This was the Comic Con that I wondered the whole week or two before why I was even going. It seemed to be too much and way too stressful and not really that worth it and.... why why why was I even going????
In the end though, it was all pretty fun and I remembered why I go... the energy.... the energy is amazing and the crazy atmosphere is just to die for. I love it, even if it's stressful and exhausting and expensive! Thursday:
We got there a bit late since I had to work and the girls couldn't leave school early this time. Sadly, the biggest event of the con happened Thursday morning when they rented out the huge arena and had both Mark Hamill and William Shatner do Q and A presentations back to back in the morning. It was painful to miss those and I had to block it out of my head. Sigh.
Anyway, we finally got there and no issues getting Sangi's wristband which I sort of worried about, but our VIP status worked in our favor for that. And then we split up and they went to a World of Warcraft panel while I saw the girl from Arrow. Then they joined me for The Dukes of Hazard and Billy Boyd, both of which was wonderful. But Billy Boyd sang and it made me feel so much better! And made up for the fact that I'd missed Luke Skywalker earlier that day. Sigh. He, Billy Boyd, was so funny and his voice is amazing. I loved it.
The Dukes
Billy Boyd
We found James Dashner and got a picture.
Also a picture with Benedict!
We wandered the vendor floor for a bit after that and then got a Crown Burger which is turning into a comic con tradition.
Friday:
We waited until the kids were done with school again, but they had early out so we could leave by noon which meant we got there by 1:00 which meant we caught Henry Winkler. He was awesome. Then we stayed for Evanna Lynch who played Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter. She was fun. Mellow. Quiet-ish. After that we had our photo op with Manu Bennett. Ah. He's... awesome looking!
With Manu
We also stopped and talked to Chistorpher Gorham and got an autograph for Jenni Elyse.
After that, we hung out on the floor, shopped, had snacks, rested up a bit and then went to a Star Wars panel where we all promptly fell asleep. So, we left when that was over and went to get kpop fries which are THE BEST!
Kpop fries and Bumblebees BBQ grill! So good!
Saturday:
We got there in time for the first panel at 10 but not in time to get a very good seat. We were up close, but way to the side. It ended up being okay. We stayed in that same spot until 5:00 pm!!! Here was the line up of celebrities that came through;
Michael Rooker aka. Merle from The Walking Dead.. and he was amazing and so funny and worked the crowd like crazy.
Famke Janssen who I didn't really know though she has been in a gazillion things
Xander and Anya from Buffy.... they were pretty funny.
Stephen Amell and David Ramsey from Arrow... and they were awesome!
Lennie James aka. Morgan from The Walking Dead... loved him too.
then we waited an hour for the next panel because he was late.. again!!!
Ian Somerhader from Vampire Diaries. He is fun but... a little strange. I don't know... he's just.. a little strange.
He called Chris Pratt.. no biggie.
Our home for hours.
Xander is my favorite on Buffy.
These guys from Arrow are the best!
It's Morgan!!! (later at the photo op he walked past us and Toto almost stepped on him)
Ian aka Damen
We finally did a picture with some cosplayers while waiting in the photo op line.
He's so cute!
And the night ended with stories!
Finally, we left the ballroom and got food then had our photos with Billy Boyd. YAY!!! We shopped just a bit after that and then left to head to a Timpanogos Storytelling event back at home!
Thursday afternoon saw my daughter and me heading out for yet another Comic Con experience! We had great expectations having forked out the money for a VIP pass this time. Which also meant we'd bought our very first photo ops, something I both looked forward to and felt extremely anxious about! We were branching out! It was #epic!
Anyway, here's what we did and who we saw, in case you are interested in this kind of thing.
THURSDAY
Peter Davison
aka. the 5th Doctor
The big event of this day was a special panel by Buzz Aldrin. We got there quite a bit early and decided we had time to go see Peter Davison first... who played the 5th Doctor Who back in the 80s. I've only watched the recent "modern" remake Dr. Who's so am not familiar with these older doctors (the ones they are calling the "classic" Dr. Who's!) but every time we see one of their panels, we love them. This guy was awesome and funny and personable and I didn't know that his daughter played the daughter of David Tennant in one of his episodes, who then ended up marrying David Tennant in real life! What a crazy story!! Loved it!
Buzz Aldrin
aka. the 2nd man on the moon
After that we ran and got in line for Buzz ending up with an okay seat and had a lovely time listening to him tell his stories and promote more space exploration especially to Mars. He was a hoot and lots of fun. "Nothing is impossible!" Oh, he's the second man on the moon, in case you might not have known. He took this picture:
and this picture:
which is just beyond cool. His comment about why those pictures are so iconic, "Location, location, location!"
