corn flakes wrote:

Cute.

Spoiler because but :

SquishPhan wrote:

corn flakes wrote:

Cute.

Spoiler because but :

That one was cute.

I like that they didn't check any of the boxes

SquishPhan wrote:

starlight-still wrote:

DIL! In the last show I saw, he came in from the side and didn’t have far to walk. This time, he came in from the back of the orchestra and had like a long, slo mo ‘coming to get you’ walk that made it even more hilarious! I don’t remember the music from the last time but they played…argh, I don’t know what the song is called. Does anyone who has seen it know? It has those choral vocals chanting in…Latin, I think?

blueapple_x wrote:

For some reason your description has me thinking this was supposed to be an innuendo but the only way I interpret that statement from Phil is that he'd injure his face if he gets too close to his cacti and thus his face would become disfigured---but if that's the case, why would it take the audience a sec to "get it"/why would Dan have a "did you just.." reaction?

EDIT: Lol I just realized you probably meant that he seemed to be implying that's what would happen if he mated with a cactus?

LOL, yep, the craft was an actual figure with a cactus "body" and Phil's face...so essentially what would happen if he and Poe, er, got down like that He really did seem to throw Dan off - is he usually that bold in the TATINOFs?

annetamiau wrote:

At the end, about 'phan', what did you mean? Did you get the impression that they are just friends and play it up for the fan's reactions?

Thanks in advance

Basically, what I saw and sensed was that they play phan up for fan's reactions...BUT that doesn't mean that it definitely isn't real. If anything, they play up on the perceptions of what their relationship, whatever it may be, is as the reality is certainly quite different. The thing that jumped out at me about it, though, was that they seemed to almost hold back a bit (rather than going all out with it), which could be interpreted a few ways:
- They want to keep it PG and family friendly so they make it as innocent as possible in spite of "Drawing like a French Girl" (I loved Phil raising his...ahem, gun when he said "What did you have in mind?" to Dan's "We could do lots of activities out here." though )
- They know that if they do too much the phandom will go nuts and overanalyze every wink and giggle not that we have a problem doing that around here or anything...heh, so they keep it at a minimum
- They're respectful about the issue of queerbaiting, which would be more of an issue if they crossed certain lines
- They are actually together and go out of their way to restrain themselves as not to let anything 'slip'

Now that I think about it, the fact that they "play it up for laughs" is pretty obvious, especially with the fanfiction. But seeing the way it was done up close showed me that they put a lot of thought into exactly how they handle it on stage. Does that make sense? Hope this clarifies things!

mez29 wrote:

starlight-still wrote:

DIL! In the last show I saw, he came in from the side and didn’t have far to walk. This time, he came in from the back of the orchestra and had like a long, slo mo ‘coming to get you’ walk that made it even more hilarious! I don’t remember the music from the last time but they played…argh, I don’t know what the song is called. Does anyone who has seen it know? It has those choral vocals chanting in…Latin, I think?

Was it O Fortuna?

missemma wrote:Thank you so much Starlight for your review, I loved reading it! So much detail glad you had a good time.

Just want to add as a mod note to the end though, can you refrain from referring from using the term 'spastic' again as the way in which it has been used isn't appropriate. Thanks.

starlight-still wrote:I’ve been all over town this long weekend but, guess what…I was at this TATINOF and am happy to share my experience! I apologize in advance for the unusual spoiler-ing...I wanted to break it up a bit since it's quite long and also don't want anyone to get spoiled by mistake!

So, round two. This time I had much better seats. Already, it felt more intimate, like a cabaret show since my focus was on the small subset of the audience sitting right in front of me.

When the countdown happened, it didn’t hit me that I was seconds away from seeing them, this time up close(ish). And then: BOOM. There they were.

They eased right into the opening bants of the show and almost automatically started bouncing off one another. Greetings transitioned right into the city-specifics without a hiccup. We got “best state!”, “where Kanye was born…and Obama but really Kanye” from Dan, and “you all have beautiful American accents!” from Phil (aw, how sweet of you to say even though your accent is the real mvp ) transition into Phil doing his terrible one, etc.

Those of you on Dan's attraction mention watch, here's an exclusive. During the 7 second challenge, Phil had to reenact all of Romeo and Juliet. After he nailed it, Dan said something like, ”Yeah, okay, good job, I felt it, I wanted to jump in and go “Leo you're too pretty to die!” At first I thought he was saying that about Phil but then I realized that he said Leo.

Here’s my little Phil section. I will put it under a special cut for only the true deviants among us… everyone else, feel free to skip:

OK, now that I’ve seen the man up close, damn. Someone (I'm sorry, I don't remember who but it was in another TATINOF review...) wrote on here that he was like a god and I’m nodding. Like, he jokes about wanting to be Thor all the time but he’s actually kinda halfway there? He’s serene and calming when you look at him. Very distinct from Dan’s frantic energy, which is interesting because you’d think it’d be the other way around based on their...yeah, I'm gonna say it...personas.

I really liked seeing his facial expressions live on stage. Last time I lamented a bit because I couldn’t make them out as well as I’d liked but this time made up for it in spades. Something about seeing how he’d rapidly shift from one emotion to the next was very satisfying to watch as an audience member.

When that spotlight hits him for the song, all I gotta say is…eyes

For some reason, he looked really handsome when he sat down on the cube during Dan’s existential crisis. Like, something about the way he was sitting, it took some restraint not to just…behold.

