All Mario, All The Time

It's Friday, so that must mean it's time for my third post mentioning Mario this week.

But like you wouldn't want to play this:



[source]

You're A Plumber. You're Not Some Kind Of Hero

This live-action Mario trailer was shown at SXSW. Or something like that.

I would watch this movie if it were real.



Side note: This is my sixth post for Culture Brats about Super Mario Bros. I think it's time for an intervention.

[source]

Firedancer: Our Interview With Tonya Kay

When I first heard about Atom's Video Game Reunion, I was pretty stoked. A live action web series about a 25-year reunion of video game stars that have gone to pot? Sign me up!

I tracked down Tonya Kay, who plays Princess Peach in the series. She was nice enough to talk about Video Game Reunion, Glee, Kenny Rogers, burlesque, and elephants. Below is a transcript of the interview.

How are you doing today?
I'm good. How are you?

I'm great. I've watched the first three episodes of Video Game Reunion. I thought they were hilarious.
Thanks.

I think it's a great mix of humor, references to video games, the '80s, and the '90s. What attracted you to the role?
What attracted me to the role is that Princess Peach is just so fricking nasty. I really wanted to play Princess Peach because I felt like I empathized with her. She doesn't have a lot of friends. It's just because she's so authentic. She's so genuine and so self-expressed and I relate to a lot of that, so I thought I could bring a little bit of heart to what would otherwise be a flat, two-dimensional, just nasty character. Instead, I would like to think she's kind of a real human being. Almost lovable, in her own way.

Mario And Luigi Are Getting A New Series!

It's been over twenty years since The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Remember that?

Yeah, you were probably too old.

I was, too.

But guess what? Mario and Luigi are coming back with a new show!

Only this time, it'll be live-action.

Only this time, it'll be shown only on the web.

Only this time, it'll be AWESOME!

Craft Time With Culture Brats

You just ate the big meal and are ready to watch some football...

But the kids want attention and won't leave you alone...

What's a parent to do?

Break out the paper and crayons and get 'em drawing!



Just be careful not to play the video too many times or they'll be singing this song for the rest of the day.

[source]

The Roast Of Mario

What do you get when you cross Super Mario Bros. with a roast? A sometimes racist, mostly NSFW, and very funny video from CollegeHumor:

Super Mario: Burlesque Star?

When I heard there was a burlesque show in production in Chicago based on Super Mario Bros. characters, I was extremely intriguied. So I tracked down the show's writer and director, MsPixy, for an interview:

Hello, MsPixy! Thanks so much for taking time to answer a few questions today.
Why, you are quite welcome! It is my pleasure to do so.

You're a burlesque performer. How long have you been doing this? How did you get involved in this profession?
I've been performing professionally for a little over 7 years. I've always been fascinated by burlesque striptease since I encountered the musical Gypsy as a young theater geek (I actually dressed as Gypsy Rose Lee for a Thespian Society banquet my senior year of high school. Yep, nerdy AND hot). My first few stripteases were quite unconventional, more "performance art" than classic burlesque, but when I co-founded the Belmont Burlesque Revue with Paris Green and Naughty Natanya in 2003, we set out to create a classically styled show, so I've been performing classic burlesque ever since!

Tell us about your first performance. Were you nervous? Did you bring down the house?
My first ever striptease was shortly after 9/11. I was PISSED that so many large companies were using the resulting surge of national pride and outrage as a springboard for their advertising campaigns, so I put together a number for WNEP's The Gong Show in which I stripped while sexily singing the national anthem, and had slogans from all the companies who were using the disaster to their advantage written on each layer of clothing, as well as all over my body. At the end, I revealed the words "BUY IT" written on my butt.

It not only brought down the house, I won The Gong Show that night.

Happy Birthday Mario!

Today marks the 25th birthday of an '80s icon: the little plumber in red overalls, Super Mario! I don't know about you, but I played the heck out of all the Mario games back in the day. In fact, if I played it today I'd remember where the secrets are. Do I remember what I had for dinner last night? NO! Priorities people.

Kotaku has an excellent tribute to the plumber we all know and love. Some of the videos from commenters are hilarious.

If you'd like to get your Mario on today, I found a website with a ton of Mario themed Flash games. You go rescue that Princess from the evil Bowzer!

[image]

On Cake Baking, And Being A Super Mario Geek

I'm not big in to video games, but there are a few I really like to play. Tetris is my fave, followed closely by Impossible Mission (anyone remember that game? I used to play it on my dad's Commodore 64). Tony Hawk is decent, and Wii Sports is cool, but my heart lies with Super Mario Bros. I am a pretty serious Super Mario geek, and so are my kids. "Mario Super Brudders", as my son calls it, is all the rage in this household.

While I'm pretty good at Super Mario, I'm not all that great at baking. When it comes to cakes, my performance is spotty at best. When I get it right, I can produce a decent cake - no bells, no whistles, just a cake and some icing.

But when I get it wrong...


I get it wrong.


Really wrong.

My family doesn't seem to mind my spectacular cake flops - on the contrary, they've wholeheartedly embraced them. My 'disaster cakes' have become quite a coveted dessert; my brother specifically requests one each year for his birthday. But there's still a part of me that dies a little inside whenever I pull a disaster out of the oven.

It was my daughter's birthday last weekend, and like we've done every other year, we had someone else make the cake. It's just...easier that way. This year, a co-worker of my husband's made us a Super Mario cake, and it was a total fucking masterpiece.



The entire thing was edible - even the mushroom house, which was made of Rice Krispie batter on the inside.




It took us less than fifteen minutes to completely annihilate it, but it was sweet while it lasted.

[photo]

It's Mario Time!

As a child of the '80s, I grew up on slouch socks and banana clips, after-school specials, Tab and (of course) Nintendo.

I didn't have my own system, but every Friday night my mother would drive me to the video store so I could rent one for the weekend. I'd set it all up, plug in the gun and shoot some ducks for a while before getting down to business, Super Mario style.

I ate, breathed and slept Super Mario Bros. When I wasn't playing in real life, I was jumping on Goomba's and fighting Bowser to rescue the princess in my mind. It's an obsession a love that I've passed that on to my kids – they love the new version, almost as much as my husband and I do.