After that we ran to get a closer seat where we camped out for a couple Q and A panels. First up was Sylvester McCoy who was the 7th Dr. Who. Also, some of you may know him as Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit movies. He was awesome because he circulated through the audience, taking questions personally. At one point he was standing in our aisle and I was busy trying to get his picture, when suddenly he was crawling over us to get to the kid next to us to answer his question. We were trying to scoot our bags out of the way so he wouldn't trip over them and he made fun of us. Ah! It was so funny! My impression of him, a short little man with a TON of energy! He was great fun!
Sylvester McCoy
aka. the 7th Doctor
After him we had the great opportunity to listen to LaVar Burton interact with the audience and answer questions. He was amazing. Probably the best panel of the whole time for me. (Here's a link to the whole thing if you're interested. See if you can see what I mean.) And he had us laughing so hard that my face literally started to ache. I'd forgotten he was Kunta Kinte back in the day of that famous Roots show, which yes, I'm old enough to remember in a very very vivid way! Anyway, I just love him!
LaVar Burton
then as Kunta Kinte
LaVar Burton now
aka. the Reading Rainbow guy
and Geordie
We left the room for a bit to wander around the vendor floor and check out celebrity row and figure out where photo ops were happening. I was too nervous and scared to talk to anyone though. This is an aspect of Comic Con that I need to get over. But I feel too stupid to stand in line just to say hi and not actually buy an autograph from them, or pay to have a selfie taken. You know? (Each one of those is around $50 by the way.)
Anyway, then we went back to the big room to see two guys from The Backstreet Boys and one from Nsync. And yes, I am too old to have been gaga about these groups, though I've enjoyed their music. I thought it would be fun to see them still. Joey was late and got there just in time to say hi and answer like two questions. Nick and A.J. were... okay, but I was not overly impressed with them. There was a girl with them too who I have no idea who she was. They were all promoting a zombie shoe they are doing for the SyFy channel called Dead 7. We saw a couple of trailers and it looks awful! Very B movie-ish! Which, you know, can be fun sometimes! Oh, and yes, they sang the chorus of their famous-est song... but I forgot what it was. And that's good because if I remember it will be stuck in my head the rest of the day.
Then we popped into a ghost story panel, because it said "MORE stories of the paranormal" but after listening for a bit we realized it was the same stories he told last comic con. Nothing new for us. So we left early and went and got a hamburger from Crown Burger instead.
FRIDAY
We got there bright an early to be among the first people into the big ballroom. First up was a couple of guys from The X Files... a show I never quite got into, but we wanted good spots for later, so we were there. They were Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis, the second being known as the cigarette smoking man, if you are familiar with that show. Anyway, they had fun stories and were entertaining even though we weren't fans of their show.
The X Files guys
Up next was Gillian Anderson, who the crowd was going wild over. (I guess guys especially find her attractive. Okay. I don't see it, but then again, they probably don't see it when I'm gushy for a certain guy actor, amirite?) She was another though, that I did not know and wasn't excited about. I was willing to give her a chance however. One of the things we've learned is that even if you aren't familiar with the celebrity, their panels are fun and you end up a fan afterwards. This has happened so many times. Well, let me just say that this chick did not win me over. Sorry if you are a fan of hers, but she was crass and weird, and stand-off-ish with the audience and just... I don't know...icky. She gave me a very slimy feeling. She did auction off her shirt to go toward her charity and someone bought it for $1000. Yay!?! Anyway. She was weird.
Gillian Anderson
aka. Skully from The X Files
But up next was our favorite dude, Alan Tudyk! And he delivered! His thing is to bring a bunch of his personal garbage and for anyone who asks a question, he will sign some piece of junk and give it away! It's a riot. Plus, he is as far to the side of animated and enthusiastic as the above mentioned Gillian was not. We love him!
Alan Tudyk
and more Alan Tudyk
After that was one of his fellow Firefly costars, Summer Glau. She played River on that show and did an amazing job! She is so tiny and cute and quiet and lovely! We had to sneak out of her panel early in order to experience our first photo op.
Summer Glau
aka. River from Firefly
It was a madhouse at the photo op area, but they let us bypass all the outside lines and took us right into lines inside where pictures were happening. There were a ton of people in line ahead of us at the inside lines, but it moved fairly quickly, once they got started and BAM BAM BAM, they have you in and out of there like cattle through a shoot! Literally five seconds to pose with the celebrity, like enough to BARELY time to say hi, pose, flash, and thanks. BAM BAM BAM!
