#dragoncon #dragoncon2024 Anthony, Hanako, and Michael discuss some of their favorite moments from Dragon Con 2024, which took place in Atlanta over the Labor Day weekend. We would like to thank the following Tracks for allowing us to participate on their panels: Alternate & Historical Fiction, American Sci-Fi & Fantasy media, American Sci-Fi Classics, Apocalypse Rising, High Fantasy, Horror, Star Wars, Urban Fantasy, X-Track, and Young Adult Literature.
Also, Hanako, Kacey, and Michele are nominated for the Women in Podcasting Awards in the Entertainment Category. Please vote for the Fandom Hybrid Podcast by October 1st at the following link: https://www.womenpodcasters.com/vote
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What's up hybrids? Welcome back to another episode
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of the Phantom Hybrid Podcast. This is Hanukkah and I am here
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with Anthony and Mike and we are discussing Dragon Con 2024.
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Yay yay Dragon Con has come. So much fun.
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And we had so much fun and we were so busy, and we got to talk
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about a whole bunch of nerdy things.
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And we want to talk about it a little bit.
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But before we get into our Dragon Con discussion, we wanted
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to just do a little bit of an aside because a few hours ago it
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was announced that James Earl Jones, at age 93, passed away.
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And this man has an extensive resume, but for those of us who
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are nerds, we know him mainly from three things.
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And that is Coming to America, The Lion King and the Star Wars
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franchise as the voice of Darth Vader.
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So. It's a voice that launched 1000
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fandoms. Yeah.
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Yeah. I mean, you didn't mention The
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Sandlot, which he's known for. It's like.
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I was going to say that The Sandlot is is amazing that
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movie. I mean, his, his fences on
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Broadway, like his, his performance on Fences on
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Broadway was just like, I mean, he, I mean, Denzel was good in
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the movie, but him on Broadway was just even way more intense
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than that. I mean, he had, he's had such a
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long and illustrious career and a respected career is that he's
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one, he's one, one of the few actors that is respected across
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the board, across gender, across race, across political belief,
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across any belief. He was one of the most respected
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actors of all time. Like everybody, I mean, even
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nerds and non nerds, like they knew him from something, whether
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it was Lion King, whether the Star Wars, whether it was just
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being the voice of CNN. It's like they knew who he was
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and oh. God.
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I forgot about that. This.
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CNN yeah, but it's like he's, he was so respected across the
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board that is like he was the epitome of like trans
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transcendent. Like he was literally, he
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literally was trans like transcendent in the in show
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business. It's a great loss, but I mean 93
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years is a hell of a run. Right.
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And he was still working up until like recently.
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Yeah. So that wouldn't.
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Last Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did some, he did some
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voice work for one of the Star Wars shows.
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Can't remember which one off top of my head, but yeah, he, he
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outside of Darth Vader, like he's just amazing.
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One of the things that, you know, when I learned how he used
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to stutter and how he overcame that was really it really
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touched me somewhere because, you know, growing I have a list
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and growing up, for me, it was it wasn't difficult to speak,
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but I didn't like talking. I didn't like talking because
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people make fun of my list. And so, you know, and then
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having a deep voice as well, even, you know, in middle school
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was, was something I always had to contend with.
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And he sort of, you know, I think I read an interview that
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him talking about that just made me, you know, really want to try
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to overcome that. So yeah, he'll, he'll always
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have a special place for me. I mean, he had he has to be
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special. Like he made he made a pretty,
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when you look at him, a pretty despicable character, one of the
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most liked characters in fandoms, like one of the most
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copied. Like one one of the most.
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I mean, we really talk about Dragon Con during the parade.
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How many how many Darth Vader's do you see wanting to be like
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one night? And he wasn't even the actor.
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He was just the voice. And his voice inspired people to
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love that character. Like how many people go around
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calling themselves Sith because of him.
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Yeah. So going back to what Anthony
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was saying, he did do recent Star Wars stuff.
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The most recent was in 20/22. He voiced Darth Vader in the Obi
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Wan Kenobi show. Yeah, Kenobi.
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Show. Yep, he also did Episode 9, he
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did Rogue One, he did Star Wars Rebels, and those are just all
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within the last couple of years. Of course he did coming to
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America too. You know, he's known for The
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Lion King, Return of the Lion, return of the roar, the Lion
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Guard. I mean, he did The Big Bang
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theory. Like there's so much on here.
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Jack and the Beanstalk. He did house he did 2 1/2 men
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welcome home Roscoe Jenkins Scary movie for like his his
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filmography goes all the way back to what is this 1962 is
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what I see maybe a little bit. No excuse me, no man, I'm wrong
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1952 he was on guiding light. I did remember that I do.
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I do know that so he did soap operas 1952 guiding light.
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He did as the world turns so, so much stuff, such a long career,
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such a long life. Like you said, my transcended
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all types of genres, all types of like just entertainment in a
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nutshell. So, you know, life well lived,
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job well done. Rest in peace, good Sir James
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Earl Jones. Yeah.
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That was. That was a hard 1, though.
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Like, even though 9093 is good, but we have lost some really
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good legendary actors, especially like recently,
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recently, because we also lost Donald Sutherland not too long
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ago, who also had a huge long career.
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But OK, let's move along. Let's talk about Dragon Con.
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Yeah, so for those of you who listen to us and who follow us,
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you know that Dragon Con is like the big con for us, not just as
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a podcast, but just as nurse in general.
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Anthony, you've been going. This was your 24th year at
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Dragon Con. 24th year at Dragon Con.
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I'm going to be like you and I grow up.
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Me and my amazing little 17 years it's.
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Me and my music. 20. 6, 5-6. That's OK.
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It's OK. It's.
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OK, you catch up because? I know some people who are still
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like, I still haven't been to Dragon Con, and I have people
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who come up to me. I'm a goat this year.
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I'm like, yeah, right. I ain't going to see you.
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And one panel someone was like, man, if you had known this would
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be your 24th year, will you have bought the eternal membership?
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Hell yes, Because I think when I start, I started coming in 2007,
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I think the eternal membership at that time was like maybe
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$750, maybe it. May have been, I think it was a
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little more than that, but yeah. It might have been, but either
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way it goes, Yes, if I'd have known, I'd have taken some of
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that tax money and bought me an eternal.
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And bought an eternal membership, yeah.
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Because now it's like what, 4000 dollars 4500?
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've met a couple people at
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Eternal membership. They they get some pretty
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interesting perks. Yeah, but it.
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It. I would hope so, but.
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For $4500 you better I I better be the Grand Marshall of the
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parade. Who you talking?
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They need to throw in a hotel room.
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I remember I love dragon con, but I don't love dragon.
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I remember years ago, I was, I was trying to talk to Rachel
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Lutrell from Stargate. And like there was that that was
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when you could literally walk up to people, you know, walk up to
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celebrities and whatnot. And, and they literally brought
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this guy over and kind of moved me out the way to talk to her.
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And it was the eternal member. I was like, really?
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OK. Really.
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And she's like, OK, I'm sorry about that.
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They did their thing, you know, chatted him up and then he went
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off and she's like, wow, that. That was really rude.
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That's it. Yeah.
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But there was. That was an eternal member.
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I. Mean.
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I don't think they do that for them anymore.
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But hey, you know, you pay for it.
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You pay for it. That's true, but it's like now
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with it being like $4000, like if you buy your membership
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immediately after Dragon Con or while Dragon Con is still going
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for the following year, right now it's $100.
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That means in order for me to get my money's worth like I
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could, that's 4045 years. I don't know if I can do it.
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Dragon Con at 100, I struggled doing it for at 49 I felt every
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one of my 49 years. This year, I don't know where it
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was. Those heels were a little bit
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harder. The sun was a little bit hotter
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and it was just, it was so many bodies.
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The, the Walk of Fame on, I want to say was either Friday night
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or Saturday. It was so ridiculous trying to
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get in there because the line literally it, it curved around
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the waiting area and then it curved past the charity booth.
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It I mean, it literally curved all over.
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Like they had to tell people who was going to like our panels.
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We do a lot of panels on the American sci-fi fantasy media
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track, which is up under like the, the main level of the
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Marriott. So you go under the escalators
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and the line for the Walk of Fame was there and people had to
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tell them to move. They were like, no, we need this
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space to line up our people for our panels.
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And I was like, I've never, ever seen it like that.
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I. Don't know anything about that
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because all of our panels are in the Marriott so.
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You know what? Whatever.
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Whatever. That's the.
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Marriott. No, but I didn't have to walk up
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in the heels. I didn't have to go back and
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forth between hotels. We don't care.
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That you didn't need to get your steps.
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You didn't need to get. Your steps.
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I got mine, man. Was that was that the one with
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you? Me, Michelle and Burma.
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I don't know, it was one of the other panels.
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Do we go Saturday? No, I'm saying we were in line
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for the Walk of Fame. Trying maybe?
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Yeah, yeah. I didn't even get to, I didn't
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even get to go to the Walk of Fame this time.
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Like I did not step foot inside of there.
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And I really wanted to get Michelle Hurd's autograph.
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Yeah, I went in there twice. Yeah, I went to Michelle Hurd's
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autograph. But and I I saw Nathan Filion,
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but I also saw Nathan Filion's line and I was like.
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He was part of the reason for that longest line.
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I went, I think Mike and I went at the same time.
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We went on Friday, like Friday afternoon because we just wanted
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to walk through and kind of get an idea of where everybody was,
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if we were going to do like autographs or selfies.
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And I walked through and there was some lines where there was
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nothing, like, I think the two of the kids from the Avatar
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Netflix series, at the point that I walked past them, they
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didn't have anybody in their line.
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But then you walk around the corner, it's like, oh, my God.
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I think Nathan Filion had a huge line.
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Ross Marquan had a huge line. Manny Jacinto had a huge like,
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yeah. Ming Na didn't even have Ming Na
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didn't even have that long line. I was shocked at that.
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It was kind of a couple of times I've seen me nod, I've walked up
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to her because there was no one there like.
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But this is also not her first time.
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She's a dragon. Con so it could be this a lot of
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because because I'm one of those people I know there are some
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people who will go and meet the same celebrities over and over
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and over again. I'm I'm not one of those people.
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I can't afford that. But so I don't know, maybe it's
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because Ming Na has been here before.
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A lot of people who were here probably have already seen her.
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But like Nathan Filion, I think he's had to cancel the last
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couple of times. He was supposed to come to
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Dragon Con for filming. So this was the first time he
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was like, actually there. Alan Tudick was there.
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You know, it was like a whole bunch of other people.
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But yeah, we walked through that Friday and I was like, OK, I may
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try to come later. And then I tried on Saturday and
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Saturday was not hitting it. And then I think I walked
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through on Monday before our panels just to see who was left
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and it was a ghost town. So I was like, OK.
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Yeah, we all catch those Monday flights to get mad here.
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Yeah, yeah. I mean, there were a couple of
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people who were still around, but yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't
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any of it because I think most of the quote UN quote big
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people, we're still doing panels.
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So they were on panels that afternoon because I think the
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last big panel was like 2:30. So, yeah.
00:15:00
So this, I think this was my first year that I didn't do
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anything in the Walk of Fame. So I didn't get an autograph.
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I didn't. Yeah, I know.
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This is my first year. I didn't even walk through there
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at all. Yeah.
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First time ever so cool. Have not grown.
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Walk of Fame. Because I walked past a couple
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of people and saw them like in the hall, like Brett Dalton from
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Agents of SHIELD. Grant Ward walked past me and I
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was like, I know I've met this dude before.
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I did not realize he was this tall, so he walked past me.
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I think Bonnie Wright walked past me once.
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That's Jenny Weasley from the Harry Potter series.
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And somebody else walked past me and I was just kind of did a
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double take and I was like, oh, OK.
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But yeah, no, I was in panels all weekend, which was great
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because. Yes, I saw.
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I saw rikishi. And you know, it wasn't rikishi.
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Yeah, I'm sorry. And then and then, oh, oh, but
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hold on. But we also saw when we came out
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of our panel, we saw. Hold on.
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His name is Tanoi Reed, the rock stuntman.
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Like it was. It was me, Hanukkah and our.
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Friend Dina and I think Calvin was that there was there's like
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a whole group that I hang around with off and on during Dragon
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console we. Were it's like, it's like we're
00:16:24
just standing there taking pictures of cosplays and I look
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and I'm like, wow, that is a really good Black Adam cosplay.
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I'm going to take his picture. So I go over there and look and
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it's him and I'm like, and who I was with him was like, you want
00:16:36
a picture? I was like, do you mind?
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He's like, yeah, I guess like I guess he had been taking
00:16:40
pictures. Like everybody been coming up to
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even take a pic. I'm like, thank you.
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So I take 2 pictures with him. I'm like, dude, I follow you on
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Instagram. You're great.
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He's like, oh, cool, thanks dude.
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I'm like, yeah, that go back. I'm like that's, that's, that's
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the double. That's him.
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That's actually him like in the actual costume.
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And they're like, everybody's like what I'm like.
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It's him. A couple of my friends took off.
00:17:02
Yeah, it's like the relis was like help.
00:17:06
Like she she literally wouldn't like Speedy Gonzales.
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I was like, yo, like I think she always knocked me over.
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And see, I had seen him upstairs because I think Mike realized
00:17:16
who it was 'cause I showed him a picture.
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I was like, yo, there's a guy who's dressed as Black Adam and
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he looks really, really like similar.
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He looks almost like the rock. And I showed it to Mike.
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He was like, think I follow him on Instagram.
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I was like what I. Was like, that's right.
