MISTI-Con 2013

Photos: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 | YouTube Playlist

Cosplays (11 total)

Reg Cattermole Sybill Trelawney Fleur Delacour Walburga Black Bellatrix Lestrange Viktor Krum Percy Weasley Lucius Malfoy Albus Dumbledore Narcissa Malfoy Gilderoy Lockhart

At this, the very first MISTI-Con, I set a record for the number of costumes I could wear during a con: 11 total this time. That record would be broken at every subsequent MISTI-Con.

The Art of Wizard Dance: Dark Mark Calling by The Blibbering Humdingers

This was the first time I taught a workshop on The Art of Wizard Dance!

Presentation: Dumbledore's Deadly Plans (based on two essays, this one and this one)

Notable first: MISTI-Con 2013 was the first time I cosplayed the portrait of Mrs. Black, terrifying everyone in the hotel by screaming insults at them at top volume. (And this has always been done in the morning before people are truly awake!)

In the ensuing years, this costume has become legendary. The people quite literally demand it - as soon as I arrive at a MISTI-Con, everyone asks me (and even my roommates!) if I've brought Mrs. Black. I will keep bringing her back every time, as long as I have the voice for it!

Fateful Karaoke: The first night at MISTI-Con, there was karaoke - naturally, I participated, by singing ABBA's Does Your Mother Know? When performing, I always choose to focus on someone in the audience as I ham it up. In this instance, it was a lovely woman named Chris, who befriended me afterwards. Half a decade later, Chris and her friend Annie ended up being the publishers of my first book, The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore! And it all began with this here karaoke.

Game Shows: I led the team of "The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black" in Family Feud - unusually, we didn't win, but we had a very good time hamming it up!

Featuring Irvin as Bellatrix, Margaret as Andromeda, Mahalah as Tonks, Deanna as Walburga, and dyAnne as Aunt Elladora.

Song Parody: I wrote a parody of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" all about MISTI-Con 2013 - Last Weekend's Con

Hindsight: In many ways, the very first MISTI-Con set the template for what I would do every time: an academic presentation about Dumbledore, a dance class, an ever-increasing crazy number of costumes, screaming my head off as Mrs. Black. After all, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! It's been a joy to get better at all those things over the years.