Arcadefire! [The Redemption of Billy Mitchell]
On Tour!
In 2018, we created an IndyFringe musical comedy, about a real person. We called it Arcadefire! [The Redemption of Billy Mitchell]. You may have heard of the notorious ‘King of Donkey Kong,’ Billy Mitchell – if not for his gaming accomplishments, perhaps his various gaming scandals. Probably, the most famous “villain” in classic gaming, Billy is most known for his starring appearance in the cult-classic documentary ‘King of Kong: Fist Full of Quarters,’ and most recently for the biggest cheating scandal to hit the internet and classic gaming. Such a scandal, in fact, that we decided to put it music.
What we didn’t expect from this wild idea, was a friendship with the King of Kong, himself – as well as, some of the other real-life ‘characters’ who appear in our show, that we eventually met in person. Soon, our show become a beloved roast of the great bad-guy to walk the arcade, and after our premiere at IndyFringe – which Billy, himself attended – we went on to produce a full-length showing of piece, and were even invited to several gaming and pop culture conventions, creating our 2019 Arcadefire! Tour.
On top of our extended full-length premiere of the show and our pop-up arcade we created in Irvington, in our home-base of Indianapolis, our show was seen screened on DVD at the real Kong Off at Arcade Expo 5, in California, at Gen Con, Indy Comic Convention, InConJunction Science Fiction and Literature Convention, and the Bloomington/Normal Video Game Convention – all in just 2 year’s time! We were also seen streamed on Twitch through Billy’s partnered channel, and featured at the on-line, pandemic conscious Southern Fried Gaming Expo, 2020. It’s possible that this is not the last you’ve seen from Arcadefire!, and it’s certainly not the last you’ll see from our friend Billy. For more information about booking Arcadefire! for your convention, you can contact us here on the site.