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I was like, I was almost like, oh shit, that's him.
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Like oh fuck, that's why I went over there.
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Yeah, I went over there and did a better picture because my
00:17:41
picture was blurry and he was the one who was like, you want
00:17:44
to get in the picture with me? Yes, Absolutely.
00:17:47
Yes. He was really cool about it.
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Like he was really fucking cool. He had a relish throwing her
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hair like. That's just that's.
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Just my girl that was awesome. But I mean that, but I mean he
00:18:02
was really cool about and that's one of the things you like about
00:18:04
Dragon Con is like the stars that know know that you're going
00:18:07
to come up and get pictures with him in the wild.
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And then as long as you're respectful, they're like cool.
00:18:12
Come on. Yeah, and the the cost, OK.
00:18:15
So I took I had to take in about 400 pictures maybe.
00:18:23
I usually take anywhere between 3 and 700 pictures of cosplay at
00:18:29
Dragon Con every single year. How is it that I still there
00:18:34
were still people I did not come across like the.
00:18:39
Because it's 80 people, that's why that's.
00:18:44
Why people? But.
00:18:45
And you know what? I stopped.
00:18:48
The funny thing is, I was listening to our, I was
00:18:53
listening to our episode of X-Men 97 earlier today and we
00:18:57
were talking about the Magneto up on the thing with the, the
00:19:00
underwear. And I was like, you know, we're
00:19:02
going to see a million of them in Dragon Con.
00:19:03
I did not see one single Magneto strapped up to the thing.
00:19:09
I'm I'm, I'm upset. But I did see a couple of worms
00:19:16
from them. I did see those.
00:19:20
Did you see? The popcorn bucket, someone?
00:19:23
Came. Someone came dressed as the Dune
00:19:27
popcorn bucket. Oh wow, wow.
00:19:33
I just on the on the picture thing.
00:19:35
So having gone 24 years, those first 10 or 11 years I took a
00:19:43
lot of pictures. I'm I'm sure I took well over 3
00:19:47
or 4000 pictures. I can't do it no more.
00:19:51
I can't. I can't.
00:19:53
I took one picture this time because this guy had a really
00:19:56
cool looking War Machine costume that that was functional, like
00:20:01
the helmet would go up and down. So I took a picture of him
00:20:04
because he kept like Don Cheadle.
00:20:07
Yeah, yeah. He he, the guy looked, he looked
00:20:11
just like Don Cheadle. I.
00:20:13
Took a picture of him. Yeah, he was.
00:20:18
That was the only the only picture I took of, well, besides
00:20:22
Bailey of cosplay really. Yeah, damn.
00:20:25
But I don't take any. It has to be something that a
00:20:29
I've never seen before or it's just so rare to see.
00:20:35
I will take a picture of it, but it is few and far between for
00:20:38
me. Wow.
00:20:40
Because it's all used to do sit. Sit in the Hyatt or the Marriott
00:20:44
and just take pictures of cosplay.
00:20:46
And so you can't really do that anymore because it's so crowded,
00:20:49
right? It was so crowded, Yeah.
00:20:51
Yeah, you have to follow them around.
00:20:54
I think when when a relist and I first started going in 2007, I
00:20:59
think the first few years, this was before I started doing
00:21:02
panels. So literally I'm on the con
00:21:04
floor all day when I'm not going to panels.
00:21:08
And there will be a cosplay that we would see like across the
00:21:11
building and we would literally Sprint to go get that picture.
00:21:17
And she she started calling her and my other friend chances.
00:21:21
They used to start calling me the Conor Razzi because they
00:21:23
were like, oh, Hanukkah's going to get there.
00:21:26
You can't do it now. Like I'll I'll go a short
00:21:29
distance, but it's so many people and it's so hard to get
00:21:32
through. Then I'm like, OK, you know
00:21:34
what? I was at some point, I'll see
00:21:36
them at some point. But there was some really good
00:21:39
costumes this year and I was like, I wish I could get more,
00:21:44
but unfortunately my phone couldn't hold all of that.
00:21:47
I had to come home and clear out my my phone because between
00:21:50
taking pictures, trying to record panels, my phone was
00:21:54
like, bruh, we limited on space. I didn't get a chance to.
00:22:00
I didn't get a chance to take a lot.
00:22:02
But I mean, I didn't even set foot in the Hilton at all this
00:22:07
year. And I know there was some other,
00:22:11
I know there are people who like hang out in the Hilton.
00:22:14
For the most part, you find your your usual cosplayers that hang
00:22:18
out in the Marriott, like especially certain certain
00:22:21
cosplayers who do the same, the same elaborate costumes every
00:22:26
year. They pretty much know where
00:22:28
their spot is. They know where people going to
00:22:30
come find them and you know, kind of stick there.
00:22:34
I just didn't have time to go to the this year I did.
00:22:38
Yeah, but back in the day, back in the day, like the Marriott
00:22:43
level was where all the really good cosplayers were and it was
00:22:48
on the atrium level. And then like they got crowded.
00:22:53
And so the last time I took pictures, I did in in the Hyatt.
00:22:57
No, in the Hilton, because people were going to the Hilton
00:23:01
lobby and they were just standing there.
00:23:03
You could take pictures and it never got crowded like the
00:23:07
Marriott on on the Atrium and the Marriott and the Marquis.
00:23:11
But. That's because everybody's on
00:23:12
the back steps at the Hilton taking, doing the photo shoots.
00:23:15
That's probably. Why right?
00:23:18
And I hate that I didn't get to go to any photo shoots.
00:23:20
I didn't get to take any pictures of photo shoots this
00:23:25
year, but luckily. Yeah, Bailey missed the Sailor
00:23:28
Moon photo shoot. She wanted to do that.
00:23:32
Yeah, I went to the Deadpool woman's Crip was so good.
00:23:35
Like holy shit. And you know, we didn't see as
00:23:40
many Deadpool as I thought I would.
00:23:42
I didn't see as many as I thought I would.
00:23:44
Yeah, as I thought I would. I didn't see.
00:23:46
And I couldn't even get a good picture of a Deadpool and a
00:23:50
Wolverine because every time I saw like, especially like the
00:23:54
really good ones, there was one guy who looked like eerily like
00:23:59
Hugh Jackman. But they're way over there and
00:24:02
I'm way over here. And I was just like, OK, maybe
00:24:05
tomorrow. Not one I didn't get, I don't
00:24:09
think. I got one pair of Deadpool and
00:24:12
Wolverine. I got a few Deadpools, I got a
00:24:15
few Deadpool variants. I got AI, got a nice pool.
00:24:21
But yeah, I didn't get the two of them together.
00:24:24
And I was so sad. It's like I remember when Loki
00:24:28
came out, we thought we would see a lot of Loki variants.
00:24:31
We didn't see that many Loki variants.
00:24:35
Yeah, well, yeah, because everybody was doing.
00:24:39
Yeah, people were doing the same Loki variance.
00:24:41
We we kept seeing the same. Ones right?
00:24:43
The same President Loki. President Loki, right?
00:24:48
The alligator Loki or yeah so but but yeah, I expected to see
00:24:53
more, especially because we usually see Deadpools all over
00:24:57
the Dragon Con anyway, so. There was a Deadpool
00:25:01
Stormtrooper. It was a Deadpool Stormtrooper.
00:25:05
Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying.
00:25:07
I didn't have my phone out so I missed that.
00:25:09
Missed the picture for that one but that that was.
00:25:11
Kind of I may have gotten that one.
00:25:14
I don't remember. I I do know that there was a,
00:25:17
there was AI think I saw a pink one, yeah.
00:25:24
There was pink. Yo the the pink, the pink one in
00:25:27
the in the dress. In the ballerina.
00:25:30
Skirts. The ball scene was like, maybe I
00:25:34
didn't see the skirt, but I saw I saw a pink stormtrooper.
00:25:38
OK. Yeah, there's like, there's like
00:25:40
an inflatable Pikachu Deadpool that I saw.
00:25:43
I did see that one, Yep. Yes, I saw that one.
00:25:46
Yeah. I did get, yeah, 'cause I did
00:25:49
get a chance. I happened to be sitting on the
00:25:51
floor charging my phone when the dinosaur parade came by me and I
00:25:56
was like, oh, I actually get to see it from the start.
00:25:58
So that was great. That was the inflatable
00:26:01
dinosaurs. And then the following night I
00:26:03
got to watch the Mando March and I think we literally.
00:26:09
Oh my God, that was crazy. And record.
00:26:12
It was like a 4 1/2 minute March with mandalorians of all shapes,
00:26:18
sizes, colors, variations. It was.
00:26:23
And it just did not end. It just kept going.
00:26:26
I was just like, This is why I love Dragon Con, because we get
00:26:30
to see stuff like this. It's a thing.
00:26:34
But I like the March of the Ills.
00:26:39
I missed it this year. Billy and I catch it every year
00:26:44
for some reason. We're always catching it, always
00:26:48
catching it. I missed, I think, I think what
00:26:51
happened though. I think I was on a panel at the
00:26:53
time so that that's probably why.
00:26:56
But. This was Bailey's third year.
00:27:00
Bailey's my 6 year old daughter. This was her third year.
00:27:02
This was her first five day. So she came with us OK?
00:27:09
She came with, did she come with us Friday?
00:27:11
So she came with us Saturday and Sunday, OK, but but she
00:27:16
cosplayed both days. OK.
00:27:18
Which she's she's up on me on cosplay because she's cosplayed
00:27:22
every year. But that's neither here nor
00:27:24
there. So yeah, I was in the Marriott
00:27:28
all day doing panels most of the time.
00:27:32
But the cool thing was being able to hang with her.
00:27:34
Having gone 23 years now, I've been to a lot of things.
00:27:39
Those kind of cool to watch to be to be around people like Mike
00:27:44
who haven't gone a lot because you get to see and experience it
00:27:48
with them all over again. And so experiencing with Bailey
00:27:51
and going to her track, she likes the Silk Road, which is a
00:27:57
track that has a lot of the Asian influence stuff, anime,
00:28:01
all that stuff. And I will tell you this, if
00:28:06
there's any track that needs a larger room, it is them because
00:28:12
every panel has a line. Every panel fills up.
00:28:18
I swear we spend most of the Sunday in there.
00:28:22
It is. It is in.
00:28:25
It's in the. It's in the Hilton.
00:28:27
Oh, OK. Right.
00:28:28
Yeah, It's in the Hilton. Oh.
00:28:30
Yeah, 'cause those rooms are kind of small.
00:28:33
Well, they're long. They're not wide.
00:28:37
Oh, OK, OK. But but for the number of people
00:28:42
that are interested, it's really not enough.
00:28:45
But I don't think there are any other large rooms that they can
00:28:48
go in. But, you know, I've gone to
00:28:52
panels on a lot of tracks where they'll have a packed panel and
00:28:56
then there'll be a panel with like three people in it.
00:28:59
The Silk Road, always a full house.
00:29:03
Always. But that's where she spent most
00:29:07
of her time. And, and it, it was kind of fun.
00:29:09
I was with her. Michelle was with her a lot on
00:29:11
Saturday. Or we would walk her to the room
00:29:15
and then drop her off, you know, in line and then go do our
00:29:19
thing. But I went to like maybe 3 or 4
00:29:21
panels with her on Saturday. But it, it was fun.
00:29:24
It's always fun to see you know someone new experience Dragon
00:29:28
Con. Right.
00:29:29
Especially a younger person. I just wanted to say that
00:29:32
especially, Yeah, especially a young person, yeah.
00:29:35
Yeah. Let's.
00:29:36
Talk about these panels a little bit.
00:29:39
What was your what was your favorite panel that you
00:29:42
attended? Not one that you were on, but
00:29:45
one that you attended. Oh.
00:29:52
Yeah, I got to be honest. You gave us these questions
00:29:54
before, before I don't I. Don't think, I don't think, I
00:29:57
don't think I had time to attend.
00:29:59
I don't think I attended any other than mine because I had
00:30:02
like I had 11 problems. I had 11 and it's like they were
00:30:07
all over there and like, and I know Saturday I was walking all
00:30:11
over the place because I started, I started into
00:30:13
Courtland, then I walked over to the over to the Marriott, Then I
00:30:17
walked up to the West and then I walked back to the Marriott.
00:30:21
So let. Me tell you, the Uber Bird
00:30:25
scooters were my best friend Dragon Con weekend because when
00:30:29
I had to get from one end of the earth to the other, that's what
00:30:34
I did because there were so many people walking and it was so
00:30:37
crowded. I was like, I can't be late.
00:30:40
I I was almost late for my Outlander panel on Sunday.
00:30:44
I had to come from the West End and I, I caught myself going
00:30:48
through the Marriott because the streets were so crowded.
00:30:51
I was like, OK, let me do that. I ended up seeing a friend of
00:30:54
mine that I had not seen the entire con.
00:30:57
So I stopped saying hey to her. And then I literally got like I
00:31:02
told Michelle earlier, I got discombobulated.
00:31:04
I was like, do I not have anywhere to be until 4:00?
00:31:08
And I was like, no. And I started walking.
00:31:11
And then I get a message from Anthony and he was like, we're
00:31:13
waiting for you at the court. I'm like, oh, wait, I have to go
00:31:16
all the way down there. I'm thinking I'm supposed to be
00:31:18
in the Marriott. I was like, wait a minute, let
00:31:21
me get on this scooter and come on down the street.
00:31:24
But. Yeah, Michelle was texting me
00:31:27
and he's like, Hanukkah was not here yet and they're holding,
00:31:30
they're waiting to let anyone in until Hanukkah.
