Sunday Night Live

The only issue was when SNL finished early they went directly into the auction/closing ceremony, instead of filling time for 20 minutes - which IMHO was not an unreasonable decision.

Ahhh!

I wondered why I had seemingly missed 3 items in the auction dispite actually arriving on time for the start.

The only issue was when SNL finished early they went directly into the auction/closing ceremony, instead of filling time for 20 minutes - which IMHO was not an unreasonable decision.

Ahhh!

I wondered why I had seemingly missed 3 items in the auction dispite actually arriving on time for the start.

We did actually fill time for as long as we could, but there's a limit to the amount of shit that Matt and I can talk... Well, at least, there's a limit to the amount of shit we can talk which will actually entertain an audience. We've had some feedback criticising the amount of utter waffle in the closing ceremony, which was largely due to us paddling hard to fill time at the end of SNL. As I said in another thread - we made a snap decision to carry on to the closing ceremony from SNL, rather than letting the audience out and having them come back in again ten minutes later. In retrospect, it was the wrong decision, and the feedback to that effect is quite correct. We live and learn - it won't happen again.

SNL, the charity auction and closing ceremony all deserved the audience and running time they got, but the finishing time really put a squeeze on the End of Con Party.  Many people needed to go and eat, change outfits and regroup after such a long period of being unable to (which for several was extended by pre-SNL queuing and attending some of the rather good events scheduled in the late afternoon), and I feel that the party had only really got going for less than an hour when the announcement was made that the night was over.  The schedule always said that it was to end at midnight, but I doubt I was the only one who was hoping there'd be some flexibility there!

For me this is barely a gripe at all, as the previous nights were superb, I got to hear Chococat sing and I stayed up past 3am anyway.  Yet if I had been unable to easily decide whether to stay on-site for the Sunday night, knowing how brief the final party was going to be may have persuaded me to leave around 10 or 11pm (saving money on accommodation and allowing for work or a lie-in), rather than the next day.

Rob, it is a credit to your waffling that people stayed in their seats!  Consider being more rubbish next time

[Team Rocket]

Ayacon's SNL was quite possibly the BEST omake I have ever witnessed. I was seriously blown away. There have been some negative comments floating around for various reasons, but I think the constuctive criticism for the most part has been well considered and gentle.
I just wanted to give a few mentions:
Team Rocket: YOU GUYS ROCK. Awesome costumes, brilliant execution. Great way to open and I am bummed that I missed you guys STEALAN PIKACHUS in the auction XD I wish I'd seen that too!
Excalibur and Eruka: OH MY WORD. Very random and VERY epic! The Eruka's poi was brilliant, I am always impressed by anyone who can do such things, and Excalibur not only had a PERFECT costume, but also your singing voice was incredible!!!! You made us laugh and you made us stare in awe, and huge congrats for both.
Sephirayne: MAD POI SKILLZ. Well done Em, you did an amazing job ^^
FMA magic show: This was such an original idea, and SO entertaining, I was completely impressed!
Sailors Uranus and Neptune: Me and my friend SaziSquarePeg were VERY excited to hear some Rent in the omake (Sazi is a big fan of that musical) and we thought you acted it very well ^^ What recording was it from? Its defo not the movie version...
All the singing acts: To sing live is a very daunting task in and of itself, and you all did brilliantly. The girl with the green hair - oh my GOD your voice is powerful, and although I didn't know the song I loved it and was chuffed to hear someone singing in Japanese. Miku, you may have forgotton the lyrics for one tiny moment, and singing without a backing track is very difficult, but I thought you handled it with aplomb and you hit some seriously awesome notes up there girl! Never stop singing no matter what, you're very talented and very brave. To go up on your own, even after your friend dropped out, well...you deserve a medal. Silver and Gunstar - me and Sazi squee'd with delight that you did Loathing which is a really hard song to sing no matter how trained you are! I thought you did really well, and although it wasn't anime-related, I giggled because it was convention related, a very nice touch ^^ You have lovely voices! =D
ShiniKy: HOLY SHIT. You were so BRAVE and SO GODDAMN SEXY!!! When you told me that you were going to do a burlesque dance, I was like "O.O Now I HAVE to go to the omake, come hell or high water!" XD You were awesome, and the Lucky Star parody part made me lol HARD! Well done chick, you're a hottie ^___^
Guitar guy: Unfortunately I hadn't heard of the songs you were doing, but I was very impressed that you had the nerve to go out there and play on your own and I thought you did really well!
Stand-up guy: As other people have said, next time try to speak a little slower, but I can understand how nervous you were, and I thought you were very brave. To have your first go at live comedy in front of so many people is a crazy thing to do lol but you did well, especially since you were dressed as a girl as well XD
Tom Lehrer Memorial Singers: You guys are AMAZING!!!! As a passing fan of Mr Lehrer, I was delighted to hear your parody of Poisoning Pigeons In The Park, and both times I have seen you you have made me laugh SO HARD with your clever lyrics and funny asides! I love you guys so much, and hope to hear more from you next convention!! <3
Team Giblets: What is there left to say about you lot. I laughed so hard I cried happy tears. Every single part of your skit, from the Rufus entrance to the video, to the Pornatorium was COMEDIC GENIUS. I didn't think you could make me laugh harder than I did during Shonen Jump Syndrome, but you did it and now I have to get to the difficult task of sewing my sides back together. I really hope you can come to Fuyu so that I can give you all a big hug. And I'm sure the full standing ovation, plus the tender hug from MM were glowing moments for you ^^ Be proud of yourselves, you funny bastards. XD

