On Saturday July 6, 2013 13 artists descended upon an unsuspecting crowd at Anime Expo's Live Programming 1 room for an event that would change a few people's opinion of the entire convention in a show that was unlike anything Anime Expo had ever experienced before. The show was called MYTH: Legends of Burlesque & Magic, and it was nothing short of epic.
Produced by myself (William Draven) Myth took its audience on a tour-de-force of erotic mystery. Pulling in artists from as far away as London England, Myth had it all. Tongue in cheek comedy, mystery, sex appeal, danger, magic, dance, and mind reading. Every act had a different style, every act had a different flavor, and no two acts were the same! The eclectic group of talent insured that there was something for everyone in the audience.
Myth broke all traditional boundaries for a show of its kind at Anime Expo. For the first time in Anime Expo's 20+ year existence, a privately produced, previously classified as a fan panel, show was lifted to a ticketed main event status. The pressure to not only perform but to perform well was immense because any failure from show content, to production problems would mean that there was a strong possibility that this opportunity wouldn't be given again. Myth also took on another challenge in the form of a convention first. This would be the first year that a magic show would be 18 and over for attendance, and it would be ticketed. At the cost of 25$ a head, on an unproven show format, the convention was taking a risk. The question on my mind was: "Would this show even be well received?" At a cost greater than that of a movie ticket, there is a good chance that we may play to a very small house where as before in years prior, my magic shows played to houses the size of 700+ people.
Flyers were made, show art was created, and the efforts to virally spread the word of the show began months in advance. I knew if we stood a chance of having a solid turn out then we needed to get the word out to as many people as possible, as soon as possible. Unlike other shows at Anime Expo I had a slight advantage with Myth. My show didn't require you to have a convention pass. You could just buy a ticket to see my show, and attend my show only. The idea was the convention could use my show to bring outside sales to itself from a demographic who normally wouldn't give the convention a second glance. By the end of the first week we had only sold 70 tickets. Considering the house seated 2,100 people we had a long way to go but it was promising!
As the convention approached I was given more bad news. One of my headliners, Farrell Dillon, was offered a gig out of state and wouldn't be able to make my show. I have a strong understanding with all my performers. Money talks. This is show business and if you get offered a gig that pays your bills better than what I can (if I can even offer you any pay) then you take that gig. No hard feelings. And I know this client is a huge one for Farrell so what could I do? I had already advertised him in the press release, his name and photo is on all of our media, so I asked him to film a short video for me, which he was more than glad to do, and I stuck that video in his slot for the show. The audience seemed to love it.
By Saturday morning, the day of the show, we had sold over 880 tickets to Myth and obtained the attention of a half dozen media or press agencies. Since Anime Expo offered tickets to see my show as a staff perk for working the convention we were also well attended by the convention staff which only boosted our house numbers as well. All in all I want to say that we had probably close to 1,300 people in our audience. With the show boasting an impressive 19 acts split between 13 performers, and having a run time just shy of three hours I'm impressed to report that we also maintained a 100% audience retention rate through the entire program. I'm not going to lie... as of the time I am writing this report it is four days post show and I'm still riding on a performance high. It was spectacular!
One of the things that made this show so impactfull to me, as a performer, is just how receptive the audience was. They loved us. The energy they gave out made it feel like we were working in a stadium filled with people. Even though they heckled a bit none of it came as malicious or negative. They were just receptive, and responsive, and you could see that making the performers want to work that much harder to give them a good show! From the first crack of the whip to the last bow everything just felt right. Some of the cast members even stood around looking at each other afterwords with a feeling of "is that it? Do we really have to leave and go home now?" We had achieved such a synergy working together, many for the first time, that it honestly felt like we should be loading up a tour bus and making the jump to the next town.
Producing Myth wasn't all roses either, there were some challenges. As with all show productions we had our hiccups along the way but nothing stopped us from giving this anime convention the best damned show of their lives. I am proud to call each of my thirteen performers a friend, and I am honored to have worked with the eight production crew mates who made it all possible. I tend to say this a lot when making my post show comments, but this time I earnestly mean it. If you for what ever reason missed this show- you missed out. This cast bleed themselves dry on stage. They gave it all, and left nothing in the wings. I'm both anxious and excited to see what happens next year because rest assured; Myth Will Be Back!