00:31:33
Told me. I was like, I was trying to get
00:31:36
there, but it was it was so many people.
00:31:38
And again, this was also the same day that the downstairs was
00:31:43
so packed. And I was like, I don't know why
00:31:46
I thought going this way would be better because I was going
00:31:50
away from the Walk of Fame. It didn't matter.
00:31:52
It didn't matter. It was crowded.
00:31:55
I was like, OK, so let's just do this.
00:31:58
Let let me hurry up and get downstairs.
00:32:00
Let me get one of these scooters.
00:32:01
Let me go down the street. I was like, OK, I'm good.
00:32:04
But so I. I did like.
00:32:07
I did like your Deadpool trilogy panel though.
00:32:11
You mean you mean the Deadpool trilogy that turned into a basic
00:32:14
MCU panel? It really did.
00:32:19
It did that that panel got Co opted, but it it was a lot of
00:32:22
fun to be on that panel and and talk about Deadpool and talk
00:32:26
about the MCU. Talk about MCU panels are always
00:32:30
fun. Like we always have so much fun.
00:32:34
And you know, I know that we have to keep the panels an hour.
00:32:39
I don't know the logistics that goes into planning Dragon
00:32:43
contract panels. I don't even want to know
00:32:46
because that's a lot of work. Just from the little bit that I
00:32:49
talked to the track directors when they're trying to figure
00:32:52
out where to place people, I'm like, no, I couldn't be
00:32:55
distressed. It's a lot, but a lot of those
00:32:58
panels, especially the MC, anything having to deal with any
00:33:01
Marvel topic whatsoever, I really feel like those could be
00:33:04
hour and a half long panels, maybe even 2 hour long panels.
00:33:07
Because like for the Deadpool trilogy, when we started talking
00:33:11
about Deadpool, but of course with Deadpool and Wolverine, we
00:33:16
go into the whole sacred timeline, the TVA, the
00:33:20
multiverse. And so it just kind of went from
00:33:24
there and we got off track and then we tried to pull it back in
00:33:31
and then it went off track again.
00:33:33
So it went back out. At some point we're just like,
00:33:35
OK, we're just talking. I mean that I think I think
00:33:39
those are the best panels anyway when especially when you have a
00:33:42
lot of crowd participation because this was on a, this was
00:33:46
a Monday 230 panel. This is the last one of the last
00:33:49
panels of the entire Dragon Con. We had a full room on a Monday
00:33:55
at 2:30 and we had a lot of audience participation.
00:34:00
It was so much fun and I was like do we really have to get
00:34:04
up? That was that was so much fun.
00:34:08
I think for me I only got to attend.
00:34:13
I think I attended 3 panels total and for me the fun one was
00:34:21
Mike's panel on I think it was Sunday night they did on the.
00:34:26
Face off panel. And it was face off.
00:34:28
So basically we were doing bracket style tournament for the
00:34:33
movies of John Travolta versus the movies of Nicolas Cage.
00:34:38
It's. So much fun.
00:34:39
I think that's the first panel I've ever attended on the sci-fi
00:34:45
Classics channel. Sci-fi classic track because I'm
00:34:51
always. Shame on you.
00:34:53
Well, I'm always on panels during times when there's stuff
00:34:56
that I want to go to. So I'm just messing with.
00:35:00
You that particular one, I stayed late because the last few
00:35:04
years I've I've left kind of early on Sunday night.
00:35:07
But this year I decided I was like, OK, I'm going to go stick
00:35:10
my head into the Yule Ball And then, oh, Mike has a panel at
00:35:16
10:00. You know what?
00:35:17
I'm feeling pretty OK. I wasn't, I wasn't zonked like I
00:35:22
thought I would be. I was like, OK, I'm going to go
00:35:24
to this panel. When I tell you that is the most
00:35:28
fun I think I've had at a panel, aside from the panel we did on
00:35:34
Saturday night, which was the worst person in Westeros, which
00:35:38
was also kind of bracket style. That panel.
00:35:42
First of all, some of the movies people threw out for Nicolas
00:35:47
Cage and John Travolta. Now, I'm not familiar with all
00:35:51
of the filmography for both of those.
00:35:52
There are certain movies of theirs I like.
00:35:54
In certain movies, I'm like, but people were pulling out movies
00:35:58
and I was like, I haven't heard of that movie in like 30 years.
00:36:02
Why did that? Why was that the first one that
00:36:04
came to your mind? And then we have to go.
00:36:06
Broken Arrow? Broken Arrow had to be on the
00:36:09
list I think. Broken Arrow was on the list.
00:36:13
That that movie is amazing. It it is.
00:36:16
The thing the thing about it is though, for for all the movies
00:36:21
mentioned, for both of both actors, for the panel to be
00:36:25
called the face off, nobody mentioned their characters from
00:36:28
the face off. And I was like, I'm so
00:36:30
disappointed in all, I think. That would have been kind of
00:36:33
obvious. They should have been on.
00:36:36
I mean, I mean, I think they probably should have been like,
00:36:38
you know #1 sees, if we're going to name this should just been #1
00:36:41
sees. But I mean, at least see they
00:36:44
should, they should have been on the list.
00:36:46
Let's just put it that way. I think it should have been on
00:36:48
the list 'cause there's some of their been.
00:36:51
But you know, I like the fact that people kind of thought
00:36:53
outside the box and brought in like even some of the most more
00:36:57
obscure of their films. I I kind of like that because,
00:37:01
OK, yes, the, the title of the panel was face off bringing in
00:37:07
those two characters. That would have been too
00:37:10
obvious. Let's let's use our brains a
00:37:12
little bit. And I love the fact that people
00:37:14
were doing that because somebody said Bolt and I was like, we're
00:37:17
really going to bring the dog movie in.
00:37:19
And that was like such a big thing.
00:37:21
That did come, that came out of left, that did kind of come out
00:37:23
of left field. Because Nick was like if y'all
00:37:26
eliminate the dog, y'all are horrible and the dog.
00:37:30
Lasted 2 rounds. But the dog got eliminated.
00:37:33
But like, I was sitting here listening to some some of the
00:37:36
other movies that they were bringing in and like you said,
00:37:41
Anthony, you like OK, Broken Arrow had to be one.
00:37:44
I'm really disappointed that nobody said Hairspray for John
00:37:49
Travolta. I'm so disappointed because that
00:37:54
definitely should have been one. But that when I say.
00:37:58
I really want, I wanted them to do, I wanted them to do Superman
00:38:03
from the Flash. I just wanted someone just to
00:38:04
say Superman from the Flash. I thought about that too, but
00:38:07
the fact that it was like a cameo and not like we didn't
00:38:11
really get to see him do anything.
00:38:12
So it's. Still Nicholas Cage's Superman,
00:38:14
though it's still Nicholas Cage's Superman.
00:38:18
But when I say that panel was loud and full of chaos and the
00:38:26
sci-fi classics track they have on the back table, they
00:38:33
basically had like a, a, a a trading like a grab and go type
00:38:39
thing where you can bring in stuff and you can take stuff.
00:38:43
So they have like movies. I got I got a spider Gwen, Funko
00:38:48
Pop. They had something else.
00:38:51
Yes, I did. I did shout out to Gary, shout
00:38:55
out to Gary and Gary. Shout out to Joe, those guys are
00:38:59
awesome. And Gary's podcast of our mother
00:39:03
Amontillado, he's had me on that show a couple of times.
00:39:06
He's he's good. Oh, and Nick, because Nick has,
00:39:10
Nick has been adopted. Nick, Nick has been adopted by
00:39:14
the track. Good.
00:39:16
He should be. This is Jimmy.
00:39:19
This is Jim. But they had back there on the,
00:39:22
the table, somebody donated a, a whole bag of plastic kazoos and
00:39:29
nobody was taking the kazoos. So what they did was before the
00:39:33
panel started, they went by and they started helping out the
00:39:38
kazoos. And there was there was there
00:39:41
was a couple of people sitting behind us and they're making all
00:39:45
of these comments about how to use the kazoos and how to make
00:39:49
them, you know, how to make the sound come out of them.
00:39:54
And some of the comments were not appropriate.
00:39:57
And we were just in there dying laughing.
00:40:01
And then as the panel goes on and we're starting to do like
00:40:05
the voting and everybody's talking to, you know, pros and
00:40:08
cons for each movie, people start using the kazoos.
00:40:12
So it gets to a point where. Badly.
00:40:16
They start blowing the kazoos and it was like I said, it was
00:40:19
the most purest fun chaos I have been in in a panel.
00:40:26
It's like some of some of them didn't was like blister hearts.
00:40:29
They had no idea what they were doing.
00:40:31
It's like, you know, they were like.
00:40:34
It was like it was fun. Children.
00:40:37
Everyone devolved into a bunch of kids.
00:40:39
Yes, we. Did they did It was. 10:00 on a
00:40:42
Sunday night. Yes, we were.
00:40:44
We were awesome, Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that.
00:40:47
There's Dragon Con. There's.
00:40:49
Nothing wrong, right? Oh, it's Dragon Con.
00:40:52
I loved it. I don't feel like I got to go to
00:40:55
a lot of panels, but the two that I really liked were were
00:41:01
Smallville top five episodes because there was a lot of
00:41:05
nostalgia Mat and I forgot about some episodes that were like
00:41:08
really, really good. OK, so that was in that was the
00:41:14
classic track. That was that was fine.
00:41:16
And the other one was your panel.
00:41:18
I think you you did the Rogue Prince.
00:41:20
Yes. Damon Targaryen.
00:41:22
Damon Targaryen. That was a great panel.
00:41:25
That was a great panel. That was fine.
00:41:28
That was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun.
00:41:30
Because because we're, we're debating, you know, we're
00:41:33
talking about Damon Targaryen, the, the rogue Prince, the one
00:41:37
who is like in the show, such a complex character.
00:41:42
But in the book, what was it Tara kept saying?
00:41:45
She kept saying he was so evil in the book.
00:41:48
And she just kept iterating. Oh, no, she was doing that more
00:41:52
so for the worst, worst person in Westeros.
00:41:54
House of the Dragon Edition panel.
00:41:57
Or she did it more. Oh well, in in this panel, she
00:41:59
was like, she, she's like, I'm just amazed.
00:42:02
And all of you people like him because in the book he's
00:42:06
terrible. In the text he is awful.
00:42:10
It was even worse for the worst person because basically what
00:42:15
the high fantasy track did was they put a poll out on their
00:42:20
Facebook page like maybe a week and a half, two weeks before
00:42:23
Dragon Con. And they wanted people to vote
00:42:26
for who the worst person in Westeros was for House of the
00:42:30
Dragon. And then what they did was they
00:42:32
took the top 8 and they made brackets.
00:42:34
So it was basically whoever got the, you know, the votes, they
00:42:38
put them in brackets and then we had to debate them on why.
00:42:42
And The funny thing is, at the end of that panel, the popular
00:42:49
vote was that Larry Strong was the worst person in Westeros.
00:42:55
And Tara kept saying over day. It.
00:43:02
Was such a those House of the. Shout out Tara.
00:43:06
Hey, Tara. Shout out Tara.
00:43:08
We shout not everyone. She was Speaking of Tara.
00:43:12
She was like you were surprised when you saw her on your Walking
00:43:15
Dead panel. I was because I only ever like
00:43:20
I've done panels. With only ever seen her in high
00:43:22
fantasy. And it's always on high fantasy.
00:43:24
So when she was on Walking Dead, I was like, hey, And then when
00:43:29
she did the when we got to the road panel, she said I was on
00:43:34
the I was just on the panel with one of your Co hosts.
00:43:37
I said Anthony, She said yes, she said.
00:43:39
And I didn't. She said I didn't put two and
00:43:40
two together until he said fandom hybrid podcast.
00:43:44
And I was like, so. So yeah, yeah, I, I was
00:43:50
surprised, but let me tell you, that Walking Dead panel was so
00:43:53
much fun. It was so much fun.
00:43:56
And that is another panel and another topic, especially
00:44:00
because we were talking about the expanded universe.
00:44:03
That's another one that could have been an hour and a half,
00:44:05
two hours, because people had a lot to say.
00:44:07
Yeah. So.
00:44:10
I'm going to throw in the machine back dark matter.
00:44:14
We we went to a panel on dark matter and because we debated
00:44:20
about the show, well, we argued about the show and the show was
00:44:23
on the the the argument kind of spilled over into the panel and
00:44:28
people were like, are, are y'all going to be OK?
00:44:34
You know, 'cause we were at Conjuration, because we were at
00:44:37
Conjuration and we were on the we were on, I was on the panel
00:44:44
the house for like classifying characters into a house.
00:44:49
We're doing Strange New Worlds. She was in the audience and we
00:44:53
were going back and forth about one of the characters.
00:44:58
So, you know, but there people like, oh, these are very cute,
00:45:02
blah, blah, blah, blah. No, here people like, are y'all
00:45:04
going to be OK? Because we were sitting next to
00:45:07
each other and we were going back and forth.
00:45:09
We might as well have been on the panel, to be honest with
00:45:11
you. But it was, it was a lot of fun.
00:45:15
We had a lot of. Fun.
00:45:16
So y'all basically do what y'all do on the podcast when y'all are
00:45:20
on here? Yeah, yeah, I told someone you
00:45:22
should, you should watch the podcast.
00:45:23
You should, you should come to the YouTube and watch the
00:45:26
podcast and you'll, you will see look up the House of Dragon
00:45:30
podcast and right. Right, like you will see this
00:45:35
we're we're good, we're good. This is a regular thing from.
