Ok, so here goes my long story about one of my BEST DAYS EVER. If youre not much for reading or just cant handle the suspense, jump to the end for a TL;DR. xD 2 years ago, Cari, Andre, and I went to AWA as the Warner Siblings from Animaniacs, which is one of my all-time favorite cartoon shows. As most of my family members know, I was pretty obsessed with it when I was younger (~14 yrs old). It was also around that time (1994 and shortly before) that I decided I wanted to be a voice actor (VA). Cari and I would listen for them in all of the shows they voiced for, and we got very good -perhaps annoyingly so- at picking them out. :p But it was like trying to recognize a family member; I thought of them all as my friends, and would daydream about someday meeting them. (This was long before I had any inkling what a convention was, and also well before most cons really existed.) Well, turns out Momocon (an anime/video game/nerd convention) somehow managed to book all three of the main VAs from Animaniacs: Rob Paulsen (Yakko), Jess Harnell (Wakko), and Tress MacNeille (Dot). [They also got Maurice LaMarche (the Brain etc etc etc) and Randy Rogel (the songwriter for Animaniacs etc etc etc) Love them too!]. This is the first time the three of them have been together at one event since Animaniacs went off. O_O So of course we had to wear our Siblings cosplay again! Because conventions are awesome, we even planned to go meet the VAs and get their autographs. Just the thought of being able to see them all in person, have them talk to me even just for a second, I mean... wow. Id be meeting my heroes. So cool!! To save time on Saturday, we decided to just wear our costumes to the autograph session because there was an Animaniacs Q&A session right after and we wanted to have them on for that. We got in line for autographs, about 10th in line, and waited for the trio to come in for the session. We had our heads off, holding them, but still wore the clothing portion of our costumes; hard to talk with those things on. LOL What happened next kinda went fast and blew my mind, so excuse me if I stop making sense now. xD In came Rob, Jess, and Tress. I believe it was Jess who saw Cari/Dot first, and poked Tress; she saw Cari and smiled and waved. I know Rob caught my eye and saw us and smiled and waved, too. We moved up a little in line and then Jess saw me/Wakko. He beamed a huge smile and waved, too. Before I knew it, it was our turn to go walk up to the VAs. We met Rob first, and he was awesome. I couldnt really speak, so Cari kinda flustered on about how much we loved his work and his podcast and have followed him since we were young. He signed our picture, thanked us sooo much, telling us how awesome we were. He liked our costumes and was impressed that we made them. ^^ Next we met with Tress. OHMYGOSHYOUGUYS!!! Tress MacNeille!!! You ALL know Tress. I know she doesnt do many conventions, plus shes HUGE in the VA world; one of the best, most prolific.. Ahh!! She was super-super-sweet, and was also very impressed with our costumes. I really cant remember if I said anything to her, or what she was saying to us. I do remember a comment from her about how much she loved Yakkos pants; she said they were perfect! LMAO Thats credit for Cari - she found the perfect material and did a kick-ass sewing job. xD She signed our picture, too, and we moved on to Jess. Except before we could step over to his table, he came out from behind it and said, Tress! Rob! We HAVE to get a picture with these guys!! Ermahgerd you gers!!!! I was NOT expecting that at all! I mean, I dreamed of it of course, but .. wow! THEY wanted a picture of US! xD The super-duper-amazing-awesome Handler for Tress took a pic for us (1st pic below): Tress MacNeille, Cari, Rob Paulsen, Andre, Jess Harnell, and me. All of the Momocon staffers in the area and a couple of the Handlers got in to snap some shots, too, all of them saying, This is my childhood right here! Thank you guys sooo much!! I got to hug Jess and sputter out how awesome he was as he was gushed at me for being awesome, too. And then I got to hug Rob; I said, Oh man, I think Im going to cry! And he said - in his awesome, loving voice, Aww, hone~y! *melt!!* and hugged me again!! And THEN I got around and Tress gave me a hug, too. Oh my gosh, it was awesome.. and I know I was just squealing and actin a fool, but I cant even express in words what this meant to me. Q.Q Sooo, we went back over to Jesss table, and he said, Dude that is so awesome - I am so totally hanging this picture in my house. O____O Were going to be in Jess Harnells house!!1! He signed our picture (me thanking him non-stop and telling him how incredibly awesome he just made my day). Then he said, Hey... are you guys going to come to our Animaniacs Q&A later? Pssh, of course we are. Would you guys come up on stage with us for a photo-op? Ill be all, Hey everybody. We have a surprise, so you might wanna get your phones out and your cameras on. Then you guys come up and we can pose together! OH. MY. GLOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just a couple days before, I had told Cari that my fantasy would be that theyd see us in our costumes and ask us up on stage. Haha, so funny, wouldnt you just die? And then Jess suggests my wildest dream?!?! I know I made some noises Im not proud of, but needless to say we agreed. He told us to keep it a secret. I was 14 years old again, and I know I was a bubbling mess leaving the autograph hall. We somehow made it through the next hour til the Q&A panel. Cari and I squeezed up and got seats in the front row, and Dre sat right behind us. They came in to start the panel, and Tress looked out in the audience and found us; she tapped Jess and pointed, and he smiled and nodded at us; nodding his head, he was obviously saying, Oh, I am NOT going to forget! :D Tress didnt see Dre sitting behind us, and mouthed, Wheres Yakko??, so we pointed; she looked relieved. LOL :p The panel was awesome but obviously I was kinda distracted. xP Then came time for the big event. The VAs promoter cut the Q&A line short, saying that Jess had a big surprise for everyone. And, true to his word, Jess announced that they saw three exceptional cosplayers in line and that maybe everyone should get their cameras ready... And then he called us up on stage - by name: Chi, Cari, and Andre. :O We hopped on up there, and I really cant even tell you what Jess was saying; hopefully someone recording that panel and I can find out some day. LMAO! I do know he told everyone that our costumes were hand-made. :3 There was a lot of cheering, too. We posed with them (2nd pic below) and wow, did a lot of flashes go off. xD We tried to escape quickly because we didnt want to hold up the panel. I got another hug from Jess. Then, as I was trying to leave, I got stopped next to/in front of Tress. I thanked her again, and she rubbed my back and patted me. Auuu!!!! Then I walked past Rob and started to give him a half-hug, and he pulled me in for a full-on hug. (He also told me to watch my step as I jumped off stage; so fatherly! :3 ) Its not very often that you get to meet your heroes and role-models. And even when you do get the chance, its extremely rare to have such an exceptionally personal, friendly, and ZOMGAWESOME experience. I have never, ever heard of a mean VA celebrity, but this all went beyond nice. They are all soo very sweet, and I hope I was able to convey how much this meant to me via my very strange noises. xP I think Im STILL in shock! If I told my younger self - heck, even my younger by a couple of days self - that I would not only get to see, but also meet, and then also hug and interact with the people who have brightened my life so much and been such an inspiration to me, I definitely would have called myself a liar. XD TL;DR - Cari, Dre, and I got to experience the awesomeness that is Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, and Tress MacNeille at Momocon 2014. If I had a bucket list, this sort of thing would have been on it - and now I can cross it off and revel in the memory for the rest of my life. =^~^=
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 01:06:06 +0000
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