The Day I Volunteered at Dublin Comic Con - A Soggy Memoir
Big Nedry Energy!
Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind yearning to learn about the secret, inner workings of Ireland's largest Comic Con; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei, more than happy to satiate your nerdy appetite.Sunday, March 12th, 6am:
Up! Up! GEDDUUUUP! Bellows the internal scream, as I externally sob.
Ireland is in the grips of a dual monsoon-season/snow-spell; it is as bitterly miserable a Sunday morning as you can possibly imagine. Only madmen or those being paid to be up at this time, in these conditions, would be up.
But I am not gaining financially from being up at this ungodly hour, I am in fact volunteering my sacred Sunday to help out at Dublin Comic Con.
Not only that, but I even PAID a volunteer deposit to offer up my (not so) free time.
Does this mean I fall under the latter, "madmen", category?
Unequivocally.
8am:
Armed with a belly-full of porridge, comfortable shoes, my refillable water bottle, and Lil Huey (my brand new Tamagotchi purchased the day before at Dublin Comic Con - volunteers get a free pass for their off-day) I arrive at the Convention Centre, shellshocked (my body unused to such activity of a Sunday) but weirdly excited.
PokéCon 2015 was my "Gateway Con", and since then I have attended, artist-alley-ed, and held niche panels at as many Irish and international conventions as I can shove myself onto the time table for. This, however, will be my first time volunteering.
Am I giving back to a nerd community that has brought me endless joy over the last eight years, or setting myself up for nine hours of unbridled chaos and foot pain?
I'm about to find out.
9:30am:
Doors!
Of course I'm on doors.
Move over, Bruce Willis, my Sixth Sense told me all along that out of all the volunteer roles available - I would be on Doors.
No assisting famous guests, helping attendees mend their cosplays, or any of the other plethora of interesting, glamourous, or just plain in-door related, tasks.
Ya girl gets to stand outside, during weather threatening to rival The Beast from the East, and slap wristbands on attendees.
Baptism of Fire? Yes.
Will we complain? No.
This is Comic Con in its most primal form.
One small leap for nerd-kind...
Lunchtime:
You're standing, freezing, famished.
Your voice was gone by hour two from screeching "WRIIIIIISTBAAAAANDS!!!!!" at startled attendees moving up the queue.
And, you're both exasperated and amused in equal measure at the general public's confusion at how a wristband works.
I. Put. Wristband. On. YOU.
You. With Wristband. Enter con.
(No wristband? You shall not pass.)
When advising a person that you're about to put a wristband on them, that person will invariably look at you with the exact same frightened befuddlement that a customer in a retail store will look at the cashier when asked "would you like a bag?"
It's not rocket science, baby, or a life decision - just gimme your damn wrist!
But let me tell you about The Craic. The Craic and camaraderie on Doors more than made up for the Baltic chill and intermittent downpour. Working alongside the genuinely lovely Convention Centre staff made all the difference, and our spirits (for the most part) remained relatively soaring.
There's a peculiar unity in freezing your arse off in the rain together.
Gotta whole lotta nerds...
Plus, if you're working Doors you literally get to see EVERY. SINGLE. ATTENDEE. That means you don't miss a single cosplay, you see everyone!From the wee kids in Spiderman and Batman Halloween costumes, those with handmade bits and pieces tucked under suspiciously bulky "normal" clothes, down to those brave souls just rocking up to the venue in full cosplay. (Or full Furry suit, as the case was!) The creativity and ingenuity of the costumes was a joy to behold.
As a J-Horror gal, my personal favourite cosplays were an eerily uncanny two-faced Tomie from Junji Ito's self-same manga, and not one, but TWO of Ito's own Souichis. Taking the top prize though was a young teen dressed as American Psycho's Patrick Bateman. They were much too young to have even seen this movie, never mind be roleplaying as its titular psycho!
If children are the future, then our future has fantastic (if twisted) taste in cinema.
The Great Indoors:
After a free lunch (possibly the two sweetest words in the English dictionary, and also, yes - volunteers get a free meal for their trouble), I am allowed... indoors!
My watch has ended.
So long, suckers!
Oh warmth and no rain, how I missed you! What will my secondary volunteer role be!? Oh! It's in the main trade hall, brilliant! I am going to...
Guard the S.H.I.E.L.D car!?
My second task of the day was to stand (awkwardly and self-consciously) beside a famous car and make sure no one touched it. Of course, knowing no one was allowed touch this expensive prop made ME want to touch it all the more. (I didn't, I promise!)
I approached this role with the same intensity that Fr. Dougal Maguire approached guarding the corner flag at the all priests senior football match. You may get a selfie with the car, you may observe the car with your eyes, you may even gently caress with car with your aura, but you WILL not touch it. Not on my watch.
Eddie Munson's Support Act.
Last Roll for Chaos:
As the end of the con drew ever closer, swift came the questions. Questions from attendees, traders, and fellow volunteers.
Did I actually know the answers to literally any of these questions about times and tear-downs?
No.
Did I let this ignorance stop me answering said questions with unflinching confidence?
Also no.
My favourite part of the day was possibly the last fifteen minutes, everyone frantically running around wildly trying to get as many photos and selfies with cosplayers and assorted attendees as possible before everyone went home, never to return. (Until August.)
And almost as soon as it started, that was that.
The Con was over, our day was done.
Off we all trudged, back to our regular lives; the costumes safely put away until next time, the nostalgia merch and anime figurines tucked discreetly on a bedroom shelf.
Superman becomes Clark Kent once more.
As I left Dublin Comic Con with my staff tee and a pocketful of used wristband tabs - I pondered long and hard.
Taking everything in to account: the rain, the cold, the stiff knees, aching back and soggy, SOGGY socks, the craic, the overwhelming sense of community, - was this worth getting up at dawn and giving up my Sunday to do?
Would I do it again?
Well, just try and stop me, nerds.
Let's keep the nerdy chat going over on:
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