11/14/99 Dragonfest 4 Report

Sunday, November 14, 1999, at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, thousands gathered to meet and take pictures with their martial arts heroes. Doors opened at 11:00 am with a line the length of a Star Wars premiere trailing around the block. Gene arrived with good friends and students proudly in tow; Gokor Chivichyan, Kenny & Carmen Harte, Steve Kim, Noelle LeBell, Steve Uhrig, Lari Beebe, David Villanueva, and of course Gene's lovely wife Midge LeBell.

The list of attendees read like a who's who in the martial arts community: Gerald Okamura, Benny "the Jet" & Sara Urquidez, Don "the Dragon" Wilson, "Stormin'" Norman Leff, James Lew, Phillip Tan, Michael Worth, Tak Kubota, Don Stroud, Karen Shephard, Cynthia Rothrock, Erin Grey, Kevin Eastman, Eric Lee, "Sugarfoot", Chris Cassamassa, Ruby and too many more to remember.

Several exhibitions of various art forms were performed in the sunken center stage throughout the day, with the highlight (in our opinion) being Gene and his students. Initially Gene spoke while Gokor Chivichyan displayed dozens of his deadly and lightning quick techniques on "pretzel impersonator" Ken Harte. The speed and effectiveness of Gokor's maneuvers had the audience watching in breathless disbelief while Gene looked on with gleaming satisfaction.

After Gokor's performance, Gene stepped onto the mat while asking for "insomniac" volunteers from the audience. He called Ken Harte and his wife Carmen to the mat whereupon Ken wrapped his arm around her neck and put her to sleep seconds later. Gene stepped in to revive her and she awoke none the worse for the wear. Brave girl. Some would say Ken was far braver?

The finale is always Gene's patented and hilarious "volunteer choke out". Gene gets behind the volunteer talking matter-of-factly while he wraps his huge forearm and biceps around their neck and says "I will count backwards from 20, and by the time I get to 1 you will be asleep. 20, 19, 18, 17, 16..." and by the time he gets to 15 they are falling from his arms like a ton of bricks, snoozing soundly, twitching, doing the floppy chicken, sometimes even snoring.

Judging by the capacity crowd, Gerald Okamura's Dragonfest 4 was an unequivocal success, and more than likely next year will present an even larger venue. Gene said, "I was humbly grateful and honored to be a part of such a talented and gifted group of martial artists. I am looking forward to attending next year".