Comicon was awesome. The Eureka panel was funny and everyone in the audience seemed to enjoy themselves. The consensus from the cast and producers was that I did a good job moderating, and I felt like I managed to get out the talking points the network wanted me to get out under pain of death without making it sound or feel like I was delivering talking points.
Hey! Speaking of talking points:
- Eureka airs Mondays at 8pm with Alphas and Warehouse 13. Don't worry, Audience SyFy Seems Very Interested In Courting: there's still plenty of wrestling and ghost-hunting on other nights.
- This season, Stan Lee cameos (tonight!), and there's a freaking armada of awesome guest stars, including Wallace Shawn, Matt Frewer, Dave Foley, some guy called Wil Wheaton who I guess posts cat dialog on the Internet or something, and Felicia Day.
- The story arc in season 4.5 (or, as we called it, "the last ten episodes of season 4") is all about GD launching a manned mission to Titan, called Astraeus. There's also a little bit of a love triangle between Doctor Parrish, Fargo, and Doctor Marten (I love that Felicia's character is called Doc Marten, but she never once wears stompy shoes.)
- Also, the Christmas episode this year is going to be ANIMATED. I know everything about it on account of I'm, like, plugged into this shit, but I can't tell you anything more than that … except that you're going to love it.
Okay, talking points are over. I don't even feel dirty about it, because I freaking love Eureka, I'm incredibly proud of the show and my work on it, and I want everyone in the world to love it as much as I do.
Oh! You can watch Felicia's first episode at Hulu, if you're in the United States, not on an iPad or iPhone, and have successfully sacrificed the correct number of chickens and goats. (Way to make it nice and easy for people to enjoy things legally, Hulu. Cough.)
Eureka was my only official responsibility this year, so once I was finished with that, I was able to almost enjoy the rest of Comicon. I say "almost" because it was too crowded this year for me to do anything more than walk about 1/3 of the show floor before the claustrophobia of being surrounded by a million people drove me back into the streets of San Diego. Did it feel massively crowded to anyone else, like seriously more than last year, or was it just me?
I didn't make it into any panels, mostly because all the panels I tried to get into last year required multi-hour waits with the very real possibility of getting cut off ten people from the door (Comicon absolutely needs to clear the big halls between panels. The only people who seem to disagree with this are the ones who take up seats all day in panels they don't give a shit about so they can see the one panel they actually care about at 6pm) but I still had a great time, mostly because I took Ryan with me and we did everything together all weekend.
Saturday evening, I was a surprise guest on the Nerdist podcast … which means that I got to meet and sit on the stage with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan for an hour. It was awesome, and I'm sure Chris will post the show in the very near future. SPOILER ALERT: they're really nice people.
After the podcast was done, Ryan and I went to the SyFy party. I wasn't going to go to this party because I was afraid it would be really "Hollywood" and douchey, and I would feel weird and strange, but Felicia talked me into it. "You'll meet a lot of really cool people, who also happen to be people who will want to work with you," she told me, "as your manager, I think it would be in your best interest to go." There's one thing I've learned in all the years that we've been friends: Felicia is a genius, and she's never wrong about anything. I'm really glad I listened to her, because the party was awesome fun.
So now I have a choice to make: I can share some highlights, or I can try real hard to turn the entire weekend into a narrative piece that will most likely never get written because I don't have time. So … here are some Highlights from the rest of Saturday night:
- I met Allison Scagliotti, who plays Claudia on Warehouse 13. It turns out that we're in the mutual admiration society, and now we're best friends forever.
- I met and hung out with Alison Haislip, who it turns out is made from concentrated Awesome that was quarried out of the deepest heart of Mount Awesome, at the center of Awesome Island. If you care about this sort of thing, it may interest you to know that she's 100% real geek, just like me.
- Awesome business thing I shouldn't talk about.
- The other awesome business thing that may turn into me getting to write for REDACTED someday.
- I photobombed Felicia.
- I saw David Latt, who wrote and directed Jane White is Sick and Twisted. It's one of my favorite things I've ever been in, and I'm really proud of it. It was super fun to work with him and his wife Kim in the movie, and I felt sad that we lost touch over the years. We traded numbers and I can finally meet their kids. Oh, I also pitched David my can't-miss movie idea: MegaShark vs. MECHAShark, starring me and Debbie Gibson. Mostly, we just make out for 90 minutes, but there's shark stuff going on in the background and someone learns something. Bam! Nailed it.
- I introduced Ryan to John Dimaggio, and this happened:
Me: "John, this is my son, Ryan. Ryan, this is John. He plays Bender on Futurama."
John [in Bender's voice]: "That's right, Ryan, I'm Bender. Doot de doot do dooo doo doo bah doot doot doo."
Ryan for the rest of the night: "Oh my God. John Dimaggio shook my hand, and sang and danced like Bender for me!"
Around midnight, we decided to go over to the Nerd HQ, because Nathan Fillion was there. Felicia has been trying to get us both into the same place for years, because we both want to meet each other, but it's never worked out … until Saturday (well, Sunday morning if you want to be pedantic about it, which I do.)
