FAN X DAY TWO ROCKED MY FREAKING
SOCKS OFF. FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING, OF COURSE. Remember yesterday when my recap
was all of two minutes? This entry is not going to be anything like that.
I had the day off from work, and
no other conflicts. Aww yis. The first panel I wanted to go to was Gillian
Anderson at ten, so I showed up at ten. However they switched Gillian to
eleven, and the vendor floor wasn’t open for us lowly multipass holders, so I
jumped into the new ten o’clock panel, which was William B Davies and Mitch
Peliggi, both of whom were on X-Files. I knew Mitch from Supernatural (I hated
his character) and William B Davies was the main villain of X-Files, known only
as the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man, or CSM. Although I wouldn’t have made
this panel a priority, I’m glad I went. William Davies impressed me; he’s one
of those classy old actors you kind of want to be your great-uncle.
 |
| William and Mitch |
Highlights from this panel:
William Davies thinks that CSM
was actually the protagonist of X-Files, and has a theory that explains why
Mulder is the antagonist.
Mitch likes to get in twitter
fights with people.
Asked what role they wish got
more attention, William Davies paused, then said, “When I was twelve I played
Aladdin. I think you should have seen that.”
Question: What was your favorite
part of filming X-Files? William Davies: “The
convention in London where I met my wife.” Mitch: “OKAY no mine is where I met
my wife on set too. [to Davies] You stole my line.”
It was a great panel. NOW it was
time for Gillian Anderson. (I already knew that I was going to be in the
ballroom, where these celebrity panels take place, for the next four hours, so
I was bunkered down for the long hall. Granola bars and Gatorade.)
While I still haven’t finished
X-Files (I think I left off somewhere in the third season), Scully is one of my
favorite strong female characters. Girl knows what’s up. I have a sticky note
on my desktop that says, “Dana Scully would not put up with this disrespect” to
remind me to stand up for myself sometimes. Of course I was excited to see the
actress who brought her to life.
Because I’m a dork even at Comic
Con, I brought a notebook to take notes, so I can come home and write in my
diary/blog about everything that went down. In the first five or ten minutes of Gillian's panel I just wrote, "Holy hell this is awkward."
I don’t know what Gillian was on,
but it was something. She was unfocused and rambling, which I have seen in
celebrities before *cough* Jonathan Frakes *cough*, but it was odd to see her
in such a disheveled state. It’s odd to hear Scully dropping f-bombs. However,
she did pull it together more as time went on, and gave us gems such as, “Even
if you’re an alien you can still do good work.”
Highlights of this panel:
“Scully would vote for Hillary,
Mulder would vote for Bernie, and Cigarette Smoking Man would vote for Trump.”
“I don’t like talking to people
in general.”
“Once I was in a music video
where I watched robots having sex. *pause* A day in the life.”
A fan told her, “Hey, I love some
of your work!” She flipped him off.
A little girl was asking a
question, and her sister stood beside her, cosplaying a Dalek. Gillian was
obsessed with this Dalek costume, and wouldn’t answer the question until the
sister told her more about the costume, and why she was wearing it. Gillian
asked the girl why she was at Fan X, and this happened:
Little girl: “Our family likes to
come here to have fun. When our dad found out you were going to be here he
absolutely freaked out.”
The audience exploded with
laughter. Gillian had the dad stand up and wave; it was hilarious.
All in all Gillian reminded me of
Carrie Fisher, who is not of those celebrities you should go up and talk to in
Starbucks, which is fine. They’ve been doing this for so many years, and you
can tell that they’re jaded now. I get that. But Gillian is doing great work
for charity, and auctioned off the actual t-shirt she was wearing at the end of
the panel. She got a thousand dollars!
Next was Alan Tudyk.
Friends, if
you ever have the chance to go to an Alan Tudyk panel, freaking do it. This was
my third time seeing Alan speak, and he is by far my favorite panelist. He
interacts with the fans, tells crazy stories, and gives out random things he
found at his hotel/house/wherever. He calls it his Bag of Sh!t, and it’s aptly
named. Items given out today include: A copy of the New York Times, a letter
from Warner Brothers congratulating him on a pilot he filmed, and a contact
from his left eye. It’s always a rollercoaster with Alan.
