Today was the day of the JMOMS LA show, you know, the reason I started looking up flight prices and eventually ended up booking this trip in the first place about two weeks ago. I mean, I didn’t come all the way out here just for JMOMS – if it had been in any random city I probably would’ve waited until Joe eventually does a show somewhere closer to my home, like in London or whatever. But it just so happens that LA has been at the top of my bucket list of places to visit for years now, and I’ve actually been looking up flight prices every summer for several years in a row but it’s just so expensive. So when Joe announced the LA JMOMS I was actually just looking up travel costs to convince myself that I couldn’t go there, and suddenly discovered that flights, hotels etc cost like half what they do in summer around this time of year. So I was suddenly all like wait, if I ever do wanna make that LA trip, now would be the perfect time. So it’s Joe Moses’s fault that I’m all the way out here, really. ;)
Anyway, so the show didn’t start until 3pm with doors opening at 2.15pm, which meant that on the one hand, I had some time to kill before then but on the other hand I couldn’t really do something “big” beforehand or I might be late for the show. So I ended up walking up and down the Walk of Fame, since I hadn’t even really done that yet (other than to get to my hostel from the metro station), and got a little bit of shopping done at the Hollywood & Highland area. Then I got on the metro in the direction of Universal, but since it was only like 10.30am I decided to stay on until North Hollywood and check out that area first. Umm… as it turned out that’s pretty much just a residential area with very little touristy stuff going on, lol. But since the weather was super nice and I had some time to kill I just sort of walked around for like 40 minutes anyway, it was nice. Then I got back on the metro and did get off at Universal City this time.
There was a little shuttle train from the metro stop to Universal Studios & Citywalk, which I thought was a bit silly since it was only one street away from there. So I ignored it and was like “nah I can just walk” and then I realised how ridiculously steep the road up to there actually is, haha. But at that point I was like, “well, I’ve made my decision and now I’m sticking by it, it’ll be good exercise” and just kept going. :P About ten minutes and some slightly sore calves later I was at the start of the Universal CityWalk, which is like the shopping/entertainment area surrouding Universal Studios, where you can just walk around without needing a Universal access pass. So I walked around there for a bit, and I was just chilling in the sun with a latte on the Starbucks patio when two girls came up to me and were like “hey are you going to JMOMS?” So it’s been confirmed that pink sunnies are the Universal Starkid Recognition sign in the US as well as Europe. :P
Anyway, after that I decided to pop into the Lush store for a bit since I’ve ordered some stuff from them online before but I’ve never really been in any of their stores – I know, right – so I was just going to have a quick look around and somehow ended up spending like half an hour and $60 there. Whoops. This really nice girl gave me like a whole hand treatment, cleansing and exfoliating and moisturizing with several of their products, and recommended a bunch of stuff as well as just having a whole chat with me about LA and stuff in general. So by the time I was done there it was about 1.30pm and I figured I might as well start making my way over to the comedy club already.
I waited there for a bit and found Nicole, one of the girls who wanted one of my spare JMOMS tickets. She gave me this AMAZING handmade JMOMS-themed swag, like a whole set with a bracelet and earrings and a pendant for a necklace, and then a keychain as well and a Darren Criss button. (The other person who wanted a ticket ended up not making it there unfortunately.)
While we were waiting for the show to start, Brian Rosenthal walked right past our VIP section to get to, IDK, I think like an area from where friends and family could watch the show. And the girl sitting on my left started totally freaking out because apparently Brian is her favourite StarKid, it was kind of funny. A little while later Alex Carpenter walked past as well and waved at us. I kind of figured he was probably going to be there since you know, he’s friends with them and Joe promoted the show on his channel and everything, but obviously I didn’t know for sure until that point, so that was kind of exciting.
The show itself was amazing, it was SO FUCKING HILARIOUS. If you’ve seen the first one and you liked that, you’re going to LOVE this one. Like, I love the previous JMOMS show, I mean, enough that I came all the way out here because of it, and I liked this one EVEN BETTER. I’m not going to spoil specific jokes or punchlines or do whole summaries of the sketches – not that I even could if I wanted to, anyway, it’s not like I remember every detail after seeing it once – but here are some generics: there’s a sequel to the Doctor Who sketch from the first one. There are two different sketches revolving around the Time Warp (to my fellow RingCon-goers, OMG IKR). There’s a Spiderman sketch. There’s a sketch about Ryan Lochte (am I even spelling that right? :P) There’s a sketch about Ryan Seacrest and that thing where celebrities have to guess the prices of items. There’s a sketch about a dentist (IDK if that was supposed to parody something specific, if it was I completely missed that, but it was funny nonetheless :P) If you’ve seen the Potion Master’s intervention sketch from Ascendio, that was in this show as well (in a slightly altered/more expanded form maybe? It’s been a while since I’ve seen that clip so IDK for sure). I think that’s about all the sketches? Fellow JMOMS-goers, did I miss any? And then there were a couple of clips being shown as well, a Herbert Sherbert one and a “save the panda hats” one and stuff, and Tessa sang her Biggest Fangirl song, and there was a Joe Moses Supposes with some hilarious questions and answers.
Okay just one spoiler then because I can’t contain myself – so skip this paragraph if you don’t wanna know – during the Spiderman sketch Tessa and Joe totally make out. I mean yeah I know it’s scripted and it’s supposed to be Mary-Jane and Peter and not Tessa and Joe but whatever, my little shipper heart just kind of exploded okay?
