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starlite cafe: pub crawl this

  Vader’s Fist 501st legion is a Star Wars costuming group that focuses on dressing up as the villains. Although it may seem like a narrow margin of people, the 501st has more than 9,000 members worldwide, according to the website. The organization has been mentioned in Star Wars books, invited by George Lucas to appear in Rose Bowl parades, and regularly march in Disney World events. This legion of imperial characters is available for parties and fundraisers. To be an actual member requires some serious criteria as far as authenticity is concerned, but the members don’t all necessarily take themselves too seriously. Aaron Kahler is having an event at Starlite on Sunday, July 15th, so if hip-hop music isn’t your scene, instead of downtown on that night, you could take in some drunk Stormtroopers in 5 Points. I caught up with Kahler at Wall Street to ask him more about this bizarre phenomenon.

EU: How do you get your costumes, do you make them?

AK: Yeah. You can get them in kit form. It’s like a 1:1 scale model kit. You can build them. Some of the guys actually vacuum-form the costumes themselves, they have the vacuum-form tables.

EU: Where and how did this organization start?

AK: A guy named Albin Johnson in South Carolina. It’s been around since 1997, so it’s actually the tenth anniversary of the 501st. His daughter got cancer and they started doing fundraising events for her treatments. Unfortunately, she passed away, but they kept doing the same types of events and going to children’s hospitals and raising money for sick children and families. It’s really exploded. A lot of guys get into it because of the costuming, but it really pays off because we do the charity events.

EU: Why the affinity with the villains?

AK: Albin Johnson had always wanted a Stormtrooper costume, so it started out there. Later, another group started up and it’s the Rebel Legion, they dress up like the good guys and that’s our sister organization.

EU: In the Star Wars mythology, we see the Stormtroopers as dehumanized imperial soldiers that relate to the Nazis, and yet you raise money for humanist organizations. So as far as accuracy, to some degree, is it all in fun, do you have some levity to it?

AK: Someone said that we are the bad guys with good hearts. It’s all in fun.

EU: Do Stormtrooper costumes chafe?

AK: Yeah. (Laughing) Big time. A lot of these guys join up and get their armor together and think they’re done and that’s it. I’ve had my armor for almost a year and I’m constantly modifying it. You get what are called armor bites. The second weekend of Star Wars Weekend I was marching at Disney and my thigh plate and my knee plate kept getting part of my kneecap between them and it kept pinching the hell out of my knee the whole way. It was terrible. I’m trying to march and trying to twist my leg around to move it, but I just had to bear it. It was awful.

EU: Are Stormtroopers big drinkers?

AK: That’s a big argument with our group. Some members don’t drink and they have an absolute fit when they find out that we’ve been trooping some bars.

EU: How does a Stormtrooper drink, do you have to take off the helmet?

AK: Yeah. I’ve had a few guys that have talked about making a mod and installing a drinking tube, but no, you gotta take it off.

EU: How do you raise money for the charities? Do you just make an appearance and ask for a donation or do you charge admission to events?

AK: We’ve done that before. One of our members in Georgia, Scott Rose, lost his house in a fire, so my buddy Fabian and I set up an event at The Pearl, where he works, where we bartended. Everything we made in tips went to the Scott Rose fund and, if I remember right, we raised $1,400 for him that night. We did other events for them as well and ended up raising close to $10,000 for him.

Although Kahler wanted a Stormtrooper costume ever since he first saw Star Wars, with the exception of a Pic ‘N Save Halloween costume during his childhood, he didn’t get a chance to actualize that dream until he went to the premiere of Episode Three at Tinseltown and met someone from the 501st in their full Stormtrooper regalia. After that, he found a costume online and has been involved ever since. If you are interested in becoming a Stormtrooper in the 501st, it definitely has its perks. To start, check out the local squad’s website at FL501st.com/boards. If that doesn’t scare you away, come watch all of the Star Wars films at Starlite Café, where they will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars starting at 12 pm on Sunday. You can meet some of Squad 7, as well as other Star Wars enthusiasts.