Rufus Wainwright Plays With Me UPDATED

mcgonigal_gogame
Originally uploaded by Avant Game.

Okay, so it's a lazy Saturday in May 2003, and I'm sitting on the steps in front of a North Beach church, looking as desolate and disconsolate as I can. I'm a plant in a Go Game, and I've got sneakers tucked under my wedding gown, and teams have to convince me not to run off (I run pretty fast! and they chase me!) and to wait for my groom to return to the altar. For this particular game, I spin out a tale above and beyond the normal plant backstory, telling teams and other passersby that my groom showed up in a bunny costume instead of a proper tuxedo, and I told him not to turn our wedding day into a joke, and to come back in a tuxedo or not to come back at all. Hence, I wait for him. The story is particularly funny because there's a separate Go Game mission that day involving a man running around the same neighborhood in a bunny suit. (Yes, you guessed it -- Kiyash was the man in the bunny suit.) So chances are my players and other folks will see my wayward groom. (Indeed, I hear from that Kiyash later that a ton of people were yelling at him to get a tux! and when, hours later at the end of the game we met and kissed in Washington Square Park, the park errupted in cheers.)

So, while I'm waiting in between teams, I'm approached by a man with a film crew. It's super awesome glam folk rock singer Rufus Wainwright. He's filming a documentary about himself. He wants to know what I'm doing. It's the first time ever in the history of more than a year's worth of games being a Go Game plant that I am temporarily speechless. Do I keep the game story up? Do I tell him I'm playing a part in a game? What if a team approaches? Is Rufus playing the game and I didn't know about it?

I decide to stay in character. I give him my best version of the sad, tawdry bunny costume tale. He seems to like the story a lot but might not quite be buying it. I stick to it, I'm committed. We have a great exchange, but it is quite surreal. I'm playing the Go Game with Rufus Wainwright!! And he may or may not know it!

Fast forward three and a half years later to December 2006. I get an email from a Berkeley pal of mine. "Did I just see you in the Rufus Wainwright DVD?!???!!"

Has anyone seen it? Can anyone confirm? I can't wait to see it. I can't believe a Go Game character made a Rufus Wainwright documentary. I wonder if his crew got any footage of the bunny! I'm pretty happy that this one monent that always stood out to me as a confusing boundary between game and real life has been captured on film. I can't wait to watch it so I can see how blurry it actually was. Maybe I just come off as a crazy person doing some weird performance art or something. :)

I hope I get to see Rufus again sometime and explain!!

UPDATE: Thank you to the anonymous commenter who pointed me to the Amazon customer reviews for the "Live at the Fillmore" DVD, which includes this line: " It's Rufus live at the Filmore in San Fransisco, over an hour long, and includes footage of him on the town. (gotta love the guy who showed up to his wedding in a bunny suit...) Highly recommended!" Ha ha ha. AWESOME. I hope Rufus doesn't mind being wrapped up in our game, perhaps he will feel better knowing that the bunny and I did get married a couple of years later, eloping to city hall!