That's us with the Alan Tudyk!
Once that was over, we had a bit of time to stop and buy the new Dan Wells book and have him sign it. I should have taken his picture dang it. What was I thinking? This is Comic Con after all! PICTURES!
Then we managed to get back to the big room to see Peter Facinelli. Dang that boy is nice looking! He was full of fun Twilight stories and I guess he's pretty famous for a strange character on Nurse Jackie? Yeah? Anyway. He was great too. I didn't get a very good picture of him though.
Peter Facinelli
aka. Carlisle from Twilight
Then we went to see Dean Cain, who said he will run for president against Kanye if it ever comes to that. I will vote for him. He seemed totally capable. It was fun to remember watching his show Lois and Clark from back in the day. Good times! My picture of him is too terrible to share. But he looks just the same.
And then, we looked at the schedule and suddenly realized that Chandler Riggs aka. Carl from The Walking Dead was listed as doing a panel! What? Where did that come from? So we used the ZipQ VIP perk to get into that one and he was awesome. We learned that he is very much looking forward to us all seeing next week's season finale and every time someone asked.. "what was your favorite thing to shoot, your hardest? your best? your..... whatever?" he would answer Episode 16! Also we learned he goes to public school, likes John Green books, the band 21 Pilots, truly likes chocolate pudding, his favorite character is Michonne, and he enjoys having long long hair. Oh, and he has worked with seven different sets of twins who play Judith!
Chandler Riggs
aka. Carl from The Walking Dead
Then it was time to line up for our special Dr. Who panel. They got us in there ten times faster than last year and we did most of the waiting inside on the chairs. Instead of sitting on a cold concrete floor. Nice. Anyway it was a panel of the two older Dr. Who's, which we'd already seen on panels, and also Alex Kingston who plays River Song, and Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor. They had a great time interacting with each other and making us laugh. It was a great time. Though I find it fascinating that kids are still the only ones brave enough to stand in the Q and A line and ask questions.
The two classic Doctors with the moderator
Alex and Matt
And that ended our second day.
SATURDAY
We got there even earlier for this day! We wanted to be close! We were among the first inside thanks to Catie who beat us there and let us jump in line with her! First up was Alex Kingston, who I just mentioned above, but it was fun to see her on her own. PS. I totally forgot she was on ER. I loved that show! She is a hoot and a blast to listen to. And so cute!
Alex Kingston
aka. River Song on Dr. Who
Then we saw Jason Isaacs known for his role as Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter. He was a riot and decided to not really do a Q and A but just answered all the normal questions he knew everyone would ask! Sort of in stand up comedian style. He told great stories from the set of Harry Potter and how he was the one who had the idea of what Lucius should look, including the long white hair. He's also known for Captain Hook from a Peter Pan remake that I remember quite enjoying. I need to rewatch that. He's in a ton of other things too. He was funny and extremely energetic and we could have listened to him for much longer than the allotted hour.
Jason Isaacs
aka. Lucius Malfoy
Up next was the man of the day, Jeremy Renner! He's here in Park City shooting another movie, so he just decided he could handle zipping down for the day to hang out with fans. He was quite laid back and quiet after Jason, but still very nice, very cute...VERY... and had the most fun laugh and deep voice. Sigh. He could only stay for a bit, so it was a quick little glimpse of him, but worth it.
Jeremy Renner
aka. Hawkeye the coolest Avenger
After that we popped back over to get in line for our photo op with Jason. Sheesh. Did I say it was a madhouse over there?! We waited a bit for them to call us and while we did that we walked around and saw that Nsync Joey was having a dance party at his autograph table, and that Matt Smith was "out" so we got a closer up glimpse of him and... DANG! Did I say how smashing he is?! Anyway, we ended up nearly first in line for the photo op and didn't have to wait for very long really. A VIP perk at work then for sure! BAM BAM BAM! Photo with Jason! He did shake our hands though, which was nice. He seems like a good guy. Yeah, I need to watch more of his movies.
That's us with Jason Isaacs!
Then, we ran back to the panels and saw Danai Gurira aka. as Michonne from The Walking Dead. wow, she is stunning and wow she does SO MUCH STUFF! I'm blown away by the lives these people lead! It kills me!