00:45:38
We we're good. This is, this is normal.
00:45:40
First, because I was sitting next to her and I was like, OK,
00:45:45
so I, I always have this argument with someone and I'm
00:45:49
pointing to her behind her head. And then some of the pals, I'm
00:45:55
assuming that the person you're talking about is sitting here
00:45:58
because actually before that Michelle raised her hand, she's
00:46:00
like, no, no, no, no, no. And she went automatically into
00:46:03
the argument. And I was like, see, see.
00:46:08
Oh, I wish I could have been there for that.
00:46:10
It was, it was, it was hilarious.
00:46:14
I wish I could have been there for that.
00:46:15
OK, so I have a question since you're talking about that show,
00:46:18
because there was another show called Dark Matter that came out
00:46:22
like years ago. That's not the same show is it?
00:46:26
The same show 2. Two.
00:46:28
No, it's two different, 2 totally different, 2 completely
00:46:30
different. OK.
00:46:31
Yeah, OK. It was on sci-fi, wasn't it?
00:46:35
Yeah. Yeah, I remember that.
00:46:36
Yeah. Yeah, OK, OK, so I've because I
00:46:40
keep hearing people talk about dark matter, but I haven't done
00:46:44
a lot of sci-fi lately. Mostly everything that I've been
00:46:47
watching is like either superhero or fantasy stuff.
00:46:49
So I kind of need to get back into my sci-fi groove,
00:46:52
especially if we're going to Stellarfest next year, which is
00:46:56
the new science fiction convention that the founders of
00:47:01
Conjuration are doing in April. So I guess I need to get on my
00:47:05
my sci-fi. Yeah, and and you know, dark
00:47:10
matter is moving into that. There's a a comeback of hard
00:47:15
science fiction shows, hard sci-fi shows are are real like 3
00:47:20
body problem. You know what's another one
00:47:26
that's out as hard as sci-fi? SO3 body.
00:47:30
Oh, a show we didn't do. Oh, Beacon 23 is another one.
00:47:37
OK, so yeah, the the those hard sci-fi is making a comeback.
00:47:42
Oh, and constellation. Yeah, those, those even though
00:47:45
you know people. Talk about that.
00:47:47
Well, yeah, yeah, I guess Silo would be, yeah.
00:47:53
And Silo Beacon 23 are written by the same author.
00:47:56
So OK, that that should tell you if you watch Silo, but it tells
00:47:59
you a lot about. Yeah, yeah, OK.
00:48:01
OK, which is? Hello dark matter is on apple
00:48:05
too. Y'all are missing foundation
00:48:08
which is never hard sci-fi show. Y'all are missing all the good
00:48:10
stuff. I look, I look.
00:48:13
Enough streaming platforms like. Look, we we got the free trial.
00:48:18
We watched all of Ted Lasso. I'm good.
00:48:21
I ain't gonna do all that good. OK.
00:48:25
All the good hard sci-fi is on Apple.
00:48:29
It's a beacon. 23 is on MGM Plus right?
00:48:32
Anyway, it's easy either, but. Yeah, MGM had a OK, you know
00:48:36
what? There's there's too much,
00:48:37
there's too many streaming. From is on MGM plus too.
00:48:42
And yeah, From is on MGM plus too.
00:48:45
And you should people should watch from the things they know.
00:48:48
I. Don't think I I don't think I
00:48:49
could do from it looks good, but I'm just like, no, this is like
00:48:53
I watch. I watch part of the.
00:48:55
Everything. Like I'm not going to get stuck
00:48:58
in no town that I can't leave. And no, no, after dark.
00:49:04
I don't even only I'm still, I'm still recently scared to the
00:49:07
dark at 53. I'm not trying to get somewhere
00:49:09
where I can't go outside and leave and walk out.
00:49:12
Like, no, I mean, I'm not doing no, you going to get I'm not.
00:49:16
I'm not going to have my life have my light bill go sky high
00:49:18
because I got to leave lights on because I watch a damn TV show.
00:49:21
It's like we're not doing that. I'm not doing that.
00:49:26
Michelle loves the show. She loved it so much she had to
00:49:29
track down where the track is opposed to me on and it's horror
00:49:32
track. But yeah, she she had to because
00:49:40
she's trying to find it. There's no panels on it.
00:49:43
It's no horror track. Just sitting there with no
00:49:45
panels. But you know, there are a lot of
00:49:49
PE came up on two panels I was on.
00:49:52
It came up on Beacon 23 and it came up on one other panel I was
00:49:55
on where they talked about from. So there's definitely interest
00:50:00
in the show. People watch the show.
00:50:02
It's just that, you know, and it's kind of hard because like
00:50:05
even for the Beacon 23 panel I was on, it was only two audience
00:50:10
members. And that's the hard thing about
00:50:13
doing panels on the American South eye track is just people
00:50:19
just aren't really watching a lot of those shows like
00:50:23
Constellation. We were going to do a
00:50:24
Constellation panel, but they had to cancel it because they
00:50:27
want enough panelists for it. OK, OK.
00:50:31
And the Three Body Problem was packed, so it was all over the
00:50:35
place, people all over the place and said you wouldn't think
00:50:37
anyone would watch The Three Body Problem but I but that was
00:50:40
that panel. You, you guys were saying there
00:50:43
were a lot of book readers for that particular panel, right?
00:50:47
Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of people who read the book and
00:50:49
then there were a lot of people who watched the Was it Chinese
00:50:54
show. Yeah, the show is a that show is
00:50:57
30 episodes. There are a lot of people who
00:51:00
'cause that's on Prime as well. There are people that watched
00:51:04
that version, came to the panel. So the people watched that
00:51:08
version, people read the book and people watch the show.
00:51:11
So it was a packed house for that panel.
00:51:14
OK, OK, so let's talk about some of the other.
00:51:17
So what were your favorites? Well, they might do your
00:51:20
favorites. Is this your favorite?
00:51:23
Yeah, he he's. Yeah, I mean, I only went to I
00:51:26
like, like I said, I only went to, I went to Hanukkah's panel
00:51:30
and I went to another 1. And in the American sci-fi
00:51:35
track, which is slowly, slowly becoming my favorite track
00:51:38
because there's like almost no rules.
00:51:41
It's like it's total anarchy and it's fucking, it's fucking
00:51:44
awesome. But I mean, I, I didn't have
00:51:48
time. I, I just, there was so much
00:51:51
stuff I had to do and it's like I 'cause I wanted to go, I
00:51:56
wanted to go to your, your diversity panel that you did on
00:52:00
your Star Wars diversity panel, but I didn't have time.
00:52:03
I. Heard, I heard it was really
00:52:05
good. I, I wanted to go, 'cause Nick,
00:52:06
Nick said he went. He was, it was actually, it was
00:52:08
really good. Yeah, that's, that's one of the
00:52:12
reasons why I do try to at least record some of the panels like
00:52:16
the ones that I do, because I know that there are panels that
00:52:21
you guys are interested in that you may not be able to get to
00:52:24
because you're either on panels at the same time or going to
00:52:27
panels. I think usually we get a chance
00:52:30
to go to each other's panels, at least two or three of them.
00:52:33
And I think this year we were all like on panels at the same
00:52:37
time. So I, I did, I was able to get a
00:52:43
recording of one of Anthony's panels they did over on the high
00:52:48
fantasy track. They did a panel about the
00:52:51
people of the ideal from the Wheel of Time series.
00:52:55
So that was a very interesting panel because even though we
00:53:00
have not yet, and I'm stressing yet discussed Wheel of Time
00:53:05
season 2. We have been introduced to the
00:53:08
IEO in that season and it they're very interesting people,
00:53:12
but of course, not being a book reader, I don't know much about
00:53:15
them. So listening to you guys talk
00:53:18
about them, I was like, I feel like I need to be taking notes
00:53:21
and doing research because you guys were talking about like the
00:53:25
different groups within the IEO and I was like, oh, I feel I.
00:53:31
Know you got I spoiled you. No, it's.
00:53:34
It's fine. Yeah, but I knew I would be when
00:53:37
when I went to that panel. So, but I was like, I got to get
00:53:40
to, you know, my whole thing was, so Mike did 11 panels.
00:53:44
I think you were on what, eight or five?
00:53:47
You were on 8. I did I think 14.
00:53:51
And over the course of the weekend, that's a lot of that's
00:53:55
a lot of panels. But we aren't able to get to
00:53:58
each other's panels because a lot of our panels were at the
00:54:00
same time. So my thing was I was trying to
00:54:03
at least get to one of each of y'all's panels so that, you
00:54:08
know, I was like, OK, you know, we got to support each other.
00:54:11
And just like you guys came to my panels and we were just kind
00:54:14
of all over the place. But I really wanted to do.
00:54:20
I think you were on the panel earlier that morning for the
00:54:23
Night of the Seven Kingdoms for Game of Thrones.
00:54:28
Yeah, I was not getting up at 10:00 that morning.
00:54:30
I just couldn't do it. So I was like, no, I just go to
00:54:33
one of his other panels. And because Saturday was a slow
00:54:36
day for me, I only did three panels and all of my panels were
00:54:39
in the evening. So I had a little wiggle room
00:54:43
during, during the daytime. So I was like, OK, I'm I'm
00:54:45
gonna, I'm gonna go do this. And then your panel, I think
00:54:49
your IE panel was, was it that afternoon or that night?
00:54:54
It was one. Of those that I'm gone, it was
00:54:57
one of those. It was, yeah.
00:54:58
It was like, I think it was a 230.
00:55:00
Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:01
All five of my panels were Saturday.
00:55:04
So my Saturday was blown 5 and they were back-to-back to
00:55:09
back-to-back. That's how my Sunday was to
00:55:12
back. That's how my Sunday was.
00:55:14
But Apollo is trying to can can you not mess with my camera
00:55:20
please? Thank you.
00:55:22
But I want to talk about your Acolyte panel, Anthony, how did
00:55:29
that go? And I know we haven't, we
00:55:32
haven't done Acolyte yet. I have.
00:55:34
I actually have not watched it, but I know that Anthony, Mike
00:55:39
and I think Lori are probably going to talk about it and we'll
00:55:42
probably put out that show sometime either this month or
00:55:45
next month. But you had a little trepidation
00:55:48
going into that one, didn't you? Yeah, I was a little worried
00:55:53
about the panel because you know, there's a lot of stuff
00:55:57
going on about the act like you know, it it there's there's a
00:56:01
lot of online chatter, a lot of Youtubers and all of X formerly
00:56:08
known as Twitter. I still.
00:56:11
Probably Twitter. It's not X.
00:56:14
And so I was a little worried because the one thing you don't
00:56:18
want to do as a panelist is you really don't want to have the
00:56:22
crowd turn on you, you know, and there's, you know, and we, we
00:56:30
had this idea that we were not going to be negative because
00:56:34
it's real easy to be negative about the show.
00:56:38
The show does have some the show had problems.
00:56:41
There's there's sure has a lot of problems.
00:56:44
And I was worried that if we only talked about the positive,
00:56:48
anyone who had negative things to say about it would go even
00:56:52
further negative and get up and say anything.
00:56:54
Right. OK, but but that wasn't the
00:56:57
case. You know, we were able to have a
00:57:00
little bit of criticism up there.
00:57:02
It wasn't completely, you know, totally yay act like.
00:57:08
And there was some people in the audience who had issues and we
00:57:10
talked about it. The the biggest thing, my
00:57:14
biggest take away was the huge amount of support.
00:57:19
Like there were a lot of people who came to that panel and there
00:57:22
are a lot of people that like the show.
00:57:24
It's just unfortunate that, you know, that's not enough people
00:57:28
to carry the show to keep it from being cancelled, right.
00:57:31
But it's obviously there's a, there's a small, relatively
00:57:35
speaking, a small group of people that really like the
00:57:38
show. OK, you know, I'm not in that
00:57:42
group of people, but I didn't, I didn't, I got challenged a
00:57:49
couple of times for some of the things I said, but it wasn't as
00:57:52
bad as I thought it would be. OK.
00:57:55
I did say some good things. There's some good things about
00:57:57
the show, like the last the one of the last fight lightsaber
00:58:01
battles is really choreographed really well.
00:58:06
Yeah, that's so I did say something good about it.
00:58:10
You know, I I did say something good about it.
00:58:14
They had a diverse cast which is which is always good many the
00:58:19
1st. Live action first live action
00:58:23
Bleeding of a kyber crystal. I mean, come on, you had to be
00:58:26
excited about that, I'm saying. The look on Anthony's face.
00:58:36
You know what? You know what?
00:58:37
Whatever. Anyway, I decorized.
00:58:42
Yeah, we. So, so there's, there's, there's
00:58:45
a, there's a dish you can make something that you make a soup
00:58:48
and the soup is really, really good.
00:58:50
Like this one time I had like some real good clam chowder.
00:58:55
Like it was amazing cooking on the stove.
00:58:57
I was tasting it and I was like all I just need is a little bit
00:59:00
of pepper. So I turned the pepper shaker
00:59:04
and someone had loosened the top and dumped all the pepper into
00:59:07
it. Yeah.
00:59:08
OK. OK, OK.
00:59:11
So bleeding a kyber crystal? I'm supposed to like that after
00:59:17
that? Was one that was one of my
00:59:18
favorite scenes. I thought you would appreciate
00:59:20
it. Fine.
00:59:21
You know what? I'm not.
00:59:23
I'm not. We're not.
00:59:24
Going to get into that debate now y'all.
00:59:26
I'm. Not even going anyway.
00:59:27
For when we were. I'm not even going to.