Highlights of this panel:
Someone screamed, “We love you,
Wash!” when he came out. Alan said, “They could be saying, “We love you, comma,
wash. You smell.’”
“I should have known. A leaf on
the wind…… is dead.
”
Question: Who was your favorite
person to work with on Con Man?
Fan, screaming from audience: You
can’t pick yourself!
Alan: *looks confused*
Moderator: They say you can’t
pick yourself.
Alan: Oh. I thought someone
yelled, “Cam Pickersell,” and I was trying to remember who that was. “Yeah, Cam
Pickersell, he was great.”
Fan asking question: You’ve had
so many roles—
Alan, interrupting: Dinner rolls,
cinnamon rolls, so many cinnamon rolls……
Giving a fan an empty manila
envelop marked “ATTN: Alan Tudyk,”: I did give it my attention. Now you can
give it your attention. Put whatever you like in it. Sandwiches. Swatches of
fabric.
Talking about his producer: “He
keeps my brain free of actual knowledge.”
Alan saw Something Rotten on
Broadway!!
Talking about being naked on set
once, “It was fun for the first five minutes, then it was horrible. I mean, why
was Accounting on set?!?!’”
He said Comeuppance would be a
band name. Alan Tudyk and I both come up with band names. I’m so glad we have
this bond.
The best story: At a convention
in Ontario he told the crowd that there might be a second Firefly movie because
Nathan Fillion had mdae some comment to that effect, and then his inbox
exploded with his people being like, “WHY DID YOU SAY THAT???” He had an email
from Joss Whedon (the creative genius who wrote and directed Firefly) that
said, “I hear we’re making a movie. Can’t wait to read it. Who’s directing it?”
Alan makes the best panicked reaction faces ahhh.
YOU GUYS LITERALLY THE ENTIRE
TRANSCRIPTION OF THE ALAN TUDYK PANEL SHOULD BE IN THE HIGHLIGHTS HE IS ALWAYS
A PRIORITY.
After Alan was Summer Glau, who
is a tiny, gorgeous, woman who could beat me up and I would thank her. She’s so
hardcore in all her film roles, and then she tells she can hear her baby
saying, “Mama” from off-stage and your heart just melts.
Highlights:
She agrees with xkcd that a RiverTam Beats Up Everyone movie needs to be made.
Forget Batman v Superman, I want
a Deadpool v River movie.
She told several stories about
how incredible Joss Whedon’s dialogue is; how did he get so talented and when
do I get to meet him? Any time I hear a Whedon actor talk I fall more in love
with him.
“I’d never seen the Terminator
films, but I think they are part of America.” Her inflection there made
this line hilarious.
Next up, George Takei. Now I feel
like he’s more of a facebook presence than anything (I promise you have at
least four friends who constantly share George Takei posts), but he was Sulu on
Star Trek. He was great; his smile could power a small sun. After the initial
roar of applause died down he said, “Well, isn’t this a hotbed of geeks and
nerds?” That was the moment I fell in love with him.
I want him and William
Davies as great-uncles, stat. The first fifteen minutes he did
as a speech, a breakdown of why Star Trek was so important to the country when
it came out, and why it has endured for the last fifty years. Then he took
questions from the fans.
Highlights:
He did the infamous “Oh my” that
Howard Stern uses on his show. I hate Howard Stern but even he can recognize a
good thing.
When a fan greeted him in Spanish
he responded, and they exchanged a few words in Spanish. Then George said,
“Should I answer in Spanish? No, we don’t want to shame the monolinguals.”
He spent some of his teenage
years in an internment camp, and hearing him talk about that was very powerful.
In yesteryear we were afraid of the Japanese, now the tide has turned against
the Muslim population. America, we wrongfully imprisoned thousands of our
citizens once. Let’s not ever do that again.
