tide turned, because Bertuzzi, a dark Sith Lord by trade, faced the two Jedi with his double-bladed saber. After the two had managed to make Darth Bertuzzi sweat for a while, he managed to put Anatim out of action for a while. From then on DarshaJela had to face him alone. But Bertuzzi defeated DarshaJela with ease.
By now Anatim was back on his feet and attacked Bertuzzi with renewed energy. When he had disarmed him, the light side seemed to gain the upper hand again. But Bertuzzi grabbed DarshaJela's saber and attacked Anatim. After the two had fought a heated battle, Anatim hit Bertuzzi in the face with his saber (whether by accident or not remains open). After a brief stagger, the dark Sith Lord Bertuzzi decided to keep fighting after all and stand up to his opponent Anatim. Still, Anatim remained the stronger one and finally struck Bertuzzi down. Anatim triumphed, but then the tide turned again. Shadow-Chao appeared in the form of Darth Vader and defeated Anatim with just a few blows.
The dark side had won once again.
Despite a few minor mishaps, we were happy with our performance all in all, because the audience had clearly enjoyed our show and applauded enthusiastically. After a few more show acts and disciplines, it was official: Tim won the contest and was crowned Super Jedi. As a prize, the dark side of the Force in the form of Lord Vader and the Emperor, protected by a battalion of stormtroopers from the German Garrison, presented him with a new Xbox 360. We enthusiastically applauded our Super Jedi on his victory and knew that we could probably expect big crowds at our booth the next day.
Even though it was almost midnight after the show, our day was far from over. Right afterwards there was a big party in the hotel bar for all con visitors and exhibitors, and of course we wanted to show our faces there after our successful performance. And as it got later and later, Markus and Andre fell asleep on the sofas, Saskia danced exuberantly with Matthew Wood, and the others had drinks or chatted, the hours passed until we finally drove home at around 2:30, knowing full well that none of us would get more than two hours of sleep that night.
