The Performing Arts: An Avatar Guide

     Regardless of which avatar you choose, first you need to understand how to achieve them. Here’s a guide to some of the best secret avatars around Neopia related to the Performing Arts.

Live Music at the Tyrannian Concert Hall

     Attending a live show at the Tyrannian Concert Hall is a great way to spend an evening! After the show, you leave with a random piece of swag, like a hat, jacket, poster, CD, or t-shirt. And if you pick the right concert, you even walk away with a shiny new avatar! Tickets for each show are 1250 NP from the ticket booth, or you can search for them using the Shop Wizard. Listed below are the five bands that you can watch live to earn an avatar, as well as the days of the week that each band plays.

Chomby and the Fungus Balls

     Attend a CATFB concert on the 8th, 15th, 23rd, 29th, and sometimes the 22nd day of the month. You’ll walk away from the show with a new piece of swag, the Groovy Chomby avatar, and a newfound appreciation for funky music. Groovy!

Sticks N Stones

     Sticks N Stones won’t break your bones, they might just be the best rock music you’ve ever heard! Catch on of their shows on the 10th or the 17th of the month, and come away from the experience with I Love My Rock as your avatar to remember them by!

Jazzmosis

     On the 6th, 13th, 20th, or 27th of the month, you can listen to some sweet, sweet jazz. You’ll come away from this easy listening experience with a piece of swag (how about that Blumaroo playing piano ON the mug?!) and the Jazzmosis Elephante avatar—perfect for a belated celebration of Elephante Day!

Jub Zambra

     Jub Zambra is the hardest band to catch in concert: they only play on the 5th of the month. Mark your calendars for the 5th day of the Month of Awakening, so that you can be awakened to the greatness that is Jub Zambra (and earn an avatar by the same name!)

Yes Boy Ice-Cream

     Neopia’s favourite boy band is in town on the 12th, 19th, and 26th of the month. Join fangirls in celebrating the Shoyru trio’s best pop hits at the concert hall, and you’ll get the Yes Boy Ice-Cream avatar to remember your experience by!

     Of course, these are not all of the bands that Neopia has to offer—this is just 1/3 of them! The Tyrannia Concert Hall has one band playing every day of the month, with music offered from 15 different bands in total. You might not receive an avatar from every show, but you will get to enjoy music the way it was intended to be enjoyed: live and in-person.

Stand-Up Comedy

     Stand-Up Comedy is often one of the most overlooked performing arts, but boy is it a performance! You have to tell the best jokes and time them right to get a laugh from your audience. If your delivery or timing is off, well, you get the worst feedback of all: a quiet room. No one wants that! These avatars are all about keeping people laughing in various forms, but this time, instead of sitting in the audience, you’re the one doing the performing!

Grumpy Old King

     King Skarl of Meridell sits on his throne all day, grumpy. He sees his people daily, but only if they do one thing: tell him a joke. King Skarl is desperate for a laugh, and it’s your job to give him one! You can visit to tell him a joke twice a day—no more, or he will turn you away from his castle. He has to leave joke time for his other Neopians of Meridell to make him laugh!

     Making King Skarl laugh is no easy feat, so this is some excellent practice for you as you begin your Neopian comedic journey. The best that can happen is you make King Skarl laugh and receive a nice item prize, maybe even a trophy for your efforts. The worst? King Skarl throws you out of the castle entirely. But fear not, because you actually want that to happen at least once! If you tell a joke that’s so bad King Skarl must have his guards forcibly remove you from his presence, you will at least walk away (or be… thrown… away?) with a shiny new avatar! Skarl - Moody will be yours to keep and remember your less-than-stellar performance. Don’t be too hard on yourself about it—every performer has to start from the bottom!

     Once you work your way up to making King Skarl laugh, though, you’re in for a treat: a brand new, rare avatar! For this next avatar, though, Skarl even prepared the joke for you: "What do you do if *blank* fierce Peophins *blank* has eaten too much *blank* tin of olives?" He wants your funniest, most creative punchline, so get to work! If you make him laugh while telling him this joke, then the beautiful Blumaroo Court Jester avatar is yours to keep.

     It is important to note that King Skarl is not the most reliable audience… in fact, he’s rather moody. What makes him laugh one day might not even get a chuckle out of him the next. Some call it random, but I choose to call it the Art of Comedy.

Caption Contest

     The Caption Contest is a Neopian Spotlight that encourages you to write the funniest caption to go along with a new picture each month. At the end of every month, the best captions submitted are chosen (anywhere from 30-40 of them) to go head to head in a competition: who is Neopia’s Funniest Caption Writer?! It’s put to a vote with users all across Neopia. To win the gold trophy and prize, your caption has to be voted in the top 5. To win silver, your caption must be in places 6 to 12. And for a bronze trophy, your caption has to win one that places 13 through 25.

     In every 10th contest, you have the chance of winning the Caption Contest - Funny avatar. To do so, your caption must place in the top 25! For the true, hilarious comedians of Neopia, you can win the Caption Contest - Hilarious avatar, which is awarded every caption contest (except the 10th rounds) to only the top 5 captioners. These avatars are tough because your caption has to be selected to even have a chance at the competition itself; are you up for the challenge?!

Neoboard Acting

     These next avatars are all about putting your best face forward… or at least your most dramatic. That’s right: we’re acting now.

     Head to the Neoboards and pick a topic, any topic. Get your acting fingers ready, because you’re going to type this phrase, and nothing else: squawk. If you are successful in completing your task, you will receive the Plushie Eyrie avatar, and the message might not even go through. If you are unsuccessful, you have a choice: will you stay in character, or will you break the fourth wall and address what you just said? This might be an opportunity to practice your comedy… but it might not be. The choice, dear reader, is up to you. Set your avatar and maybe even your font to default, and try again, channelling the energy of the plushie eyrie with you as your guide. Let the plushie eyrie be your muse.

     If you thought squawk was a difficult acting task, it only gets more challenging from here. Squawk is only one emotion, one character. Now, you must perform with three different emotions, all at once: happy, angry, sad. Can you do it? Post the following message on a Neoboard—you could choose the same one, with the same audience as your first squawk performance. Or, you could find a new set of Neopians to be your audience. Either way, here’s your message: :)*angry*:(

     The finesse required to embody all three emotions at once is tough, but I know you’re up for it. What is a performing art, if not a little bit of a challenge? If you complete your task successfully, with the right emotion behind each emoji, then the Nimmo - Emote avatar is yours to keep. If not, again try clearing your avatar and neoHTML/neosignature first. Then try again, once more, with feeling.

      ~~~

      Earning avatars is a great gateway into the Performing Arts, but they aren’t the only way, nor are they your destination in your journey into the arts. Which of those activities—enjoying live music, performing stand-up comedy, or Neoboard acting—spoke the most to your soul? This is a rhetorical question, of course. But think about it. Is there a newfound passion for one of the performing arts you tried today that has been awakened inside of you?

     Maybe none of these arts spoke to you, and that’s okay too. Maybe you want to try singing yourself, or dancing, or playing an instrument. Or maybe you want to try another performing art mentioned in a different story or article of this week’s Neopian Times issue. In Neopia, your opportunities are endless, dear reader. So try it! You have nothing to lose, and while you might not have an avatar to gain out of the experience, you could gain so, so much more.