The WTP Top 8 Sketches countdown continues! Number 7: “Ocho Dates Elspeth” Before I made videos about Magic, I was a fan of David Ochoa. He wrote eloquent, humorous tournament reports that were as focused on sightseeing and culinary tourism as they were on Magic strategy. Ocho’s WTP debut was also ours. Though we botched our Episode 1 sketch in many, many ways (don’t watch it), we loved how his unflinching comedic presence served to compliment my own “less subtle” style. Teller to my Penn. Ocho didn’t care about how badly the first sketch turned out and was game for more. We’ve done several over the years. Christine Mubb Sprankle is a cosplay pioneer for Magic. When she showed up as Elspeth at Worlds 2011, it became clear that Magic events needed more cosplayers to help bring our fantasy world to life. Hundreds if not thousands of people have followed her lead at pre-releases, Grand Prix, and gaming cons. Though I’d been a fan for awhile and seen many pictures of her various characters, I hadn’t actually met her before I first wrote a script for her as The Wizard’s elven therapist. We rehearsed once via Skype and it was obvious that she’d be terrific. For Pro Tour Theros, Shawn had an idea to do a sketch where Ocho and Christine’s Elspeth are on an OK Cupid date and that Ocho impresses her by making a sandwich appear out of thin air. I added the wrinkle that Elspeth’s ex, Reuben Bresler, crashes the date and Ocho turns HIM into the sandwich. Just another typical love triangle. Before you say anything, trust me when I say I tried my best to acquire a reuben sandwich for the shoot so we could turn Reuben into a reuben. But we were in Dublin, Ireland, and if they have reubens there, I couldn’t find one. The sandwich you see is the best I could do. It’s actually the bread from one sandwich and the meat from another one. You know you’re going deep as a prop maker when you find yourself making Frankenstein’s sandwich. Hope you enjoy! Number 6 tomorrow! youtu.be/ZXie5J_XgUs?t=15m33s
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:40:55 +0000