The Comic Fest Con
I woke up to the lovely sound of my phone as William text me. He was super excited and so was I. It was a Friday morning and we had big plans to spend the weekend at the annual Comic Fest. A few weeks earlier William had broken the Itchygooney all-time record of the most people in an above ground pool. Unfortunately, in the process of breaking the record, things went a tad bit wrong and left William’s granny in a bit of a foul mood. I guess the crashing wave of water and fence boards did the trick.
The three-day Comic Fest was just what we needed to give her a break. The two of us had saved up our money and purchased two weekend passes. We were going to be out of his granny’s hair for the entire weekend. William’s parents had gone out of town on short notice (likely as part of the payback for the pool incident) and Granny Grunt was the only one available to watch us. The only bad news was that we had to go to school that day and wait until we were picked up by my dad so we could go to Comic Fest. I got out of bed and got myself ready for school. My dad would be picking us up from school just after lunch, a bit early, so we could rush home and change into our costumes.
I hopped on the bus and headed to school with William. We arrived at school shortly after and headed inside to start the day. During the first period, I could hardly contain myself and blurted out in class that I had tickets for Comic Fest. My teacher Mr. Mousseau would normally tell anyone who was talking out to stop and quiet down, but this time he was excited as well and told me he was going too. I didn’t realize that my teacher was kind of cool. However, I made sure not to let on that I was impressed by this.
The day dragged on for what felt like forever. Eventually, William and I were called down to the office, but this time we weren’t in trouble. Our classmates all turned and gave us the dreaded ‘Oh no, what did you do?’ look. The two of us just smiled and quietly left the class for what was going to be the most awesomest (that is a word, I think) weekend ever! We arrived at the office to find my dad waiting for the two of us. My dad and the principal had become very good friends over the past couple of years that William and I had been at the school. It was probably the fact that my dad had to come in and talk to the principal quite frequently about things William and I had done. I overheard principal Pitts tell my dad ‘good luck’ as he came to greet us. It seemed kind of strange that the principal and secretary smiled, waved goodbye to us, and high-fived as we left. I guess they were happy about the comic festival as well. (Or maybe it was the fact we were leaving school early on a Friday ~ Oh well I didn’t care, it was Comic Fest time!)
My dad dropped William off at his house first and then brought me home. I changed into my costume as fast as I could and waited for William to text. Once William texted, my dad and I went over to his house to pick him up and then we headed to the Itchygooney Convention Centre. Excitement was in the air. I was dressed up as Han Solo and William was my sidekick Chewbacca. We arrived to find a HUGE line had already formed, but we didn’t care since we would be there all weekend. Eventually, we made our way inside. As we progressed through the lines, we were complimented by the many Star Wars fans in attendance. William made sounds just like the real Chewie and even did the little head shake. It was awesome!
Our plan on the first night was to get in line for Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca. We carefully worked our way to the back of the convention centre and were shocked as we found his line to be extremely long. William and I had not purchased the VIP passes which got you to the front of the lines.
Instead, we were stuck at the end which seemed like miles away from our hero. The two of us decided to stay in the line and see him that night and then we would come back on Saturday and Sunday to see everything else. We didn’t realize how long it would take and William and I waited for hours when the line attendant finally made an announcement that people beyond a certain point would not get to see Peter that night, as he was not feeling well. (Guess where that certain point was?) You got it, the people right in front of us were the last ones to see him. William and I were not very happy with what had just happened and the two of us headed back out to the main lobby to get some fresh air. It took us a bit of time to finally make it out to the main hall, as the crowd was enormous. Once in the lobby, the two of us sat down for a brief moment to decide what our next plan of attack for the fest would be. William and I couldn’t make up our minds so he decided to head to the washroom to take off his costume. I text my dad to come get us and waited for William to come out. It took him about ten minutes to finally emerge from the washroom. William came out carrying his costume and I noticed something strange dangling from his back pocket. He had a grin from ear to ear and I knew he was working on another great plan. I told him my dad was on his way and we headed to go outside to wait for him to pick us up.
As we were heading out, the two of us noticed that one of the security guards was our old friend Dylan. He was the legend in our neighbourhood and held almost every possible record you could think of until William started breaking them. (or at least tried to.) We stopped and talked to Dylan and found out that he was home from university for the summer and was working security at the fest to make some extra money. William then leaned over and whispered something in Dylan’s ear. Dylan smiled at William, shook his hand and told him no problem. At this point, William’s grin grew even bigger. We said goodbye and headed out to wait for my dad. He arrived just as we walked out the doors and we hopped in the car and headed home. I asked William what he had said to Dylan, but he wouldn’t answer back, he was in deep thought. We dropped William off and he said he’d text me later with his plans for tomorrow and then ran from the car all the way to the door and disappeared inside. I could hardly wait to hear back from William. As soon as I got home I changed out of my costume and waited for William to text.
It didn’t take long for the first text message to arrive.
