For Submission Sunday, I submit my Recap of last night's #KindaFunnyLive so you can read everything in one place. I think I covered most of it. Sorry if I missed anything/switched around the order of some stuff.
Alright. It started w/ them letting the VIPs in early. Right upfront, we noticed that pretty much everyone working the event NOT affiliated w/ the venue were friends or family of the KF guys. Because it's about family.
First thing to greet VIPs was Greg and Portillo. There were also exclusive Presidential Debate posters signed by the cast for the VIPs but (because it's a flaming garbage truck rolling down a hill) nobody was sitting at that table at first so a lot of people walked right by until Nick came by to hand them out. I ran to the merch table to try and tell anyone who'd missed them not to buy one and just go grab their own.
Greg hopped on the mic to ask how important the Royal Rumble was to people. Since so much of the event was highly produced, they were able to get the N64 setup on the big screen so it was sitting back in the entrance room so we could still DO it, it was just gonna be a rigamarole and the VIPs kind of collectively went "It's Fiiine." So it got more or less scrapped (don't know if they revisit it sometime since it was a Patreon goal, or replace it with something else/better. I'll try to ask when I hang out w/ them Tuesday (Author's Note: I'm recording the Gamescast next week).
The rest of the VIP-only section was just a low-key meet and greet. Everyone had a chance to say hi to all of the guys, who were all very very very excited for what was in store for all of us. And merch was sold. Three Pandamusk posters (the Once Upon a Tim romance novel cover, a new Shadowboxer one, and the Presidential Debate one) and three shirts (one with the name/date of the Event, and then a new exclusive design for each of the parties - Moriarty/Miller, Scarpino/Gettys). They did NOT make enough, especially of the posters. I felt super bad about getting one of the last Tim posters for my girlfriend and THE LAST Shadowboxer one (they even had me peel the display one down off the wall myself so any damage done was on me). So even a lot of the VIPs went home w/o stuff they would have gladly bought. Oh well, I'm sure the guys are gonna learn for next time.
Troy Baker came out for a little bit and was gracious enough to sign some things for people. Which was great for Sean Pitts and I who both had the same idea to bring his album.
Around 7, the rest of the masses were let in. People started grabbing seats, lots of Old Fashioneds were sold at the bars. The whole atmosphere was great and exciting. It was also a bit weird because there's been a group of 15-40 of us hanging out the last few days so it was crazy to see all of the OTHER 350+ coming in.
Eventually, they kicked things off with a video introducing the event. And then Troy came back out to kick off the debate. Colin came out very stately, shaking peoples hands. Greg came out w/ Porty in a tiny suit and played the wrestler persona. Then Tim and Nick came out together as "Co-Presidential" candidates with Cheetos (Alfredo in a mask?) and a selfie stick in tow taking pics w/ the crowd.
The format of the debate itself as I'm sure you'll see was effectively: "Troy asked a real-world political debate question, Colin gave a stock Colin answer, Greg played the hype man and echoed Colin's points, and then Nick/Tim would have a funny Nick/Tim type of rebuttal. The highlight of which was the debut of a short rap video "Talk Shit/Get Shot." It was a fun, light way to get the crowd excited. No votes were cast as to who would win. Instead Troy effectively said, please remember to vote so that it's NEITHER of these guys.
Then a quick break for more drinks and conversation, while they set up for the Game Over Greggy show. They had a great bit where they started, then realized something felt off so they removed the black flats that had been up for the Debate to reveal a replica of the bedroom set. There was much applause. The show itself, as you'll see was pretty much entirely an audience Q&A, with a couple random things here and there (Andrea Rene refilled a drink for someone, Marty came up to say a quick hi, and then so did Goldfarb who did NOT join Kinda Funny - he just moved back to San Francisco for his new job to be announced Monday - and was there to support the guys. Very great episode. Everyone's gonna love it. But there are probably going to be some crowd things that they respond to that weren't picked up on the mics.
Following the show. There was another intermission. Then Tim came out to introduce Tonedeff, his favorite rapper and the guy behind all of the Kinda Funny themes. It was very clearly incredibly exciting for Tim. Tonedeff performed for about 15 minutes. His whole thing was essential how fast he could spit words out so I didn't understand a thing he was saying but he got the crowd hyped.
Then we came to the Kinda Funny Press Conference, kicked off by Shuhei Yoshida via a Skype video. This was where they announced a lot of the things they have in the works.
Colin announced that they have heard the people's wishes regarding getting Colin and Greg Live onto YouTube. They're staying on Twitch. But starting Monday (5/18), they're adding access to the YouTube videos of Colin and Greg Live (that they already back up for their own archives) to anyone with the Kinda Funny Games Patreon $15+ tier. This is in addition to the Monthly Q&A benefit. Reviewing the Patreon pages, it looks like this is specifically on the Games page.
Tim and Alfredo are going to reunite for stupid Tim and Alfredo videos. #TandAWillNeverDie
We got our first look at the Tim and Nick show "Love and Sex Stuff." That's going up Conversation w/ Colin style (i.e. once a week) starting June 1st. (Talking to Tim after the show, he said they've already recorded 5 episodes and need to record the part 2 of the first season).
There was a teaser image of the Kinda Funny Animated Pilot, with the art being done by Colin's brother Dagan (sp?), who I think Colin said works for the Sesame Street Workshop.
Then they came out to announce they they know there's ONE thing that everyone is asking to see. Cut to a video title of "Kevin Coello - Employee #1" and the reveal of Kevin...
...Talking about the reveal of the Kinda Funny Forums in a talking head. TWO reveals in one. Everyone else has their own talking heads talking about how great the community is and how the Forums are going to make it even better.
Then they came out with their "ONE MORE THING" announcement. And a video very similar to the Forums video starts playing but for the Kinda Funny App. As the video was playing, I immediately started searching Google Play for the app. Just as they said it's available NOW... "Why can't I find it?!" ...only on iOS. Android coming "soon." "Dammit!!!!" Following the video, Greg apologized for not having it on Android yet and blamed it on being harder to develop for Android.
Then, the Best Friends video played for them. A complete surprise to them. Delighted the crowd. Made Greg and Tim cry. Congrats to Wes, Amy, Sean, and everyone else who worked on that.
They each went through and said their thank yous (and brought out Kevin in person). Then they stayed up on stage to take pictures with everyone who wanted one, and Sean was all too happy to be the photographer for everyone.
After that, it became a very informal gathering. Everyone was just visiting with everyone else. I ducked out around 1:15AM. Don't know what happened after/how late people stayed out.
So that was #KindaFunnyLive. Great night! Great energy! Great Best Friends!