Danai Gurira
aka. Michonne from The Walking Dead
Then we stayed for the voice actors and their famous and extremely popular panel called Twisted Toons. In past I've just been so-so about them but my daughter was over the moon to see (hear?) the guy who voices Sponge Bob. Also, there was the guy who does Disney voices, which I actually know! And so it ended up to be more fun than I expected. they read the script of The Force Awakens in all their funny voices and people were rolling in the aisles. We stayed the whole time and didn't end up sneaking out early like we thought we might.
We had a bit of time to do some shopping. I added to the Funko Pop Star Wars collection. Something one must do while at Comic Con you know...
And the collection grows
After that we went and saw some familiar faces talking about writing and doing their Writing Excuses podcast.
Howard Taylor, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells
aka. The Writing Excuses guys
And then we stayed in that smaller room to hear what people had to say about the new Star Wars land in Disneyland. It sounds fun and I look forward to experiencing it someday!
Then we stumbled out of there, blurry eyed and happy, re-energized from yet another comic Con and ready to face the next six months until the next one rolls around!
It's bigger on the inside.
Here's a little feeling for what it's like there. We are in the crowd at .05 seconds in! LOL!
I know you could all probably care less (or is it couldn't care less, I can never get that right!) about who I saw and what I did during Comic Con, but I still have to record it for posterity, you know? Or at least for me to read over next year, and maybe the year after that just to remember. :)
Day One: Thursday
Right of the bat, we had some issues parking. . . our normal spot was full! But we finally figured that out and arrived around 3:15 pm on Thursday. So the first Q and A panel we ended up in was Scott Wilson, aka. Hershel from The Walking Dead. He was very low key. Interesting, yes. But not too exciting. They doubled the room that we normally hang out in (usually there are two rooms but they combined them into one huge one that seats 4500 people!) and we were toward the back for that first panel, so when it ended, up to the front we ran! Part of the craziness of comic con is fighting for seats. There's such a strategy involved. And what fun is going if you only see them on the jumbo-tron and not their real live faces, right?
Anyway, we got closer for the next one which was Chekov from the original Star Trek. He was a spry little old man! And cute! He wore a baseball cap that put his whole face in shadow which made me crazy and the moderator kept trying to tip it back. Finally he (Walter Koenig) just took it off. It was pretty funny. He had some great Star Trek stories.
The Weasley Twins! They were awesome! But guys, they don't have red hair. Gasp. I know. But they had beautiful brown hair and were so cute. The moderator asked them rapid fire favorite questions and they answered as one, with the same answers in the exact same tone. It was awesome. Someone asked them which one of them was the good twin and which one the bad. We all determined that Oliver is the bad and James is the good. They seemed to agree. I have to admit, I was drawn to James just a touch. (He's the one that played Fred in the movie.) I don't know why, he just exuded that cute shy boy charm.
Oliver (aka George) on the left, James (aka Fred) on the right.
After that we actually left the ballroom and the Q and A's to wander around. We took a few pictures, observed the cool costumes and strolled past Celebrity Row to see who was "out."
Then we got in line for the class we wanted to go to at 8:00 about ghost hunting. That guy has some interesting stories indeed! I tend to believe him, but I know many would just roll their eyes and find him completely full of it.
We lasted the whole day! After that it was over! And we went home to sleep.
Day Two: Friday
We got up and picked up Kami and her brother on our way to the convention. We arrived about an hour early and Toto and I went straight to the line for Jenna Coleman, aka Clara, the current companion in Dr. Who. We waited in line for awhile, but they let us in pretty quickly and we got fairly good seats in the front section. We waited for probably 40 or so minutes inside and then finally, our marathon day of Q and A panels in the huge ballroom began!
Jenna Coleman was cute and fun. We learned that this current season of Dr. Who, the one that just started, is her last season and in fact she has already shot her final Dr. Who scene. So that's sad. And now I wonder who the next companion will be!
Waiting in line.
After her it was supposed to Rory, also from Dr. Who, but he had to cancel at the last minute. Sad!! So, there was an hour of no one! Did we leave our seats? NO! We moved closer and were actually on the seventh row now, and just to the left of center. On an aisle too! Perfect! We were not leaving. So we sat and read and had a little nap and ate our snacks.
Reading and waiting.
The crowd behind me.
Then it was 1:00 p.m. Time for the Sean Astin panel! Oh my word that entire 4500 seat place filled completely up and no wonder. He was awesome! He came out riding on the top of the golf cart (they use those to get the celebrities around from spot to spot) down an aisle. The crowd went wild. And then he ran from side to side of the stage until we were crazy from screaming. He was great and told the awesome story about filming that final scene, carrying Frodo on his back, and the monologue he had. He said he wanted to do it over and over and over again so they let him until it was dark. And they were all (director included) weeping by the time it was all over. He is amazing. (Full panel video right here! You can really get a feel for all the screaming we do at these things.) Anyway, I could have had that one go on for an hour or two longer, but nope. There was more to come!
