Well kids, I uploaded information about the Her Royal Majesty's Steampunk Symposium on my twitter and facebook but forgot to put anything here about it, so, since the convention is over now, I am going to use this space to give you a sort of review of the convention and the people involved.
First, the con was held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach California. Already we're off to a great start. If you've never been to the Queen Mary it's an amazing historic attraction and you should make an attempt to see it someday, beautiful ship. Now, this was H.R.M. Steam's first run. The first day of the first convention is always kind of quiet with everyone getting set up and ready, but things soon got swinging as the vendor room was set up and so many different booths had all sorts of cool steampunk stuff to be sold. My new assistant (Rynie Sasser) and I went to check it out and there was so much to see. There was even a booth selling a cool new trading card game called The Spoils that apparently is gaining a lot of popularity on the east coast. It's kind of a steampunk version of Magic: The Gathering, except it has a much nerdier sense of humor and instead of a whole novel of rules there's just one page to read. Smart. There was also a really cool booth that was selling galvanic etchings on copper plates, called Foulbitten. They even do custom work so if you're interested in some really cool personal steampunk looking art, hit them up.
After spending time and money in the vendor room, we went to get ready for our first show of the weekend. We performed at the dinner theatre Friday night. The show was opened fantastically by the band 6 String Samurai who were quite fun, I especially loved their rendition of "The Time Warp". Next, Rynie and I took the stage for some science fun that everyone seemed to really enjoy. Then the show was headlined by the singing automatons Steam Powered Giraffe. If you've never seen these guys before you NEED to check them out, they are really fun to watch, truly a treat for your eyes and ears.
After dinner, the dance floor was cleared of tables for the awesome swing/jazz styling of Lee Presson and the Nails. We danced into the night and everyone had an amazing time... and that was just day one!
Saturday morning, yours truly was interviewed by CNN! CNN reporter Chris Morrow asked me about the nature of steampunk and how I became a Mad Scientist of magic. It was lots of fun and it can be seen online right now!
The day was then spent meeting and greeting all the amazing guests who were enjoying some of the amenities of the convention, dressed in their finest steam attire and displaying some of their best innovations. I then got to be a part of a panel discussion, "Magic and Movies", with fellow magician/historical conjurer Prof. D.R. Schreiber, where we discussed the history of magic and it's relationship with cinema. We were then guests at the Queens Luncheon and Fashion Show where we got to see some of the cool looking fashion available out in the steampunk commmunity right now. I then got to watch Prof. Schreiber's show which was both entertaining and informative. After some more close up entertaining around the ship, Rynie and I went to the Royal Masquerade Ball where we performed before the Queen, her court, and a whole slew of new friends. We had a blast.
Sunday morning had us back on the ship early for the Call to Cthulu Prayer and Breakfast ceremony... that one was a little surreal but we had a lot of fun anyway, I'll leave your imagination open to that one. Afterwards Prof. Schreiber and I found ourselves in another panel discussion to a full room on "Magic and Science". This time with a third panellist, Steampunk Author David Lee Summers, who, as it turns out, also has a degree in physics and is an astronomer. The discussion was very informative and entertaining for all involved, including us at the front in the panel.
Our weekend ended with Rynie and I entertaining a whole room full of people wanting to see some street magic and we didn't disappoint. Now I couldn't be everywhere, just imagine all the cool things I actually missed seeing! Fencing lessons, demonstrations of Birds of Prey, Murder Mysteries and Knighting Ceremonies, and the list goes on like that! We ended up leaving with a whole lot of new friends, memories and souvenirs to show off, all in all an amazing time and I hope we can be fortunate enough to see all of you there again NEXT year!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 16:09 
That's right! On Saturday, the 19th of May, for one night only, I'm being turned loose on my very own show! Yes, you can come to Los Angeles and take part in The Discord Engine and watch me release some mad science on the unsuspecting city of Los Angeles with the help of my Lab Assistant Rynie Sasser and host Jose Menendez! Tickets are on sale now, don't wait, seating is limited.
