I was tired and hot and hungry and had spent the whole evening just saying how bad I wanted a cheeseburger… Suddenly, someone dressed as Mayor McCheese walked up and handed me a cheeseburger from McDonalds. A truly magical, only at Dragon Con moment.
For long-time attendee Elissa Watson, this serendipitous moment perfectly encapsulates the unique charm of our beloved convention. Dragon Con may not be the only convention many of us attend in a given season, but it is certainly the one that leaves the biggest impact and keeps us coming back year after year. But what really makes it so different from your San Diegos, your New Yorks, even your Emerald City cons? Well, I asked the people who would know best, and the answers did not disappoint.
For some, the reasons are obvious. How many conventions out there worship a delivery service? Or proudly wear and display carpet remnants last seen on the hotel’s floors over a decade ago? Ask anyone casually aware of the convention what they know about it and you will likely hear about that time a Fed Ex standee became a god. Even my own coworkers had heard of that one, long before I sent them the memes myself. As I stood in line last year with dozens of other attendees to accept my communion from the bishops of the Cult of Jon, it was hard for me not to feel that certain Dragon Con “je ne sais quoi” in the air. But there’s so much more. It goes so much deeper than that.
One thing many members speak fondly of is the lack of a barrier between themselves and the celebrity guests they’ve come to meet. At more traditional conventions, members will find themselves an entire convention hall away from their heroes, but not at Dragon Con. At Dragon Con… they’re just people. People with better security than you. You never know who you might wind up stepping into an elevator with, from Jonathan Frakes to Felicia Day to David Tennant. And not just elevators… One thing Dragon Con knows how to do is party, and its celebrity guests are most certainly invited. Our own Chuck Corum, admin of the Unofficial Dragon Con Facebook group, recalled a particularly memorable interaction: “Three AM. Going back to our room through the habitrail from the Marriott to the Hilton. Look up and see coming from the other direction Aaron Douglas (Chief from Battlestar Galactica) and someone else I didn’t recognize and between them draped across both of their shoulders virtually out cold with drool running from his mouth is a very inebriated [member of the BSG cast]. As they approach us Chief looks me right in the eye and says, ‘And they say I’M the asshole’.”
To me, though? What makes Dragon Con so Dragon Con is harder to put into words. Maybe it’s in the random moments of uninhibited joy that seem to exist around every corner. The lack of pretense or self-consciousness. When I asked the infamous DJP (John Paul Stout) what it was for him, he told me a story about DJing an 80s party in the Hyatt ten or fifteen years ago. The power had dropped out in the middle of the set, and he was joined by two fabulous singers who led the crowd with Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Livin’ on a Prayer. “The power came back on during [Livin’ on a Prayer] and I was able to sync it up and bring the entire system back online underneath the singers like we scripted it. The room went absolutely bananas.”
For con goer James Kinney it was, “Seeing a guy in a Yoshi costume break dancing on a piece of cardboard on the sidewalk while a stormtrooper held the boombox for music at like 2AM.” Maybe it’s in the more bizarre or unpredictable moments, as Vince Thomas told me. “Saw a guy in a Boba Fett helmet and boots with nothing else on but a color coordinated thong gyrating in line outside Aviva.” Billy Parrish might have had my favorite answer when he told me, “I saw a guy with a duck standing outside the Marriott at 3AM. I took a selfie with the duck.”
I’ll share one of my own stories. The sort of thing that I think back on fondly when I run through my Dragon Con greatest hits. A few years back, pre-COVID, I remember being invited to sit on an evening panel for the Alt History track about pirates. Nothing specific… just a love of pirates. One of my fellow panelists arrived in full pirate regalia, but his bandoleer didn’t hold weapons or even ammunition. It held shot glasses. And every time someone in the audience asked a question, out came the flask, and a line of shot glasses, one for the question asker and one for each panelist. The entire room had a festive party vibe by the time we adjourned, and as I drifted off to my next destination, comfortably buzzed, I was fondly shaking my head and smiling. Only at Dragon Con… In the end though? I really think cosplay designer Denise Schumaker, whose giant Jayne Hat or Dragon Con TV logo cosplays you may have seen around the halls, hit the nail on the head. When I asked her what the most Dragon Con thing was to her, she said, “Years ago, as we were exiting the Sheraton, I overheard someone entering say, ‘Dragon Con is the only place I feel normal’.” And isn’t that just the truth?