00:59:29
Try it. Long story short, the panel was
00:59:33
was fun. We had some good dialogue, and
00:59:37
like I said, I was really, really amazed at the amount of
00:59:40
positive support. And sometimes it's to be
00:59:44
expected from Star Wars fans, which is what I think a lot that
00:59:48
gets lost. We'll talk about this when Mike
00:59:51
and I talk about back. Like it kind of got lost in the
00:59:53
shuffle, but it was clear there are people that like the show,
00:59:57
they liked a lot of things about it.
00:59:58
And it's not just, and it was mostly Star Wars fans.
01:00:02
So you know, it was that. But you know, all my
01:00:05
trepidation, you know, it was, I was worried for no reason turns
01:00:10
out. And I was really, really worried
01:00:12
that I was going to say something get slim like I did
01:00:15
last year when I said I didn't care for Rogue One.
01:00:18
And you would have thought I scanned the cat alive in front
01:00:22
of 100 people. I think they all started to
01:00:26
riot. So, you know, I was afraid that
01:00:30
would. Happen this year.
01:00:32
Yeah, I didn't have that experience this year.
01:00:34
Now make sure you tell them. I don't know who that person was
01:00:36
to say they did like Rogue One. I don't know who that guy was.
01:00:40
I don't. I had a similar experience on
01:00:45
one of my panels because I got to talk about Umbrella Academy
01:00:50
Season 4, the final season. I don't know if you guys have
01:00:54
watched. How did that go?
01:00:55
Not yet. Yeah, I did.
01:00:59
So. The last last four episodes were
01:01:03
trash. Yes.
01:01:05
And we, we did discuss that. We didn't quite go the let's not
01:01:11
go negative because I think the general consensus there was a
01:01:17
lot of people agreed that the fourth season was not that
01:01:20
great. There were a lot of problems.
01:01:24
There were some like it was kind of convoluted.
01:01:28
It was like, what are we supposed to be doing here?
01:01:31
What are we supposed to be following?
01:01:32
Why are we supposed to care about what happens to this
01:01:35
character and why is she here? And so we we had some good
01:01:41
discussions with it. There were a few fun things
01:01:46
because we did talk about the things that we liked in the
01:01:50
season. So, you know, a lot of people
01:01:52
like the fact that Luther, you know what?
01:01:54
I was one of the people I, I was like, I just like the fact that
01:01:58
Luther was just happy. Like Luther didn't have any
01:02:01
burdens placed on him. He was, he was going around
01:02:05
doing his little strip club job dancing with no rhythm and he
01:02:10
was happy about it. You know, people loved the
01:02:14
relationship between Claire and Klaus.
01:02:18
That was like one of the sweet moments.
01:02:21
People love the fact that Victor basically told Allison was like,
01:02:25
OK, yeah, I know you fucked up. We ain't got to be friends.
01:02:28
I'm good. You know?
01:02:31
So there was some, there were a few good things.
01:02:34
But I think, I think the room was kind of, I don't want to
01:02:39
necessarily say split, but there were some strong feelings about
01:02:45
the whole 5 Lila Diego situation that was going on there.
01:02:51
So we we did talk that out. But I think overall, pretty much
01:02:57
everybody was like, we don't know what they were doing.
01:03:00
Like what was the whole point? You you got rid of?
01:03:04
Well, you know, you you get rid of of the Marigold just for the
01:03:11
Marigold to show back up at the end.
01:03:13
It was just it, it was really weird.
01:03:16
But you know, that was one of those panels where I thought
01:03:21
people would probably be more positive about the show and
01:03:25
everybody was pretty much like it was trash.
01:03:28
What the hell did we? So I mean, it's, it's just, it's
01:03:37
one of those things where we we waited two years.
01:03:41
Was it 2 years or three? I think 2 years.
01:03:44
But it's like this is what we. Waited two years.
01:03:48
OK, but but I got to talk about some other really cool stuff
01:03:54
too. Like I said, I did a a Walking
01:03:56
Dead panel. I did a Last of Us panel where
01:03:59
we talked about the show and the video games and Oh my goodness,
01:04:02
I did not like, I knew that this game had a following, but there
01:04:07
are some really, really passionate fans about this game.
01:04:11
And I'm like y'all, I'm sitting there on the table like y'all
01:04:14
are making me want to play this game and I don't have the time
01:04:17
in my life to do this but. Their show is why I have APS 5
01:04:23
now. And then I if.
01:04:26
Somebody wanted to play The Last of Us.
01:04:29
Yeah, yeah, they, they've, they've almost got me, but I, I
01:04:33
don't have the time. I I can't do it.
01:04:35
But we also did a Walking Dead versus The Last of Us, you know,
01:04:40
talking about what that what? They.
01:04:43
Yeah, it was. It was a really good panel.
01:04:46
Those panels were were packed and we talked about everything.
01:04:50
We talked about the graphic novel for The Walking Dead.
01:04:53
We talked about the video games for The Last of Us.
01:04:56
We talked about the shows and how they how they did things
01:04:59
differently. And so basically that was also
01:05:01
one of those where it's like we list the pros and we talked
01:05:04
about it. We list the cons and we talked
01:05:06
about it. And then everybody gets to vote
01:05:08
which one they think did better. And the overall consensus was
01:05:13
that The Last of Us is telling the story better.
01:05:18
But a lot of people also admit it.
01:05:20
We're going on one season versus 11 and several spin offs.
01:05:27
Like will they still be consistent if they go that long,
01:05:30
which we are? I think, I think we already know
01:05:32
The Last of Us is not going to go that long.
01:05:35
So because I think the third season is supposed to be the
01:05:40
final, but it was a really good conversation.
01:05:45
And yeah, we we, we have fun with those.
01:05:52
Mike, what about you? What was your favorite panel to
01:05:54
talk about? I had a lot of them like I
01:06:01
finally got to talk about my favorite show, Warehouse 13.
01:06:05
That that one, that panel was really good.
01:06:09
There was a guy on the panel that actually brought that had
01:06:12
like a collection of actual used props from the show.
01:06:17
So he was like passing those around was really cool.
01:06:22
I loved our Deadpool Wolverine panel.
01:06:25
It was packed. It was like packed wall to wall
01:06:30
and that was that was a lot of fun.
01:06:32
I I did a Wolverine panel and I got ambushed because he went.
01:06:36
To that one. It's like everybody was like,
01:06:39
man, I hate Wolverine. They got to me like Mike, what
01:06:41
do you think? I was like, I feel like I got
01:06:44
kind of ambushed here. I actually like Wolverine the
01:06:47
way they did. Yeah, that was like The
01:06:51
Wolverine hater up there in there.
01:06:53
Like, yeah, they were. Haters.
01:06:54
I was like, what the fuck? This is like the opposite of
01:06:57
last year when I went to the Nevers, when I couldn't.
01:07:00
Talk about John. Talk about when we shall not be
01:07:04
named. I got I got jumped.
01:07:06
I was like, what the what is wrong with you people?
01:07:09
I was like, he's not bad. He is actually good.
01:07:12
But that panel actually turned out to be a pretty good
01:07:14
discussion about it. I really like that.
01:07:16
Why? Is there so much Wolverine hate?
01:07:19
Explain this to me. I think, I think, I think they
01:07:22
it felt like people sometimes feel like we're overrated.
01:07:27
That he get people just like. Laurie said something like that
01:07:31
in our X-Men 97 discussion. Yes, she said that Wolverine is
01:07:35
one of those characters that gets overused, so OK.
01:07:40
Yeah, overrated, Overused. There was a point when he was in
01:07:44
everybody's books. Yeah, yeah.
01:07:47
But I mean, I mean, Hugh Jackman can't help it that he played the
01:07:50
character very well. I mean, it's like and they can't
01:07:53
help that the character was shown pretty well in the X-Men
01:07:56
cartoon. It's like people like the
01:07:58
character. It's just like bat stands.
01:08:00
I mean bat fans of Batman, it's like they love Batman.
01:08:05
So it's like, I mean, I don't know, I didn't get it, but I was
01:08:09
actually another panel that I thought that actually enjoyed
01:08:14
that didn't think I was going to enjoy was double nut that that I
01:08:18
think I was going to enjoy as much was the the John
01:08:23
Constantine panel, because I didn't know a lot about him.
01:08:26
And that actually turned out to be a very good discussion.
01:08:30
Yes, it did. I I did go to that one as well.
01:08:33
Yeah, yeah. I was actually pleasantly
01:08:35
surprised to do that. Shout to Ally.
01:08:37
Got to be on panel with her again.
01:08:39
She was on, I mean, Bethany. Shout to Bethany.
01:08:41
Bethany is awesome. Yeah, I was on panel.
01:08:45
I. Was a good panel.
01:08:46
That one and the family dynamics one that we were on together was
01:08:49
good too. That's another one that could
01:08:52
have gone a little bit longer. You know, anytime we're talking
01:08:55
about fictional family. You're obsession with these long
01:09:00
ass panels. I'm just saying because a lot
01:09:04
because what happens is some of these panels, when we get done
01:09:09
with them, people come up to us after the.
01:09:11
Panel. And they want to continue the
01:09:13
discussion. That is not a bad thing because
01:09:16
that means that what you had to say was important to someone and
01:09:20
the topic was interesting. So for some of these things, but
01:09:27
I mean, we're talking family dynamics.
01:09:28
And I mean, it's not too, it's not too different from what we
01:09:32
do at conjuration when we're talking about others know worse
01:09:36
and mothers aren't better. So it, it, it basically was like
01:09:41
that, but we really started talking about a lot of the
01:09:44
positives and, you know, fictional families and what,
01:09:50
what sing, especially single parents and fictional families
01:09:54
like what they do, right? And so that was a lot of fun
01:09:57
because we, a lot of times, especially with our panels, we
01:10:01
do focus on the negative because it has such an impact on the
01:10:06
characters that we're, you know, that we follow that we're
01:10:09
talking about. So we, we talked about whether
01:10:11
or not that impacts them in a positive or negative way.
01:10:13
So this particular panel was talking about the positive
01:10:17
aspect. It was a lot of fun.
01:10:19
It was a lot of fun and you know.
01:10:23
Yeah, I like actually like, I mean, the Gen.
01:10:26
V discussion was good. The Kingpin when I did Monday on
01:10:30
like Monday was like one of my better, better days of better
01:10:34
days of panels because I mean, I love the two that I did.
01:10:36
I love the one you did. I mean it.
01:10:39
I was like, I was just like, damn, it's the last day because
01:10:44
the Deadpool war was pre packed out.
01:10:46
But yeah, I I mean, I really can't complain about any of
01:10:50
these, any of the ones I did. I mean that I'm I'm just blessed
01:10:54
to be be asked to be on them. So.
01:10:57
Yeah. 11 panel that I enjoy being on was the Diversity in
01:11:03
Star Wars panel. Yeah, because, you know,
01:11:07
whenever we do any diversity. Panel.
01:11:10
Discussion Diversity, it, it, it doesn't, it's always a really
01:11:15
good conversation and, and, and sometimes that's usually all we
01:11:21
need. Sometimes the fandoms need to
01:11:23
sit down and have a conversation about about diversity and then
01:11:28
how everything is being impacted because a lot of people don't
01:11:32
sometimes see that it's not just what you see on screen is all
01:11:38
the things that happened behind the scenes.
01:11:40
You know, the casting directors, the studio heads and executives
01:11:44
and producers, all those people are the ones that influence
01:11:49
everything. And one of the things I talked
01:11:52
about was we also have to talk about the diversity.
01:11:56
For example, that first season of The Mandalorian, the
01:11:59
directors, it was a diverse set of directors on the show.
01:12:04
They didn't have the same. Well, there were some directors,
01:12:07
there were a couple of episodes, but for the most part, it was a
01:12:10
diverse group of directors. And sometimes that's what you
01:12:13
need to have, have a voice or a vision or even someone to say,
01:12:18
yeah, we're going to do it this way.
01:12:20
But you know, the industry has to change.
01:12:23
It just can't be, I don't want to throw act like under the bus.
01:12:27
You just can't throw a diverse group of people on the screen
01:12:30
and say we're diverse. It doesn't really work that way.
01:12:34
You got you got to have it at the top.
01:12:37
It's got to start. We talked about, you know, you
01:12:40
got to have that one person in the room.
01:12:41
Like with that Dove commercial, you got to have someone that's
01:12:44
really black. You may not want to have a black
01:12:48
person wash themselves with Dove soap and turn white.
01:12:51
I don't think that's going to go well, you know, I mean you
01:12:54
always. Got to have.
01:12:55
Somebody, somebody in the room to say that's not going to work.
01:12:59
Yeah, you, you. And that's what's missing.
01:13:02
We don't have enough of it. The only thing that that I kind
01:13:07
of was taken aback, taken aback by, and I hope she's not
01:13:12
listening, but we were talking about corporations.
01:13:17
The biggest part of the conversation was in smaller
01:13:20
media, you can have diversity. The Disney companies, like they
01:13:25
don't care about that. The comic books, we had an
01:13:28
author on stage and she was like, people would ask her, you
01:13:31
know, we really need to have some, you know, by characters
01:13:36
and some pan characters. And she's like, that's what I
01:13:39
write in my Star Wars books. Like she writes Star Wars books
01:13:42
and she has those kinds of characters in her books.
01:13:44
So people want to see these things, but it's there.
