Dan's Gold 2: The IJS

Choreographer:  Dan Hollander
It has been four years since I had the pleasure of Dick Button doing the voice over for "Dan's Gold."  With all the controversy from this Olympics, I was compelled to spoof my sport again!  I elicited the help of Scott Hamilton to do the voice over for this one.  After narrowing down the gimmicks I wanted to use, I placed them in order and wrote out a basic script.  After that, I researched a bunch of youtube videos of Scott’s commentary and re-wrote it in his “language.”  I recorded Scott at the Skokie show with my trusty Mac.  He added a lot of his own personality and ideas which really came out awesome!
Of course, like in the original Dan's Gold, I cheated my way to the Olympics by taking out the skaters from the United States.  The swan was a Johnny Weir/Blades of Glory reference which is always popular.  I had to use Plushenko as the favorite to knock out this year because everyone knows him!  Fan’s and skaters alike are sick and tired of skaters grabbing their skates for extra points, so the fake leg was born.  I miss the days when footwork would fly across the ice and really choreographed well to the music.  But with all the requirements to get a level 4, it is very difficult to have that speed and still gain all the points needed.  Don't get me wrong, some of the footwork nowadays is pretty impressive, but it is like playing a video game.  Everything a skater has to do to get the points can really take away from the artistry.  I was surprised that the majority of the people LOVED this section and called me Mario...the game itself meant more than how it relates to the IJS, which I'm ok with!  Of course I HAD to do a bunch of singles in a row to say it is worth more than a "quad-quad" combo for all the controversy about the quad this year.  (And no, all my singles in a row aren't really worth any real points.)  Then the backflip.  In the 6.0 system, it was a mandatory FULL point deduction, which is HUGE.  In the IJS, there is technically no deduction for a backflip.  The judge can add or subtract within the "transition" section as they deem fit.  That was my own twist to say "hey this time the backflip didn't disqualify me."  But of course, I had to lose so the "wardrobe malfunction," was the only way I could figure out how to end it.