George says that Star Trek: The
Undiscovered Country should be called Captain Sulu to the Rescue, and notes
that Sulu’s ship, the Excelsior, is larger than the Enterprise. He described
Kirk as “the aging captain of the Enterprise” ahhaa I love it.
The best part of this panel was
when he was asked about the commercials he’s done for Taco Bell recently. The
fan asked if he had tried the food he was advertising and George immediately
went, “They’re fantastic! Have you tried them? They’re so good! Where is the
nearest Taco Bell? You all need to go to Taco Bell. After you leave this convention,
you all need to inundate Taco Bell.” I was dying. Later in the panel the staff
put “#NearestTacoBell” up on the screens and I died again. It turned out
#NearestTacoBell was trending because of us. It was made better for me by the
fact that the dude who asked the question was sitting in the row behind me, and
he was mortified. “Why did I ask that?!?” I know that feel, bro.
#NearestTacoBell
After my five hours of straight
panels, I was ready to get out of that ballroom. I headed onto the vendor floor
to spend my allotted souvenir budget. THERE’S SO MUCH. I bought art, and
keychains, and seriously considered some Gandalf socks. I want to buy all of
the original art!!!!!! And there are thousands of pins, weapons, masks, games,
toys, anything and everything geeky under the sun. It blows my mind.
During this time I ran into a Spike cosplayer; I've only ever seen a handful, but this one was on point. I immediately had to ask him for a picture, and even that ten second interaction with a cosplayer left me blushing for minutes. You know that character that you always have been and always will be hopelessly in love with? Spike is that for me.
 |
| Not pictured: My flustered blushing |
After my shopping extravaganza
and break (like I said yesterday, there comes
a point where you need to silently stare at a wall for a while), I went
to the latter half of a toy collecting panel. I have zero interest in toy
collecting, but they were doing a raffle, and I won a free comic book! I now
own my first ever comic book!! Another area of nerdom may be about to open
before me.
I watched the first half of the
Chandler Riggs panel. I stopped watching Walking Dead when I stopped dating the
guy who watched it with me, because watching murderous zombies without someone to cuddle with is something that appeals to me exactly zero amount. Carl was never my favorite character
anyway, and it was odd to see such a young celebrity. His hair is out of
control.
He does, however, like the bad joke “CORAL” meme, which I thoroughly
approve of. Yelling, "CORAL" (which is how 'Carl' sounds with Rick Grimes' accent) was my favorite part of the show.
Next was the Awkward Encounters
with Celebrities panel, which was hilarious. One guy told a story about how his
parents met Donny Osmond, and he told them he liked their baby. Then Donny
Osmond saw the parents fifteen years later, in the same restaurant, and asked
how their baby was doing. Donny do you live in an Olive Garden
One reporter was doing a red
carpet interview at a Star Wars premiere and George Lucas kept heckling him,
“Don’t believe this guy, he’s lying.”
At Sundance someone made fun of
Val Kilmer by calling him a cowboy and he was not impressed.
One girl almost got hit by Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s limousine, and he offered to buy her a new bike.
It was a fun panel, is what I’m
saying.
That was my last panel of the
day; I did another walk around of the vendor hall to get an idea of anything I
might want to pick up tomorrow (it’s not an impulse buy if you plan ahead) and
then drove home.
When I got home there was tons of
pizza and also PUPPIES. MY ROOMMATE HAD A PARTY AND RENTED PUPPIES. THIS DAY
WAS ON FELIX FECLIIS. Pretty much the
only way to keep me from retreating to my room at a party where I know where
very few people is to introduce puppies to the party. I petted all four of
those puppies, and tried to take selfies with them, with limited success.
Puppies do not like to take selfies.
What a day. I love Comic Con, but
I’m glad it’s only twice a year, for three days at a time. I was exhausted when
I left. I stand by what I’ve often said, though, which is
that everyone should come for at least one day, once. It’s a different country,
man, but it’s such a great country.
 |
| The girl is making the same face I did. |
 |
| The Force Awakens Leia cosplayers give me life |
 |
| That feel when your favorite politician is even showing up at Comic Con |