01:13:47
It's just that the industry only lets you do it in the comic
01:13:51
books and the video games. That's small compared to the
01:13:55
millions and millions of people that watch the TV or watch the
01:14:00
movies. The amount of money they make in
01:14:03
the television and movies is astronomical compared to comic
01:14:07
books. So yeah, you can have a comic
01:14:09
book with Doctor Aphra, who's a gay black woman in the Star Wars
01:14:16
comic book or a novel. You can have that because they
01:14:19
don't care about that. But what we need for them to do
01:14:22
is to start caring about the bigger picture.
01:14:25
And that's why the failure of the Acolyte is so devastating,
01:14:30
because they're going to be like, we gave it to you, we gave
01:14:33
it exactly what you want, and nobody watched it.
01:14:37
You know, nobody watched it. And we can put the blame on
01:14:40
whoever or whatever caused it. All Disney knows is that it was
01:14:45
a failure. And it was in an attempt to have
01:14:49
a bunch of diverse people, a diverse cast in the show and
01:14:53
nobody wanted to watch it. And the same thing happened to
01:14:57
Willow. We did the same thing with
01:14:58
Willow. Nobody wanted to watch it.
01:15:01
It was so bad they pulled it off Disney Plus.
01:15:04
So, you know, we do still need to have these conversations so
01:15:07
people can understand what's really happening.
01:15:10
You know what, what are we really looking at when we talk
01:15:13
about this? And we talk about this non
01:15:15
diversity panels, what we do them at Conjuration or yeah,
01:15:21
it's it's it's the same thing. You know, Anyway, it was a
01:15:25
really good panel. It was a really good
01:15:26
conversation. Oh, the lady, she was from
01:15:28
Disney. She used to be.
01:15:30
She worked at the Disney the Galactic Hotel.
01:15:34
Oh. OK.
01:15:36
And the reason why I brought it up was she talked about because
01:15:39
we had I, I, I pretty much went in on the corporation,
01:15:45
especially Disney. And she got up and she was like,
01:15:48
yeah, I, I was the Hostess at the, at the Galactic Hotel.
01:15:53
And, you know, Disney really, really tried, you know, we had a
01:15:56
diverse cast the cruise, because it's like a cruise ship.
01:15:59
The cruise director was the black woman.
01:16:02
And she just listed all these, you know, and, and the
01:16:04
characters always stayed minorities or whatever.
01:16:07
I really wanted to say, well, that kind of proves my point.
01:16:11
I mean, it's like they have 3000 guests.
01:16:15
Yeah. And you only have 3000 guests at
01:16:18
most and on this thing for a week, and it's still small
01:16:23
potatoes as compared to the millions of people that watch
01:16:27
the shows and the millions of people that go to the movies.
01:16:31
You're just talking about a small group of elite people that
01:16:34
in the the only thing they care about is them paying money to go
01:16:38
to the hotel. They don't care about the
01:16:40
diversity of the cast. That's not important to them.
01:16:43
So, yeah, you can have a diverse cast in the Galactic Hotel
01:16:47
because nobody cares. You can have a diverse cast in
01:16:51
the in the park because it's in the grand scheme of things, the
01:16:55
small potatoes. That's not what we're focused
01:16:58
now. We're talking about focusing on
01:17:00
getting diversity on the TV shows and in the movies where it
01:17:05
reaches more people, where we want to see ourselves in those
01:17:09
things. Video games is cool, but it's
01:17:12
still a video game and it's still well on that because now
01:17:15
video games is reaching just as many people as the movies are
01:17:21
sometimes so and making just as much money as movies.
01:17:25
But even there they're starting to pull back because the Star
01:17:28
Wars game had the white male character as the main character,
01:17:33
you know, and so you know, and that them, that's them falling
01:17:36
the track and the and the sideline.
01:17:38
I didn't get to bring this up, but I remember reading somewhere
01:17:42
that the people who created Star Jedi Survivor originally wanted
01:17:48
Cal Kisses to be a minority and the studio told them Lucas Arts
01:17:52
told them no, you can't do it because they already had several
01:17:57
other minority characters for the game or or plan to be in the
01:18:01
game. They're like no, you can't make
01:18:03
the main character minority and and those are the kinds of
01:18:07
things that needs to change. But anyway, it was a great
01:18:11
conversation. OK.
01:18:12
But that was my favorite panel to be on.
01:18:15
We had a similar conversation about morals and ethics on the
01:18:21
Orphan Black Echoes panel. That one was an interesting one
01:18:25
because if you're familiar with Orphan Black, the original
01:18:30
series deals with the unauthorized making of clones
01:18:35
illegal, you know, making of clones.
01:18:37
And so Orphan Black Echoes takes place within the same universe,
01:18:44
but it's like 30 years into the future, 40 years into the
01:18:49
future. So it's taking place in like
01:18:51
2052 and you have the little girl from the original series.
01:18:57
She's the main character in this series.
01:19:00
And even though she went through a lot of dangerous times with
01:19:06
her mom, her mom was was the original clone or she was the
01:19:10
original person that that was cloned.
01:19:14
She kind of does something similar in the future.
01:19:16
And it's about all of these choices afterwards.
01:19:19
And you know, what's ethical, what's moral, because she
01:19:24
couldn't let go of her wife. And so she basically created a
01:19:29
copy of the wife so that she could try to fix what was wrong
01:19:33
with the wife to keep her from dying.
01:19:34
And so we had some of those similar conversations for that
01:19:38
particular show. It, it was, it's very
01:19:42
interesting because you have to sit there and think about, OK,
01:19:45
so if I have the technology to fix something, to fix someone
01:19:51
to, to cure a problem, but I have to basically make a, a copy
01:19:58
of this person in order to fix that, you know, this person
01:20:03
dies. I make a copy so that I can
01:20:06
continue to do that. Like is that ethical?
01:20:09
Is that something that should be done?
01:20:12
Does that person have a soul? It it it raised a lot of
01:20:16
interesting questions. And if you guys haven't watched
01:20:19
the show, either one of the shows, you really should because
01:20:23
first of all, or in the original Orphan Black, Tatiana Mazlani is
01:20:27
just like, she's like amazing. And then in the second show, it
01:20:31
just kind of expands on that point and you're just kind of
01:20:36
like you knew better and you still did what you did and what
01:20:44
are the consequences for that and how do you deal with those
01:20:47
kinds? It's very, very interesting that
01:20:51
particular show, like some of the acting is not that great.
01:20:57
It's very clunky, some of the dialogue is very awkward, but
01:21:02
it, it, it's an interesting show and the conversations that are
01:21:07
had around it is just like, this is really stuff that we're
01:21:11
discussing, you know, because they are in this day and age,
01:21:16
they are doing 3D printouts of, you know, organs now to
01:21:20
transplant into people. And so Orphan Black Echoes takes
01:21:25
that and they put it on a whole level because instead of just,
01:21:31
instead of just copying the, the organs, you are basically
01:21:37
printing out a whole person, including their, their
01:21:42
personality traits, their memories.
01:21:45
And all of this is accessible because basically by this point,
01:21:50
the Census Bureau has data on every single person.
01:21:55
And I mean medical records, dental records, financial
01:22:00
information, all of your medical like brain scans, Mr. is X-rays,
01:22:06
they have access to all of this stuff.
01:22:08
And that is how this this kind of technology is going.
01:22:11
And it's like scary because you really sit there and think about
01:22:14
it like, oh, we could actually be doing this in a few years.
01:22:19
And that's that's scary. And The funny thing is we did
01:22:22
that panel on Skynet day. So, so it's kind of like, I
01:22:33
don't know if I should be like impressed or afraid, but.
01:22:39
Yes, it's that is a show that I totally missed when it was
01:22:44
coming on and you've convinced me I'm going to I'm going to go
01:22:48
back and watch it. But this is on AMC Plus and I
01:22:50
think. Yes, you should.
01:22:52
Absolutely. We stopped our AMC.
01:22:55
I think we stopped our AMC Plus subscription.
01:22:58
You'll. You'll start.
01:23:00
Yeah, I was going to say you'll you'll be starting it back in a
01:23:03
couple of weeks because Daryl Dixon's new season starts.
01:23:07
OK, that's when, that's when I that's when I watch it.
01:23:10
I'll watch it, man. Yep.
01:23:11
So so you'll have it, but yeah, I'm trying to think.
01:23:17
So Mike and I did a panel together Supernatural Showdown,
01:23:21
which I think for the last few years has been our Thursday
01:23:24
night. Like that is our start to con to
01:23:27
do Supernatural Showdown. So for the last three years
01:23:32
we've done seasons. So we did like seasons one
01:23:35
through 5 the first year, six through 10, the 2nd 11 through
01:23:38
15 last year. And so this year we started
01:23:42
doing the characters. And so all of us were assigned a
01:23:46
character at random and we had to we have 4 minutes to talk
01:23:50
about why this character was so important to the show.
01:23:54
And then the audience got to vote who gave the best argument.
01:23:59
So I think my cat cast, I had Crowley and we all had some good
01:24:08
arguments. I think let's see, somebody had
01:24:11
Bobby, somebody had Mary Winchester and Rowena.
01:24:16
I think, wait, let me see. Yep.
01:24:19
Bobby, Cass, Crowley, Jack, Mary Rowen.
01:24:24
OK, yes. So we had six panelists, those 6
01:24:27
characters. And it's so funny because the
01:24:30
person who got booed the most when they announced who the
01:24:34
characters were is the argument that ended up winning.
01:24:37
And it was because it was Mary Winchester, because she.
01:24:41
Was she was. She's really good at that.
01:24:44
Beth is really good. Beth is incredibly good at that.
01:24:48
Like, but she, I mean, she had a point.
01:24:49
She was like, if it wasn't Mary Winchester, the boys wouldn't
01:24:52
exist. I was like God damn it.
01:24:55
Yeah, I mean, and, and she made some good points.
01:24:58
And this was something I was having a conversation with my
01:25:00
daughter about the other day, about how Mary Winchester is one
01:25:04
of those divisive characters because you have a lot of people
01:25:06
who don't like her from when she came back because she was so
01:25:10
different from the image of Mary that Dean and Sam had basically
01:25:17
had of her for all those years that she was gone.
01:25:20
But then when you think about the stuff that she's had to go
01:25:22
through and come back 33 years after her death and she's having
01:25:28
to adjust to being a mom to grown men, and she's going back
01:25:32
into hunting and she finds out her sons are hunters when she
01:25:36
didn't want that lifestyle for them.
01:25:38
And you know, her husband is dead.
01:25:40
And it's just a whole lot of stuff.
01:25:42
And I was liking she's not that bad.
01:25:46
It's just a matter of that we have to take her down from the
01:25:50
pedestal that Dean had placed her on for all those years that
01:25:53
we watched the show and look at her as a real person with real
01:25:59
issues and real trauma. And again, you know, we talk
01:26:03
about this all the time on the show.
01:26:05
All of these people have no access to therapy.
01:26:10
And sometimes they have to create their own therapy and
01:26:13
they have to do their own things that help them get through
01:26:16
whatever it is they have to go through.
01:26:17
So Beth did a really good job and she got like, I think she
01:26:22
got like 29 votes out of the whole.
01:26:25
And she got like 30 You, you had like 20 and she had like 30.
01:26:28
I had 20 for Crowley, Yeah. So hopefully they would do that
01:26:33
panel again next year and we'll have a whole new cast of
01:26:36
characters to talk about. But that's like always a fun
01:26:38
start to con for for us because it's literally one of the first
01:26:44
panels of the day or of the whole weekend.
01:26:47
But yeah, I. I really liked your your
01:26:51
Starlight panels, that one got a little spicy.
01:26:57
Oh yeah, we'll talk about that a little bit more when we can
01:27:00
finish covering the boys because I had.
01:27:03
There's a lot going on with that character this season.
01:27:06
And. I, I think it's interesting, one
01:27:10
of the things that we have been talking about a lot in our suit,
01:27:14
you know, the coverage that we do for our superhero characters
01:27:17
or superhero shows or movies. And I think Michelle and I were
01:27:21
talking about it earlier today too, is, you know, for us Gen.
01:27:27
X, when we were growing up, comic book characters were good
01:27:31
or bad. There wasn't really that in
01:27:34
between. You know, we had the characters
01:27:37
that were there. But for the most part, you had
01:27:39
to focus on the good character. You focus on the bad characters.
01:27:42
There were there were clear cut heroes and villains.
01:27:45
And as we get older and we're looking at things from a
01:27:49
different lens, we're looking at things from an adult lens, we're
01:27:52
looking at things from a maturity lens, from a moral
01:27:55
lens, from an ethical lens, it's very clear that none of these
01:27:59
people, even the people that we call heroes, are really good.
01:28:04
And a lot of the people that we call villains are not all bad.
01:28:08
It's like everybody is kind of in that Gray.
01:28:11
And Starlight is one of those characters who very much
01:28:15
exemplifies that because we're introduced to her character and
01:28:20
she's like this really sweet, you know, small town hero.
01:28:25
She just wants to do good. And then she's put through these
01:28:30
paces from these members of the Seven till we get to where we
01:28:35
are in in Season 4 with her and we find out more things about
01:28:40
her past and how she really was not a nice person.
01:28:44
And all of this is starting to blow up in her face.
01:28:47
And I was just like, Oh, this is a great way to examine how we
01:28:53
look at quote UN quote, heroes and villains.
01:28:57
And so that really was a very interesting panel because you
01:29:03
had a lot of people who were on one extreme and a lot of people
01:29:06
who are on another extreme. And then he had like a small
01:29:09
group that was kind of sort of in the middle.
01:29:12
But yeah, we we can talk about that more when we cover the rest
01:29:16
of the season 4 episodes of The Boys cuz Starlight going through
01:29:20
some shit in the season. Like, yeah, that was fun though.