I don’t actually know if there’s going to be a DVD of this show? I really hope so cause I need to see it all again. Like, a few dozen times. Oh, right, and y’all who weren’t there probably want to see it as well. ;) Videos weren’t allowed, just no-flash still photography, and I obliged because I didn’t want to risk my SD card getting confiscated or anything, what with my holiday pictures also being on there and stuff. But I’m fairly sure I saw some people film at least little clips of it, so if there’s no DVD we’ll hopefully get to see those on Youtube. ;)
So anyway, after that it was time for the meet & greet, which went by pretty quickly. To those of you reading this who were at RingCon, it was basically just like one of the signings there. You got to have something signed and talk to them for a little bit as you walked along the autograph tables, but that was it. By the way I’m so happy for my RingCon experience just last month, because I wasn’t even nervous at all – just like, excited, but not in an overly-fangirly kind of way or anything either, and anyway, what I mean is I was just able to talk to them like a normal person instead of a stammering idiot and I’m pretty sure that was thanks to RingCon. :P
Dylan was the first one in line and after we exchanged “how are yous” I was like “thank you, that was such a great show” and then he said something like “thank you for coming out here to see it” so I told him how I’d come all the way from the Netherlands, and he was pretty amazed and high-fived me and stuff. Tessa was next and she immediately went “you look just like Amy Pond! :O” so I kind of died and was like “OMG thank you”, and then she got even more excited and was like “and you have an accent too!” so I went “yeah I’m from the Netherlands”again, and she was all “omg no way” and stuff and just basically Tessa is the most adorable person ever. Joey was sitting next to her and I guess he overheard some of it? Cause he said something about me being from the Netherlands and I was like, “yeah we actually met at RingCon just last month” and he said something like “yeah, right, I know! I was already thinking you looked so familiar” and then we very briefly talked about how amazing RingCon had been before I really had to move on so as to not hold up the line. :P
Brant was next in line and I know we exchanged some lines of conversation, and I think I still managed to look like a sane person on the outside but on the inside I was having an obnoxious fangirl moment and slightly dying because “omg Joey actually remembered me”, so I cannot for the life of me remember what Brant and I talked about. I feel kind of bad about that because Brant was totally amazing in the show (I mean, they all were, but) but yeah. Silly feels causing a brain freeze, I guess. :P Next up was Grace, who I honestly didn’t know at all prior to this show, I’ll have to admit. So I didn’t really know what to say to her and we didn’t really do more than a quick “hi how are you” vice versa.
Joe was at the end of the line, but at that point since I had been talking to Dylan, Tessa and Joey for a relatively long time – I mean like, probably only a good minute each, but you know the pace at which these lines move if you’ve ever been in one – my DVD cover was already lying there all signed and stuff, and Joe was kind of speaking to someone else already. So I was just going to pick up my signed DVD and go downstairs – I mean I’ve talked with Joe for probably like 20+ minutes over the course of RingCon just last month, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out or anything – but then I glanced down at the cover sheet and didn’t spot his signature. So I was like, well, I’m not going to have a Joe Moses DVD that’s signed by everyone but Joe, lol, so I went “sorry, did you get this one?” and he was like “oh, no, I don’t think I did” and then I think I just quickly thanked him for doing a great show or something before I left.
So then I made it downstairs and I honestly wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be the whole meet & greet (with a chance to get something signed at the same time) or if it had just been a separate signing and then there was still a meet & greet thing coming up after? I spotted Jenn in the crowd outside, who had been sitting on my right during the show, so I went up to her but she wasn’t sure either. And we both kind of needed to use the bathroom anyway (which were upstairs right next to the signing area) so we just went back there, lol. So after a minute or so of standing near the back of the signing area I was starting to become pretty sure that this was indeed all and was seriously considering secretly looping around to the back of the line and just getting something else signed, lol. And then Jenn was like “I think I’m gonna try and get all the way at the back of the line so I can get some pictures with them,” so I was like okay yeah then I’m totally coming along, haha.
At that point Pat walked past and we talked to her for a little bit about LeakyCon/AVPSY (cause Jenn had been there) and asked if it was okay if we went through the line again, and she was like “sure, just be quick about it since they’ll have to leave soon.” So we got right at the back of the remaining queue and I got to talk to Dylan a little bit more, and got a picture with Joe as well. I didn’t really get a chance to chat more with any of them because they really were getting ready to leave, Joey especially was pretty much rushing out since he had to be somewhere else shortly after. I didn’t bother to ask for pictures with any of the others for that same reason, I was already feeling slightly guilty at this point for going through twice, lol.
So we went back downstairs again and then some of the guys had just arrived down there (via the other staircase I guess) as well, so the other girl who had been at the back of the line with us got a quick picture with Dylan. I took that for her and like as soon as I was done Alex came through in between us so he could quickly hug Joey goodbye before he really had to leave. So then I got to speak to Alex really briefly as well and shake hands and tell him how much I like the Doctor Who songs that he’s been doing. He’s like, one of my favourite Youtubers so that was pretty awesome and I may have had another internal fangirl freakout moment.
We had to go outside then, where after a minute or so Joe very briefly came out to say hi to the general admission people, like, I think he was out there for maybe two minutes total, just so he could thank them and people could snap a quick picture of but not with him, and that was it. So yeah, definitely happy I decided to get the VIP tickets after all, haha. Alex was also outside at this point and actually vlogging from there, so there’s a possibility that I’m going to be in the background of one of his vlogs for like half a second, lol. If you spot someone in an HMB t-shirt, denim jacket and pink sunnies, that’ll be me. :P
So then there just wasn’t much else to do and I got on the metro back to my hostel. Anticlimactic ending, I know. :P