Up next was Sebastian Stan who stars in Captain America. He's the friend, Bucky and in Winter Soldier he's (SPOILER) the Winter Soldier! And he is really quite beautiful with the most amazing smile. He was raised in Romania and spoke some Romanian for us, which was cool. I need to watch this Winter Soldier movie again that's for sure. :) (Full panel right here if you want to watch!)
I tried to get the smile.
The smile!
Did we leave yet? We did not! I wanted to go see Dean O'Gorman so so bad, but he was in a different room, But I did not want to leave our seats! So we stayed and saw Felicia Day.... again... like we did last year. She is funny and cute and a blast to listen to, but I haven't seen her in one dang thing! And Dean was Fili in The Hobbit and I'm sure I would have loved him, but.... I stayed in the ballroom.
Here's what I gave up in order to keep my seats! Gah! I'm crazy!
After Felicia was Anthony Daniels aka. C3PO and the highlight of the whole comic con for us. He was a riot! He didn't do a Q and A but instead pretty much did a stand comedy routine which included lots of Star Wars stories. I loved it! I was riveted! He made us bow down to him like the Ewoks did in Return of the Jedi and we thought we'd die laughing. He was great! (I cant find a full panel video of him yet, but when I do it will go here!)
The day was not over yet! Up next was Christopher Gorham. I'm not very familiar with him except for the movie The Other Side of Heaven. Most people know him from Covert Affairs. But I guess he's been in a gazillion things. I need to look some of them up and watch. He's way cute!
Our naked eye view. :)
What he looks like in case you didn't know.
Now it's 6:00 p.m. and we still didn't leave our seats! Because next on the line up was Manu Bennett and I love him! We saw him last year and I was hooked. So we stayed again and he is just so sweet and nice and genuine and perfect. He plays such bad guys (Azog, Slade Wilson and Crixus) but he's such a nice guy in real life.
Whew. And then.. and then... we left the ballroom! We'd arrived there about 10 am and now it was 7 pm. NINE hours sitting there watching one celebrity after another and I LOVED it! The day goes by so so fast and it's so much fun! (P.S. No, we didn't leave to go to the bathroom or to eat. I brought snacks and we were too excited to worry about the bathroom!)
We went to one more class, a small panel, about psychology and fandom. I hoped they'd explore the idea that being a fan of anything is a positive thing for your mental health. They touched on that, but mostly they talked about how people identify with the mental health issues that various superheros suffer and how it helps them get through it. At any rate, it was interesting.
We were tired after that and left, with Kami and her brother, and got food at Village Inn.
And now, I must explain a thing. So the big headlining name of the con, Chris Evans, was to be doing his Q and A panel in the ballroom the next morning, Saturday at 10:00 am. They decided that instead of having people camping out to get a spot in line to guarantee they get in the room, they'd do a lottery and award 4500 people of the 120,000 that attended, a spot in the room. They said if you won, you'd get an email on Friday. I checked my email all day long and nothing. Oh, well. I'm not that into Chris Evans, but I truly did want to be "in the room" so I could have a good spot for Ian Somerhalder who was right after Chris!
During that last class at 7:00 p.m. the email popped up saying I was a winner! WOOT! My time to show up the next morning was 8:20 am! Wow! (Keep in mind it's a 45 min drive from my house to the convention.) But I was excited! Yay! Good thing Toto had to do a violin thing on Saturday morning, because I only won ONE seat!
Day Three: Saturday
So I got up at 6:30 am. Left my house at 7:00 a.m. Arrived in the parking lot at 7:45 am. Found my line at 8:00 am and was ushered into the building about 8:10 am. I was one of the first groups in, so had pretty decent seats. We squished altogether, all strangers, yet friends. And I did make friends with the two people seating next to me because we had TWO hours to kill! The panel didn't start until 10:00 am (as mentioned above!) So that was fun.
Well, the time arrived and no Chris. 10: 15 and no Chris. 10:30 and no Chris. We started getting pretty restless. Man, they were stalling and it made me crazy. I wish they could just come out there and tell us how it is and what's going on. But they don't. They make it seem like ANY SECOND NOW we are going to start!
