Convention Skit

Synonyms:	fan play
See also:	cover of Spectrum #36, Connie Faddis and Jeff Johnston in drag as Kirk and Chantal in a parody of Diamonds and Rust, one of the fan plays performed at SeKWesterCon in 1977
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A convention skit or a "fan play' is a play written and performed by fans about their relationship with their favorite TV shows. Most gently mock fandom's obsessions. While some fan plays focus on the characters, many other delve into the meta issues surrounding fans' relationships with one another and their community.

Examples of convention skits

• Spock Shock, the very first media convention skit, written in 1967, performed in 1969

• Stour Trek: A Musical in Search of a Key by Paula Smith and Where No Man Has Gone Lately by Winston Howlett were performed at SeKWesterCon in 1977. There was another skit performed at that con that was an epilogue to a story in Delta Triad #4: The Sword At the Gate, a sequel to "The Paradise Syndrome. It was performed with Gerry Downes reading the lines aloud while the story was done in Indian Sign Language.
• The Dead Engineer Sketch and Mr. Jones Saves the Day and And the Scrod Shall Rise Again were performed at T'Con in 1979
• Dancing Penises, performed in the 1980s at IDICon - Creators: Kandy Fong, PJ, Donna and Carol D.
• The Enchanted Duplicator by Walt Willis and Bob Shaw was the skit performed at Norwescon #5 in 1983, it was based on a 1954 fanwork
• Trek Wars: A New Enterprise, or... No Hope and In Search of Spock were performed at MediaWest*Con in 1984
• Mister Roger's Neighborhood and Cole Porter: The Search for Star Trek III were performed at MediaWest*Con in 1985
• Dark Side Story, a fannish musical retelling of "Return of the Jedi" based on "West Side Story" and there was showing of Visitors: A Puppet Opera at Mos' Eastly Con in 1985
• Gumby Shop of Horrors was performed at MediaWest*Con in 1987
• At the last ClipperCon in 1989, the concom put on a skit called So Long, Farewell, and Praise Trek, named after the title of the final M*A*S*H* episode. At one point in the play, 12-13 convention members posed in a tableau of DaVinci's The Last Supper. The script was written and worked on by several of the committee, including Bev, April Valentine, and Nancy Kippax.
• Ian McLean's troupe, Harpic Productions, performed numerous skits at Astrex functions and Medtrek conventions in Sydney, Australia, including The Naked Never (1990).
• At Tunnelcon 3 in 1994 among the entertainment offered was a skit performed by fans called Passionate Kisses, wherein fan writers force Catherine and Vincent to repeat the same romantic balcony scene with many twists and turns. Watch the video Passionate Kisses.
• Jurassic Fandom and In Search of Spock's Penis, two plays by Lezlie Shell
• Zebracon 1997 put on a convention skit by Paula Smith. It was a musical called Revolution 9 from Outer Space - based on the K/S mirror universe novel Revolution by Madelien Lee. The play includes this bit at the end: "I take you for my mate, till the stars grow cold," Spock says happily. "And now, we have sex." He holds out two fingers. Kirk eagerly places his paired fingers against Spock's. Pause. Spock then puts both hands behind his back. "Is that IT???" Kirk cries, dismayed. "What did you expect, Jim, Courts of Honor?")
• BAAD SH Theatre ("The ShareCon play is always a sterling representative of the worst of slash writing.")
  • Knight in Blue Armour, or No Hope for Hutch (1991)
  • A Tale of Any Two Guys (2007)
• A Hard Drive's Night was written especially for Connexions by Paula Smith and was directed by Kath Sanders (2000)
• Genetic Fen Productions wrote and produced Beat Da Geeks, a parody of the Comedy Central game show, styled for slash fans, by slash fans. Some of the plays were videotaped and were put on the convention vid show videotape con tape and distributed to the members of Connexion (2002)
• Cabrillo Con, a gen Starsky & Hutch convention performed In the World's Worst Fanfic Skit: Marrying Mary Sue skit in 2009.
• BlooMN'Con #2 had two skits, In Search of Spock and musical called Skit of Con," the latter with a cast of 12
• The ZebraCon Plays by Paula Smith, Jody Lynn Nye
  • Graven Mirages (1981)
  • Demonstrated to Death (1983)
  • Fudge and Fury (1985)
  • Scales of Just-As-Good (1986)
  • The Thousandth Goliath (1987)
  • Murmur on San Carmelapples (1988)
  • The Pieing of CI5 (1985)
  • Distant Snores (1991)
  • Pair o’ Strokers (1993)
  • Disaster of the Drivels (1985)
• Grease is the Word, but Blake is the Man... was the con skit at 1994's Who's 7
• Cabaret Fun from The Reduced Blake's 7 Company, performed at Redemption, 1999, ^{Archived version}
• My Fair Starship was a musical con skit performed at Springfest '89, it included, among others, Mercedes Lackey, Elisabeth Waters, and Grace Lee Whitney
• two Darkover skits: Slave Boys of Dimover at Fantasy Worlds Festival '95 and Free Amazons of Ghor which was done at several Darkovercons

Gallery

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  the very first media convention skit, "Spock Shock" by Sherna Comerford, performed at Star Trek Con, printed in Spockanalia #1 in 1967

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  "Trek Wars," script from MediaWest* (1984)

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  back cover of "The Enchanted Duplicator"

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  front cover of "The Enchanted Duplicator"

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  first page of script for "In Search of Spock", click to read

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  cover of Play by Playbook: Collected ZebraCon Plays