Thank You Wammers--My Evening as a Mehron Animatron

Thank You Wammers--My Evening as a Mehron Animatron
By ExcitedAndScared

Posted 9/3/24 647 views

Thank You Wammers! My Evening as a Mehron Animatron

I recently had an awesome experience as a Mehron animatron. UMD.net forum posts and some very friendly people from the site offered encouragement and excellent advice that were crucial to making the evening a success. I want to say thank you to those helpful folks and since a lot of people have asked about the experience, I am providing a write-up of it, which I hope you will enjoy.

Ch. 1 - Background

It started with a game of pool at a bar with my best friend and our boyfriends. After a few beers, someone got the idea for a game of girls vs guys. The winners could give the losers a dare. We got a two-ball head start but still lost. My boyfriend had recently seen a street performer while on a trip to New Orleans. She was painted head to toe in silver metallic paint and looked like a statue but would occasionally move like an animatronic figure (like something you might see at Chucky Cheese). The guys told us that replicating that would be our dare. At first it was to perform for a gathering of friends, but it grew much bigger.

Our original reactions were shock, disbelief, and fear. I'm pretty reserved. She is more spontaneous than me, but this was a massive stretch for her as well. As we thought about it more, however, we began to become strangely intrigued by the idea and began to think that it just might be fun. I moved to the big city 18 months ago for adventure and to try new things. This would certainly be new and different.

Our little performance for our friends quickly started to grow. My friend mentioned this to another friend who works for a women's and children's shelter. They have a need for clothing and other essentials for the children they serve. She encouraged us to perform publicly and to donate tips to the shelter for the children. The facility has a professional fund raiser who was also extremely encouraging of that idea. There is an area in our community where street performers are common, so we started to consider perhaps actually doing it.

But still. The whole idea was way beyond anything we could even imagine doing.

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ExcitedAndScared:

9/3/24

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Ch. 2 - Research and the Role of UMD,net

While continuing to say we weren't going to do it, we thought we would at least do some internet research. A google search on metallic silver body paint led us to this site. We had never heard of WAM before but were intrigued. Through forum posts and advice from UMD members, we learned what Mehron is and learned the difference between Mehron for WAM and Mehron for street performers. Since our performance would be public, we were looking for something much tamer than many of the scenes from this site but still found a lot of useful information.

We DM'ed a few members for advice on Mehron, its application, clean up, etc. Two members, Noelelliv, and Trouso, were especially helpful in their replies.

Our research also included watching videos of animatronic street performers to learn the moves, as well as to look into permit requirements for street performers.

ExcitedAndScared:

9/3/24

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Ch. 3 - Are we Really Going to do This

Over the next several days, the initial shock started to wear off and we began to think it might be fun, would get us out of our comfort zones, and would make for an interesting lifelong story. Also, the fund-raising lady from the shelter said she would work with us and the idea of helping needy children was encouraging.

Still without fully committing, we asked friends what they thought of the idea. They were all encouraging (which made us wonder if we need new friends) and promised to tip heavily. We went ahead and ordered Mehron paint and mixing liquid and got a street performance permit.

There is a mixed-use area near where we live where we have seen more traditional street performers in the past. It has a plaza that several restaurants and clubs are accessed from. Street performers there are required to get a permit and are assigned a specific location to avoid competition for spots.

When I went to apply for the permit, the confused elderly lady was unable to really grasp what we would be doing. She finally said to just put "Various" in the spot to identify our performance. The permit includes many rules. Performers are not allowed to charge. They cannot actively request tips, though they can have a container for tips and a sign noting that tips are appreciated. Performances obviously must be family friendly.

At some point we realized that we were not going through all this effort without actually doing it, so we just accepted that fact and decided to have fun with it.

ExcitedAndScared:

9/3/24

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Ch. 4 - Performance Day Preparation

Since I live closer to where we were to perform, my friend came to my apartment to prepare. My roommate and another friend also helped. We moved the furniture out of the dining room, placed tarps on the floor and attached plastic trash bags to the wall. We mixed our three cans of Mehron powder with the mixing liquid from the company. We became concerned that it might not be enough but remembered that people on the site advised that it would go a lot further than it might appear. We ended up having way more than we needed.

We changed into white shorts and tank tops. Since it would be challenging to paint ourselves, our friends did the painting for us. After changing, we stepped on the tarp, took deep breaths and said we were ready. I was filled with fear and excitement as I saw her dip the brush in the paint and stroked the first splotch on my face. Our helpers decided that, just like with painting a room in a house, it would be best to do the large areas first and then come back with smaller brushes to get around our eyes and ears. Also, to start, she put my hair in a ponytail to paint my neck and upper back more easily. We placed a mirror against the wall so we could see what we looked like as we were transformed. It was surreal to see myself becoming a metallic silver Mehron animatron.