01:29:29
But let's see, I got to talk about Outlander, which is always
01:29:33
fun, especially since I am now caught up on the books.
01:29:37
I read 3 almost thousand page books in the course of a week
01:29:44
and 1/2 and yeah that. Was every time Michelle see
01:29:54
every time Michelle saw you posting something, she blinds.
01:29:57
You know you need she need to be reading that book.
01:30:00
I think we were talking about House of the Dragon one night.
01:30:03
We were getting ready to and she was looking at me like, where
01:30:06
are you? And I was like, I'm still on
01:30:08
such a book and she just looked at you.
01:30:10
I said she was. I said she she didn't even she's
01:30:13
not even hiding it. She was looking at Anthony like
01:30:16
if this bitch don't keep to start reading.
01:30:19
But I got it done. I got it done.
01:30:23
And now I'm really going through Outlander book withdrawal
01:30:27
because she might be 3 or 4 years away from publishing the
01:30:32
final book. And I'm sitting here like, I
01:30:35
need to know what's going on. I need to know what's going on.
01:30:37
So now I'm going through Droughtlander for the show and
01:30:41
for the book, thankfully. Droughtlander.
01:30:45
Yes, that's what it is called. Thankfully, the show is coming
01:30:48
back November 22nd, but I need her to write some more daily
01:30:52
lines for Book 10 because I need to see what's going on so I can
01:30:56
kind of formulate in my head what I think is going to happen.
01:31:00
But I'm trying to think, what else did we talk about this
01:31:05
year? I think I covered pretty pretty
01:31:10
much what was on my plate. Anthony, you did a lot of Star
01:31:17
Wars this year, didn't you? Yeah, we did.
01:31:22
I did the witchcraft and the Force and magic in Star Wars,
01:31:27
which was another interesting panel because they got a little
01:31:30
bit of push back because people don't understand that the Force
01:31:36
is the Force and that magic is just what they call force when
01:31:43
it's being used by people who aren't the Sith of a Jedi.
01:31:46
It's still the Force, it's just called a different name.
01:31:49
Still don't get that. And you know the only one thing
01:31:56
that happened on that panel and one day I'll have Nick come on
01:31:59
and explain it to you. But there was a guy who, you
01:32:02
know, I said something about Sith sorcery and Sith alchemy,
01:32:08
which are forms of magic, but it's still the Force.
01:32:12
Anyway, he he came up and he said, yeah, you didn't have to
01:32:18
say something about it not being a Canon because it most
01:32:21
definitely Canon and you shouldn't shy away from it.
01:32:23
And I'm thinking I didn't say anything about it being a Canon
01:32:27
or not Canon. And afterwards Nick was like,
01:32:30
yeah, I don't know where that came from because you didn't say
01:32:33
anything about it being a Canon or not Canon.
01:32:36
I say, yeah, he's like Anthony, you have to remember you're on
01:32:40
that side of the table. You know you can't because you
01:32:44
know I can. You guys know how I can get out
01:32:46
there sometimes. And when you're up there on the
01:32:48
panel, you can't really do that. You know, they can't really.
01:32:54
I think I've talked to you about this.
01:32:55
Sometimes you can push back a little bit on the audience, but
01:33:00
you can't go. You can't go too far.
01:33:02
You don't want. It to because.
01:33:04
Like an argument like you can. Yeah, you don't want to turn
01:33:07
into an argument, you know. Yeah, you can kind of sort of
01:33:10
debate and kind of make your points clear.
01:33:13
But yeah, I mean, there are some people that are going to like
01:33:17
push you and push you and honestly on a hour long panel,
01:33:22
we don't have time for that like.
01:33:24
We don't have time for that. Yeah.
01:33:26
Oh, because the guy got up and he said that.
01:33:28
He said the Jedi, the Jedi don't allow people to use the Force.
01:33:33
Like they don't let other people use the Force.
01:33:36
And I was like, you know, I've read, I, I said this.
01:33:40
I was like, that's interesting because I've read a lot of Star
01:33:43
Wars, you know, the EU, all I've real, I have never once seen
01:33:50
anyone say that, that I don't allow other people use the force
01:33:55
like that, that, that doesn't make any sense.
01:33:59
And Nick was like, that's the first time he's ever seen me
01:34:01
sort of get somewhat snarky with, with the audience.
01:34:07
But I mean, it's, it was, it's one of those things, it was, it
01:34:11
was a fun panel. I also did Quantum Leap panel,
01:34:14
which was a lot of fun because, you know, there's a huge
01:34:17
following because if you watch the original show, the original
01:34:19
show is like one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
01:34:24
And you know, as much as I like the new Quantum Leap, it's not
01:34:29
quite as good, but it's it's good in a different way because
01:34:34
the original was really Sam and Al.
01:34:39
It was really the two of them. The new show, I know, I don't
01:34:43
think you guys have watched it. I haven't watched it yet.
01:34:46
The new show is more of an ensemble.
01:34:50
Oh, OK. It's it's more about all it's
01:34:53
it's like 6-5 or six characters that we follow with the show.
01:34:57
It's not about the leaper and the person helping him.
01:35:00
It's really about it's really non solvable, which is I like
01:35:03
the idea that they did it differently than the original.
01:35:08
So I really like that panel because they're a lot of fans of
01:35:11
that show. And the only other panel though
01:35:14
is Upload, which is a show that comes on Amazon Prime.
01:35:19
It's a fun show, but it really has like a dark side.
01:35:26
It's it's like if Black Mirror were a sitcom.
01:35:30
Basically, yeah. Yeah, if you ever watch Black
01:35:33
Mirror, it's like that, but. Or it's basically, it's
01:35:37
basically like you can't take it with you, but if you if you die
01:35:41
and you're broke, you're still broke.
01:35:44
Yeah, but it it raises a lot of interesting issues.
01:35:49
We we would say it's subversive because they're talk.
01:35:54
One of the main storylines on the show is gerrymandering where
01:35:58
they're off. OK.
01:36:00
The idea of upload is when you die or right before you die, you
01:36:04
can upload your brain or your consciousness or who you are
01:36:09
into a computer and we'll make an avatar.
01:36:11
And you have all these choices of different heavens, I just
01:36:15
call them heavens that you can go to and spend your life there
01:36:18
forever. Depending on how much money you
01:36:20
have like you have a lot of map like if.
01:36:25
You if you're poor, yeah, if you're poor, right they.
01:36:30
Just throw your ass. You can go to.
01:36:34
It's basically, it's basically like if you're, if you're rich,
01:36:36
you have you. Can go but you only get.
01:36:37
You only get like 2 gigabytes of data.
01:36:39
Yeah, if you're, if you're rich, if you're yeah, if you're rich,
01:36:42
you're on 5G and if you're poor, you're on 2G.
01:36:47
OK. So you basically have.
01:36:49
You no, you're on dial up. You're a little.
01:36:51
You're a dial up, Yeah, you have nothing.
01:36:53
You have dial up and you can. Literally have no colors.
01:36:57
You can't move. Oh, it's it's it's.
01:37:02
A fun show it it raises a lot of questions about do we have souls
01:37:07
because a character dies, they get uploaded but they can be
01:37:11
duplicated right? So one of the three rooms on.
01:37:16
Black. Echoes right, but you're
01:37:19
duplicating. You're inside the, you're inside
01:37:21
the computer, and you're virtual.
01:37:24
But then the main character, his fiance, is still alive, but she
01:37:29
still wants to have a relationship with him even
01:37:31
though he's dead. And then and then there's like a
01:37:34
food shortage and then there's a food shortage.
01:37:38
So then we get into this one episode where there's like this
01:37:42
huge, massive, like cloned cow and each of the teats is a
01:37:50
different type of milk. And when you get to the end of
01:37:54
it, it comes out as cottage cheese because the milk has
01:37:58
travelled for so long down the cow that it comes out it's kind
01:38:02
of sport. So it's kind of, yeah, it, it
01:38:06
raises a lot of the interesting thing.
01:38:08
But the main thing is the gerrymandering is they had built
01:38:11
these, these different places for free uploads and people can
01:38:15
choose and make their own heaven or whatever.
01:38:18
And they were doing for the poor people in the, in the what do we
01:38:24
call the swing states? So if you get enough of the poor
01:38:28
people to upload, they can't vote anymore because they're
01:38:32
dead. So you can turn all the swing
01:38:36
states red. That is one of the plot lines of
01:38:39
the show. But but it raises all these
01:38:43
things that are like common in our actual society, but they
01:38:49
give it to you in a weird kind of way.
01:38:51
And if you really watch the show and kind of pay attention, it
01:38:55
can be kind of depressing, but it was it was fun to have a lot
01:39:00
of people come and talk about the show because it it does
01:39:03
raise a lot of interesting things.
01:39:05
But you know, and the IO panel was a lot of fun.
01:39:09
Hanukkah recorded it and put it up on YouTube.
01:39:11
You should watch it because I had there.
01:39:15
There was some funny moments in that.
01:39:17
Anthony was a. Regular comedian that day.
01:39:22
Yeah, I don't know who that guy was.
01:39:26
Well, you know, I love Will of Time.
01:39:28
I love Robert Jordan. I love the ideal.
01:39:32
It was a fun panel to be on. Yeah.
01:39:36
And the two Game of Thrones panel, I was on the night of
01:39:41
Seven Kingdoms. We talked about the show that's
01:39:43
coming up and maybe that was, oh, was that.
01:39:50
I think it was the only, the only Game of Thrones panel I was
01:39:52
on out of the Seven Kingdoms. Yeah, but I was only with Tara.
01:39:57
And Tara's always fun to be on the panel with because she knows
01:40:01
her stuff, Boy, she knows her stuff.
01:40:05
She knows her game. She knows she knows her stuff.
01:40:09
And I think she has a Game of Thrones convention that she's a
01:40:12
director of up North somewhere. She used to have it.
01:40:16
It's on hiatus. She said it's hard running a an
01:40:23
East Coast con from the West Coast, so she needed to take a
01:40:26
break. She said that hopefully it will
01:40:28
be back because I think you and I talked about possibly doing
01:40:32
that convention. Talking about going.
01:40:34
Yeah. And then that's when it went on
01:40:37
hiatus, I think. Actually, I think we talked
01:40:40
about it right before the pandemic happened and then of
01:40:44
course, COVID. Happened.
01:40:45
Yeah, we should be at. Everything up.
01:40:47
So yeah. But yeah, you know, OK, so
01:40:53
here's the other thing Anthony, you had fun talking about on the
01:40:56
panels, but you said you don't think you're going to do panels
01:40:59
next year. You know, best laid plans of
01:41:04
mice and men. I think I said that last year
01:41:08
and this year Michelle said you should try to get on high
01:41:12
fantasy again because, you know, yeah.
01:41:16
So I reached out to high fantasy and I remembered, Oh yeah, I
01:41:20
know the Star Wars track director, let me reach out to
01:41:22
her. And Oh yeah, I know the American
01:41:26
sci-fi track director let me reach out to her.
01:41:28
Next thing you know, I'm on the 8 panels and I really wasn't
01:41:31
planning on being on like two or three.
01:41:34
Yeah. So, you know, again, I, I miss
01:41:37
going to panels. That's what I've always liked
01:41:39
about Dragon Khan, like going to panels, engaging the panelists,
01:41:44
not being a panelist, being engaged with, it's not quite the
01:41:47
same. It's not quite the same.
01:41:51
And see that's I like being on the other side.
01:41:55
Well, I like it because. I like being me.
01:41:57
An opportunity to talk like, especially of all the stuff,
01:42:02
because like even before we started doing this recording, we
01:42:05
were talking about, look, I'm just going to flash it up.
01:42:08
We were talking about our list of shows that we want to cover
01:42:12
just for the end of this year. And we have like 17 different
01:42:18
topics. And I'm like, there's no way
01:42:20
we're going to be able to do that.
01:42:22
But Dragon Con for me is one of the ways that I get to talk
01:42:25
about a lot of the things that I want, you know, because you
01:42:30
know, we started this podcast in 2020.
01:42:35
Matter of fact, the end of this month will be our 4th birthday.
01:42:39
And it's so weird that we've been going for four years, but
01:42:44
like when we first started, the pandemic was still going strong.
01:42:48
We were still like a lot of us were still working remotely.
01:42:51
There was no social life whatsoever.
01:42:54
So we literally, you know, we're recording and putting out, I
01:42:58
think at the beginning we were putting out like 3 episodes a
01:43:01
week because there was so much time.
01:43:04
We weren't doing anything. And it's like now we've gone
01:43:07
back to regular life. You know, Anthony and Michelle,
01:43:11
they have a child that's, you know, almost done with high
01:43:16
school. And you know, Mike is married,
01:43:18
Lori has been, you know, dealing with family stuff.
01:43:21
And so it's just it's harder for us to get together to like
01:43:26
really talk about stuff. And so Dragon Con is like,
01:43:31
conventions are that outlet for me.
01:43:33
Like if we're only talking about two shows a month, oh, and
01:43:38
Dragon Con, I get to go talk about 10 different things and I
01:43:42
can get it out of my system. So I like that part about it
01:43:45
because I'm like, I get to talk. And then also hearing other
01:43:49
people's opinions about things, you know, not just the
01:43:54
panelists, but a lot of people in the audience, because some
01:43:57
people in the audience, they may not feel comfortable being on a
01:44:01
stage to talk about it, but they don't mind engaging.
01:44:04
And a lot of times people will say stuff and they're the things
01:44:10
that they're saying is something that never crossed my mind.