Also, may I say that Mark and Matt Mercer did a FANTASTIC job of hosting the event. Often if there is a member of staff hosting alongside a con guest, the guest gets the laughs while the staff guy sets them up, but Mark is so talented; both of them worked really well together and were hilariously funny, especially with the dance at the end XD That just topped it off for me, I almost laughed to the point of needing the loo.
All in all the SNL was brilliant, and the venue was just perfect.

Also, the people on Pictochat did not bother me; everyone is going to have different opinions of things and some people like to be vocal about said opinions regardless of how that will make the performers feel. I'd much prefer them to being writing about it quietly where they aren't hurting anyone rather than heckling. Also, bear in mind that to make observations about the performers, one has to actually WATCH the performance, so they obviously were watching at least some of the time. The person on their laptop took it a bit far though; I think that is pretty disrespectful, unless they were livestreaming the event to someone via webcam, or recording the event.

SNL, the charity auction and closing ceremony all deserved the audience and running time they got, but the finishing time really put a squeeze on the End of Con Party.  Many people needed to go and eat, change outfits and regroup after such a long period of being unable to (which for several was extended by pre-SNL queuing and attending some of the rather good events scheduled in the late afternoon), and I feel that the party had only really got going for less than an hour when the announcement was made that the night was over.  The schedule always said that it was to end at midnight, but I doubt I was the only one who was hoping there'd be some flexibility there!

For me this is barely a gripe at all, as the previous nights were superb, I got to hear Chococat sing and I stayed up past 3am anyway.  Yet if I had been unable to easily decide whether to stay on-site for the Sunday night, knowing how brief the final party was going to be may have persuaded me to leave around 10 or 11pm (saving money on accommodation and allowing for work or a lie-in), rather than the next day.

Rob, it is a credit to your waffling that people stayed in their seats!  Consider being more rubbish next time

Yeah, it did kind of mess up the plans for the end-of-con party. Barry and I got set up early, then kicked off the end-of-con party at 8... and for a while we just played music we liked and messed around because there was literally no-one there XD Kudos to the dude with the awesome beard who came in and started dancing on his own though (the Polysics fan)!
I was originally meant to start singing at 9pm, but there was about 10 people in the room, so we kept pushing the time back by 15 minutes until I finally went onstage at 10.15pm... meaning that once I'd finished there was only 45 minutes or so for Nia to DJ! The plan had originally been for us to have an hour's DJ slot each. So yeah, it did kind of all get compressed rather badly!! And I'm pretty sure we had to finish at midnight because we only had the Union for Sunday, and any later than midnight would obviously have been Monday... so we weren't allowed to finish any later. In fact we actually had to drop one of the final songs out of the playlist because one of the security guys came over to ask us to make sure to finish at midnight exactly so that we didn't get in trouble with the uni 
So yeah, I agree that a gap between the closing ceremony and final events and the party would be nice in future

Oh yeah, and I'm really glad you enjoyed my singing set

SNL was one of the events that I knew I HAD to go to during Aya, so I got there early~ The drumming at the beginning was awesome, and it was funny when there was an awkward silence at the end for about 5 minutes - in truth, I had no idea if they were finished or not lol XDD

My favourites during the SNL were :

Team Rocket - You guys were AWESOME. I love Team Rocket, and The Jessie wig... all I can say is, WOW.

Emichoco's performance as Death/Der Tod from "Elisabeth - Ai to Shi no Rondo" had me squeeing like the little Takarazuka fangirl I am XD I was pretty much miming along to the song lol~ I LOVED it! *sings* ~Dokomademo oikakete yukou, Ai to Shi no... Rondoooo~ xD

Other favourites were the FMA magic show, and of course, TEAM GIBLETS. You guys... you guys are pure GENIUS. I thought I was about to pass out from the laughter. It made my day XDD

Well done to everyone who performed~ you have to be brave to put on a performance in front of hundreds of people!

As for the whole Pictochat thing, I thought it was pretty rude and immature to be slagging off performances WHILE YOU WERE WATCHING THEM. If you didn't like a certain performance, who cares? SNL is meant to be performances of all different kinds, so give them a chance! And to all you people who thought there was "too much singing", I don't agree! I had an amazing time at SNL, and I won't let people who slag everything off ruin it for me~