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Masquerade Costume Contest
DragonCon 1999 Best in Show
Winner's Interview
The Sith Who Shagged Me
1. Where did you get the idea for "The Sith Who Shagged Me"?
Well, we originally planned to do a live-action recreation of The Simpsons' "Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Wanna Get Off!" or "Planet Of The Apes: The Musical" as a tribute to our hero, the late comedian Phil Hartman. But after we all saw Austin Powers 2, we just couldn't resist. We were all big fans of the first movie and were planning on making the villain's costumes and just walk around the con Friday night. One night, Joe (Queen Amidala) and I (Dr. Evil) were joking around and he said "Wipe them out...(and then in a Dr. Evil voice)...ALL OF THEM!"
Of course we both died laughing and said "We gotta do that!" and basically wrote the entire skit right there that night.
The problem was that we only had two weeks before the con to get all the costumes together. We liked the Apes skit, but we could clearly see that this was definitely going to play to the crowd more. And it was more timely also. Since both movies are at peak popularity right now, we couldn't really do the skit later and be as effective. So, we decided to ditch Apes and go ahead with it. We're definitely glad we did. Hehehehe...
2. How long did it take, how long did you work on it?
Well, it took two long weeks of exhaustive work and sleepless nights by everyone involved. We wrote the script, rehearsed onstage at a local park, choreographed the thing. Then it was on to making the costumes. We just BARELY got everything done in time. I was still sewing Fat Bastard's costume at 5:30 Wednesday morning...a half hour before our van left the driveway! As a matter of fact, Joe made his Queen Amidala headpiece in the hotel room Friday night! Hahaha! Talk about pressure!
3. Did you expect to win?
Absolutely not! This was our very first DragonCon, so we had no idea what to expect. We had heard stories that this was the big league of costuming and that people who enter literally spend years on their costumes. Once we got backstage, we were so impressed by the unbelievable stuff that some of the contestants had done. We were like, "Whelp, there's no way we're winning anything. But at least we'll be able to make a couple people laugh." And that's all we set out to do.
4. What was winning like?
OH MY GOD! When they announced us as the winners, we were absolutely floored! We've won many costume contests before, at much smaller conventions. But we had NEVER expected to see anything like this! Really, all we did was aim to entertain, we didn't expect to win anything. When they led us out of the ballroom and we saw the SEA of people with cameras, I was totally speechless! I felt like I was at the Oscars or something! LOL. But, I had to stay in character and not let it interfere with my "taking over the world."
5. Who played who?
Okay...
Darth Sidious / Dr. Evil - Steve DeVore
Austin Powers - Rob DeVore (yeah, we're brothers)
Drag Queen Amidala - Joe Neuburger
Darth Maul - Brad Allen
Grand Moff Number Two - Bernie Fallon
and last but CERTAINLY not least...
Fat Bastard - Kevin Reid
6. How did you guys get together?
We started out going to local Star Trek conventions in Florida. Kevin Reid (Fat Bastard) and I originally started the group. We were disillusioned with Trek fandom and decided to form our own group named SCI-CO.
We vowed to go to Trek cons and do anything BUT Star Trek. So, for three years, we went to every local "Vulkon" and won the costume contest everytime we entered, doing everything BUT Star Trek. After a while, it got old, and some of the Star Trek fans just weren't getting it anyway. I mean...we'd do an Indiana Jones skit with a great comedic punchline...and we'd have people coming up to us asking, "What episode of Star Trek are you guys supposed to be from?" It was very frustrating! All in all, SCI-CO is just a group of Star Trek refugees. LOL! So, you can imagine that, for us, DragonCon was a breath of fresh air!
7. Anything closing comments?
Well, I just wanna say that we were so impressed with DragonCon and all the people who attended. We'll DEFINITELY be there next year, with a bigger and bolder costume contest skit. Heck, we've got a YEAR to work on it, instead of two weeks! LOL!
And I also wanna thank everyone who complimented us on our costumes and our skit, you guys really made the con for us. Send us pics! LOL! And just thanks again to everyone who saw the skit and enjoyed it. Ya know....we aim to please.
