The Orlando Nerd Fest closing party rocked The Geek Easy.

Posted on by Thor

The fifth day of the Orlando Nerd Fest was an after party held at The Geek Easy in the back of A Comic Shop (114 S Semoran Blvd #6, Winter Park, FL). Early in the day, the crowd was pretty thin, but it grew more crowded even as the sketch progressed. As I understand it, a bus transported Nerds over from the Orlando Airport Mariott. Wendy Wallenburg was there with Brian Minnich, the photographer she represents. Several girls in costume entered the bar, but they quickly disappeared, perhaps feeling over dressed for the occasion. A guy in a lab coat was the only other person on the edge of being costumed.

As the band performed on stage, guys gathered on the dance floor. One dance involved marching in a circle and the moves seemed as well rehearsed as the duck dance at a wedding reception. Wendy was busy with her social media as she sat across the room in the only cushy comfy chair. I recognized the performers from a Nerd Festival I had covered last year.  They performed an edgy nerd rap that had the crowd raising their hands in the air. I’m sure the party heated up after dark, but with one sketch done, I decided to call it a day. That was a wrap for this year’s Nerd Fest for me. Next year I should arrange to sketch people in costume. The talent involved in putting together some of those costumes is astounding.

Claire and the Potatoes rock Nerd Fest.

Posted on by Thor

On a third sketching excursion to the Orlando Airport Marriott (7499 Augusta National Dr, Orlando, Fl), I bumped into Bethany Taylor Myers at the entrance. She is an exceptional visual artist that I met at Parker Sketch‘s monthly Artist critique. At the last critique I went to, Bethany was showing a lonely suburban landscape that reminded me of an Edward Hopper painting. She was asking a straightforward question about perspective and for once I had straight forward answers. Anyway, Bethany informed me that her husband, Jim Myers was performing. He is the drummer for Claire and the Potatoes.

I had seen the band perform once before at Lake Eola for Earth Day. I knew I was about to see 2 fun performance. Leslie Rising is the lead singer. I had to wonder why her name isn’t Claire. Marc With a C was in the foreground of my sketch and Guy Larmay was on Bass. The hip pop music was fun, with a distinct neurotic edge. My favorite song was about how the band had bills to pay and they wouldn’t be going on a tour to your home town. They did a great job of introducing the tongue in cheek song as a public service announcement.

I managed to get so close to the stage by sitting in an area set aside for handicapped nerds. I consider my need to get a sketch a sort of handicap. Luckily I didn’t get in anyone’s way. The crowd went wild for the Potatoes. As always, the set was over all too quick. This is a quirky fun local band. If you ever have a chance to see them then seize the opportunity.

Nerd Fest was a five day music marathon.

Posted on by Thor

I returned to the Orlando Airport Marriott several times between August 7th and 11th to sketch different acts. On this day I caught Eyeshine. Their leader has been a Power Ranger, a Street Fighter, and was even
Vash the Stampede from Trigun.  Eyeshine has been tearing the roof off of performance halls since 2004
and have 10 albums. They are
also well known for having a lot of really cool music videos on their YouTube channel where you can also watch a documentary series following them on their journey as an unsigned band. Their leader is the incredibly talented Johnny Yong Bosch. He agreed not only
to perform for every at Orlando Nerd Fest but also agreed to do some
very special things for you, his fans. He set up a special VIP
Meet and Greet package. After the performance, Eyeshine set up outside the ballroom to sign CDs and offer photo ops. The line was incredibly long.

Nerd Fest had stages at opposite ends of the ballroom. While Eyeshine performed, the next band was loading in and setting up on the opposite stage. This way, performances could happen almost back to back. There was also a third much smaller stage set up in the arcade room for solo acoustic acts. That stage sadly seldom had an audience. At one point in Eyeshine’s performance, three Power Rangers joined the crowd in their primary colored hero’s spandex outfits. They took photos and cheered with everyone else.  Well, it is actually hard to verify if they cheered since their mouths were covered with their Spiderman like masks.

Nerd Fest is a Mecca for Nerds.

Posted on by Thor

Orlando Nerd Fest was a five day event held at the Orlando Airport Marriott (7499 Augusta National Dr, Orlando, Fl) from August 7th to August 17th.. It is apparently the biggest and best annual multi-day nerd party! It is part music festival, part family reunion, and all fun! Dr. Vern one of Orlando Nerd Fest’s founders, issued me a press pass for the entire event. There was free parking in an empty field behind the hotel. The dirt road had a large mud puddle at one point. I’m glad I didn’t part near that puddle, because cars that did got a serious splattering.

 When I got to the entrance, I met Wendy Wallenburg and Brian Minnich, the photographer she represents. Like me Brian has an eye for anything out of the ordinary. Nerd Fest offered that in spades. People casually wandered the hotel halls in cosplay costumes. They sat on the floor playing some sort of role play card game. With so many sketch opportunities I felt a bit overwhelmed. I just needed to start a sketch and accept that I couldn’t see it all at once.

Wendy became obsessed with winning the Ms. Pack Man arcade game. Since she was so focused, I decided to sketch the game in progress. Periodically guys would come over to coach. One guy stepped in to show her how it is done and he got a much higher score and dared her to beat it. That caused her to become even more obsessed. The Star Trek pin ball machine to her right broke down and the vendor pried it open to get at all the servos and electrical guts of the machine. In about a half hour he had it back up and running. I tried my hand at playing Ms. Pac Man once Wendy gave up. I would flick the joy stick hard left or hard right but  my reflexes just weren’t quick enough. It’s an infuriating game and it was game over all too soon. I felt like a bit of an outsider at Nerd Fest, but I suppose any true nerd would feel that way.