Once upon a time, Richard Biggs and Jason Carter of Babylon 5 came to Anglicon. Richard Biggs played Dr. Stephen Franklin. Jason Carter played Ranger Marcus Cole. And Anglicon is an annual convention, with a focus on British media, that supports a local PBS station. This event happened at Anglicon XII. I think that sets the stage for the following story...
While there are a lot of fun activities, often the most amusing is the casino, where players use play money to bet on such fun games as Psychic Poker and Pop The Haggis. At this particular casino I even used play money to bribe another guest, Maggie Egan, to sneak up on Hubby-Eric and give him a kiss. However, it was another event at this casino that nearly got us into a lot of trouble, sort of, and gave those present a story to talk about for years afterwards.
"Pop the Haggis" is an amusing game in which you get a 'haggis' (actually a balloon) and pop it to get a little card inside that tells you what activity you can do to earn some play money. Richard and Jason were sitting playing poker, when Richard decided to check out the rest of the casino. He was drawn to the Haggis, as people were acting fairly bizzare and drawing attention to themselves over there.
He popped one, pondered it a moment, and then told everyone there (including hubby-Eric and myself) to watch. As he walked back to the poker table, everyone asked the judge what he'd pulled. It said, "Do a death scene". We got quiet and watched as Richard sat back down at the table next to Jason, and was dealt back into the game. After a few moments, Richard took a sip from his water-cup and choked a little. He then choked again, and stood up coughing. He gasped for air, while Jason and the other players reacted in horror, and then Richard fell to the floor and lay still.
To say it was convincing would be a massive understatement.
Richard then quickly stood up with a "Ta-da!" and bowed to the cheering people by the haggis. Jason almost did the deed for real. We thought we might have to go over there and hold him back.
Later Jason came over and popped multiple haggis, looking for inspiration to fool Richard as badly as he'd been fooled, but found nothing worth doing... although he did a slightly tipsy Vorlon impression at one point.
Just thinking about it, I'm overcome with amusement at the joke, horror at how utterly real it looked (and how horrified the people at the poker table were), and amazement at how good an actor Richard Biggs is. And what a good sport Jason Carter eventually turned out to be (he just wished he'd popped that haggis first so he could've pulled it on Richard).
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