Today 9:23 PM
The plans involved William and I being lead into the convention centre through the security doors where the celebrities come in. William must have worked something out with Dylan to get us in the next day. It was awesome having Dylan as a close friend. (My mother would disagree with that.) We would have no problem getting into the back area where William could put his latest plan into action.
It was probably William’s greatest plan to date. Once we were inside, the two of us would be brought by Dylan, who would be working security, through the convention centre and escorted up to the celebrity autograph signing area. We would then be set up at a table where William would pose for pictures and sign autographs. I was to be his handler, collect money, and deal with the fans. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why would people want to get William’s autograph and picture? I bet you didn’t know this, but William was a spitting image for Bustin Jeiber. His second plan looked cool as it showed the two of us sitting at the table in celebrity row.
William explained a number of things to me in his e-mail and it explained a few things that I’ll share with you now. Security was informed that Bustin might not be able to make it due to scheduling conflicts. Instead of announcing on Friday that he possibly wouldn’t be there, they decided to wait until the next day to let fans know he might have to cancel. Dylan, realizing that William looked just like Bustin, could easily fool some of the fans if he wore a hat and deepened his voice. William had gotten ahold of Dylan as soon as he got home to work out some of the plans and then sent me the e-mail explaining things. Tomorrow was going to be an amazing day!
I woke up early, got ready and headed to William’s house right away to go over the plans. It didn’t take us long to figure things out and then we waited for my dad to drive us to the fest. We arrived just before ten o’clock and headed to the side door where Dylan was waiting for us. He then told us to follow him and we headed into the building and past a number of celebrities who were already there. As we walked past, a number of them smiled and said hello to William, or should I say, Bustin. William smiled back and nodded his head. It was cool as people moved out of our way as we followed Dylan through the back towards the lines. As we came out the door, a huge crowd of girls began to scream as they saw us. William once again smiled and waved to the crowd. The girls became quite hysterical and William motioned for them to stop. They immediately stopped and a few of them passed out on the floor. By now, a number of security and volunteer workers were busy trying to control the line. We sat down at the table and I pulled my cash box out of my knapsack and placed it on the table. I pulled out a stack of photos that William had spent the night before printing off so he could sign them. Apparently, using up all his dad’s ink in the process. I then made up a table sign listing prices for photos and autographs. William stared at me and then gave a wink. It was time to impersonate Bustin.
It didn’t take long for William to get into character and he began signing autographs and taking photos with the fans. Dylan stayed nearby and deflected any questions that the other Comic Fest workers had. Things were going extremely well and William was raking in the cash as hundreds of fans got a chance to meet him. Not one of them noticed anything strange. The day flew by as I greeted the fans and William entertained them. It was going perfectly fine.
It was nearing closing time when William motioned to Dylan that he was ready to leave. The crowd moaned as William was escorted away. As we left, we overheard the security and volunteers tell the crowd that he would be back tomorrow. This was the coolest thing we had ever done. Once in the back we mingled with a few of the celebs (that’s what we now called them) and decided to get some photos with them. William had everyone fooled. It was getting late and I received a text message from my dad saying he was waiting for us outside. William said goodbye to everyone in the green room (a place where celebrities hang out, and other cool people ~ like us) and headed out the door. We jumped in the car and headed for home. Once at William’s house he said he’d see me in the morning for round two.
The next day arrived and we greeted Dylan at the side door and were lead back into the green room. We talked to a few other celebrities and then were escorted back to the table by Dylan so William could sign more autographs. The day was very similar to the previous day. Girls screaming, cameras clicking, and more money being collected. I soon began to feel bad about William tricking the fans into thinking he was actually Bustin Jieber. It was approaching noon when Dylan came over to William and whispered in his ear. I guess things were blowing up on social media as rumours came in that Bustin was on vacation in the Bahamas. Fans were beginning to get suspicious. William was starting to worry that the fans were going to figure things out so he asked Dylan to cap the line. The crowd started to get a bit unruly and extra security was brought over to calm the crowd. Folks were then told that Mr. Jeiber had a family emergency and that he was leaving early. He was going to allow another fifty fans and then head out. William stood up and apologized to his fans and said he’d be back the next year and that anyone who didn’t get to see him could receive a coupon to see him then. We quickly rushed to get through the line as fast as possible. The line was almost finished when I spotted our teacher, Mr. Mousseau. He was standing with his niece and was near the end of the line. I leaned over and told William. Just as I was warning William, our teacher looked directly at the two of us. He then pointed at us and called for security.
That was the end of Comic Fest for us. Security came over with the owners of Comic Fest and we were escorted into the back of the building. Our teacher was brought back too and was asked to identify us. Things quickly took a turn for the worse as William was outed. To make a long story short, William was ordered to donate all the money he had collected over the two days to local charities. He also had to take out a full-page newspaper ad apologizing to all the fans he had deceived. On top of that, the two of us were banned from any Comic Fests for a year. And as for Bustin Jieber, well he actually thought it was pretty funny when he found out and called William to talk to him about it. I guess it worked out because William soon became a local celebrity himself!