After coating my face, neck, and shoulders, I held my arms out so she could paint them and my hands. She then painted my tank top and shorts. That was kind of weird and I wondered what it would feel like to be painted in those areas without clothes on. She then worked her way down, getting my legs and feet.

The next step was to come back with a smaller brush to paint around my eyes, my eyelids, and my ears. We had seen mixed comments on the site regarding the painting of teeth, tongue, and eyes themselves. We decided it was best to not put metal in those areas and we would keep our mouths closed while performing anyhow, so that didn't matter.

The final step was the hair. She took my hair out of the ponytail and tried brushing the paint in but that didn't provide good coverage. Ultimately, the other performer and I reached our hands in the jar, grabbed gobs of paint and worked it into each other's hair with our hands. That worked well.

For shoes, we bought silver dance shoes. We wanted a seamless look overall, like one piece of metal. Unfortunately, you could see seams for our clothes, but the paint did cover the seams fairly well and it looked fine.

Once the painting was finished and we were completely transformed, we stared at ourselves in the mirror for a good while, posed for pictures and practiced our animatronic moves. With our nervousness and constantly breaking out in laughter, practice didn't go great. A little later, our boyfriends came over and it was time to go to the place for our performance. It was a short one-stop ride on the Metro to get there, but that was the most embarrassing part of the whole thing, with people staring at us at the Metro station and on the train. I could tell that I was blushing really bad, but no one could see it through the paint.

One challenging aspect of the experience is that I have real bad vision. I have never been able to get comfortable wearing contacts, so without my glasses everything was blurry, but that kind of added to the whole experience.

ExcitedAndScared:

9/3/24

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Ch. 5 The Performance

We were fortunate that our spot was near a popular restaurant with a consistently large crowd of people waiting for their table. It was also good that the fund-raising lady from the shelter brough a poster stating how tips would be used and offering methods of providing tips through Venmo or PayPal. This was great since only a small portion of our tips were in cash.

On the short walk from the Metro station to the plaza, my friend and I were almost in shock knowing we were actually going to do this. Once we got to the plaza, we knew we had to stay in character. In looking around, we saw some other performers, which included a couple musicians, a magician, and a street preacher. We had a good crowd from the start as many of our friends came out to support (or perhaps laugh at) us. Once the performance started, I was too much in the moment to really notice what was going on around us (and couldn't see anyhow), though friends said we consistently had the most spectators.

We were so nervous and embarrassed. At first, we had a hard time staying in character and our animatronic motions were not particularly realistic. However, before too long, we settled down, got into it, and got pretty good at it. Our friends were super supportive and encouraging. It was fun. It was not difficult to hold a position for a minute or two and was fun to watch people jump when, all of a sudden, the statue would move. A lot of people took pictures with us, including kids, which was also cool. The best part is that, in just a little over two hours, we raised $2,328 to provide clothing and necessities for needy children.

Since we only had a week to prepare, our performance was not overly sophisticated. For a lot of the time, we each did our own thing, standing as statues with occasional movements, interacting with kids, and posing with people for pictures. We were able to develop a few poses and routines in which we did interact with each other. These ended up being the crowd favorites.

For the pose that received the largest applause, we stood side by side with our inside feet touching and our outside feet slightly spread. We held hands and raised them over our heads. As we let our hands down, we leaned sideways away from each other stretching out our inside arms, but with our feet still touching, and held our outside arms out at a 45-degree angle. If we had let go of each other's hand, we would have immediately fallen over to the side; however, since we are similar sizes, our weight balanced each other, and it was easy to hold the pose for a good while. To get out of it, we pulled our hands down to our sides, which pulled us back together and up straight.

Our routines were simple but appeared to be entertaining. For one, we started out standing side by side facing the crowd. We then turned toward each other and bowed to each other. We then clapped our hands twice, clapped our thighs twice, clapped each other's hands twice clapped our own hands twice, turned in a circle, did the routine again, then turned back to face the crowd.

For another routine that drew laughs, we started off standing side by side as statues but were turned to face at a 45-degree angle looking away from each other. On three occasions, she broke her pose to tickle the back of my neck, then quickly moved back into her statue position. Each time, I turned to see what was happening, but she was always back by the time I looked. The fourth time she did this, instead of tickling my neck, she spanked me. By the time I turned to look at her she was back in position. The crowd laughed as I glared at her.

