Joel, moi, Jonah and Emily. I should have taken my hat off.
Not too much to tell from the recent MST3Kon in the historic Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, PA., except that a good time appeared to be had by all.
Three season-13 eps were shown: The Batwoman, Demon Squad and Munchie.
It had been a while since I had watched an ep on a big screen with a full theater, and the experience was a reminder of how much fun that is.
There were a few clunkers, maybe 10 percent of the riffs, and I had the sense that, somewhere back stage, somebody was taking notes of which ones those were, because this was the first time they’d heard the response from an actual audience. But, by my rough estimate, 90 percent of the riffs got solid laughs and I found myself laughing quite a bit.
I should also note that Paul and Storm performed and were terrific.
Joel and Jonah and Emily discussed the idea (to be implemented after the writers/actors strike, with which the entire ensemble is participating) of uploading comedy bits to TikTok. I couldn’t quite tell if this was a genuine plan, a trial balloon or just comedy. Time will tell I guess.
Joel did say that, after the strikes, he expects there will be a Kickstarter for season 14. More information should be forthcoming, eventually. They put up a QR code that would take you to a sign-up form so that you would be contacted when there was any MST3K news. But I don’t really have the tech ability to post that here. Maybe somebody here can post in the comments.
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Sounds like you Pennsylvanians got lucky, Sampo, hats and all.
Are we sure that’s not really Jack Perkins in that photo?
Is Kickstarter really necessary anymore? Now that the Gizmoplex is up and running, they can collect funds through that. Cut out the middleman and pass the savings onto us.
Thanks for the report. I wasn’t able to get out there on Sunday, sue to circumstances beyond my control. I was there on Saturday, though. I was there for showings of “The Blob”, “The Wolf Man”, “Bride of Frankenstein” and “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein”. And, at the street fair, I couldn’t help myself and bought a “Partridge Family” paperback from a vendor. (Viewers of MJ’s show will get that.)
They’ve been extremely successful on Kickstarter and there are good reasons to stick with what works. Kickstarter’s also got a larger userbase than Gizmoplex; everybody who would contribute to a season 14 campaign on Gizmoplex would also be likely to contribute to one on Kickstarter, but not the other way around. And Kickstarter brings its own promotion tools — it advertises popular campaigns, “campaigns you might be interested in”, etc.
All that said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see something of a hybrid approach, gathering funds from multiple sources. My recollection is that the last campaign tracked Kickstarter funding but also funding from other sites (Backerkit, I think?). So it’s plausible they could set a relatively low, easy-to-meet Kickstarter goal, and then include contributions on other sites like the Gizmoplex in their stretch goal calculations.
I know I’m late on this, but I flew all the way from Florida to be a part of Blobfest/MST3Kon. And it was SO much fun, all three days! The first two were dedicated to The Blob, which was filmed in and around Phoenixville. There was one scene where the blob invades the Colonial Theater and the terrified audience members run out screaming in terror. They recreate it every year, and I got to be a part of that the first night. :) The second day was dedicated to showings of classic horror films, starting with the 1958 version of The Blob (the run-out scene got a HUGE response), then the Wolf Man, Bride of Frankenstein, and Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (there were a couple more but I left after that). And on Sunday was MST3Kon, which Sampo described. I didn’t spring for the upgraded ticket, which would have allowed me to sit in the same theater as Joel/Jonah/Emily and get my picture taken, but my theater could watch their Q&A on screen along with the movies. The best part was when Jonah left his theater and ran into ours. It was during Munchie right when Jonah Heston was freaking out at the sight of the puppet and started screaming “NO!”. He ran down the aisle in our theater, pounded the stage, and did the same thing for us live! And afterwards he took time out from posing for pictures with the people who paid extra in the other theater to talk to some of the people coming out of our theater and pose for pictures with them. I was really impressed with that – it was a nice thing to do. Overall, it was great!