Monday, July 23, 2018

Chuck E. Cheese Con 2018: Where Everyone Can Be a Kid

There’s a con for that?

Those were the words I heard multiple times leading up to last weekend when I would tell folks I was taking my son up to Dallas for a Chuck E. Cheese convention. Sure there is. Why wouldn’t there be a con where fans of a particular property gather to exchange trivia, see classic memorabilia, and, most importantly, connect with other like-minded fans? Heck, there’s probably a con for anything you can think of that has a dedicated fan base, and certainly a property that is as old as Star Wars. And, in my discussions with some of the other fans and parents, I learned folks traveled from as far away as Delaware, New York, and Alabama to attend this event.

Chuck E Con 2018 is the brainchild of Matt Rivera, a lifelong Chuck E Cheese (CEC) fan since the age of two. Now, at thirty, he is known on YouTube as Matt the Franchize. His channel is dedicated to “the greatness of Chuck E. Cheese’s past, present, and future.” His love for CEC took him from being a kid who loved the brand to working for eleven years at various CEC locations all the way to the corporate office. From what I can gather, he is among the top, if not the primary channel, for CEC fandom on YouTube. And he has the stats to back it up. His channel has been viewed over 76 million times with over 52,000 subscribers. The last CEC convention (CheeseVention) occurred in 2013 and there hadn’t been a CEC con since, so Matt decided to fill the gap. With a dedicated group of friends and fellow fans and an effort of a year and a half, Matt the Franchize created Chuck E Con 2018.

After a gathering and a store tour of an Arlington, Texas, CEC location from the early 1980s, Chuck E Con 2018 moved to the multi-function room at American Legion Post 453 at Love Field. Along two walls were tables filled with CEC memorabilia, including a couple of animatronics, one of which Matt owns. At the front was a recreation of a CEC stage, complete with lights and props. Matt and his co-hosts (including Emily Sullivan and Brandon McMillan) made some introductory remarks and then the real stuff began.

You might be wondering what would be the main attraction at a CEC con. Well, if you’ve ever stepped foot into one of the restaurants, you know there are animatronic representations of Chuck E Cheese himself and his four friends. Every hour, Chuck E. himself (one of the store employees in costume) comes out to say hello to kids and wish that special someone a happy birthday. In addition, there are videos with the characters consisting of performers dressed up in costume and performing songs or skits. Some of these pieces are famous among the CEC fan community, and it is with this in mind where the real magic of Chuck E Con 2018 happened.

For nearly two whole days, Matt and the other performers donned costumes and performed what amounted to a set list of greatest hits and deep album cuts. Each song was pulled from the forty years of CEC history and was an original recording. What was really cool, even for a CEC layman like myself, was seeing the progression of Chuck E’s appearance from the bulkty, streetwise, New York-accented Chuck E from 1977 all the way up to the present, lithe and refined mouse. In a genius move, the actual songs being performed was not listed in the program, so with each run-up to the next song was met with anticipation by those of us in the room. After most every song, the characters would remain while fans lined up to have their pictures taken with the various incarnations. The finale was spectacular, but the song that nearly brought the house down was when Chuck E arrived in the costume he wore in an ultra-rare VHS movie. The roar was such that you might’ve thought Elvis had just walked into the room. If there was a holy grail of costumes, it was likely this one.

Speaking of costumes and performers, the folks running Chuck E Con carried on what fans of Sherlock Holmes call the ‘gentle fiction.’ We all know Sherlock Holmes is fictional, but most fans still consider him and Watson to have been real people, so much so that when new novels are released, they are purported to be found manuscripts from Watson’s personal files. So, too, it was on Friday and Saturday. At one point, one of the announcers commented that wasn’t it amazing that Matt was standing next to Chuck E. Loved it.

Chuck E Con 2018 was a labor of love for Matt, Emily, primary announcer Brandon, and all the other folks who put on this event. He picked up the torch of Chuck E Cheese conventions and moved it forward. With any good fortune, this will be the first of many Chuck E Cons to come. The CEC fan community is fantastic, and even the parents seemed to enjoy themselves. I know I did. It would be very difficult not to be engaged with you’ve got these characters dancing not five feet in front of you. Remarkably, the event was free, but if Chuck E Con 2018 was any indication, Matt can charge folks a registration fee for future events and fans will attend.

If the slogan of Chuck E. Cheese’s is “Where a kid can be a kid,” then the slogan of Chuck E Con 2018 and beyond should be “Where everyone can be a kid.”

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