For another funny routine, we stood side by side facing the crowd. I pressed a pretend button that caused her to start walking in place and waving her arms in an exaggerated manner. When I would push a lower imaginary button, she would stop. I started pushing the buttons quickly and sometimes would start as if I was going to push the button but then pulled back. This made her start and stop repeatedly and made her pay close attention to my actions.

ExcitedAndScared:

9/3/24

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Ch. 6 - Clean Up

By the time we rode home on the Metro, we were no longer embarrassed by everyone staring at us. You know, hey we're just a couple ordinary animatrons on our way home after a long day. What's the big deal?

Clean up is another area where information from this site was extremely helpful. We had our body lotion, Dawn, conditioner, sponges, scrubbers, and shower caps ready. FYI, if you don't paint the parts of your body that are under clothes, when you take your clothes off, you look ridiculous. As posters on this site suggest, we vigorously worked conditioner into our hair and put on shower caps to let it soak in and applied body wash and Dawn prior to getting in the shower. Clean up took a while and required a fair amount of work but wasn't too bad, and we were transformed back into humans before too long. One weird aspect of this is that two weeks ago I would have never imagined myself naked with my best friend in my bathroom while helping to scrub each other and engaged in a conversation that included lines such as "there is still some paint behind your ear. I'll get it." That's something normal well-adjusted people do all the time, right?

While we cleaned ourselves, our boyfriends cleaned the dining room and moved the furniture back in place.

ExcitedAndScared:

9/3/24

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Ch. 7 - Conclusion

For someone who is reserved and is still adjusting to life in the city, this was an awesome experience. It is by far the most (and TBH only) crazy and spontaneous thing I have ever done. It was a lot of fun. It is a tremendous confidence boost to realize that I presented myself in such a bizarre manner in front of people (both friends and strangers) and the universe didn't implode. It is also satisfying to know that a ridiculous idea originating from an alcohol induced bet ended up helping needy children. Plus, I have a great story to tell for the rest of my life.

As our performance came to an end and the fundraiser lady announced the amount of money we raised, it was overwhelming as everyone gave us an enthusiastic applause. It was a tremendous feeling for both of us to realize we did it and did something that helped people.

I had worried that friends, co-workers, and my family might think doing this would be weird or would bring shame to the family. The opposite is true. Everyone has been super supportive. My brother won a $ 100 bet from my sister over whether I would actually go through with it. Thanks for having faith in me bro! And to my sister, it's fine. I would have bet against me too. Both of them are very proud of their little sister.

Our boyfriends told us that they actually did not expect us to go through with the dare from the start but just wanted to mess with us. They are extremely proud, respectful, and amazed with us. They say they owe us something really special. I think they owe us something incredibly special, like very very very special, like new Porsche special, or something along that line, though I don't see that happening.

A few of you have asked if I am ready to take it to the next level and try WAM. I'll never say never, but that galaxy is far far away for me. Ironically, my friend (the former Tri-Delt president at her traditional southern college) is kind of intrigued by the idea, though I don't know if she will go forward with it.

One person asked which one was me. I'm taller with longer hair and am the one that couldn't stop giggling over the first 30 minutes or so. As noted previously, I am the one who received the spanking in the Mischievous Statue skit and am the one who pressed the buttons in the Controlled Robot skit.

Again, thank you to the extremely friendly people on this site! You are a very welcoming group, even to someone whose questions were not directly related to wam. Your help, advice, and encouragement were amazing and very valuable to our awesome experience. KEEP WAMMING!

Curiouspaints:

9/3/24

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All of this is incredible thank you for sharing

glad-to-pie-you:

9/3/24

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What a wonderful story! Humans are amazing. (and raising over 2k in 2 hours - wow)

PiedDCguy:

9/3/24

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Thanks for sharing the story!

SploshAndGo:

9/4/24

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Great story - sounds like you really enjoyed yourselves in the end! Thanks for sharing. Glad the community was of help. Well done on the fundraising too!

Trouso:

9/5/24

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Congrats for going though with it and raising all that money. Thanks for sharing your story!

ExcitedAndScared:

9/5/24

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Someone asked me what is the most surprising takeaway from this experience. That's easy, and I never would have believed it beforehand.

Not only is it not the worst thing in the world to be laughed at, but, in the right situation, it is actually incredibly liberating. Once you've made the decision to do the Chicken Dance in front of 20 or so of your closest friends and a bunch of strangers, while coated head to toe in silver paint, anything else you do in life is rather sophisticated in comparison.