This is my attempt at turning the China Night DVD I made into a web site. The videos are hosted on YouTube, so you'll need Macromedia Flash in order to view them. There are some minor issues with Internet Explorer and this "WebDVD" that I haven't been able to work out yet. If anyone knows why, feel free to drop me a line. Otherwise, consider it yet another good reason to switch to Firefox. :)
In 2001, we coordinated our involvement poorly, and were allowed at the last minute to insert a very short segment into the show only because our performances in previous years were so well-received. I had graduated from Cornell, so I helped choreograph our fight from two hours away, and took a smaller part in it. I opened the show up with the old Tiger form from my training. Allen actually taught himself a staff form from one of the Soul Calibur video games and performed that. Our fight was once again scenario-based, because we all felt that made things a bit more fun than the old idea of "stick some people on stage and have them fight."
I'm not sure the audience totally got the scenario, but here, I've got the benefit of being able to explain it! :) Allen is a Sifu of a traditional Gung Fu school (Kwoon), and as the act opens, he's finishing up his class, with students working on various things. When he wraps class up and walks out with most of his students, one of them stays behind to work out a bit. I'm the evil bad guy Sifu (everyone pretty much laughed at my pathetic attempts to look like the bad guy, both for my Tiger Form and this skit), and Gianni is my minion / top student. As class finishes, and Mike is hanging out to train on his own, Gianni and I come in to beat on our rival school. I tell him to go kick some butt and sit aside to watch. Gianni did an awesome job as the thug, showing with his first on-stage performance that he's a heck of a better physical actor than I am. One of Allen's students finally bests Gianni (the good guy's students can't all be worse fighters than the bad guy student!), and I come in to finish them off (literally - we did our best to make it kinda look like I impaled him with my sword) and take on the Sifu. Allen and I battle it out, trading the advantage (with me, doing a bad job of trying to look exhausted), until Allen finishes the fight abruptly and with a sure sense of finality. We debated a bit over whether or not to finish the fight with a kill move, but decided to go for it anyhow, and the audience reaction was priceless (you can only tell from this video if you listen carefully). When Allen finished me off, the audience was almost completely silent, as if they weren't sure if the fight was over or if something went terribly wrong. Only when I got up did they begin applauding and cheering.
Copyright © 2006 Erik Harris.