Felicia introduced us, and it was awesome. Then, after dancing like idiots (the only way I know how) for a little bit, Nathan hugged me and said, "When I was a teenager, you were living my dream." I told him, "When I was in my twenties, you were living mine."
Then this happened:
That's Ryan, turning the tables on Nathan and photobombing him for a change.
Shortly after that happened, this happened.
I guess it was about 230am at this point, and we were all exhausted. We walked Felicia back to her hotel, past people who were camped out waiting for stuff (See, Comicon? You're doing something wrong when people have to camp out for things), and around 3am, Ryan and I finally walked back into our hotel room, our bodies aching from dancing, our ears ringing from the music, our faces sore from smiling so much.
"Everyone you introduced me to tonight was just awesome," he said. "I'm so glad we went out and did all this cool stuff!"
"Everyone who met you told me how much they enjoyed your company, and that you were as awesome as my Twitter feed regularly says you are. That was pretty much the best part of the whole thing for me." I said.
We turned off the lights. A minute or so went by, and Ryan said, "Dude. John Dimaggio shook my hand, and sang and danced like Bender for me."
"Yeah, that was epic."
"Best night ever."
"Totally."
"Okay I'm going to sleep now."
"Me too."
"ZZzzzzzzzz."
Thanks for being awesome, Comicon. See you next year.
It wasn’t your imagination. The floor was so much more crowded than last year. My friend talked to a woman who’d been attending for 20 years, and she was not at all pleased with the change in crowd from last year to this year.
The lines are getting ridiculous. Yes on clearing the rooms. People who park themselves in the seats all day ruin things for everyone. It’s a bit of a relief to know that other people are noticing it too and not just the nobody geeks like me. The only down side is that it would be unfair for people who actually wanted to see back to back panels in the same room. (But maybe the up side would outweigh that down side.) I wrote to SDCC after last year (like I said, I’m a geek) to ask if they planned to do anything to improve the lines, but got no answer. No surprise to see the problem just got worse this year.
I personally made the mistake of thinking I could pre reg (4 hour line, starting at 6:30am) and also have any chance to make it to the only panel I really wanted to go to in the whole con (which was at 2pm) in the same day. Foolish girl!
For me, Comic Con itself was pretty much a bust. The most fun I had this year was at events outside the con. We did a scavenger hunt for Nerd HQ (I’m such a nerd, I was excited to do it even before I realized there was any prize at all, much less an xbox), w00tstock, Nerd HQ panels, Donald Glover concert, and Nerdist podcast.
Previously, my friends and I bought 4 day passes, but this year, I couldn’t justify the cost, considering all I was actually able to do without excessive line waiting was walk the exhibit hall floor. I bought passes for two days, but now that it’s over, I might just ask for a refund and only go one day.
You, Zac Levi, Chris Hardwick and Donald Glover made it worth making the trip to San Diego and make me look forward to next year.
Also, it was a nice surprise to see you at the Nerdist podcast. You were hilarious!
On the one hand I’m happy you’re getting more and more acting work which on the other hand delays you in finishing Memories of the Future Vol. 2 which I’ve been eagerly awaiting for a while. 🙂
It was great to see you at the Nerdist Podcast as well as at W00tstock 3.0. I wish I had the stamina to stay for the signings and photos, but, alas, I needed to rest for what was another day of standing in line!
Yes, ComicCon needs to fix things so that we don’t have to stand in line for hours on end, baking and burning in the sun. We should be able to enjoy all that there is at ComicCon. How did it get this way?
Apparently, there was a ComicCon Feedback booth somewhere and people were really letting them have it.
We’ll see about next year.
Btw, you are indeed a very fine young actor! 😀
That picture of you photobombing Felicia made me snort all kinds of things out my nose.
None of my workmates are nerds so when they asked what I was laughing at and I showed them, their only response was, “Woah, she’s pretty!” (I don’t think they were talking about you, but you’ll always be pretty to me Wil!)
I just want to say how incredible it is that you actually comment back to people. It’s nice to see that the you continue the conversation so people know that their comments aren’t ignored. Whether or not you comment to a person at least they know that what they had to say mattered to you.
I never, ever had any really drive or want to go to SDCC until this year, following yourself and Mr Fillion on twitter.
I can only hope I can swing a trip next year!
I definitely felt like Comic Con was WAY more crowded this year. I hardly was able to enjoy the panel floor at all. Preview night was ok though. I didn’t bother standing in line for any of the big TV Panels even though I really wanted to check some out. I tried to give more love to the smaller panels that had to do with actual comic books or comic book artists. That made things a little more enjoyable for me this year, actually.
I hope they clear out the panel halls one year, they’re just being bums.
We weren’t even sure if you were at Comic Con this year, I didn’t bother reading any of the panel descriptions in Hall H or Ballroom 20 because it’s just disappointing when it doesn’t happen!
I’ve had some discussion with some of my friends who came to SDCC this year. Lining up for Ballroom 20 was just insane! I managed to get into the line up between 8-8:30AM and JUST got into The Big Bang Theory panel. We had a theory that a lot of the people camping out in B20 were there for the True Blood panel which was towards the end of the day!