Cast:
Vixen DeVille
Rynie Das Wreckless
Dyno Staats
Jeff Favor
Farrell Dillon
Paul Draper
William Draven
Nova Snape
Mila Starfyre
Mia Morte
Rev. Vincent Wolf
Brother Daniel the Demented
Stella Chuu
Nathaan Phan
Stage Kitten: Melanie Delia
Produced by myself (William Draven) Myth took its audience on a tour-de-force of erotic mystery. Pulling in artists from as far away as London England, Myth had it all. Tongue in cheek comedy, mystery, sex appeal, danger, magic, dance, and mind reading. Every act had a different style, every act had a different flavor, and no two acts were the same! The eclectic group of talent insured that there was something for everyone in the audience.
Myth broke all traditional boundaries for a show of its kind at Anime Expo. For the first time in Anime Expo's 20+ year existence, a privately produced, previously classified as a fan panel, show was lifted to a ticketed main event status. The pressure to not only perform but to perform well was immense because any failure from show content, to production problems would mean that there was a strong possibility that this opportunity wouldn't be given again. Myth also took on another challenge in the form of a convention first. This would be the first year that a magic show would be 18 and over for attendance, and it would be ticketed. At the cost of 25$ a head, on an unproven show format, the convention was taking a risk. The question on my mind was: "Would this show even be well received?" At a cost greater than that of a movie ticket, there is a good chance that we may play to a very small house where as before in years prior, my magic shows played to houses the size of 700+ people.
Flyers were made, show art was created, and the efforts to virally spread the word of the show began months in advance. I knew if we stood a chance of having a solid turn out then we needed to get the word out to as many people as possible, as soon as possible. Unlike other shows at Anime Expo I had a slight advantage with Myth. My show didn't require you to have a convention pass. You could just buy a ticket to see my show, and attend my show only. The idea was the convention could use my show to bring outside sales to itself from a demographic who normally wouldn't give the convention a second glance. By the end of the first week we had only sold 70 tickets. Considering the house seated 2,100 people we had a long way to go but it was promising!
As the convention approached I was given more bad news. One of my headliners, Farrell Dillon, was offered a gig out of state and wouldn't be able to make my show. I have a strong understanding with all my performers. Money talks. This is show business and if you get offered a gig that pays your bills better than what I can (if I can even offer you any pay) then you take that gig. No hard feelings. And I know this client is a huge one for Farrell so what could I do? I had already advertised him in the press release, his name and photo is on all of our media, so I asked him to film a short video for me, which he was more than glad to do, and I stuck that video in his slot for the show. The audience seemed to love it.
By Saturday morning, the day of the show, we had sold over 880 tickets to Myth and obtained the attention of a half dozen media or press agencies. Since Anime Expo offered tickets to see my show as a staff perk for working the convention we were also well attended by the convention staff which only boosted our house numbers as well. All in all I want to say that we had probably close to 1,300 people in our audience. With the show boasting an impressive 19 acts split between 13 performers, and having a run time just shy of three hours I'm impressed to report that we also maintained a 100% audience retention rate through the entire program. I'm not going to lie... as of the time I am writing this report it is four days post show and I'm still riding on a performance high. It was spectacular!
One of the things that made this show so impactfull to me, as a performer, is just how receptive the audience was. They loved us. The energy they gave out made it feel like we were working in a stadium filled with people. Even though they heckled a bit none of it came as malicious or negative. They were just receptive, and responsive, and you could see that making the performers want to work that much harder to give them a good show! From the first crack of the whip to the last bow everything just felt right. Some of the cast members even stood around looking at each other afterwords with a feeling of "is that it? Do we really have to leave and go home now?" We had achieved such a synergy working together, many for the first time, that it honestly felt like we should be loading up a tour bus and making the jump to the next town.
Producing Myth wasn't all roses either, there were some challenges. As with all show productions we had our hiccups along the way but nothing stopped us from giving this anime convention the best damned show of their lives. I am proud to call each of my thirteen performers a friend, and I am honored to have worked with the eight production crew mates who made it all possible. I tend to say this a lot when making my post show comments, but this time I earnestly mean it. If you for what ever reason missed this show- you missed out. This cast bleed themselves dry on stage. They gave it all, and left nothing in the wings. I'm both anxious and excited to see what happens next year because rest assured; Myth Will Be Back!
Cast:
Vixen DeVille
Rynie Das Wreckless
Dyno Staats
Jeff Favor
Farrell Dillon
Paul Draper
William Draven
Nova Snape
Mila Starfyre
Mia Morte
Rev. Vincent Wolf
Brother Daniel the Demented
Stella Chuu
Nathaan Phan
Stage Kitten: Melanie Delia
