I was working at Barnes & Noble at the Grove in Los Angeles in the summer of ’05. The big thing that was happening that summer was the release of the new Harry Potter Book; Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Barnes & Noble was putting on a huge event for the release, pretty much a six hour Harry Potter Party from 8 pm until 2 am. The store was decorated with all sorts of magic and sorcery. They hired a group of Harry Potter extremists that dressed up as Hogwarts students and helped out with events such as wand making, story telling, face painting, Harry Potter Trivia, and a Magic show. The big event was the costume contest towards the end of the night. The whole extravaganza began and the crowds came in waves of fans, parents, kids and also the regular customer, all wearing their favorite Harry Potter character, even the employees were dressing up. Some came as Hermoine, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hagrid and the rest of the gang.
With the party on its way, I came to show my support dressed up as Darth Maul. I walked in stone face prepared not to budge a smile all night. I walked in with cloak flowing behind me and my eyes piercing in front of me. I stepped on the escalator and it guided me to the second floor. I had my mind set on a Darth Maul mentality, in that ready to pounce into battle at a split seconds notice. I walked with my emotions on the edge. On the second floor I briskly walked to the escalator that took me to the third floor.
On my way up from the bottom floor I could see on lookers doing double and triple takes, pointing and staring in shock and awe. With the expression of “What is Darth Maul doing here?”
I get to the third floor and a couple of the employees are laughing. They come over to say how much they like it, I nod. I continue on to the break room and enter. I grab my name tag and change it, putting my name as ‘Darth Maul’. I then head on out.
Over the next couple of hours, these are some of the interactions that happened…
Just walking around, I had many, many, many people doing double takes at me. There were customers in the aisles reading and glance over to see Darth Maul walking by. Also having Darth Maul leaning over the railing on the third floor staring at you as enter the store was something they weren’t expecting, then seeing Darth Maul hanging out at customer service waiting to help you.
The kids were all over me running store coming to me, asking all sorts of questions, “What are you doing here? This is Harry Potter” I would reply in my deep toned Darth Maul voice, “I am the Dark Prince, in the Harry Potter book, it’s a cross over story with Star Wars.” I said this to a couple of adults who believed it. “Where is your lightsaber?” My reply, “Well, they wouldn’t let me bring it in here, you know with 9-11 and all security has been tight on bringing lightsabers into public places.” Another questions, “Are you the real Darth Maul?” “What do you think” I would snap back at them and then run off across the store. Then towards the end those same kids would chase me, wanting to play and I would throw my fist up and growl at them. They would run away screaming. Lastly with the those kids, they ended up grabbing a couple of posters and would come at me like they were lightsabers, unlucky for them I saw them grab the posters and I got my own and attacked them before they even knew what was coming. Oh and I also made a little girl cry, because I was a little too scary for her Harry Potter taste.
I probably should have charged but families after family were coming up to me asking to have their pictures taken with them. In total I had around 25 family photos.
Then there was the costume contests, they held it in the event area which a pretty large area. There were rows of chairs for the audience and families could sit to cheer on their favorite costume. In line, there were about 40 kids dressed up in their Harry Potter characters waiting to be judged. I was at the end, the last contestant. So I waited as each kid, and they were kids and only kids, as they stood in front of the crowd. The crowd would give their applause on how good their costume was. That was how the judging went. After about 15 minutes in came my turn, “Next up,” the MC said and that was all that was needed. The crowd went crazy, screaming, clapping and cheering me on as I stood up front. Then abruptly those cheers quickly turned to boo’s and people telling me to ‘get of the stage, pal’, ‘this is a Harry Potter contest’, and ‘what’s he doing?’ And at deepest moment of hatred toward me, I began chanting, “Sith, Sith, Sith, Sith…” Then the crowd started chanting along with me, “Sith, Sith, Sith, Sith! Sith!” into an erupting of applause, right back to boo’s and a more hated boo’s. The boo’s went on much longer this time sending Darth Maul packing up and out the door.
I realized when a Dark Lord of the Sith is not wanted.
With the party on its way, I came to show my support dressed up as Darth Maul. I walked in stone face prepared not to budge a smile all night. I walked in with cloak flowing behind me and my eyes piercing in front of me. I stepped on the escalator and it guided me to the second floor. I had my mind set on a Darth Maul mentality, in that ready to pounce into battle at a split seconds notice. I walked with my emotions on the edge. On the second floor I briskly walked to the escalator that took me to the third floor.
On my way up from the bottom floor I could see on lookers doing double and triple takes, pointing and staring in shock and awe. With the expression of “What is Darth Maul doing here?”
I get to the third floor and a couple of the employees are laughing. They come over to say how much they like it, I nod. I continue on to the break room and enter. I grab my name tag and change it, putting my name as ‘Darth Maul’. I then head on out.
Over the next couple of hours, these are some of the interactions that happened…
Just walking around, I had many, many, many people doing double takes at me. There were customers in the aisles reading and glance over to see Darth Maul walking by. Also having Darth Maul leaning over the railing on the third floor staring at you as enter the store was something they weren’t expecting, then seeing Darth Maul hanging out at customer service waiting to help you.
The kids were all over me running store coming to me, asking all sorts of questions, “What are you doing here? This is Harry Potter” I would reply in my deep toned Darth Maul voice, “I am the Dark Prince, in the Harry Potter book, it’s a cross over story with Star Wars.” I said this to a couple of adults who believed it. “Where is your lightsaber?” My reply, “Well, they wouldn’t let me bring it in here, you know with 9-11 and all security has been tight on bringing lightsabers into public places.” Another questions, “Are you the real Darth Maul?” “What do you think” I would snap back at them and then run off across the store. Then towards the end those same kids would chase me, wanting to play and I would throw my fist up and growl at them. They would run away screaming. Lastly with the those kids, they ended up grabbing a couple of posters and would come at me like they were lightsabers, unlucky for them I saw them grab the posters and I got my own and attacked them before they even knew what was coming. Oh and I also made a little girl cry, because I was a little too scary for her Harry Potter taste.
I probably should have charged but families after family were coming up to me asking to have their pictures taken with them. In total I had around 25 family photos.
Then there was the costume contests, they held it in the event area which a pretty large area. There were rows of chairs for the audience and families could sit to cheer on their favorite costume. In line, there were about 40 kids dressed up in their Harry Potter characters waiting to be judged. I was at the end, the last contestant. So I waited as each kid, and they were kids and only kids, as they stood in front of the crowd. The crowd would give their applause on how good their costume was. That was how the judging went. After about 15 minutes in came my turn, “Next up,” the MC said and that was all that was needed. The crowd went crazy, screaming, clapping and cheering me on as I stood up front. Then abruptly those cheers quickly turned to boo’s and people telling me to ‘get of the stage, pal’, ‘this is a Harry Potter contest’, and ‘what’s he doing?’ And at deepest moment of hatred toward me, I began chanting, “Sith, Sith, Sith, Sith…” Then the crowd started chanting along with me, “Sith, Sith, Sith, Sith! Sith!” into an erupting of applause, right back to boo’s and a more hated boo’s. The boo’s went on much longer this time sending Darth Maul packing up and out the door.
I realized when a Dark Lord of the Sith is not wanted.