SDCC really needs to fix this problem. I felt like I was standing in line half the time and didn’t get a chance to check out other smaller panels or explore the floor more.
I go to Comic Con to work, which is still a lot of fun – at least with a booth to stand behind, you don’t get crushed, and you get to see a lot of the people go by.
As it was, I didn’t even try to get to any of the programming – no way I could “step away” from the booth for 3 hours! 🙁
OOh you met some cool people! Matt Smith and Karen Gillian would be my fav on your list this time around.
Do you know if James Callis will return to Eureka? or if they will return to the previous storyline?
The Nerdist Podcast was so good! You and Chris are wonderful and hilarious together. Plus, you and Matt Smith comparing how you guys pilot the Enterprise & the Tardis… amazing. The podcast was definitely one of my highlights for the weekend.
I was very pleased to see you Wil on tonight’s episode of Eureka. I could almost hear Indiana Jones shout in my head, “Snails… why did it have to be snails.” 2nd best surprise was seeing Stan Lee show up as an expert on “Gamma Radiation.” You wouldn’t like him when he is angry… lol. I like the semi-Grizzly Adams facial hair look you have going. It makes you look great in this role of being a real douche bag egotistical scientist. I hope you make it on the team to go to Titan via Astraeus. I have been fortunate enough to meet you in Vegas & I can attest to just how cool it is to meet a science-fiction series icon. So I can see why Nathan Fillion would be a big fan of yours just like the rest of us. May your televised adventures continue to be successful despite the constant danger of over zealous and asinine pseudo fans mugging and assaulting you for an autograph. They have no honor. Thank the Great Bird Felicia Day was there to rescue you. See you on SyFy!
Surely giving out tickets (only valid for one particular panel/event/time slot) would solve the problem of people hogging seats? They could even make them available in advance when you’re buying/ordering your pass and any that aren’t taken up during pre-registration will go in a general pool.
FYI, the nerdist podcast is out. 🙂
Not sure about James, but the timeline is forever changed, according to the producers.
Pretty sure this was where Nathan Fillion was headed when I saw him walking out of the hotel. It actually makes me really happy, that y’all just want to get your geek on as much as the rest of us. Comic-con oversold the capacity of the center, by about 25k, based on what I’ve heard, and it was a logistical nightmare. Hall H was dead until Sunday’s tv-oriented panels, and ballroom 20 was a nightmare. Line management beyond herding people into a line or area, was non-existent, and none of the staff gave consistent or coherent information. The only attempts at line management were hellish, for anyone with mobility issues, (unless you were using a mobility device.) Forcing people to go upstairs, and then walk downstairs and outside the length of the center, or to stand in the question line in a panel, when they say, point-blank, “I physically cannot do this,” is insane. This actually happened to me multiple times. There are a myriad of ways to solve the line issues, and none of them are being implemented. While it was an amazing experience overall, I’d like to see Comic-con stop hand-waving issues because they know people will come no matter what. Dealing with those issues, and providing alternative policy for security to use when dealing with PWD who aren’t obvious to the naked eye, i.e., without a wheelchair/scooter/assistive device/person/animal, would be nice. The gathering of the geek tribe is an amazing thing, and it should stay that way, not get bogged down in logistical hoorah.
Yes, Tib Xero, you are right! Get Joss on the phone!!
When will we hear about Wil getting that intro to Joss? With only one degree of separation (now x2 with Felicia AND Nathan) it seems destined… and then, yes, then we get a great new Joss project and all our favorite actors are in it and …. squee!
HOLY CRAP! I just realized something…Serenity lost it’s pilot, and Wil has experience as a Helmsman. Matter of fact Joe DiMaggio has experience in space travel as well Felicia Day can join the cast just ’cause she’s Felicia Day.
But back to my original point. STARTING TODAY We will start a campaign to get Wil Wheaton on Firefly as the new pilot! This accomplishes 2 goals: Firefly goes back on the air and Wil gets to fly another ship where people will actually appreciate him for once.
GET JOSS ON THE MOTHERF&#ING PHONE!!!!!!
And you’ve perfectly described why I won’t attend SDCC anymore, just too damn crowded. I went to the original location for a few years, and the (then) new convention center for several years, but stopped going 8-10 years ago.
Sounds like a blast, regardless.
Oh: RinCon in Tucson is no more, sadly. Who knows if something will take it’s place.
That sounds like such a fun time! It’s my dream in life to go to Comic-Con someday 🙂 And if I ever make it I hope you’ll be there!
And I’m so jealous of your son for meeting John DiMaggio!!!! OMG!!!
I smiled for some time because of Ryan’s photobomb.
Thanks for that.
In your photobomb pic… Is that Adam Savage on the right hand side? Did you end up meeting him too? I bet he’s really cool.
It was a pleasure meeting you at Nerd HQ on Sat. night. Glad to hear the rest of your evening was an enjoyable one, minus the Syfy party exit of course. And don’t even stress about dancing like an idiot, I am sure I had you beat by miles. 🙂
It looks like a great time. I can’t wait to get my geek on at Dragon*Con!