FuMPFest

Third Time's the Charm?

The third FuMPFest convention took place August 26-28 at a new location. This time we were at the Elk Grove Holiday Inn, home to two of the three AlCon conventions that happened around the turn of the century. Our guests of honor were the legendary comedy duo Paul and Storm.

This year saw the return of the Dumb Parody Ideas panel, Dementia Smackdown Wrestling, and the live podcasts panel which featured both a Manic Mondays segment hosted by con chair Devo Spice, and a Luke and Carrie's Bad Rapport Vambre and Prohias' Best Rapport segment hosted by Vambre and Prohias themselves from Mighty Magisowrds.

And speaking of Mighty Magiswords, con co-chair the great Luke Ski got special permission from the Powers That Be at Cartoon Network to screen a never-before-seen 5 minute episode of Mighty Magiswords during Movie Time. The episode featured a guest voice appearance by "Weird Al" Yankovic. During Movie Time we also screened Luke's The FuMPet Show video and Weird Al's movie UHF.

The weekend was fraught with technical and physical difficulties. The sound guys were unable to record in multitrack off the board like we did in 2015. Dino-Mike's computer crashed hard mid-song. Tim Cavanagh had a bad cold and couldn't sing so his set was mostly stand-up comedy. And, worst of all, Storm fell down a flight of stairs and had to be taken to the hospital on the day of their concert. Thankfully he returned after not too long of a time and Paul and Storm's concert went on as scheduled. Storm powered through the concert with a broken thumb and a banged-up knee and did a fantastic job.

Despite everything that went wrong the guests had a great time with several proclaiming this to be the best FuMPFest yet. So if technical difficulties and personal injuries are what it take to entertain you people I say bring it on!

Guest of Honor

Paul and Storm - The lengendary comedy-music duo known for W00tstock and their many appearances on The Bob and Tom Show joined us and put on an amazing show despite Storm's nasty fall.

Performing Artists

2D6 - The nerdcore rappers from Ohio surprised the audience and made many new fans with their high energy rhymes and quirky subject matter.

Tim Cavanagh - The man, the myth, the legend, returned for his third appearance at FuMPFest.

Carrie Dahlby - Carrie split her concert with her son Alex who released his own CD at FuMPFest, as well as with the choral group Court and Country.

Devo Spice - Con-chair Devo Spice started off the weekend with his comedy-rap shenanegans.

Dino-Mike - Coming all the way from California, Dino-Mike was on hand to promote his new album Analbum.

The Gothsicles - Their first official FuMPFest performance was a blast as The Gothsicles rocked a late night set.

The Library Bards - Bonnie Gordon and Xander Jeanneret didn't quite know what they were getting themselves into when they joined our little family but they fit in just fine and put on an amazing concert.

MEGATHRUSTER - Chris Waffle's latest comedy-music project MEGATHRUSTER took the stage and also attempted to catch some Pokemon while they were there.

Rob Paravonian - Rob returned to his original homeland of Chicago to rant about Pachelbel.

Seamonkey - Seamonkey gave his farewell performance at FuMPFest, billing it as The Death of Seamonkey. He also brought more of his homebrew beer to share with the crowd.

Zack Shornick and the Pathetic Men - Another newcomer to The FuMP scene, Zack Shornick was a welcome addition to the line-up.

Tom Smith - The World's Fastest Filker returned to FuMPFest to close out the weekend.

Worm Quartet - Rochester's synth-punk-comedy band returned to FuMPFest after having to cancel in 2015.

Other Events

Opening Ceremonies - Welcome to the con! Devo Spice, Luke Ski, and Insane Ian performed a new FuMP anthem "We Want The FuMP." There were screenings of the video contest entries, and Insane Ian performed "Internet Famous."

Dumb Parody Ideas - A rapid-fire event where contestants perform snippets of dumb parodies they came up with. Contestants included Devo Spice, Luke Ski, Kornflake, and many more. In the end the Golden Spatula was taken by The Library Bards!

The State of the FuMP - Devo Spice and the Core FuMP members on hand gave a behind the scenes look at The FuMP and what the plans are for the future.

Before They Were Now - Artists don their old personas and take the stage as previous encarnations of themselves. Devo Spice performed as Sudden Death. Insane Ian and DJ Wes K performed as Pudding Capacity. Luke Ski performed as Luke Ski's Psycho Potpouri, and Chris Mezzolesta performed as Zot Theater.

Q&A With Paul and Storm - This was supposed to be a Q&A panel with the duo, but Storm was in the hospital while this panel was happening, so Paul and to field all the questions himself.

Live Podcasts - Live recordings of Manic Mondays with Devo Spice featuring a performance by Insane Ian, and Luke Ski and Carrie Dahlby performed as Prohias and Vambre from Mighty Magiswords.

Movie Time - Screenings of The FuMPet Show, "Mighty Magiswords," and UHF.

The FuMP Showcase - A chance for any other artists in attendance to take the stage. This year we had performances by Insane Ian, Luke Ski, Tony Goldmark, Brett Glass, and Tim Ryan.

Dementia Smackdown Wrestling - Comedy-music superfan Jered "Mr. Tuesday" Perez produces these wrestling videos staring the guests of FuMPFest with the help of his X-Box console. You can watch this year's edition here.

Closing Ceremonies - All good things must come to an end. We closed out this year's event with a performance of "The Here and Now" by Tom Smith and a group performance of "1000 FuMPs."

Click here to download the 2016 program book. (pdf)