Finally, the fringe report. Two times he pushed his fringe back. Yes, back. Once during “why I was a weird kid” and then again during fanfiction when the narrator was talking about his raven blah blah hair). During ‘weird kid’ I innocently looked over at the screen for a second only to look back at him to find Fringeless Phil, live and in person. I was so not ready for that. What a sneaky little…Also, in "I didn't know I was into that" news, when he threw the streamers out during the magic act his fringe fell into his eyes, like really almost covering them and it was like I see where the real magic is

Dan’s “I love my audience” line read to me as completely sarcastic this time as opposed to last time when I read it as sincere. Huh.

The audience, in general, was very cool and respectful, I thought. There wasn’t really any screaming that wasn’t prompted and I didn’t miss a single line due to it. Plus I’m all for the youngin’s being excited and cutting loose a little bit, especially this time of year, so it didn’t really bother me.

DIL! In the last show I saw, he came in from the side and didn’t have far to walk. This time, he came in from the back of the orchestra and had like a long, slo mo ‘coming to get you’ walk that made it even more hilarious! I don’t remember the music from the last time but they played…argh, I don’t know what the song is called. Does anyone who has seen it know? It has those choral vocals chanting in…Latin, I think?

Finale

Fantastic, as before. Phil seems to have picked up the steps a bit better as he didn't look at Dan as much as when I saw them last time. Dan really gets into in- I loved his facial expressions. And he worked it during that dance break.

Lil mishaps:

Some of the sound stuff was off like Dil’s voice didn't come on so Phil, I think, was like "yeah...buddy?" (awkward pause) before he spoke again. And one of the photos during weird kid had a similar click issue/awkward long pause. Also, when they started throwing plates Dan like pelted someone because they didn't fan out when he threw them. Instead, a big stack flew out like "boosh." He even said, "I just hit someone in the face!” (though I think…well, hope, no one was actually hit!).

I’m terrible at remembering all of the original bits but here’s what I recall:

7 second challenges: Phil had to do Dan’s first vid, dab five times (he looked spastic as hell but he pulled it off), and R&J; Dan had to do a rap about Chicago (which he NAILED and actually seemed surprised to have done so well right off the bat), name four dinosaurs, and mystery box- be a whale and go across the stage (he did it in place but got into it for a moment there…you still with us, Dan?)

Weird kids: a girl who only ate green play do, a girl who used to lick dolls in stores (some nice, uh, ‘drug’-like induced moaning action from Daniel reenacting that one, hehe), a girl who had two imaginary friends including one whom she didn't like, a girl who cried when people sang happy birthday to her. Licking dolls was the winner of the five weird-kiddo-phils!

Internet support: Wearing black in summer (“Just don’t go outside, stay on the internet all day!”). How to get more twitter followers (“Forget about being personal, just post memes! Make it into a shibe account”). I can’t stop making Shrek puns (I forget what he said to this one, he did make one himself though)! I have a lot of cats in my house, please help (“First of all, are these your cats? Then maybe you’re just a crazy cat lady and don’t know it? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, that’s a quiet, calm life…” etc.). I want to go to art school but my parents won't let me ("Say I want to do something that will make me happy and that I love.")- he also mentioned his exam vid, which got cheers. He said something kinda meta that, argh, I don't remember but it was about those types of videos falling on one side or the other of being #relatable or (something else). It was a very mature, self-aware kind of comment.

Craft stuff: Little figurines of Dan and Phil as Papyrus and Sans! Phil even got a little Papyrus voice "meh heh heh!" in there. A plush doll of Dan as Shrek (complete with a little t-shirt that matches the one he wears in the show). A mini Llama hedge (Phil was like “it’s another plant!”; Dan was like “We could do a whole Dil’s house in our apartment…why not just build an owl slide and put it on our house?”), A replica of Phil's room (complete with posters!) with them as little figures sitting on his bed, Phil as a cactus – a creepy cut out of his eyes, nose, and mouth all separate pasted on (and Phil was like "Is that what happens when I get too close to my houseplants?"- yeah, it took a sec but some people got it. Even Dan seemed slightly disarmed like “Did you just…?”). Lol, they didn't do the "I thought they would be creepy but these are actually pretty good" line, maybe cause they landed on that cactus.

Mini #busgate report:

I did see the buses. I didn't go out of my way to get near them or look at any details as these are essentially their homes for the next month and there's nothing worse than feeling like you're not secure in your own home but it was cool to see that 'yes, they exist!'

I'm sure there's some Phil's thunderstorm tweet discussion going on the main thread but I may as well just do this here: (though dairy again - you need to get a good night's rest...hopeless, isn't he )

Hope Chicago treated them right! I'm looking forward to seeing how the home stretch of TATINOF goes.

To close, on phan:

I have some phan thoughts after seeing them up close, but do take them with an entire mine of salt as they are highly subjective. I don’t know…something about their chemistry on stage in person during the fanfiction and that little moment in the end where they stare at each other during the song felt like them really working the whole phan thing primarily for the reactions it gets. Especially that moment, which they seemed to hold a bit longer this time…it felt like they were staring at each other but not even with exaggerated heart eyes or anything that you might expect, just staring. This actually has little bearing on whether it’s real or not but…instinctively, you’d think there’d be a hint of like a smile and wink between them about it? Or they’d exaggerate it more for laughs? Unless they’re very conscious of how that would be read and go out of their way to make it as clean cut (for lack of a better phrase) as possible.

For me, the most phan-ish moment in the show is how Phil looks at Dan when he’s in his existential crisis after he says, “Let’s talk it out.”...very lovingly and tender.