Ottawa Comiccon

[AteBit]

Ottawa's first Comiccon is currently underway. The same organization who is responsible for Montreal's much larger Comiccon are behind it, clearly they know their shit.

Day 1

First Speaker: Lou Ferrigno (Original TV series Hulk)

Older but still a beast of a man. Just gripping the tiny mic made giant veins pop along his forearms. No talk, straight into QA. After 15 minutes of stupid questions, he says thanks and retreats to the exhibit hall to continue signing 40$ autographs for the rest of the day. Not the best use of his allotted hour of stage time.

Second Speaker: Marina Sirtis (Troy from ST:TNG)

Not a huge Troy fan, wasn't expecting much out of it, so glad I attended anyhow. She's been doing conventions for 21 years and it shows. Total pro, amazing talk/standup routine. Upfront about how dull and useless her character was, but had fun with it. When QA started she had full control of the situation keeping things light, and moving through the line at a good rate. The whole hour flew by to fast.. Best speaker of the day.

Third Speaker & Guest of Honour: William Shatner (Bill)

Line up was huge. The main hall was packed, huge standing ovation when he finally came on stage, and by the end of his hour long ramblings, the room wasn't so packed anymore. After the usual platitudes about Canadians, and how Ottawa is a greaet city, he jumped to QAs. Shatner's ability to "riff" (as he put it, though we obviously have different interpretations of the term) on the questions asked isn't exactly the most gripping stuff. In fact many didn't find it gripping at all, and approximately 15 minutes in, small pairs and groups of 3-4 started leaving piece by piece. It was a pretty sad sight. Each time people got up, I felt worse and worse for the aging pop culture icon up front, and at the same time, a bit envious. It was a sad, slow motion train wreck. Made me realize that maybe Lou had figured something out that I hadn't yet.

I didn't attend any of the second stage talks/QAs. So nothing to say about anime dub English voice actor Vic Mignogna (Dragonball Z, Fullmetal Alchemist, SF2's Vega), comic book artist Neal Adams (DC), actress Erinn Gray (sexy lady from Buck Rogers), and actor Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett).

The only good thing to come out of the Shatner event, was getting to talk it up with a cute red shirt while in line. We even sat together for the program. Any momentum I had (real and/or imagined), was destroyed by the great Shatnering. We talked for a bit afterwards, but at this point she was clearly more interested in the up-coming photo op with Brent Spiner to noticed that this Optimus was Prime.

Tomorrow's line-up: Jamie Bamber (Apollo BSG), John Delancie (Q ST:TNG), Adam Baldwin (Jane Firefly), Brent Spiner (Data ST:TNG), and Cassandra Petersen (Elvira Mistress of the Dark).

[Gwardinen]

this Optimus was Prime

Brilliant. Just had to quote that bit.

Yeah, I think I might know what you mean regarding Lou knowing something. As much as you're right and 15 minutes of crappy question answering and then excusing yourself is not a great event, do you actually feel better about the Shatner event for having gotten your hour's worth?

As you described them, these ageing pop culture icons inhabit a bizarre twilight of fame and irrelevance. It must be a very strange and uncomfortable place to be at times and it's hard to say what the best way of dealing with it truly is.

[AteBit]

On a side note, while a friend was in-line for an expensive autograph yesterday.. I went around taking pictures of cosplayers. What else is there to do near end of day. I'll probably have more tonight, and maybe try to set up some gallery type thing. So far though.. no Sailor Planet (That's no moon!), but Sailor Penis (Wait! was that a guy?) is confirmed.

Maybe I'll even donate the 20$ to the Team Fox charity, and have a pic of me in a certain car shaped time machine from some old movie. If the lines are better today that is.

Time to go stand in queues for the better part of my day.. again. Queues: A true Canadian pass-time.

[miffy495]

I tried going to the Calgary Comiccon a couple of weekends ago. Due to the reunion of the ST:TNG cast for the event (even saw a picture from it on Subbes' MLKSHK, which was funny) it was so packed that the fire marshall wouldn't let my girlfriend and I in. We went to the craft fair in the convention hall across the street and hung out with the middle aged ladies. The girl bought a couple of awesome sweaters and I got some kitchen-y stuff, so we considered it a victory. The queues, combined with the shared sentiment of a thing she said while we were waiting to get in to the comiccon ("I wish I could still go to the expo but turn off my sense of smell for a day") made us feel like we could still call the day a victory. She wanted to go way more than me anyway. I have to say, I've never really understood the appeal of conventions myself. Near as I can tell, the objective is to stand in line for an hour or two in the hopes of being regarded with slightly less disdain by a celebrity than the dude in front of you. Much as I love the geek culture, the expo thing mystifies me. People on this forum seem to be pretty good at explaining the appeal of things that confuse others, anyone want to take a crack at it?