01:44:13
So I literally sit there like, and it gives me something to
01:44:17
think about. And that's one of the things I
01:44:18
love about doing it. And then of course, people
01:44:22
coming up afterwards and continuing the conversation or,
01:44:27
you know, for me, you know, one of the things I've talked about
01:44:31
in the past is the whole imposter syndrome thing.
01:44:34
Because you, you know, you think about these people who are
01:44:38
making a living doing this kind of thing.
01:44:41
And then you have us who just do it because we just want to do
01:44:44
it. It's fun.
01:44:45
And sometimes you can sit here and think like, we're on panels
01:44:49
with authors. I think Anthony was on a panel
01:44:53
with somebody who actually works on the Wheel of Time show, you
01:44:56
know, working with people who work with these things.
01:44:59
And you can start feeling like, OK, I'm just a little podcaster
01:45:03
who cares about my opinion and that sort of thing.
01:45:06
And you start feeling like, OK, I don't know if I need to be
01:45:08
here. And then people will come up and
01:45:10
say, hey, I like your opinion on this because it's not an opinion
01:45:14
I've heard before. Or also us being people of
01:45:17
color, a lot of times our voices aren't heard in geek spaces.
01:45:23
That's changed a lot in the last few years before a long time.
01:45:26
Like I remember when I was going, when I started going to
01:45:29
Dragon Con 2007, there was not a lot of black people there.
01:45:34
There were some, but not like, like we got a whole Black Geeks
01:45:38
of Dragon Con group now and they're they're having the
01:45:41
photos. And definitely not and
01:45:44
definitely not on panels. Definitely not on panels like I
01:45:49
spent the 1st 10 to 15 years going to Dragon Con.
01:45:53
Every panel I went to, the feedback was y'all don't have no
01:45:57
black people on the panel, you know, and, and that was across
01:46:01
all the tracks. The only you could go to urban
01:46:03
fantasy and that would be like the only place you find like
01:46:06
black authors or black people on the panel.
01:46:10
Everyone else was like, no. So that that's one of the things
01:46:14
that that has changed. I would say it changed
01:46:17
significantly over the years is the diversity and representation
01:46:23
of the panelists has has really changed for the better.
01:46:27
This is I think it's really good.
01:46:30
Yeah. Which is why when all people ask
01:46:32
me to be on the panel loud, I don't say no you.
01:46:35
Know, yeah. And also she got to talk, to
01:46:38
talk, you know, to walk the walk and.
01:46:42
This is this is one of the first years that I actually had like
01:46:46
someone walk up to me that not in the room after the panel, but
01:46:51
like outside of the room, like walk up to me and say, Hey, I
01:46:54
really love, really love your panel.
01:46:56
The other day it's like I had like three people say that this
01:46:59
this year and I was like, wow, thanks.
01:47:01
Like this is not like immediately after, but it's like
01:47:04
just walking around like. Hey, I saw your panel.
01:47:06
You're really good. I was like, you know, that saves
01:47:09
me from my my impo, my imposter syndrome, but you know, I have
01:47:12
imposter syndrome. Just being on here with you guys
01:47:14
every every time we we podcast. Whatever, dude.
01:47:17
Or. Whatever, dude, whatever,
01:47:20
whatever. But.
01:47:22
Yeah, my favorite part. Of you all deserve to be in this
01:47:24
space so. Yeah, my my favorite part of
01:47:28
Dragon. Con ourselves.
01:47:31
Yeah, that's true. We we belong here.
01:47:34
My favorite part of Dragon Con is just being around people who
01:47:38
geek out about something the same level that I do.
01:47:43
It's not more. And and that, that is what has
01:47:48
always appealed to me. That's why I like being in the
01:47:50
audience because you know, to be around people who who geek out
01:47:56
about Star Wars or you know, about the series.
01:48:01
They have a whole room full of people just to talk about the
01:48:04
Force and witchcraft and magic it that that is, you know, I
01:48:10
spent all this time researching hard magic, soft magic,
01:48:14
irrational magic, just to go in there to talk about it.
01:48:17
And we don't talk about it, but it's fine because or really in
01:48:20
the people who know more than you do about something.
01:48:24
And you know that that is always amazing to me.
01:48:28
That's I think that is the appeal and to get up and I
01:48:31
don't, you know, I don't mind talking about how I feel about
01:48:34
something. You know, there were many times
01:48:36
when I used to go up people like why aren't you on any panels?
01:48:40
But because I don't know anybody, you know, you apply,
01:48:44
you know, you feel out, you're like, hey, how can I be on the
01:48:47
panel? Like, oh, you got to volunteer.
01:48:49
I don't got time for that. I need to go to the panels.
01:48:52
I don't have time to volunteer on the track just to get on the
01:48:54
panel. Yeah.
01:48:56
Yeah, it's like I hear, I hear a lot of people.
01:48:58
They're like when I tell them on a panel at Dragon Con, they're
01:49:00
like, really? I'm like, yeah, like, how'd you
01:49:04
do that? I'm like, is you gotta play.
01:49:07
It's all who you know. I mean, it's like you have to
01:49:09
actually know people and like talk to people and like, you
01:49:12
know, relate to people and be like, look, wow, that was a
01:49:15
whole lot of fun. I wouldn't mind trying that
01:49:16
because shout to Kellen. Kellen on American sci-fi
01:49:20
because. We love killing I.
01:49:24
Love her because it's like we always, we always say like we
01:49:27
want to be on somebody because all their panels are cool.
01:49:29
I'm like, OK, I want to be on every last one of those panels.
01:49:32
She's like, no, you only get 5 damn panels because I want to
01:49:35
hear different. I want to hear different people
01:49:37
talking about it. I'm like OK, fine, but that's
01:49:39
the but shout out to her. Shout out to her for for from
01:49:42
subjugating the rules and allowing me to be on Deadpool
01:49:46
Wolverine as the 6th panel this year.
01:49:48
I really appreciate. That I fought for you to get on
01:49:50
that panel. I appreciate you because I was
01:49:55
supposed to do that panel, but I had an out.
01:49:58
I think it Oh, no, not Outlander Interview with the Vampire,
01:50:02
which was kind of, it was one of those panels where the horror
01:50:07
track shout out to Derek wasn't supposed to do it.
01:50:11
And then he reached out to me. He was like, hey, so I didn't
01:50:15
think I was going to do an Interview with the Vampire
01:50:17
season 2 panel this year, but I think I'm going to do it.
01:50:19
Do you want to be on it? And this is only the second year
01:50:22
I've done anything on the horror track and also Apocalypse
01:50:25
Rising. But it's kind of like you said,
01:50:28
M1 is, you know, people. And then two is also like word
01:50:33
of mouth because of people here. Oh yeah, I've had her on my
01:50:36
track or I've had him on my track, and they were good.
01:50:39
And that'll give them some idea, like, OK, so they can hold
01:50:43
somebody's interest, they can, they can talk and you know, that
01:50:47
sort of thing. I did the Interview with the
01:50:49
Vampire panel last year and we had so much fun.
01:50:53
And this year, when I say that room was bonkers, we had so much
01:50:58
fun. And I'm so pissed off because my
01:51:00
camera died 17 minutes into the panel.
01:51:04
I'm so mad because that was like one of the best panels.
01:51:07
That group of panelists was amazing.
01:51:10
It was just. But yeah, going back to what
01:51:15
Mike was saying, it is like, that's how I got into paneling
01:51:19
because I knew somebody from the local Atlanta Harry Potter group
01:51:23
who was on the YA lit track and she was like, hey, you do a lot
01:51:27
of Harry Potter stuff. Because that man, in 2009, 2010,
01:51:32
it was like, not only was I very active in the local Harry Potter
01:51:37
community, I was also a Harry Potter Blogger for
01:51:40
hollywoodnews.com. And I was like, I was just all
01:51:44
over the place with Harry Potter stuff.
01:51:47
They brought me in for a Harry Potter panel and then the next
01:51:51
year they had me do a few more panels.
01:51:53
And then I think the next year was when American sci-fi
01:51:56
Fantasy, when I actually saw them put the call for panelists
01:52:01
out and it just kind of went from there.
01:52:04
So, yeah, it always is a good feeling when people hear of
01:52:11
your, you know, when you have a reputation where people like,
01:52:14
hey, I want to get this person on my panels.
01:52:16
Or when people, like you said, might come up to you just in the
01:52:19
middle of the car, like, Oh my God, I saw your panel, it was
01:52:22
great, blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, we also got
01:52:25
new listeners and new subscribers because of some of
01:52:29
our Dragon Con panels that I've already posted.
01:52:33
So hey, new people welcome. So yeah, it's I, I love it.
01:52:39
You know, I mean, y'all, y'all can tell from listening to this
01:52:43
podcast. I like to talk about giggy
01:52:44
things. So anytime that I get a chance
01:52:47
to to talk, you know, I am one of those kids who used to have
01:52:53
that on the report card. She's very smart, gives good
01:52:56
grades, talks too much. Talks a lot.
01:53:00
One more shout out to killing the directive of the American
01:53:05
sci-fi track because she will have these shows like Beacon 23
01:53:14
upload shows that that don't get a lot of attention and give
01:53:22
people the ability to see and talk to other people about those
01:53:26
same shows. Silo I wouldn't say 3 body
01:53:31
Problem, but there's a lot of people in that room.
01:53:34
But you know, there was having shows like that.
01:53:38
We had two shows that didn't make it this year,
01:53:40
Constellation, which I actually kind of liked.
01:53:43
And the other show was the big Door prize, which we had a lot
01:53:50
of people that had last year, but we couldn't get any
01:53:52
panelists this year. Oh, really?
01:53:55
OK. Yeah, she said she couldn't get
01:53:57
no panelists for it. OK.
01:54:00
Yeah, yeah. And and and then all these shows
01:54:03
we do, they get cancelled. You know, it's very difficult.
01:54:08
But it's it's. Fun to have to be able to talk
01:54:11
talk to other people about those shows because otherwise it isn't
01:54:15
really a community for yeah. So shout out to her for for
01:54:18
keeping that up and hope she keeps doing it and doesn't get
01:54:21
discouraged by, you know, audience numbers.
01:54:24
Yeah. So I think we can close this one
01:54:30
out. I do want to, I do want to call
01:54:33
out the specific tracks. So shout out to the American
01:54:38
sci-fi fantasy media track, urban fantasy.
01:54:42
Let's see young adult literature, horror, apocalypse
01:54:45
rising, American sci-fi, classics, Star Wars track,
01:54:50
alternate history. Let's see X track, which is
01:54:57
where I was on while I was on the Warehouse 13 panel.
01:55:01
That was extract. They were so nice.
01:55:03
I'm like, they must not have a lot of people.
01:55:05
Yeah, extract. Yeah, I did several pounds a
01:55:10
couple of years ago and they extract they're they're I love
01:55:12
extract. They're.
01:55:13
They're like, hey, how you doing?
01:55:14
You want a snack? You want want a soda?
01:55:16
I'm like. Yeah, extract they.
01:55:20
They are really, but they're really cool people.
01:55:23
But see the the reason that no, the reason they're nice because
01:55:25
they're in, because they're in the damn Cortland and everybody
01:55:28
hates the Cortland. Oh wait, honey, what?
01:55:32
What track was that where you had the snacks on the table?
01:55:34
Those are premium snacks. That was.
01:55:38
Alternate history alternate. Yeah, shut.
01:55:42
Out, shut out. I.
01:55:44
Was like whoa, wait a second, they had tweaks and sneaker bars
01:55:49
and pretzels and I was like what is what is going on here?
01:55:53
And. Then he refilled it while I was
01:55:55
standing there. One particular track can I get
01:55:58
on? This track they they also gave
01:56:01
thank you cards to all of their panelists.
01:56:04
So when they set up our our little name tags, they handed me
01:56:09
an envelope and it was a thank you, Carson.
01:56:11
Thank you for participating on our track.
01:56:13
And I mean, urban fantasy Carol does that as well.
01:56:17
She has like little bite sized candies on the tables, you know,
01:56:22
when you go in. And so all of the tracks, they,
01:56:26
you know, they do sweet little things like that for all of
01:56:29
their palace. And it's cool because it's like,
01:56:33
yeah, you. Feel like offer me water and
01:56:37
power aid. That's nice.
01:56:39
Well, we see great. Look, they.
01:56:42
Got the good stuff they got. The good stuff, so thank.
01:56:46
You to all shout out to high fantasy.
01:56:49
Yeah, high fantasy. We're having Phantom Hybrid back
01:56:52
again. Yeah, Jennifer.
01:56:54
Thank you, high Fantasy. So thank you for all of those
01:56:57
tracks, for having us on your panels.
01:57:00
We thoroughly enjoy it every single year and we are looking
01:57:05
forward to whatever is coming in 2025.
01:57:09
But for now, that is it for our show.
01:57:11
You can find us online at www.phantomhybrid.com.
01:57:15
We are on social media on all the social media at Phantom
01:57:18
hybrid. You can chat with us on our
01:57:21
discord channel. You can watch us on our YouTube
01:57:23
channel and you can listen to us on all major podcast streaming
01:57:26
platforms. And also before we sign off,
01:57:30
this is just a reminder you send it on our social media pages.
01:57:34
But Michelle, Casey and I are nominated for the Women in
01:57:38
Podcasting award and the entertainment category.
01:57:42
We will put the link in the show notes for this show, but if you
01:57:45
would please go and vote for us. Voting is open until October
01:57:51
1st. And with that, thanks for
01:57:55
listening. We hope you join the
01:57:56
conversation next time.