SDCC Sunday programming up

Ah… I had the idea of forming a troupe, called “The Friends of Poupee” and staging musicals and plays based on comicbooks and comicstrips, in concert. First production would be Feiffer’s one-act of Superman.

I would, of course, include the wonderful MAD magazine musicals, including “The Ring and I”, “Keep on Trekkin'”, and “The MAD ‘Comic’ Opera”.

Hmmm… wouldn’t it be interesting if the Xena fans arrived to stage their musical?

I’m pretty sure I count hearing the chorus of “you make me com-plete” as one of my top-10
“why is this so goddang funny” moments, which are my favorite kind.

That is the best closing ever. I’m going to try to make it.

There used to be sing-along screenings of the Buffy musical in Boston (apparently it got the folks putting it on into some legal trouble with those lovable scamps over at Newscorp. so it’s been put on hold for now), and every time I went I had a blast.

There was also a Chicago-area Buffy troupe for awhile that played at a small convention there years ago. The Great Luke Ski filled in as Spike. Very entertaining. The guy that played “Sweet” stole the show.

Darn. And I depend on leaving Comic-Con at 3pm on Sunday every year in order to have enough time to recuperate before the flight home the next morning. Grrrr! Argh!

— Rob

Dragoncon has also done the “Buffy Horror Picture show” for several years. It’s so popular (and in a relatively small room) that they do it twice on the same night.

David, (hopefully) ready for his first Comic-Con

I figured there must be Buffy shows elsewhere, but I never heard of them before now. Awesome.

David:

You are not ready for your first Comic-Con. But don’t worry, that’s because nobody’s EVER ready for Comic-Con — nobody except Mark Evanier.

However, five suggestions:

1) Wear Sunscreen; bring a bottle of water or Gatorade that’s 24 oz. or larger and bring some sort of lunch in an insulated bag. You’ll do a lot of standing or sitting in the sun before the line opens to get in and they gouge for all food and drink at the convention center. You’ll probably still have to buy some food or a soda or a Starbucks there at some point, but this will at least cut your food spending there down to a minimum. Sandwiches at the con run around $11 (but at least they’re big and edible), so buying a sub at Ralph’s or Subway or even from 7-Eleven (the 7-Elevens in San Diego have great, fresh small sandwiches for some strange reason) and you’ll survive food-wise.

1a) If you do buy some food there, do not — I repeat — do NOT buy any pretzels. You will regret it. Same goes for Nachos.

2) Arrive no later than 8am and bring something to read that’s not heavy to carry. If you want to get into the Heroes panel, get in line for the room at 7am no matter what time the Heroes panel starts during the day. Yes, you *will* have to endure every earlier panel in that room that day.

3) Keep your moving from one area of the con to another to a minimum or you will wear yourself out by 3pm on Thursday. Don’t do a panel in the Rooms 1-8 section and then go down to Hall H. Don’t do any Hall H panels and then go up to Ballroom 20. Don’t do Ballroom 20 and then go to either the dealer’s room or the Room 1-8 section. Do not go to any Ballroom 20 or Hall H panels and then to Room 1-8 panels and back to Ballroom 20 or Hall H again or vice-versas. You don’t have the time or the energy to keep walking back and forth across two floors of a football-length convention center, much less waiting for hours for panels in any two sections and/or booths on the dealers’ room all day.

4) Stay away from the major studio booths if they’re having signings on the floor of the dealers’ room unless you managed to get into either a ticketed line or a line with a definite cut-off point. Waiting in a standing line or two will wear you out.

5) *IF* you’re crazy enough to want to walk back and forth between one end of the very long dealers’ room to the other, take the long path at the back of the hall, alongside the many tacky food kiosks and smaller booths. The traffic is lighter due to the number of large areas of tables to sit at, which means a substantially reduced number of booths.

Hope that helps.

— Rob

PS: Every year, somebody recommends to make sure that you wear deodorant. Forget that (at least, in the deodorant sense). On Friday and Saturday, the convention center creates its own hot, humid, Midwestern-state-ish weather system, especially in the dealers’ room, even with the air conditioning at full blast. Your sense of smell *will* die until you get back to your hotel room. Unless you have asthma — in which case, good luck to you.

Antiperspirants, as opposed to pointless deodorants, are definitely necessary. And you will *still* sweat, even with the strongest antiperspirants. (I know, I know, some people are going to say, “When we say deodorants, we mean antiperspirants.” But those who do don’t get off the hook with me as you always emphasize the smell, which is never going to go away. I mean Fuggedaboudit about the smell.

Of course, the great Sherwood Schwartz pioneered this subgenre 40 years ago. That episode of Gilligan’s Island, guest starring Phil Silvers, was ranked fifth by TV Land among all sitcoms.
However, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you watch the Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

“However, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you watch the Brady Bunch Variety Hour. ”

Oh, come on! The Brady Bunch Variety Hour is what Drinking[1] Games were made for!

— Rob

[1] And by drinking, I also mean other mind-altering substances, too.

For the most excellent and exhaustive SDCC survival guide ever, no one equals the Spurge:

http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/commentary/1379/

Thanks, Lea.

Those of you not Joss Whedon fans, I’m told Dan Nadel is hosting a sing-along showing of the punk rock episode of Quincy in his room at the Hyatt. Next stop: Nowhere! I want to get off!

See you there.