Son of Monsterpalooza Show Report

Annnnd we're back. Those who have been reading Idle Hands for a bit know that October has become a horrific month for us, and not just for the sake of using horror puns at Halloween. With New York Comic Con and our participation at Rock and Shock alongside the usual spooky festivities, I find myself beat to hell, void of working vocal chords and with a strange bruise under my right eye...but I swear there were no drunken battles this weekend....at least none I took part in. At any rate, the show must go on and Emilie Noetzel returns with a look at the convention series quickly becoming a movie FX fan's dream come true.

On Saturday October 12^th, 2013, my trusted friend and co-photographer Nicole Marrokal and I made the drive to Burbank for 2 days of monster fun at Son of Monsterpalooza.  Having a 6 hours class (yes a single class for 6 hours) on the Friday, we could not come up from San Diego for all 3 days of the show.  Google mapping lead us to discover the way to Malibu and how much we are in need of a beach vacation, but that would have to wait.  After some recalculating, we made it to Burbank with a short detour and delay to join the rest of freaks and geeks at the Burbank Marriott. 

As we could not check into our hotel room until 3pm and it was before lunch, our adventures started with changing out of our road clothes and into convention gear in the car.  Thanks to tinted windows and a cleaver utilization of doors, we were able to do so without too much trauma to fellow convention goers.  Now in line, we headed for our tickets.

Tickets obtained, we entered the show and started with the vendors’ room where all kinds of wares were for sale and all manor of monsters on display.  After a visit with the usual suspects (Chris at Darkside DVD and Shawn and Jonathan at Rotten Cotton), our photographic adventures started.  So much to cover, we divided to better conquer.  

Many companies and schools were showing off what they could with makeup demos, all of them exhibiting impressive results.  Nicole was particularly floored by a white creature at Cinema Makeup School.  I personally loved the Frankenstein’s Monster inspired man from Premiere Products Inc.  

Our afternoon continued with a visit to what I thought was to be the Monsterpalooza museum, which was, to my great surprise, not a museum but a maze.  Now, some people do not know this, but I can take any kind of scary movie, but mazes …not so much.  Nicole was my guide and my savior in this, keeping the jumping creeps at bay as I scurrdycatted around the place and out as soon as I could.  She found this hilarious and still finds it highly entertaining a full week later.  I will get you back, Nicole, you just watch!

After my mini freak out, we scoured the show floor for all kinds of goodies to show you.  On tap were Amazing Blade collectibles from Elite Creature Collectibles, a crazy cool Mangalore warrior, some awesome steampunk and skully jewelry, and more collectibles than we could ever afford as mere mortals.  The costume contest held outside was a blast, with some of the cosplayers outdoing even SDCC’s finest, in my eyes.  That tiny Bride of Frankenstein?  Adorably priceless!

A last stop in the vendors’ room and we were able to meet and chat with the fantastic David J. Schow.  This nerd-girl was more than happy to discuss past and upcoming development in The Crow franchise and to show him, albeit ackwardly, my Crow tattoo.  The man is a sweetheart on top of being a great writer.

As night came, we took our broke selves out to dinner across the street at a less-expensive-than-the-hotel-restaurant place, which honestly is not hard to do.  We got back and changed into our “party” clothes, in a room we were able to secure in the middle of the afternoon.  We headed to the bar for very little drinking and lots of socializing.  The usual horror con crew was in attendance and Nicole got to meet Joe Pilato (Captain Rhodes) for the very first time.  Mr. Pilato, being the gentleman that he is, even shot a video on her cell for her mother who is a huge fan of the original Dead trilogy.  Thanks Mr. Pilato!  You made mom’s weekend.  Saturday came to a close with 2 girls watching Storage Wars Texas in a hotel room as most everyone else went off to watch The Dickies (which was not included in the ticket price for the convention and thus not budgeted for by us).

Sunday started with packing for check out, as we quickly realized we brought too much stuff, per usual.  Not a normal thing for us 2 girls, but that Sunday did include putting makeup on as we looked as if we had not slept a wink the previous night, even though we had gone to bed around midnight, which is early by convention standards.  Getting old sucks!  We boogied out of the room, packed the car, checked out of the hotel, and headed to get our daily tickets.  

We kicked off the morning with Sideshow Curiosities, a part of Sideshow Collectibles where they show what their artists and sculptors can do outside of licensed properties.  The art was fantastic and it was great to be able to photograph their wares without the usual glass cases of uber-reflection.  From there, more makeup demos were seen (including one by the great Steve Johnson at the Stan Winston School booth), more monsters photographed, and more merchandise ogled.  Nicole got hit on for the 1000^th time that weekend by one of the guys at a booth that shall remain nameless to protect the innocent.  She wore the newly-single look very well all weekend.

While chatting with a friend at his booth, I got to see Mike Mendez and Dave Parker, directors extraordinaire.  Mike was just back from NYCC for his Big Ass Spider panel.  That or he cloned himself to be able to attend both shows.  Who really knows?  These creatures always seem to lurk at Monsterpalooza and Son of Monsterpalooza.  Also seen on the show floor was Glenn Hetrick, makeup artist and judge on FaceOff.

After all this fun, we had to leave early to make it to San Diego for dinner, so we said our goodbyes and thanks, retreated to the car and stopped for bite to eat before leaving Burbank.

CLICK HERE for tons more photos from Son of Monsterpalooza! Many thanks to the show for having us. Photos credited to Emilie Noetzel - www.facebook.com/EmilieNoetzelPhotography and Nicole Marrokal - www.facebook.com/pages/LM-Photography/195391223926906