[AteBit]

"I wish I could still go to the expo but turn off my sense of smell for a day"

Yeah, this was my first convention (of any kind). I was warned, I thought they were exaggerating. They weren't. The "stink" is a very real thing. It was only made worse by the organizers making everybody queue outside which was a nice sunny 26C all day. Not insanely warm, but for the many who showed up dressed in costumes, or always popular all-black... disaster.

I have to say, I've never really understood the appeal of conventions myself. Near as I can tell, the objective is to stand in line for an hour or two in the hopes of being regarded with slightly less disdain by a celebrity than the dude in front of you. Much as I love the geek culture, the expo thing mystifies me. People on this forum seem to be pretty good at explaining the appeal of things that confuse others, anyone want to take a crack at it?

I actually had no intention of attending. A friend of mine, had a friend of his cancel, so I ended up with a free weekend pass. So I ended up going. The exhibit floor vendors, the autographs, movie props, Magic tournament... all that stuff is more or less forgettable fluff. So I was looking forward to the first program which was Lou Ferrigno (see OP). Things were looking grim until the 1pm program with Marina Sirtis (see OP). That's when I finally saw the appeal of the whole thing. It's the same appeal as behind-scenes, and making-of featurettes you find on special edition DVDs/BRDs, but (seemingly) more personal, less filtered. There is also the crowd element, like movies/theater/concerts, it's always more enjoyable when everybody around you also gets it.

[AteBit]

Day 2 - Chasing the Dragon.

Thanks to Mother's Day, I found myself running around solo for most of the day. Combine that with having nothing left to explore on the main floor. I was left with more time to catch different speakers.

First Speaker: Jamie Bamber (BSG's Lee "Apollo" Adama)

Slow start. Straight into QA. Mostly informative. Occasionally interesting. Never entertaining. This talk fell in line with what I was expecting from one of these. Problem with this straight forward approach is that the talk will never be more interesting than the questions being asked, and the quality of the questions being asked by fans can be pretty dodgy.

Second Speaker: Cassandra Petersen (Elvira Mistress of the Dark)

Grabbed some food, and made my way to the second stage. Caught the first half of Cassandra's talk (before leaving to queue for DeLancie). She started the talk with the caveat that she goes to many conventions, but never as a speaker. She didn't really know where to start, but quickly found her footing, and finally explained how Elvira came to be, before launching into QA. Again.. Interesting, but not very entertaining.

Third Speaker: John DeLancie (ST:TNG's Q)

After a bit of sun while in queue for Q (never gets old), it was clear from the moment he started talking that this was going to be one of the highlights of the day. Since Q only appears in 9 episodes (across the 3 series - TNG DS9 Voyager), DeLancie made it clear that asking about specific episodes would not be fruitful. So the talk went more into an exploration of power, human nature, parenting, growing-up with severe dyslexia (overall a surprising lack of Star Trek). When attendees asked weird questions, he'd call them out, and launch into anecdotes of even stranger fan encounters. Great speaker. Never lost the audience. Enjoyed every minute of it.

Fourth Speaker: Adam Baldwin (Firefly's Jayne)

Rolled out of the DeLancie talk right into this one. This felt a lot like the first one of the day (Apollo), but with more frat humour, and long pauses. Overall it was funnier than Bamber, but lacked a steady pace. Had no flow. I didn't feel to bad about bailing early to get into the queue for Spiner's talk.

Fifth Speaker: Brent Spiner (ST:TNG's Data)

I was told he was going to be the best speaker at the show, and that was the case. He put on a solid one man show. Slipping in and out of his Patrick Stewart voice for pure hilarity. Once he noticed the 2 camera/angle composite shot on the side screens, he started moving erratically to troll the camera crew, and continued to do so for quite a while. Called to his mother to have the audience wish her happy mother's day. Yet still managed to go through more fan questions than any other speaker. Perfect way to close out the show (for me at least).

In retrospect, it's not to surprising that the actors who have been doing the convention thing for the last 20+ years ended up being the most fun watch.

I don't think I'd travel to one, but if one of these lands in the area again... I'll likely attend (after checking the invited guest list first).