Well, finally at 10:40 Chris came out. SCREAMING! And he was awesome. And he answered a question .And then out popped Anthony Mackie, the other star of Captain America. SCREAMING! And then Chris answered another question. Then out popped some girl who I don't know at all... Hayley someone who plays Agent Carter, also in Captain America? I think? Anyway.. SCREAMING! (Video of all this right here.) And then Chris sort of answered another question. And now it's 11:00 am and they told him he had to go. He was on stage for TWENTY minutes! So we won the lottery, got up at the crack of dawn, and sat waiting for him for 2 1/2 hours for TWENTY minutes! I was bummed. The rest of the time was Anthony Mackie doing Q and A like a normal panel and he was great and funny and it was awesome. So. It was fun. But still. (Full panel of ALL this excitement to be found here! Including the push up challenge. And you don't even need to win a lottery!)
Love this shot.
And three of them.
Once that was over at about 11:45 I scooted over to get more center (I didn't manage to get closer) for Ian. I was so excited! His Q and A panel started at noon. It came. It went. No Ian. 12: 15 no Ian. Again with the stalling, again with the "just a few more minutes!" thing. Just tell us people. HE"S NOT HERE YET! Or whatever. Anyway. Finally at 12:30 he came out and SCREAMING! He was as cute as expected. He was got on his environment soap box, as expected. He was just pretty much what I expected. All 20 minutes we got of him before he had to go. Sigh. (Here's the naked Damon story someone caught on video in case you're interested.)
I took a lot of crappy pictures. Here's a few of them!
My family showed up by that time so I saved seats and they joined me. Then next panel was going to be a promo and sneak peek at Con Man, a video series coming up. I had no idea what it was but Alan Tudyk was supposed to be skyping in and Sean Astin was also involved, so I decided to stay put, again, instead of leaving to go to a local author panel. And it was good that I did because guess who was actually there and NOT on skype after all! Alan Tudyk! He walked in on the stage IN THE FLESH! Much much SCREAMING! (Here's the full panel including the surprise appearance of Alan.) I was so excited. I tired to get into his panel last year and didn't make. So, I got to see him this year! He was funny. And they web series looks like these guys making fun of fans and conventions, so it looks like a riot. I may even have to watch it! Here's a trailer in case you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about:
Then we stayed again for the voice actor panel. These guys are amazing with their voices and they read the Harry Potter script in silly funny cartoon voices. But I know none of them! So, it's funny but sort of not funny too. For me. The room was filled with 4500 people who laughed and laughed and laughed. The panel went for two hours, but we left (YES WE LEFT!) after one hour. It was 3:00 pm I'd been in there for seven hours.
We all split up (Toto was actually with her friends that day and they did some fun stuff, including shaking Anthony Daniels hand!) and I found myself at the Neon Trees panel. They sang to us at the end.
Then I stayed there (this was int the smaller big room) for Urban Fantasy so I could at least say I saw Terry Brooks and Jim Butcher. They were cool, but the subject ended up being kinda boring. Gasp. I know. Maybe I was just tired. Then I was going to leave, but suddenly all the family showed up to see Stars of YouTube! So I stayed. Three hours in that room! But it was fun and low key.
Then we left to ran BACK to the ballroom to see John Barrowman. We sat in the back for him (see what happens if you leave that room? You sit in the BACK!!) and enjoyed his stand up comedy act. He's funny, but he does tend to cross a line for me now and then from funny to crass. Oh, well. He sang and I could listen to him sing forever. See what I mean:
I was pretty tired after that, but went to one more panel about UFO's and crop circles. LOL! When that was over, Toto was done with her friends we left and went home, but not before we got dinner at Five Guys.
Whew! And that was our experience! I loved it! So much fun. I decided that the thing I truly love about this event is the energy. I thrive on that energy. It is tangible. And it's amazing. I love screaming for stars. I love seeing what they are like when they aren't acting. (OK, Some of them were acting even then, but still.) And I just think it's a blast.
I was sad to not see Dean O'Gorman and I missed Robbie Amell when I decided to stay to the voice actor thing. And I was sad that Rory from Dr. Who wasn't there. And I felt gypped about the whole Chris Evans thing even though I won the lottery. And I feel bad that I didn't support the local author stuff. But those were the only sad bits. The rest was awesome.
As you can see, I have a different strategy and am happy to stay in that big room and just see person after person come across the stage. Wandering "the floor" as they call it is fun, but that tends to stress me out. And I'm not interested in buying stuff and I'm too shy to talk to the stars, and can't justify paying for pictures, so I find the fun in just seeing them do the Q and A's.
